Life's lesson

I have learned that the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person. I have learned that when wnt are in love, it shows i have learned that just one perso saying to me, "you've made my day", makes my day. I have learned that being kind is more important than being right. I have learned that you should never say NO to a gift from a child. I have learned that i can always pray for someone when i dont have the strength to help him in some other way. I have learned that sometimes, all a person offer is a hand to hold and a heart to understand. I have learned that having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world. I have learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. I have learned that under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved. I have learned that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. I have learned that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. I have learned that the easiest way to grow in life is to surround myself with people who are smarter than me.

Facts

* No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. * Blueberry juice boosts memory * When cats are happy or pleased, they squeeze their eyes shut * The elephant is the only animal with 4 knees * Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell * Each year, about 500,000 detectable earthquakes occur in the world. About 100,000 of those can be felt and about 100 of them cause damage. * The tongue is the only body muscle that is attached from one end only. (Please don't send me corrections to add the penis; the penis is not a muscle). * Approximately two-thirds of people tip their head to the right when they kiss * Some Chinese believe that swinging the arms cures headaches * Coffee drinkers have more sex than non-coffee drinkers. They also enjoy it more. * The city of Portland in Oregon was named after a coin toss in 1844.Heads for Portland and tails for Boston. * A queen bee lays 1500 eggs a day * No president of the United States was an only child for his parents * Pumice is the only rock that floats in water * The African cicada fly spends 17 years sleeping, then wakes up for two weeks, mates and then die. * Reno, Nevada has the highest rate of alcoholism in the U.S., Provo, Utah, the lowest. * 80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women * 250 to 300 million cell phones are being used in the U.S. * During good sex, endorphins are released, which are powerful painkillers. So headaches are in fact a bad excuse not to have sex * The shrimp's heart is in its head * George Washington didn't want his image on US coins. He didn't want to imitate European monarchs. * According to a Kinsey survey, 75% of men ejaculate within three minutes after penetration * It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Another one that was proven wrong by Mythbusters. * Your foot is the same length as your forearm * In the US, Americans eat about 18 acres of pizza a day * If you plug your nose you can't hum. * On average, a woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s heart * Names in Iceland's phone books are listed alphabetically by first name not by last name * Cats can hear ultrasound * The skin of the average woman weighs 3 kilograms, while that of the average man weighs 5 kilograms * Dutch, on average are the tallest people * Kissing is healthier than shaking hands * There are no cemeteries in San Francisco, CA (excluding the federal National Cemetery at Lincoln Way) * Married men tip better than unmarried men * India never invaded any country in her history *111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 *In Scotland, people throw stinking crud like eggs and sauces on their brides. That was apparently not true, thanks for those who pointed this out. Scottish throw confetti like many how it is in many countries. In some other countries, they throw rice. *Natural pearls melt in vinegar *Licorice (or liquorice) and avocado are among the food that sets the mood for love making *An olive tree can live up to 1500 years *The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of "F" * Cleopatra married two of her brothers * There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar * Buttermilk does not contain any butter * Before toilet paper was invented, French royalty wiped their bottoms with fine linen * The earth is about 6,588,000,000,000,000,000 tons in weight * A goldfish has a memory span of about 3 seconds. I was corrected on that by a friend who stated that : The goldfish has a memory of 3-months instead of 3 seconds. Also provided: Goldfish "can be trained to memorize mazes for up to one month, and can be trained to press levers for food, even at a specific time of day. The sale of fishbowls (due to their inability to provide sufficient oxygen and the possibility that they may stunt growth) have been banned in some countries" * There are 86,400 seconds in day * The parachute was invented by DiVinci in 1515 * Ants never sleep * The human brain is 80% water * On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag. Was corrected about that, it is actually a Canadian flag. * No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple. I was corrected about "orange" by a friend: ((taken from an episode of Stephen Fry's QI show) Blorange - is a place in Wales. Also: Gorringe - is a common English surname of many, amongst whom there was Henry Honeychurch Gorringe, the guy who brought Cleopatra's Needle to NY Central Park! * Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot. She actually had a normal set of 10. The mistake was caused by a clump of sand on her feet during a photo shoot when she was known as Norma Jeane. * If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white * The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law that stated you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb * 'Jedi' is an official religion in Australia with over 70,000 followers * Church of England has apologized to Charles Darwin 200 years after his birth *Chewing gum while peeling onions will reduce your tears * Dalmatians are born without spots * Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right while women’s shirts have the buttons on the left * Roosters have to extend their necks in order to crow * Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room * Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex * In 2009 one of eight newly married couples in the US met online * There are about 540,000 words in the English language and growing * Gamblers mostly don't see any clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos * If you are right handed, you will tend to chew food on your right side. If you are left handed, you likely to chew food on your left side * The bedroom is the most common place for sex and the car is second * Humans and bonobo monkeys (pygmy chimpanzee) are the only species who have face-to-face sex * Everyday, 15 billion cigarettes are smoked worldwide * Hugo Boss designed some of the Nazi SS uniforms * Any free moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere, because of its surface tension * A snail can slide over a razor blade without being hurt by producing slime that helps it slide harmlessly * Worldwide, there are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day * Women blink nearly twice as much as men * The human heart beats over 100,000 times a day * Human fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails * The French tickler was invented by a Tibetan monk * Studies have proven that it is harder to tell a convincing lie to someone you find sexually attractive * Onions have no flavor, only a smell * Red wine will spoil if exposed to light; hence tinted bottles * One quarter of the bones in the human body is in the feet * Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed (paw). * Polar bears with transparent, fluffy fur actually have black skin * Some kinds of sharks lay the biggest eggs in the world; most other kinds of sharks give live birth. * The blue whale can produce the loudest sound of any animal. At 188 decibels, the noise can be detected over 800 kilometres away * The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day for plumbers in the US * The eyes of the chameleon can move independently. It can see in two different directions at the same time * The total weight of skin for an average adult human is 6 pounds. * The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours ( ~11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965 * You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV * Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump * Cold showers stimulate your sex drive * Coffee beans aren't beans; they are fruit pits * It is not allowed to have living US presidents featured on US currency * Among older men, vanilla is the most erotic smell * A pound of potato chips costs 200 times more than a pound of raw potatoes * Lima beans contain cyanide *Fortune cookies were actually invented in America (not China), in 1918, by Charles Jung * If you put a raisin in a fresh glass of champagne, it will rise and fall continuously * Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. No longer on the list as of 2004. * Some in Japan bath in coffee grounds that were fermented with pineapple pulp to improve their skin and reduce wrinkles * Some kinds of frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living * A snail can sleep for three years * February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon * In Korea and other East Asian countries, the age of the person is counted from conception and not physical birth * Dogs have about 10 vocal sounds; cats have over 100 * The people in Bali only have one of four names: Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut * There are more pyramids in Peru than in Egypt * The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt holds a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit * The state official motto of Alaska is " North to the Future" * People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers * In ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies * Orgies were originally religious events. They were originally offerings to the gods * 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover * It is unknown if odd perfect numbers exist * A perfect number is a number whose divisors add up to itself such as 28: 1+2+4+7+14=28 * Human eye detects 10 million colors * The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king (shah) is dead (mat)." * Kissing helps prevent tooth decay * One California law states that sunshine is guaranteed to all people * Moderate dancing burns 250 to 300 calories an hour * Your thumb is the same length as your nose * Butterflies smell with their feet * Canada is the westernized version of "Kanata" which is an Indian word meaning "Big Village" * An egg laden goldfish is called a twit * In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her cheating adulterous husband but she may only do so with her bare hands * In Germany, an official approval is needed before a new born is named. * Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do * Impotence is grounds for divorce in 26 U.S. states * Horses can't vomit and pigs can't look up in the sky * In1770, a bill proposing that women using makeup should be punished for witchcraft was put forward to the British Parliament * The oldest dog died at the age of 29 * Cats are the most popular pets in the United States * Black olives contain on average 10 to 30% more oil than green olives * In Arizona it is illegal to have more than two dildos in one house * San Jose was the original capital of California * Carl Sagan was a pot smoker * 5% of the world population lives in the US but 22% of the world's prisons population are held in the US. * All swans in England are the property of the queen or king * Women are more likely to go to a psychiatrist than men are * The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum. * Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God. * A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. * The new 787 Boeing was revealed on 7/8/07 or July 8th, 07. * Adding a drop of olive oil and lemon juice to an ice cube then running it over your face gives you better results than some expensive skin care products. * 250 to 300 million cell phones are being used in the U.S * You will weigh less if you weigh yourself when the moon is full * Honeybees never sleep * Carl Sagan was a pot smoker * Benjamin Franklin was offended about putting a bald eagle as the national bird because he thought that other people were trying to make fun of him, since he was bald * 5% of the world population lives in the US but 22% of the world's prisons population are held in the US * 80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women * Horses can't vomit and pigs can't look up in the sky * San Jose was the original capital of California * Most lipstick have fish scales * In Arizona it is illegal to have more than two dildos in one house * Black olives contain on average 10 to 30% more oil than green olives * Cats are the most popular pets in the United States * The oldest dog died at the age of 29 * Tamiflu's main natural ingredient is Chinese star anise * Not only the fur of the tiger is striped but also its skin * The Germans tried to copy Coca-Cola and came up with the drink Fanta. * Every day is about 55 billionths of a second longer than the day before it * Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. * The largest potato was grown in Lebanon by Khalil Semhat near Tyre. The spud was 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds) * Footprints of astronauts who landed on the moon should last at least 10 million years since the moon has no atmosphere. * Both men and women can be turned on by the aromas of wine * The national orchestra of Monaco (a nation in Europe) has more individuals than its army. * Earthworms have five hearts * The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges. * Paraguay and Moldova are the only countries with national flags with different emblems on the obverse and reverse sides. * Fingerprints of koalas are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans * Genetically-engineered babies were born first in 2001. * If an Amish man has a beard, he is married. * f a native Hawaiian woman places the flower on her right ear, she is available. (The bigger the flower, the more desperate) * Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. * Pope Pius II wrote an erotic book "Historia de duobos amantibus" in 1444. * SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below * Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese". * As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates * Two phone books with their pages interlaced require more than 8000 pounds of pressure to separte. * Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts. * The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions. * Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight. * The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes. * Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history. * Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise. * Up to 25% of hospital keyboards carry the MRSA infection. * In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives. * Ghandi didn't allow his wife to take penicillin to save her life from pneumonia but took quinine to save himself from malaria. * Sex workers (Prostitutes) in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine. * As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet. * More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors. * The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom. * Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. * Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five liters of cooking oil a year. * Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life. * For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. (As of 2006) * Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children * Forty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study. * The more panels a football has - and therefore the more seams - the easier it is to control in the air. * Lips are 100 times more sensitive than the tips of the fingers. Not even genitals have as much sensitivity as lips * Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%. * The egg came first. * Modern teenagers are better behaved than their counterparts of 20 years ago, showing "less problematic behavior" involving sex, drugs and drink. * Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based. * In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags. * The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle. * Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk. * Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world. * Native Hawaiian women were not allowed to cook. * The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006. * The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta. * The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface. * A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species. * The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer. * All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. * The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off. * Walt Disney was afraid of mice. * The first known marketer of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper. * The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites. * The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. * The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. * The average American consumes 1.2 pounds of spider eggs a year and eat 2.5 pounds of insect parts a year. (This fact and the one prior to it have been judged as urban legends by many) * Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (Makes you think about ambidextrous people) This fact is based on a study that had errors in it, thus it might not be a fact. * Its impossible to smoke oneself to death with weed. You won\'t be able to retain enough motor control and consciousness to do so after such a large amount. * Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms. * The US national anthem actually has four verses, but everyone just knows the first one. When the whole anthem is sung, the third verse is usually omitted. * During World War II, IBM built counting machines the Nazis used to manage their death/concentration camps. * During World War II, the British Intelligence used the Colossus Machines (precursor to computers) at Bletchley Park to help decode the enigma code of the Nazis. * The first Computer was ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, unveiled on February 14, 1946 (Thanks D.B. of AU) * The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population. * The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ. * Just about 3 people are born every second, and about 1.3333 people die every second. The result is about a 2 and 2/3 net increase of people every second. Almost 10 people more live on this Earth now, than before you finished reading this. * Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted. * The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the people that have died. Ever. * Men with a certain rare medical condition can breastfeed babies * There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of. * Scientists have determined that fungi are more closely related to human beings and animals than to plants. * In some Asian countries, the family name is written first and the individual name written second (Filipinos and people from near by Asian countries have their individual names first and surnames last) * Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860 * A German World War II submarine was sunk due to malfunction of the toilet. * Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States.Long Beach, WA * The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter. * The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula" * 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.This isn't true; Joseph Swan did. * Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. * The Population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas. * Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A. * Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e." * Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is not considered an insult! Despite the expensive food, tipping is welcome as in any most other countries. Locals in Japan might also get offended if you leave a tip. * The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds. * The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds. * Pinocchio was made of pine. * Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery. * A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. * A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. * Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit. * The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. * Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. * New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states. * There was once a town in West Virginia called "6." * The parking meter was invented in North Dakota Oklahoma City. * Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox. * Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. * The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll. * Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first. * There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll. * The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it. * "Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish. * On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles. * Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17. * Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day. * On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day. * Blue and white are the most common school colors. * Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year. * In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat. * A new book is published every 13 minutes in America. * America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla. * Every year the sun loses 360 million tons. * Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe. * The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour. * The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground. * The doorbell was invented in 1831. * The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928. * Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs. * There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown. * Napoleon was terrified of cats. * The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint. * The typical American eats 263 eggs a year. * The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935. * The oldest known vegetable is the pea. * Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes. * The avocado has the most calories of any fruit. * The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia. * France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese. * Minus 40 degrees Celsius is exactly the same as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit * The snake can see through its transparent eye lids when they are closed * A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows * Europeans in the Middle Ages used to call coffee the "Arabic Wine" * Honeybees have hair on their eyes * The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback." * The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states. * George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. * Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935. * The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey. * Russia has the most movie theaters in the world. * The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday. * The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps. * The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902. * Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939. * Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated. * The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used. * Toilet paper was invented in 1857. * Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States. * Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church. * If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. * Kermit the Frog is left-handed. * Nondairy creamer is flammable. * The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile. * If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun. * The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. * It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0. Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel proved this wrong. * The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen. * The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." * Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. * When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. * Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union. * When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio. * The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat. * The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia. * The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h. * At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States. * The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours. * The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse. * You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals. * Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names. * In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung. * By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing. * The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse. * More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%). * Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl. * A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours. * Whales die if their echo system fails. * Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually. * Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps. * It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar. * Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night. * Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle. * In deep space most lubricants will disappear. * America once issued a 5-cent bill. * The only vehicle legally allowed to pass a funeral procession is a government owned vehicle: a mail truck. * The average person can live 11 days without water. * In 1221 the daughter of Genghis Khan ordered the killing of the entire population of the city of Nishapur (about 60,000) in one hour. The order came after her husband killing. (Moguls claim that 1.7 million were killed) * There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach. * In 1800 only 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000. * There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball * More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies. * It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States. * King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats. * Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers. * Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand. * The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956. * More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States. * The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet. The ampersand (&) did not use to be a letter of the English alphabet - it was the last letter of the Latin alphabet * The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres. * There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script. * During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax. * The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone. * Coca-Cola was originally green. * Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury. * The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawai'ian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina). * Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better. * The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000. * City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong. * State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska. * Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%. * Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7. * Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%. * Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%. * Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400. * Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000. * Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. * The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage." * The youngest Pope was 11 years old. * Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. * First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer." * A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (This was challenged and proved wrong by the TV show "Mythbusters") * The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. * Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar. * If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. * Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. * The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. Told that this was an urban legend. In fact, several parts of the German and later the Swiss Autobahn system were indeed designed to be auxiliary military airports. * The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. * The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. * The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service. * Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg * The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles * Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem * Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated * Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there * The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836. * It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush! * In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose * It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process. * The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of b lood pumped per heartbeat. * Dry cereal for breakfast was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the turn of the century * During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks, one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back * Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832,left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years. * Diet Coke was only invented in 1982. * Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud. There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible. * The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent. * Henry Ford produced the model T mostly in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry. Model T was available in other colors. The British factory for model T started producing them in Green as mentioned by the British Show QI. At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing. * Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food * One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children. * In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters. * There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous * If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all. * Less than 3% of Nestlé's sales are for chocolate. * The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change * More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products * It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk * The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph * Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death. * The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth * The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X * Nova Scotia is Latin for 'New Scotland.' * The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology. * Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word 'gadzooks'. * Only 2 blue moons (the saying 'only once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one calendar month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are January 1999 and March 1999 * "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed * Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when al original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'

48 laws of power contd

Law 41
Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42
Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43
Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44
Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.

Law 45
Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46
Never appear too Perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47
Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48
Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

48 laws of power

Law 1
Never Outshine the Master Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2
Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies . Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Law 3
Conceal your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4
Always Say Less than Necessary When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5
So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life. Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law 6
Court Attention at all Cost
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.

Law 7
Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law 8
Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary. When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards.

Law 9
Win through your Actions, Never through Argument. Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10
Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 11
Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.

Law 12
Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim. One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.

Law 13
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.

Law 14
Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy. Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying. Law 15
Crush your Enemy Totally
All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Law 16
Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

Law 17
Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18
Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous
The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19
Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person. There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20
Do Not Commit to Anyone. It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21
Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22
Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23
Concentrate Your Forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Law 24
Play the Perfect Courtier
The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

Law 25
Re-Create Yourself
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

Law 26
Keep Your Hands Clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.

Law 27
Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

Law 28
Enter Action with Boldness. If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid. Law 41
Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42
Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43
Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44
Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.

Law 45
Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46
Never appear too Perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47
Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48
Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

How Google's Keyword Tool Can Point You Toward Profits

The biggest mistake you can make when you're starting a small business online is to aim too broadly. Internet business success comes from identifying a tightly focused niche market on which you can concentrate all your efforts and resources.
So how do you know if you've found one?
Here's a quick way to evaluate a potential business idea or niche market and see if it has legs: Look at what people are paying to advertise on its keywords.
Typically, where there are high pay-per-click bids, competition in the natural search engine results is also high. Maybe too high. If you can't afford to compete for a top spot in the sponsored listings for the most desirable keywords, should you even bother with this market?
Well don't give up just yet. Many PPC advertisers make exactly the same mistake aspiring online entrepreneurs do: They aim too broadly. They pay ridiculous amounts of money to get listed in the top spots for keywords that are far too unfocused and simply won't convert.
Knowing that, you can take advantage of pay-per-click data to determine if you've found a viable market or not--before you get mired in an online business with no potential.
Use the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool to see how many searches are being done monthly per keyword, and how much advertisers are spending per keyword for a top position in the sponsored listings.
To do this, enter a few terms associated with the niche you've identified and tick the Use synonyms box.
Sort the columns so you're looking at Keywords, Estimated Ad Position, Estimated Average Cost per Click, and Global Monthly Search Volume. It will look like this:

You'll get a list of keywords similar to the ones you've entered. By default, you'll see the cost per click for the top three positions in the Google Sponsored Listings. (To see the cost per click for lower positions, enter a maximum CPC bid of 25 cents in the box next to the currency choice.)
You probably can't compete in this market if all the keywords in your chosen area are upwards of $1. If all the advertisers are willing to pay a dollar or more per click, at a 1 percent conversion ratio--which is pretty decent--they're paying $100+ per customer. So you're looking at one of two possibilities:
It's a saturated market. Stay away, no matter how attractive the global search volume looks for each keyword. It's going to cost you too much, and you don't have the experience to compete.
It's too broad to be a niche in the first place. In this case, you've got an opportunity to narrow your idea down to a laser-targeted niche. Try looking through the list for "clusters" of keywords that all point to the same problem. Then you can generate further keywords from those and see how the numbers look. This refining process is a big part of finding a golden niche.
You probably can compete in this market if:
there are lots of reasonably priced keywords ($0.25 and under) in the top three positions.
there are reasonably priced keywords in lower positions but still on the front page.
the affordable keywords clearly show the intention of the searchers--you can identify the problem they're trying to solve and come up with a solution; and
the combined monthly searches for the affordable keywords add up to a worthwhile number--a few thousand, at least.
These are indications that you've found a genuine niche market, and it's worth looking at the competition to see if you should continue.
For competition research, again, the Google keyword tool is your best pal. Go through the keyword list and Google each one. Look at who's paying to appear in the top ad positions above the natural search results. As you go through the list of keywords, you will likely see a trend--the same sites will start showing up over and over. Those sites give you a pretty solid idea of who your biggest competition would be: These are the ones that are serious enough about their business to spend money to appear in those top results.
When you visit the sites of those top advertisers, you can find out what your potential competitors are selling and how well they're doing it.
It's a good idea to set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all this information. You don't have to record every detail for every site, but jot a few notes down for each one.
Once you have some idea about the businesses you're up against, give these questions some serious thought:
How could my business fit in with the competition?
Is there room for me in this market?
Are there any gaps in this market that I can fill?
Are people buying in this market, or do they expect everything for free?
What could I do better than the sites I've seen?
This is a quick and dirty method of validating your niche market, but it's based on hard dollars that real businesses are spending to compete. If seeing those numbers won't stop you from making the biggest mistake in online business, what will?

Allen Moon is Director of Marketing for the Internet Marketing Center. He leads a team of internet business experts who stay on top of the changing online landscape. They constantly research the latest approaches and test them on real commercial websites, then pass on their knowledge in easy-to-use, internet marketing tools, instruction materials, and training services.

Parenting

The most important and enduring relationship that you ever enter into begins when you bring a child into the world. Every other thing will come and go but your role as a parent lasts as long as you live. The impact of your parenting can affect your child and your children’s children fro generations. Parenting is probably the most profound responsibility an adult can ever take on.

The most important single role of parenting is to love and nurture your children and to build in them feelings of high self-esteem and self-confidence. If you raise a child feeling terrific about themselves, if you bring them up full of eagerness to go out and take the world, then you have fulfilled your responsibility in the highest possible sense. Conversely, if you give your child everything of a material nature but raise him or her lacking in self-confidence and self-esteem, you have failed in your primary role.

Abraham Maslow taught that every human being has two main types of needs that they strive to fulfill. These are the need to fulfill their potentials and the need to compensate for their perceived deficiencies. Thus, a child raise without sufficient love tends to seek it all his or her life, rather than striving to realize his or her potential.

Perhaps the kindest thing a parent can do is to give his or her child the love and emotional support the child needs to grow and thrive, creating a climate in which the child feels totally loved by the most important people in his or her life. The growing child develops a healthy personality in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of love he or she receives.

Every parent wants the best for their children, but some of the parents fail to fulfill their most important requirement in raising their children by not loving them enough. There are two major reasons for the failure by parents to love their children enough. First, the parents with low self-esteem have great difficulty giving more love to their children than they feel for themselves.

The second reason is that parents often have the mistaken perception that their children exist to fulfill their expectations. A major cause of misunderstanding between parents and children is the parents’ feeling or perception that their children are failing to live up to the standard the parent expect them to be or do.
Many parents look upon their children as a form of property and they feel their children are behaving properly only when they are doing and saying what their parents want them to. If the children’s behavior differs from the parents’ expectations, the parent criticizes them.

The starting point of raising children is to realize that your children are not your property but are gift from the most high and they belong to themselves. You must understand that each child of yours is different from any other and he or she has his/her own agenda, with his/her own special talents, interests and abilities. So, your children’s job is not to conform to his/her parents’ expectations, but to grow and blossom and become whatever he/she is capable of becoming.

In the book The Prophet written by Kahlil Gibran, he says “your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. So, you may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them be like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children, as living arrows, are sent forth”.

When you look at your children as precious gifts that you can only enjoy for a short time, you see your role as a parent from a different perspective. When you celebrate and encourage the special nature and personality of your child, he or she grows like a flower in the sunshine. But if you try to get your child to be something he or she is not, your child’s spirit will die and his/her abilities for happiness and joy will shrivel like a leaf on a tree in autumn.

What your children are and what they will become will very much reflect on the kind of parent you are. Most parents blame their children when they do something that the parent doesn’t like. The parents are the primary source of a child’s behavior. In the early years of a child’s life, he/she is very reactive, the behavior they exhibit either good or bad is proportional to they way they are being treated by their parents and the people around them. When parents begin accepting responsibility for the children’s behavior, real progress becomes possible in solving difficulties the children might be having.

The most important consideration in raising children is the amount of love they receive. Children need love like flowers need water. Continuous flow of love and approval from parent to child is the child’s lifeline to emotional and physical health.

NEW INTERNET MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES

I am constantly astonished and humbled by the unique and unusual ways in which people make money. While lots of business owners have mastered the art of developing interesting profit centers for their business, some of the most exciting revenue streams that I see today are developed by employees of these small businesses who are making money outside their “regular” job.
While these workers love the security, variety and steady pay check of their 8 to 4 career, they also enjoy making tens of thousands of dollars extra for themselves by executing short term, minimum-commitment strategies several times a year.
If making money on the side interest you, but you want the commitment of running a part-time business all year round, then using the instant extra cash strategies to make extra income at night, weekends and during holidays is for you.

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• You need online accounts that you can use to receive your monthly checks. These online accounts are free. Click below to sign up for these accounts.
http://www.virtualterminalnetwork.com/Invite.asp?ID=37506

• Next is to acquire a virtual US address where your monthly check will be mailed to you. This virtual US address serve as your graphcard account number, so with your graphcard account, you can get a virtual US address.

Click this link to sign up A confirmatory email will be sent tot your email address, confirm it and begin making money.

2. www.nairabet.com
This one is for those who are football fans. This site pays you for supporting a club or a team of your choice in any competition. If you have a good and wide knowledge on football, then do you know you can make money by analyzing matches and predicting which team is going to win?
Here all you need to do is either predict a win, a loss or a draw in any match of your choice or then smile to your bank to withdraw your money. To start, log on to www.nairabet.com, click on new user and fill the form correctly. Where you see referral code put BZPCRAH5. After you are done with form you submit.

Then log in and enter your bank account details, to enable you transfer your money at will. When you log in, go to BANK INFORMATION. Input your account number and Bank name. How to credit your account for betting will be sent to mail box and once your have credited your account, you can start making money by betting for your favourite teams.

One thing I love so much about this site is that, you don’t only make money predicting matches but, you also earn 30% on every amount your referrals deposit into their accounts. This is where the money is.

3. INFORMATION MARKETING
You are reading this page now because you are looking for information on how you can earn extra or more income apart from your monthly income. Some months back I was also doing exactly what you are doing now until I came across a package online which I want to share with you.

Do you know that there are some things you know that millions of people don’t know? And these people are willing to pay a token just to have this information you know. This package I found showed me how to search for peoples’ problems, find solution and give it to them to solve their problem and they in turn paid me an agreed fee. Because of my ability to solve their problems, they become dependent on me to be solving their problems.
Inside this package, you will know

• How to write, sell and price your ebook. Also, how to find a market for your products.

• How to open a paypal and click bank account.

• How to design your website.

To get this package, follow this link to get your own copy or call me on 08038967870 or send me an email via ndantiobong@hotmail.com requesting for the package. It will only cost you #2,500 to get it from me.
Remember, you have so much in you that people are willing to pay for to have it. Solve a person’s problem and smile to your bank account. In the words of Zig Ziglar, “you can get what you want from life if you help a lot of other people to get what they want”.

4. BLOGGING
This is the easiest and cheapest way you can take few dollars monthly from the internet. A blog is like a mini website where you can post, edit, advertise, etc. to create a blog is free. Let me mention few ways you can actually make money using your blog.
• Google Adsense: they advertise on your blog and pay you on every click a visitor makes on their adverts. Before you can incorporate google adsense advert on your blog, you must open a google account. To open a google account is free but you will need a US virtual address to open this account which you can get using your graphcard account.
• Advertisement: because of high traffic to your site, companies also apply to run adverts on your blog for a specific period of time and pay you for it.
• Marketing: you could also use your blog to market you own products like what I am doing now.
I can go on and on because the list is endless. Why not create one right now using www.bloggers.com

After you have created your blog, below are list of blog directories you can submit your blog to by signing up for them. it is also free. When you have submitted your blogs in these directories, they send your adverts which are relevant to your blog for you to advertise for them and you will be paid on every click a visitor makes on these adverts.

• BlogVertise is an interesting pay-per-post system, because there is no marketplace to browse. The connection between the advertisers and bloggers is made by the staff. All you have to do is register your blog, and when BlogsVertise has a suitable offer for your blog, it will be emailed to you. The average payout is around $5 - $15 per post, the final payment being made exclusively through PayPal 30 days after the sponsored post is approved.Click Here to Advertise on My Blog


• On Smorty blogs must be at least 30 days old and to have at least 10 articles published in order to be approved. The quoted rates for a sponsored post range from $6 to $100. The PageRank of your blog and advertiser ratings of your previous sponsored posts determine the frequency and value of the offers. Payments are made weekly, exclusively through PayPal.

• PayU2Blog is a smaller player in the sponsored review market. As a publisher, you will be given paid posting assignments on a weekly basis based on the blog profile you create.

• Although Bloggerwave is also a small paid blogging network and lists few open job opportunities, their site is very friendly and easy to navigate. Bloggers here get paid a minimum of $10 for each completed and approved post.

• With LoudLaunch the amount paid per post is based on the blog ranking, this network allowing bloggers to be compensated for distributing press releases. All you have to do is search through advertisers’ press release campaigns, select the ones aligned with your blog and post them on your blog based on the advertisers campaign. The compensation is based on the exposure your blog can deliver.

• Once your blog is approved on the Blogitive system, you are given access to opportunities from companies to post about their news releases. The payments are made per posting, exclusively through PayPal, the standard amount being $5.

• BloggingAds is a different system, they supply everything: the advertisers, the text of the post and the money, all you have to do is to publish the ad on your blog.

HOW TO EARN EXTRA CASH

Doing what you love
I know everyone do have something inside of them that they are passionate about, something that irrespective of what you are doing now for a living, you would pursue as your lifetime's work if only you could earn enough money doing it.

Like a stay-at-home mum who runs a podcasting website for other stay-at-home mums. Being an investor lets you pursue your passion, it lets you make in ways that work for your lifestyle, your family commitments and your schedule. It gives you the freedom in deciding on the kinds of projects you take on, in choosing whom you want to work with and ultimately in making independent decisions about your finances.

In the pages below, I have not only detailed the exact steps required to become an investor and make money outside your regular job but, I have also introduced you to types of businesses that can generate cash quickly using the extra cash strategies. Many of these occasional projects require only your own expertise. I will show you how to minimize the hassle factor so that you can focus on actually executing the short term, minimum-commitment strategies.

For instance, instead of starting a business that requires up-front cash, ongoing rent, personal guarantees and regular business hour, I want you to be free to concentrate on finding the best money making projects fro expertise and skill set rather than tying yourself to a product or service long term because you have invested in the business.

Instead of spending your time running the business, I want you to automate the most time-consuming work using inexpensive services and software that are available to everyone. Instead of being tied to a side business that takes up every weekend, I want you to work nights, weekends and holidays during a two or three week period then take the next three or four months off while still enjoying the income you created. Instead of working at a second job, I want you to evolve to creating a second income streams.

Paying off your debt
Earning extra cash benefit you in lots of ways. For instance, imagine making an extra income of $1000 a month, you will suddenly begin to pay off your debt, invest more money for retirement, send your children to private schools, move to a better estate and spend a total of $12,000 a year on luxury vacations, increase your donations to charity, help your elderly parents with in-home care and start spending more on your own health and well-being. You would probably feel less stressed about your finances, you would actually use your vacation time from work and you would probably find ways to work smarter at your regular job so that overtime and weekends at the office became a thing of the past.

Extra income sources that bring in extra cash
There are probably a million ways to make a million dollars. And when it comes to making something a lot easier, the list of possible opportunities increases exponentially. So which of these opportunities are right for you and most importantly work best with the extra income strategy?

What makes an income opportunity an extra cash opportunity?
While these criteria are important enough when you're producing any business income, they become even more important when you're seeking to create quick cash. The more of these criteria that are met by your chosen opportunity, the easier it will be to use the extra cash strategies to generate revenue quickly.

1. Identify and locate potential buyers
Many potential businesses have prospective customers who are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. They are everywhere, but you can't identify who they are, what niche market they're associated with, which joint-venture partners they might already be customers of, and so on. This makes your advertising and marketing job much more difficult. But think how much easier your promotional efforts would be if you could clearly identify exactly where to find these prospects – it could be on the internet, in your local geographical market, within specific industries and as past buyers of other companies.

2. low start up capital
Instead of budgeting tens or hundreds of dollars on starting up a business, think about funding your start up costs out of sales by spending just few dollars like $150 to $250 to run a press release and teleseminar, or nothing at all to make a deal with your very first joint-venture partner.

3. Match your skills, Passion, Personality and Expertise
Position yourself not as an ideal provider of your products and services but also a major authority on the subject. If you're not comfortable in this role, either reconsider whether you want to pursue this opportunity or decide whether you could instead take on a reporter role – being a messenger for industry information, rather than a leading expert.

4. Competition and Potential Joint-venture Partners Abound
competition is a simple indicator of a viable market for the product or service that you're selling. Besides, there are a different of ways to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. Not only that,but the existence of numerous competitors and others operating in an industry simply means more potential joint-venture partners for your occasional pursuits.

5. Advertising Opportunities are Inexpensive and Accessible
When deciding if an opportunity is for you, be sure to research all possible advertising outlets available for reaching your niche market.

WHAT KIND OF PRODUCT DO YOU WANT TO SELL
The question is, will you be selling a consumer product or a recurring service? The best extra cash business opportunities allow you to sell a customer once, then collect money from that customer for a very long time. In fact, given a choice, most marketers would prefer to sell subscriptions, memberships and other continuity programs. It's how you leverage your limited time as an occasional entrepreneur.

If you have an idea for an occasional business, think through what you might be able to offer on an ongoing basis. Since you may not want to be tied to the business year-round, also think through how you might fulfil these ongoing orders or deliveries throughout the year. Can you contract with an outside firm to do it? Can you produce all the items over just two or three months, then take the rest of the year off while a college student that you hire ships them out?

Or can you simply become an affiliate, a reseller or a representative for other people's continuity programs? Occasional opportunities that fit this qualification include network marketing companies, internet membership sites and becoming an outside sales representative for another company. You can even meet once a month with potential customers and clients, booking all your sales over a single weekend, then outsource the fulfillment to the company you're representing. You could very effectively become a manufacturing consultant, a nutritionist, or some other type of expert who meets with clients, sells them a program, then turns over the order to a manufacturing company, vitamin company or other provider that is in the business of providing customer service and fulfillment on an ongoing basis.

BUSINESS CATEGORIES THAT ARE FAVOURABLE FOR MAKING INSTANT CASH
Of course, some businesses just don't work for occasional entrepreneur. For obvious reasons, retail and manufacturing aren't conducive to making extra income on an occasional basis, except on a very small scale. The cost to purchase inventory to stock a retail store, the cost to tool up a manufacturing facility and other burdensome start up costs and ongoing management requirements make retailing and manufacturing inadvisable for occasional entrepreneurs.

That having been said, it is possible to run a retail or manufacturing operation part-time if it involves highly specialized one-of-a-kind items that you enjoy making and that you can sell at a very high price – unique jewelry, intricate model ships, hand-tied fishing files, couture clothing and other limited manufacturing items. Alternately, you could start a website to sell the parts needed to make these items to other hobbyist. Or consider approaching a large retail chain's clothing or accessory buyer to sell a large quantity of your unique item in a single order that you fulfil over 30 to 60 days.

Still, for most occasional entrepreneurs, retailing and manufacturing take too much time and effort. There are much easier ways to make instant cash on an occasional basis. For instance, there are more than half a dozen major categories of small business besides retailing and manufacturing, most of which are much more conducive to creating cash quickly:

• Consulting
• Professional practice
• Wholesaling/distribution
• Investments/holdings
• Services
• Network marketing and direct sales
• Knowledge product/publishing

Notice that in this list, I did not mention e-commerce as a category. That's because the internet is not a business. It's a marketing and advertising delivery tool that helps you automate and sell more of the product or service you're already selling. That said, however, take a look at the list again. There categories that are naturally favourable for making extra income with very little effort and with even fewer start up costs. These categories – consulting, services, network marketing and knowledge products – also meet many of the ideal criteria for occasional opportunities that I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.

CONSULTING ON AN OCCASSIONAL BASIS
If you have knowledge or expertise that others don't have, you can earn a superb income as an occasional consultant. In fact, thanks to the internet, there are numerous websites that will connect you with companies that are looking for start up advice, product development assistance, labour relations guidance and countless other help. To help market yourself first determine who needs what you know and which niche markets these buyers belong to. Then target your online marketing and your direct-mail letters to reach these buyers. Online articles, free reports, free assessment tools and other helpful documents are good ways to familiarize potential clients with your specific expertise.

PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ON AN OCCASSIONAL BASIS
Many thousand of people offer services on an occasional basis – whether it's professional organizing, tax preparation, party planning, interior decorating, weed clearing, grant writing, holiday gift buying for corporations, magic acts or one of the hundreds of other types of services that consumers and businesses will pay for.
Almost anything you love to do that is also physically impossible, bothersome or time-consuming to others can be turned into an occasional service earning extra cash. The key to marketing yourself as a service provider on an occasional basis is to approach other providers from whom these consumers and businesses are already buying.

SELLING KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTS ON AN OCCASIONAL BASIS
Publishing is exciting, the margins are superb, there's little or no competition within the different categories of subject matter and the methods used to market published works and other knowledge products are easy to execute and manage. In addition, with the advent of the internet, almost anyone can easily and inexpensively promote himself as an expert and sell knowledge products and services.
How is extra cash made on an occasional basis in the knowledge products industry?
• Set up a website selling an ebook, online course or newsletter.
• Offer coaching over the phone on specific days of the month or week.
• Accept paid speaking engagements on an occasional basis – or speak for free but sell consulting services, a coaching program or products at the back of the room.
• Write a non fiction book and sell it for an advance on royalties to a publishing company, which will distribute the book through normal book store and trade channels.
• Begin consulting and training for corporations that need your expertise.
• Become an information marketing consultant who locks up the rights, then leverage the knowledge assets of other companies.

Auto insurance

If you own a car, truck, or other vehicle you are required by law to carry some type of insurance coverage. At a minimum, you are required to carry liability coverage that will cover expenses related to personal injury or property damage. In other words, if you cause an accident and someone is injured or property is damaged, you are responsible for paying for damages.

An insurance policy guarantees payment of a certain amount to cover these expenses should an accident occur. The rates you pay for your car insurance policy are based upon many factors including: age, sex, driving history, credit history, and year, make and model of the vehicle being insured. Other cost factors are determined by the amount of coverage you want.

Comprehensive is the most expensive type of insurance coverage. This type of insurance can offer protection to you, your family, and your car. It covers other things that can happen to your car such as fire, vandalism, or acts of Mother Nature such as hail damage.

Liability is the cheapest car insurance; however, if you do not own your car outright, you cannot purchase liability insurance alone. Lenders require you to have comprehensive insurance covering the vehicle until the note is paid in full.

Liability insurance offers protection to people in other cars when you are at fault for an accident. Typically, liability insurance will cover medical expenses and car repairs, up to a certain dollar amount. In most cases, liability insurance covers you in any vehicle that you drive, whether it belongs to you or someone else.