How To Develop Your Critical Thinking Skills

What are critical thinking skills? They are the habits of thought that you cultivate for better decisions on what to believe and what to do. Critical thought is not about being able to argue well. That kind of thinking can be a trap. Unfortunately, some very intelligent people think that way, seeking only to justify the beliefs they already have. That is very limited thinking.

Ask psychologists, philosophers, and brain scientists what critical thinking is, and you'll get many definitions. However, all of them seem to agree that it includes challenging and analyzing our own motivations, thought processes and conclusions. Here is a basic definition:

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"Reasonable and reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe and/or how to act."

How To Develop Your Critical Thinking Skills

Reasonable shouldn't be confused with logical, since many of the most unreasonable ideas result logically from a chosen set of premises and assumptions. A set of premises which include a flat Earth, for example, can lead to the perfectly logical conclusion that a boat will fall off the edge of the planet if it goes too close. Logic is a systematic way to derive conclusions from premises, but the premises themselves may be right or wrong.

Being reasonable then, means allowing for the possibility that reality may not match our premises. Being reasonable means observing, gathering evidence, and using inductive reasoning (all dogs I see have four legs, so dogs must normally have four legs). On the other hand, logic is limited to deductive reasoning, and one bad premise can taint all deductions that come from it. It is reasonable, therefore, to challenge not just our logic, but the premises it is based on.

To be reflective, is to ask questions like, "How could I be wrong here? What assumptions am I making and are they correct? Are there other explanations that may be better?

Suppose on a hot humid day, you think, "Humidity makes the air feel warmer, and it is normally more humid in Montana than in Arizona, so if the temperature is the same in both places, it will normally feel warmer in Montana." Unassailable logic, but a wrong conclusion, as I and anyone who has lived in both places in winter can tell you. Humid air actually feels warmer when it's hot and cooler when it's cold.

To avoid errors like this, you ask if it's true that humidity makes air feel warmer. A hot day's experience says yes, but when you look for possible errors you note the hidden assumption that "it's true at any temperature." You challenge that assumption,and remember that the hot feeling is partly because your sweat can't evaporate as fast in humid air, so your body can't cool itself as well. Reflecting on that, you realize it wouldn't matter as much when it's cold, because you sweat less.

Cultivate Your Critical Thinking Skills

You may already have enough knowledge to correct the error, but if not, a bit of critical thought would at least point out the need to gather more information. You can see in this example the kind of mind set you need as a critical thinker. What else can you do to develop critical thinking skills? There are specific exercises and practices for that. Here are three of them.

Evidence

Make it a habit to ask for evidence. That might mean simply asking "where did you read that?" or "Was that speculation, or did they actually do a test?" Be prepared to provide evidence for your own claims as well. We don't carry our sources with us, of course, but you should be able to get a sense whether there really is some basis for a claim or belief.

Source

Because we don't carry evidence around with us, we all accept many things said at face value, at least for the sake of discussion. Otherwise our conversations would be more like interrogations, and probably very short. However, we can consider the sources of information and evidence. We can ask if this person usually remembers the facts correctly. We can consider if the source they refer to is reliable.

Motivations

What we believe, what others believe, and what evidence is considered by anyone, is in part a function of motivations. Because of this, a magazine might be entirely biased in it's reporting, yet have all of their facts perfectly verified. Of course, you should ask yourself if there is enough of a motivation for outright lying, but this isn't as common as many people think. A more important part of you critical thinking skills is to ask why these certain facts may have been reported (what bias is likely), and what facts are being ignored or passed over.

How To Develop Your Critical Thinking Skills

Copyright Steve Gillman. For six more specific Critical Thinking Skills, and to get the Brainpower Newsletter and other free gifts, visit: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/critical-thinking.html

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How To Get A Guy To Fall In Love With You

Do you feel like fate has singled you out to be alone the rest of your life? Would you like to meet a guy and fall madly in love? If you don't want to be single forever, do you know how to get a guy to fall in love with you?

When I was young it seemed simple to have lots of boys around. I thought they were all in love with me because it seemed they never wanted to go home. Now that I am older, I think I have a different picture of the situation. My Dad was a cowboy, he told great stories, and we had horses. Those boys might have been smiling and friendly, but I don't think their visits were about me. They were in love with Dad.

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Getting a guy to fall in love with you is more complicated that owning a horse. What will help you is understanding how to develop your personal attraction and magnetism. When you do, it will be easy. But if you are stuck thinking love will never happen for you, you need the following:

How To Get A Guy To Fall In Love With You

*Self assurance

Confidence is magnetizing. This is how you get who you want. Confidence starts with knowing you can take care of yourself wherever you are. Whether you need social skills, a career path, new friends, financial planning, or counseling to handle your emotional issues, help is out there for you if you ask for it.

*Trust

Becoming a trust-worthy person starts with trusting yourself to do the right thing, no matter how difficult the situation. Do you say what you mean and mean what you say? Are your thoughts and words in alignment with your actions? The man you want will fall in love and stay in love if he can trust you.

*Femininity

Feminine women have great power. Men flock to them. True femininity has substance. An attractive woman cares about her spiritual center, her competency at what she does, and the quality of her friendships. She also cares about her appearance, takes care of her health, and stays fit from exercise.

*Words of endearment

Men like women who pay attention to them and pay them compliments. Sincere compliments will attract men to you like bears to honey. If you feel secure with a man, and have been dating him for a while, he will also like to hear terms of endearment like being called sweetie, sugar, darling, and baby.

*Larger purpose

Extremely attractive women know they are fulfilling a greater purpose and are serene about it. They have an inner-based spiritual center that is the foundation under everything they do. They have the kind of energy that calms people and everyone wants to be around them. Wherever they are, they make a contribution, just by their presence.

*Fun

If you have the qualities mentioned above, and you know how to laugh, play, and enjoy yourself wherever you go, you are irresistible.

*Action

If you want to fall in love and stay in love, you need to take the steps to make that happen. If you don't know how to get on track to do that, get yourself a coach.

When you do the above, you will know how to get a guy to fall in love with you. And you won't even need a horse.

How To Get A Guy To Fall In Love With You

Visit http://www.tonjaweimer.com or http://www.singlesdatingtips.com for more tips, skills, and insight on dating, relationships, singles, and love. Subscribe to our F*ree Savvy Dating Newsletter from master single's coach, life coach, and syndicated columnist, Tonja Weimer. Copyright 2006, Tonja Weimer. (Please note source if reprinting this article.)

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Master the Gaming Industry With Training From Video Game Design Schools

The video game industry is flourishing in today's world of computers, and there is a great demand for professionals with skills earned from video game design schools. Imagine yourself in a well-paid career that combines your creative skills, computer skills and artistic skills into one exciting job! That dream can become a reality with good training in video game design.

If you are looking to become a master in the video gaming industry, you can quickly learn all the essentials needed to qualify for employment. Typically, courses will cover original conception and production, analytical skills development, software applications, video game design and testing, all aspects of 3D modeling, animation, CAD, 2D design, applied game theories, storyboarding, graphic design, interactive writing, and lots more.

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The field covers both art and computer science, and there are several degree options. Game design schools usually offer the option of Associate Degree or Bachelor degree in Graphic Art or Computer Sciences. Some individual colleges offer master degrees, depending on the specific school and the goals of the student.

Master the Gaming Industry With Training From Video Game Design Schools

The field of game design encompasses many areas of both private and public business. For example, publishers of educational software are looking for fresh new artists to fill the ever-growing demand for game software developers and designers who can create interactive, learning games for computers.

A degree program in can give you all the skills and experience you need to compete in today's job market. The career outlook is exceptional for those with a solid computer education, with numerous exciting positions available all across the country. You could soon earn between ,000 to ,000 a year, and enjoying a career that you truly love!

If you would like to learn to be a video game designer you can find good computer design schools on our website and submit a request for more information. You will soon have everything you need to take that first step toward a lifelong career.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on our website.

Copyright 2008 - All rights reserved by Media Positive Communications, Inc.

Notice: Publishers are free to use this article on an ezine or website, provided the article is reprinted in its entirety, including copyright and disclaimer, and ALL links remain intact and active.

Master the Gaming Industry With Training From Video Game Design Schools

Michael Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. and ArticleSourcePlus.com. Find Video Game Design Schools [http://www.schoolsgalore.com/categories/2/video_game_design.html], as well as Colleges, Universities, Vocational Schools, and Online Schools at SchoolsGalore.com, your educational resource to locate schools.

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How To Clean A Coffee Maker

Ever wonder how to clean a coffee maker the right way? Drip coffee makers need to be cleaned at least once a month to keep your coffee tasting good.

Cleaning your coffee maker takes away hard water mineral deposits, old oils from previously brewed pots and other impurities that can make your coffee taste bad.

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A mixture of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water is the best way to clean a drip coffee maker. Mix a full pot of the vinegar and water mixture, pour it in your water reservoir and turn the coffee maker on.

How To Clean A Coffee Maker

Once the mixture has run completely through, it's important to turn the drip coffee maker off and let it cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

Pour the vinegar and water mixture down the drain. If you are cleaning a coffee maker that hasn't been cleaned regularly, repeat this step again with a fresh vinegar and water mixture.

Next, rinse the pot out thoroughly with warm, plain water. Then, fill the water reservoir again with clean water and turn the coffee maker on to start the rinsing process.

To make sure all of the vinegar and water solution is completely gone repeat the rinsing process one more time after letting the pot cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

This is how to clean a coffee maker the right way. Cleaning your drip coffee maker on a monthly basis will make it last longer and keep your coffee tasting the best it can possibly be.

Copyright © 2005 Best-Coffee-Makers-Online.com. All Rights Reserved.

How To Clean A Coffee Maker

This article is supplied by Best Coffee Makers where you can easily shop and compare coffee makers so you can purchase exactly what you’re looking for at great values.

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Understanding Copyright

The basis for copyright law in the USA is found in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 as follows:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

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The first copyright law was the Copyright Act of 1790. We are currently operating under the Copyright of 1976 as amended.

Understanding Copyright

Copyrights have a term of the life of the author plus 70 years. We Boomers can thank Sonny Bono (Sonny and Cher) for this. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998—alternatively known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act set the current term of copyrights.

When you write original content, it is copyrighted even if you do not specify “Copyright” or use the “circle C” © copyright symbol.

However, it is best to declare your works are copyrighted. The proper way to do this is “Copyright © (Date of first Creation) ( Name of author).

The best way to approach using any information that you have not created yourself is to consider that it is copyrighted.

To copyright an item, you must establish a dated record of some type when you first created the item so you can prove the date of the copyright if someone challenges you. The earliest date will get the copyright. Before computers, a technique was to write the piece and have it notarized or witnessed. Another technique was to enclose the item in an envelope and mail it to yourself. The postmark established the date.

Now we have computers that record the date of file creation for anything we record on them. This date becomes the date of the copyright.

All you have to do to copyright something is to create it and follow the previously specified procedure by specifying “Copyright © (Date of first Creation) ( Name of author)” Use of the copyright symbol is not required.

The following procedure is for MS Word: To insert the copyright symbol, click Insert on the tool bar, Click Symbol on the dropdown and you will be presented a table of all kinds of symbols. Highlight the “circle C” and click the Insert button and the © will appear where your cursor is located. You will have to click on the Close button to close the Symbol box.

There, that was easy. Now start creating content on which you can proudly hang that “circle C”.

Copyright 2006 John Howe, Inc.

Understanding Copyright

John V. W. Howe is an entrepreneur, author, inventor, patent holder, husband, father, and grandfather. He has been involved in entrepreneurial activities for over 40 years. He founded http://www.boomer-ezine.com and http://www.retirement-jobs-online.com to help Boomers (baby boomers) become entrepreneurs when they retire.

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Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Template

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

THIS NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (this "Agreement") is made and entered into as of [date] between [Your Company name] having its place of business at [ address] ("Company") and [company 2], having its place of business at [Address]

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Purpose:Company and [company 2] wish to explore a business opportunity of mutual interest and in connection with this opportunity wishes to execute this Non Disclosure Agreement ("Agreement").

Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Template

1. Confidential Information: Confidential information means any information disclosed to by one party to the other, either directly or indirectly in writing, orally or by inspection of tangible or intangible objects, including without limitation documents, business plans, source code, software, documentation, financial analysis, marketing plans, customer names, customer list, customer data. Confidential Information may also include information disclosed to a party by third parties at the direction of a Disclosing Party. Confidential Information shall not, however, include any information which the Receiving party can establish (i) was publicly known and made generally available in the public domain prior to the time of disclosure; (ii) becomes publicly known and made generally available after disclosure through no action or inaction of Receiving Party; or (iii) is in the possession of Receiving Party, without confidentiality restrictions, at the time of disclosure by the Disclosing Party as shown by Receiving Party's files and records immediately prior to the time of disclosure. The party disclosing the Confidential Information shall be referred to as "Disclosing Party" in the Agreement and the party receiving the Confidential Information shall be referred to as "Receiving Party" in the Agreement.

2. Non-use and Non-disclosure: The Receiving Party agrees not to use any Confidential Information for any purpose except to evaluate and engage in discussions concerning a potential business relationship between the parties hereto. Receiving Party agrees not to disclose any Confidential Information to third parties or to its employees, except to those employees who are required to have the information in order to evaluate or engage in discussions concerning the contemplated business relationship. The Receiving Party shall not reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile any prototypes, software or other tangible objects which embody the Disclosing Party's Confidential Information and which are provided to the Receiving Party hereunder.

3. Maintenance of Confidentiality Information: The Receiving Party agrees that it shall take all reasonable measures to protect the secrecy of and avoid disclosure and unauthorized use of the Confidential Information. Without limiting the foregoing, Receiving Party shall take at least those measures that Receiving Party takes to protect its own most highly confidential information and shall have its employees, if any, who have access to Confidential Information sign a non-use and non-disclosure agreement in content substantially similar to the provisions hereof, prior to any disclosure of Confidential Information to such employees. The Receiving Party shall not make any copies of Confidential Information unless the same are previously approved in writing by the Disclosing Party. The Receiving Party shall reproduce the Disclosing Party's proprietary rights notices on any such approved copies, in the same manner in which such notices were set forth in or on the original. The Receiving Party shall immediately notify the Disclosing Party in the event of any unauthorized use or disclosure of the Confidential Information.

4. No Obligation: Nothing herein shall obligate either party to proceed with any transaction between them, and each party reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate the discussions contemplated by this Agreement concerning the business opportunity.

5. No Warranty: ALL CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS". NEITHER PARTY MAKES ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, REGARDING ITS ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR PERFORMANCE.

6. Return of Materials: All documents and other tangible objects containing or representing Confidential Information and all copies thereof which are in the possession of Receiving Party shall be and remain the property of the Disclosing Party and shall be promptly returned to the Disclosing Party upon the Disclosing Party's request.

7. No License: Nothing in this Agreement is intended to grant any rights to either party under any patent, mask work right or copyright of Company, nor shall this Agreement grant Receiving Party any rights in or to Confidential Information except as expressly set forth herein.

8. Term: This Agreement shall survive for a period of 3 years from the date of disclosure of the Confidential Information.

9. Remedies: The Receiving Party agrees that any violation or threatened violation of this Agreement will cause irreparable injury to the Disclosing Party, entitling the Disclosing Party to obtain injunctive relief in addition to all legal remedies.

10. Miscellaneous:This Agreement shall bind and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their successors and assigns. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of [name of your state, country], without reference to conflict of laws principles. This document contains the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. Any failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver thereof or of any other provision hereof. This Agreement may not be amended, nor any obligation waived, except by a writing signed by both parties hereto. Any and all disputes arising under or related to this Agreement shall be adjudicated exclusively in [name of your state, country]. The parties have executed this Nondisclosure Agreement as of the date first above written.

Your Company Name. [Company 2] By: ___________________ By: Name: ________________ Name: Title: _________________ Title: Date: _________________ Date:

Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement Template

http://www.GeographyIsHistory.com
Online legal and business guides for small businesses

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Password Recovery on the Cisco ASA Security Appliance

In this article, I'll explain how to perform a password "reset" on your Cisco ASA security appliance. The more commonly used term for this procedure is "password recovery" which is left over from the days when you could actually view passwords in configuration files in plain text. Today, such passwords are encrypted and not actually recoverable. Instead, you will gain access to the appliance via the console port and reset the password(s) to known values.

This procedure requires physical access to the device. You will power-cycle your appliance by unplugging it at the power strip and plugging it back in. You will then interrupt the boot process and change the configuration register value to prevent the appliance from reading its stored configuration at boot. Since the device ignores its saved configuration on boot, you are able to access its configuration modes without passwords. Once you're in configuration mode, you will load the saved configuration from flash memory, change the passwords to a known value, change the configuration register value to tell the device to load its saved configuration on boot, and reload the device.

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Caution: As with all configuration procedures, these procedures should be tested in a laboratory environment prior to usage in a production environment to ensure suitability for your situation.

Password Recovery on the Cisco ASA Security Appliance

The following steps were designed using a Cisco ASA 5505 Security Appliance. They are not appropriate for a Cisco PIX Firewall appliance.

1. Power-cycle your security appliance by removing and re-inserting the power plug at the power strip.

2. When prompted, press Esc to interrupt the boot process and enter ROM Monitor mode. You should immediately see a rommon prompt (rommon #0>).

3. At the rommon prompt, enter the confreg command to view the current configuration register setting: rommon #0>confreg

4. The current configuration register should be the default of 0x01 (it will actually display as 0x00000001). The security appliance will ask if you want to make changes to the configuration register. Answer no when prompted.

5. You must change the configuration register to 0x41, which tells the appliance to ignore its saved (startup) configuration upon boot: rommon #1>confreg 0x41

6. Reset the appliance with the boot command: rommon #2>boot

7. Notice that the security appliance ignores its startup configuration during the boot process. When it finishes booting, you should see a generic User Mode prompt: ciscoasa>

8. Enter the enable command to enter Privileged Mode. When the appliance prompts you for a password, simply press (at this point, the password is blank): ciscoasa>enable Password: ciscoasa#

9. Copy the startup configuration file into the running configuration with the following command: ciscoasa#copy startup-config running-config Destination filename [running-config]?

10. The previously saved configuration is now the active configuration, but since the security appliance is already in Privileged Mode, privileged access is not disabled. Next, in configuration mode, enter the following command to change the Privileged Mode password to a known value (in this case, we'll use the password system): asa#conf t asa(config)#enable password system

11. While still in Configuration Mode, reset the configuration register to the default of 0x01 to force the security appliance to read its startup configuration on boot: asa(config)#config-register 0x01

12. Use the following commands to view the configuration register setting: asa(config)#exit asa#show version

13. At bottom of the output of the show version command, you should see the following statement: Configuration register is 0x41 (will be 0x1 at next reload)

14. Save the current configuration with the copy run start command to make the above changes persistent: asa#copy run start Source filename [running-config]

15. Reload the security appliance: asa# reload System config has been modified. Save? [Y]es/[N]o:yes

Cryptochecksum: e87f1433 54896e6b 4e21d072 d71a9cbf

2149 bytes copied in 1.480 secs (2149 bytes/sec) Proceed with reload? [confirm]

When your security appliance reloads, you should be able to use your newly reset password to enter privileged mode.

Copyright (c) 2007 Don R. Crawley

Password Recovery on the Cisco ASA Security Appliance

Don R. Crawley, CCNA Security, is a Seattle-based author, speaker, and trainer for the I.T. industry. He is president/chief technologist at the I.T. training firm soundtraining.net and is the author of The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance Step-by-Step Configuration Guide and numerous other books for I.T. professionals. For more information and to purchase copies of his books, visit soundtraining.net/bookstore.

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Ethical Issues In Fashion - The What, When, Why, How And Who

Ethical fashion WHAT?

Ethical fashion can be defined as the production of textile items with a conscience. With the concept of social responsibility gaining ground, corporates all over the world are recognizing the importance of environment protection and ethical business. Fashion houses are no exception. More and more fashion designers and textile producers are striving to produce goods that do not harm the environment and are cruelty-free. Ethical issues in fashion are emerging.

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Ethical fashion WHEN?

Ethical Issues In Fashion - The What, When, Why, How And Who

The concept of ethical fashion is old; however, it is gaining more and more popularity in the modern times. As awareness about environment conservation, cruelty to animals and ethical issues in business is rising, fashion brands are also increasingly adopting ethical means. Customers are also becoming more and more aware of ethical fashion and the demand for ethically produced fashion products is on the rise.

Ethical fashion WHY?

Why should textile producers and customers adopt ethical fashion? Animal and human rights activists as well as environment protection activists have brought up ethical issues related to the fashion industry time and time again. Some of the major ethical issues that have come up are:

The production of cotton entails the use of a large amount of pesticides, which is harmful to the environment and to people. Figures indicate that nearly 2 billion USD worth of pesticides are used annually, of which pesticides worth about 819 million USD have been declared toxic as per the guidelines of the WHO. The health of the workers spraying pesticides in cotton fields and the people living around these fields are adversely affected. Pesticide poisoning can lead to symptoms such as headaches, tremors, nausea, depression, seizures, loss of consciousness, and, in some extreme cases, death. Empty pesticide containers are sometimes reused, which again leads to serious ill effects on the health of the people using such containers. The use of toxic pesticides leads to air, water and soil pollution. Apart from the pests, pesticides also cause the death of other small animals and birds consuming them inadvertently.

The chemical dyes that are used in the production of garments also lead to skin problems. Problems such as eczema, rashes and skin irritation have been noted among people on account of dangerous toxins in the clothes worn by them.

Another serious ethical issue that arises in the fashion industry is the issue of cruelty to animals. The cruelty to animals behind the preparation of a fur coat has been brought to light time and again by animal rights activists. One fur coat costs the life of about 55 wild mink, 40 sables, 11 lynx, 18 red foxes, 11 silver foxes, 100 chinchillas, 30 rabbits, 9 beavers, 30 muskrats, 15 bobcats, 25 skunks, 14 otters, 125 ermines, 30 possums, 100 squirrels or 27 raccoons. The pain caused to the animals while trapping them and extracting their fur is unthinkable. Similarly, a tremendous amount of suffering is caused to animals in extracting wool and leather, which goes into the preparation of fashionable shawls and boots.

Human rights activists have also pointed out the various ethical issues behind the preparation of a fashion product. Extremely low wages and long hours, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, exhaustion, sexual harassment and mental stress are some of these issues.

Read more on Ethics in Fashion

Copyright © 2007

Ethical Issues In Fashion - The What, When, Why, How And Who

Fibre2Fashion.com - Leading B2B Portal and Marketplace of Global Textile, Apparel, Fashion & Retail Industry, Also Provides complete information on Fashion Jobs, Accessories, Fashion Trends through products, Articles, News, Jobs, and Events.

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Coping with Change: Develop Your Personal Strategy

Why do we resist change?

As the saying goes, the only people who like change are busy cashiers and wet babies. We find change disorienting, creating within us an anxiety similar to culture shock, the unease visitors to an alien land feel because of the absence of the familiar cues they took for granted back home. With an established routine, we don't have to think! And thinking is hard work.

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Change is a business fact of life

Coping with Change: Develop Your Personal Strategy

Is your company is currently undergoing major changes that will affect the lives of all of its employees? These changes are probably in response to the evolving needs of your customers. They are made possible because of improvements in telecommunications and digital technology. They are likely guided by accepted principles and practices of total quality management. And you can expect that they will result in significant improvements profitability--a success that all employees will share. Because our customers' needs are NOW, we must make changes swiftly, which means that all of us must cooperate with the changes, rather than resist them.

How do we resist change?

We tend to respond to change the same way we respond to anything we perceive as a threat: by flight or fight. Our first reaction is flight--we try to avoid change if we can. We do what futurist Faith Popcorn calls "cocooning": we seal ourselves off from those around us and try to ignore what is happening. This can happen in the workplace just by being passive. We don't volunteer for teams or committees; we don't make suggestions, ask questions, or offer constructive criticism. But the changes ahead are inescapable. Those who "cocoon" themselves will be left behind.

Even worse is to fight, to actively resist change. Resistance tactics might include negativity, destructive criticism, and even sabotage. If this seldom happens at your company, you are fortunate.

Take a different approach to change

Rejecting both alternatives of flight or flight, we seek a better option--one that neither avoids change nor resists it, but harnesses and guides it.

Change can be the means to your goals, not a barrier to them.
Both fight and flight are reactions to perceiving change as a threat. But if we can change our perceptions, we can avoid those reactions. An old proverb goes, "Every change brings an opportunity." In other words, we must learn to see change as a means of achieving our goals, not a barrier preventing us from reaching them.

Another way of expressing the same thought is: A change in my external circumstances provides me with an opportunity to grow as a human being. The greater the change is, the greater and faster I can grow. If we can perceive change along these lines, we will find it exciting and energizing, rather than depressing and debilitating.

Yet this restructuring of our perspective on change can take some time. In fact, coping with change follows the same steps as the grieving process.1 The steps are shock and denial that the old routine must be left behind, then anger that change is inevitable, then despair and a longing for the old ways, eventually replaced by acceptance of the new and a brighter view of the future. Everyone works through this process; for some, the transition is lightning fast, for others painfully slow.

Realize your capacity to adapt.

As one writer put it recently:

Our foreparents lived through sea changes, upheavals so cataclysmic, so devastating we may never appreciate the fortitude and resilience required to survive them. The next time you feel resistant, think about them and about what they faced--and about what they fashioned from a fraction of the options we have. They blended old and new worlds, creating family, language, cuisine and new life-affirming rhythms, and they encouraged their children to keep on stepping toward an unknown but malleable future.2

Human beings are created remarkably flexible, capable of adapting to a wide variety of environments and situations. Realizing this can help you to embrace and guide change rather than resisting or avoiding it.

Develop a coping strategy based on who you are.

Corporate employees typically follow one of four decision-making styles: analytical, directive, conceptual, and behavioral. These four styles, described in a book by Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason,3 have the following characteristics:
Analytical Style - technical, logical, careful, methodical, needs much data, likes order, enjoys problem-solving, enjoys structure, enjoys scientific study, and enjoys working alone. Conceptual Style - creative and artistic, future oriented, likes to brainstorm, wants independence, uses judgment, optimistic, uses ideas vs. data, looks at the big picture, rebellious and opinionated, and committed to principles or a vision. Behavioral Style - supportive of others, empathetic, wants affiliation, nurtures others, communicates easily, uses instinct, avoids stress, avoids conflict, relies on feelings instead of data, and enjoys team/group efforts. Directive Style - aggressive, acts rapidly, takes charge, persuasive and/or is manipulative, uses rules, needs power/status, impatient, productive, single-minded, and enjoys individual achievements.

Read once more through these descriptions and identify which style best describes you. Then find and study the strategy people who share your style follow to cope with change:

Analytical coping strategy - You see change as a challenging puzzle to be solved. You need plenty of time to gather information, analyze data, and draw conclusions. You will resist change if you are not given enough time to think it through. Conceptual coping strategy - You are interested in how change fits into the big picture. You want to be involved in defining what needs to change and why. You will resist change if you feel excluded from participating in the change process. Behavioral coping strategy - You want to know how everyone feels about the changes ahead. You work best when you know that the whole group is supportive of each other and that everyone champions the change process. If the change adversely affects someone in the group, you will perceive change as a crisis. Directive coping strategy - You want specifics on how the change will affect you and what your own role will be during the change process. If you know the rules of the change process and the desired outcome, you will act rapidly and aggressively to achieve change goals. You resist change if the rules or anticipated results are not clearly defined.

Realizing what our normal decision-making style is, can enable us to develop personal change-coping tactics.

How can we cope with change?

Getting at least this much comprehension of the big picture will help us to understand where each of us fits.

2. Do some anchoring. - When everything around you is in a state of flux, it sure helps to find something stable that isn't going to change, no matter what. Your company's values (whether articulated or not) can provide that kind of stability for you. Ours include the Company Family, Focus on the Customer, Be Committed to Quality, and Maintain Mutual Respect. These values are rock-solid; they are not going to disappear or rearrange themselves into something else. Plus, each of us has personal values that perhaps are even more significant and permanent. Such immovables can serve as anchors to help us ride out the storm.

3. Keep your expectations realistic. - A big part of taking control of the change you experience is to set your expectations. You can still maintain an optimistic outlook, but aim for what is realistically attainable. That way, the negatives that come along won't be so overwhelming, and the positives will be an adrenaline rush. Here are some examples:

Invest time and energy in training. Sharpen your skills so that you can meet the challenges ahead with confidence. If the training you need is not available through Bowne, get it somewhere else, such as the community college or adult education program in your area.

Get help when you need it. If you are confused or overwhelmed with the changes swirling around you, ask for help. Your supervisor, manager, or coworkers may be able to assist you in adjusting to the changes taking place. Your human resources department and any company-provided counseling services are other resources available to you.

Make sure the change does not compromise either your company values or your personal ones. If you are not careful, the technological advances jostling each other for your attention and adoption will tend to isolate you from personal contact with your coworkers and customers. E-mail, teleconference, voice-mail, and Intranet can make us more in touch with each other, or they can keep us antiseptically detached, removed from an awareness that the digital signals we are sending reach and influence another flesh-and-blood human being.

Aware of this tendency, we must actively counteract the drift in this direction by taking an interest in people and opening up ourselves to them in return. We have to remember to invest in people--all of those around us--not just in technology.

The "new normalcy"

Ultimately, we may discover that the current state of flux is permanent. After the events of September 11, Vice President Richard Cheney said we should accept the many resultant changes in daily life as permanent rather than temporary. "Think of them," he recommended, "as the 'new normalcy.'"

You should take the same approach to the changes happening at your workplace. These are not temporary adjustments until things get "back to normal." They are probably the "new normalcy" of your life as a company. The sooner you can accept that these changes are permanent, the better you can cope with them all--and enjoy their positive results.

Notes

1. Nancy J. Barger and Linda K. Kirby, The Challenge of Change in Organizations: Helping Employees Thrive in the New Frontier (Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publ., 1995). This source is summarized in Mary M. Witherspoon, "Coping with Change," Women in Business 52, 3 (May/June 2000): 22-25.

2. Susan Taylor, "Embracing Change," Essence (Feb. 2002): 5.

3. Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason, Managing with Style: A Guide to Understanding, Assessing and Improving Decision-Making (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Management Series, 1987) cited in Witherspoon, "Coping with Change."

4. Emily Friedman, "Creature Comforts," Health Forum Journal 42, 3 (May/June 1999): 8-11. Futurist John Naisbitt has addressed this tendency in his book, High tech/high touch: Technology and our search for meaning (New York: Random House, 1999). Naisbitt co-wrote this book with his daughter Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips.

Coping with Change: Develop Your Personal Strategy

* * *

Copyright ©2006 Steve Singleton

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles. He has been an editor, reporter, and public relations consultant. He has taught college-level Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses and has taught seminars in 11 states and the Caribbean.

Go to his DeeperStudy.com for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise. Explore "The Shallows," plumb "The Depths," or use the well-organized "Study Links" for original sources in English translation. Check out the DeeperStudy Bookstore for great e-books, free books, and great discounts. Subscribe to his free "DeeperStudy Newsletter" or "DeeperStudy Blog."

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Bathtub Faucet Repair Tips and Techniques

Did you know that you can fix a leaking shower faucet and save hundreds of gallons of water a year? Most people just think of a dripping faucet as an annoyance and don't realize how much precious water is being wasted one drop at a time. The good news is that almost anyone with a few basic hand tools can learn how to fix most dripping faucets.

Let's start with the basics. Faucets have one primary purpose, to allow the water in your pipes to be used in a controlled manner. This means that they have to open to allow water out of the pipes and close to keep water in the pipes. Not rocket science, right? The closing part is what we want to concentrate on here.

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There Are Two Basic Faucet Designs

Bathtub Faucet Repair Tips and Techniques

Faucets drip when they fail to completely trap the water in the pipes. Most faucets use one of two basic methods to stop the water flow. Some, primarily older designs, use rubber or neoprene washers which tighten against a "seat" and block the flow of water. Drips from these faucets are addressed by replacing the washers and/or seats. We'll talk about how to do that in a minute. Most other faucet designs involve some sort of cartridge. Some people call these "washerless" faucets. Repairing newer style water faucets like these usually involves replacing the cartridge(s).

Washers And Seats

Older faucet designs often use washers to block the water and keep it in the pipes. Tightening the handle compresses the washer against a "seat" and seals the opening, thus stopping the water flow. If you need to do a bathtub faucet repair on a three handle wall faucet you probably have this type. You will also run into this style if you need to fix a leaking shower faucet hat has two handles. Many sink and lavatory faucets also use washers. One way to tell whether or not your faucets use washers is to see if the handle gets harder to turn as you turn it off. If turning it really tight stops the drip, this probably, but not always, means that you have washers. If you do have a dripping faucet that has washers, the basic repair process is very similar whether you need to know how to repair a shower faucet,repair a leaking tub faucet or fix a dripping sink faucet. There is, however, one important difference.

Bathtub Faucet Repair

The one critical thing to remember when fixing a leaky bathtub faucet is that you will have to turn the water off to the entire house before removing any parts other than the outer trim pieces. If you're not sure which pieces are trim, just turn the water off first just in case. Once you have turned off the main water to the house you can begin taking things apart. There are lots of different brands and designs of faucets out there and they all come apart a little differently, so you will have to sort of feel your way through.

Removing The Trim

The first step is to remove the handles. This is usually done by removing a cap to expose the handle screw and then removing the screw. Next, remove the handle. This may require a little finesse, as the handles sometimes get stuck in place. One trick is to place the handles of a pair of channel lock pliers behind the valve handle, one on each side, and tap evenly on the handle to nudge it loose. If this doesn't work you can buy a special tool to remove handles but these tools are sometimes hard to find and usually a little patience is all you need to do the trick.

After he handles are off, there is usually some sort of sleeve over the stem itself. This typically has to come off too. Once again, there are many different configurations. One popular design uses threaded plastic tubes to connect the trim sleeve with the valve. Other types have the sleeve threaded directly onto the valve. You will have to figure this step out before you can proceed. If you can determine what brand valve you have there is a good chance of finding instructions on-line.

Now For The Root Of The Problem

OK, so you have removed both the handles and any remaining trim sleeve from the valve. Now you are ready to get to the root of the problem, your valve stem. The washer is almost always at the other end of the valve stem from the handle. Usually the stem is threaded into the valve body and you will just need to unscrew it to remove it. Here's a tip. Stick the handle back on for a second and open the valve half way. This relieves pressure on the stem and makes it easier to unscrew. Now you just need to make sure you are loosening the correct nut.

Lots of valves have a packing nut around the stem. It is usually a little smaller and just in front of the actual connection with the valve body. The packing nut's purpose is to squeeze some special packing material around the stem to prevent water from leaking around the stem when the valve is in use. Loosening the packing nut won't help you, you need to get your wrench on the actual connection to the valve body. By the way, a deep socket is often the only tool that will work to remove the valve stem.

Removing The Valve Stem

The easiest way to make sure you have the correct nut is to see if there is a gap opening up between the nut and the valve body as you loosen the nut. The valve stem itself will also usually turn when you have the right one. If you have loosened the packing nut by mistake, don't worry, you will adjust it before you are finished anyway. Go ahead and remove both stems and keep up with which one is which, it matters on many valves.

After you have the stems out you should be able to find the washer on the "inside" end. If it is nicked, torn or brittle it is likely the cause of your drip. Even if it looks brand new, go ahead and replace it. You've already come this far. You can get replacement washers at almost any hardware store. Sometimes you may want to replace the whole stem, especially if the handle end is stripped out. It's best to just take the stem with you to the store and see if you can match it up. Most Do It Yourself stores have replacement stems for many popular brands. If your valve has a center diverter valve to switch the waterfrom the tub spout to the shower head the same process applies. Many times it is easier to replace the diverter stem than to repair it. This really depends on the design of the stem.

How Are Your Seats?

One more thing to check is the seats. These are the part of the valve body that the washer tightens up against to stop the water flow. If you can get your finger inside the valve, feel of the seats and see if they feel rough. If so, it would be best to replace them if you can get them out. The inside of the seats, which is where the water flows through when the valve is open, usually have either a hex or square recess. Special seat wrenches are used to remove the seats. You can usually get these wrenches at the same place you get the other parts and they're not expensive. You just stick the wrench through the seat and unscrew it. The replacement seats screw back in the same way, just put a little pipe dope on the threads before you install it.

Put It All Back Together

Once you've figured out what needs to be replaced and have done that, you just need to put everything back together. If your valve has packing nuts don't put the trim back on until you have turned the water back on. Once the water is on, go ahead and stick the handle on for a second and open the valve. Make sure no water is leaking around the stem. If it is leaking, with the handle opened half way, snug down the packing nut until the leak stops. Easy does it. If you get it too tight the handle will be hard to turn. Now finish installing the trim pieces and you are done.

Repairing Newer Style Water Faucets

If you have a newer, "washerless" type valve the repair process is similar, but usually easier. Many of these type valves use a self contained cartridge. If the valve starts to drip, just replace the cartridge and you're done. You still need to turn the water off and remove the handles and trim. The cartridge is usually held in place by a retaining nut on the valve body or, in the case of most Moen valves, by a retaining clip. Simply remove the cartridge and put another one in it's place. If your hot and cold are backwards when you finish, turn the water back off, pull the cartridge back out, turn it over 180 degrees and re-install it.

Delta Style Valves

One other common design that is considered "washerless" was made famous by Delta and copied by several other makers. It uses little "cup" seals that fit over springs recessed in the back of the valve body. The springs press these "seals" against the cartridge and regulate the flow through little tapered openings in the cartridge. If you have one of these and it's dripping, changing these springs and seals will usually correct it. Here's a tip. Once you have the cartridge out of the way, insert a phillips screwdriver into the seal and pop both the seal and spring out. Stick the new ones on the end of the screwdriver to help guide them into place. This is especially helpful if you don't have long slender fingers.

Delta, and a few imitators, also have a faucet design that uses a ball instead of a cartridge. This is not as common in tub or shower valves but there are plenty of them out there. The springs and seals are the same but there are lots more o-rings an parts to deal with. The good news is that these parts are readily available. While it's a little more complicated than learning how to repair a Moen kitchen faucet, which is a piece of cake, it is still easier than working with most washer type faucets.

These Techniques Work In The Kitchen Too

Armed with the knowledge you've gained in this article you now not only know how to repair a shower faucet and to repair a leaking tub faucet, but you can apply these skills to many other faucets as well. After fixing a leaky bathtub faucet, stopping a dripping outside hose faucet will be a breeze. The techniques that you will use to complete a "washerless" bathtub faucet repair can be used when repairing newer style water faucets of all kinds. Whether you have an old dripping tub faucet or a newer kitchen faucet that just won't quite shut off you can now fix it. So put these new skills to use, roll up your sleeves and stop that drip!

Copyright 2008 Bryan Stevens

Bathtub Faucet Repair Tips and Techniques

Bryan Stevens is a Licensed Master Plumber with a knack for teaching homeowners how to do their own basic plumbing repairs themselves. He has an amazing mini-course called "How To Unclog A Toilet And Other DIY Plumbing Tips". To claim your FREE copy visit: How To Unclog A Toilet

If the above link is inactive please go to: BasicPlumbingRepair.com

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Web Site - A Marketing Tool

When you are running a profit-oriented business, if you are not getting clients, better still, if you are not selling or enjoying good sales, certainly you are on your way out of business. Even if you have all the 4Ms- Men, Materials, Machine and Money- there is no guarantee that your product or service will sell appreciably and at a profit. The marketing function of an enterprise is a series of activities that are geared towards selling of your products or services. If you are in business and you want to sell, you need to do marketing. What is marketing? It is all activities concerned about satisfying consumer needs at affordable cost to the consumer, and at least at a sustainable level of profit to the organization. The goal of satisfaction of consumer needs is pursued through the following marketing functions- market research, product creation, product development, advertisement, promotion, pricing, and distribution/availability. For each product or service, effort is made to achieve a suitable balance among the various elements of this marketing mix.

Business enterprises are now taking advantage of the Web to showcase their products and services, present their company profile, and how to contact them on their web site for the world to see. This is online advertising which is creation of awareness. Some of them conduct market research through their site by asking people to submit their opinions on their products and services in specially created forms and e-questionnaire. In this way, they identify clients (referred to as consumers in the marketing definition above) needs. When you have developed and hosted your site, it is still unknown to the world in the real sense of it and it is not yet reaching out to so many people even as it is on internet. So, you have to do marketing for the it, both conventional and internet marketing to enable you create awareness for it and achieve the principal goal of experiencing visibility by your organization. The focus of this article is internet marketing. As you create awareness for your site, you are also marketing your products and services and other things you want to present on the site. How do you create awareness for your web site, that is, advertise your site? This is by directing traffic to your site. The whole gamut of activities involved in getting visits to a site can be summarized as directing traffic to web site. In one word, after hosting your site, the next thing is to direct traffic to it.

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There are various ways of directing traffic to a site. Some are the following-

Web Site - A Marketing Tool

Submission of site for search engine listing- This is a very popular way of directing traffic to site. When you submit your web site URL to popular search engines like Google and Yahoo, your site is enlisted and becomes accessible through certain query results although the ranking (the position) will be low initially. Gradually, people will get to know of your site.
Submission of site to web directory for listing- Web directory provides a catalogue of organizations by listing their sites by category and subcategory. A lot people search directories when looking for information. Listing your site in directories will surely enhance creation of awareness for it.
Submission of articles to web article publishers- Popular web article publishers like EzineArticles do a lot in helping to direct traffic to web site. This is another choice avenue for getting information by many people. When you submit your article with your site URL in your short profile, readers of your article might visit your site and by so doing, you start getting traffic to your web site.
Social media site presence- Social networking sites create a forum for communication and interaction between several people regardless of the distance between them. When you create an account and include your site URL in your profile in popular social media sites, you are creating awareness for your site to your numerous followers and others. Business pages like Facebook page and Company page in LinkedIn when created also enhance directing of traffic to your web site as more and more followers join. They are an extension of your corporate site providing a medium of advertisement for it via social interaction
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- When your site has been enlisted in a search engine, the next thing is to raise its ranking so that people can quickly come across your site link after submitting a search query because a long list of web sites is usually displayed in search results. You look for an SEO professional to optimize your site for you so that the ranking can go up. It usually takes some time to achieve remarkable increase in ranking.
Advert placement- Placing an advert of a site on other web sites certainly helps in promoting the directing of traffic to a site. A good example is Google AdSense advert that publishes your site advert on many web sites as soon as the publishing site registers for the service with Google. When visitors click on the advert, they are taken to your web site immediately.

By the time you apply a combination of these techniques or all of them, traffic will certainly be going to your site and your organization will be reaching out to more and more people on the internet through visits and revisits. You can monitor the level of traffic to your site daily, monthly etc by various means such as Google Analytics report and site statistics report offered by your site control panel. To get Google Analytics report, you need to have an account with Google. Another way of monitoring traffic to your site is by putting a program in your site which can retrieve the IP address of any visitor and store it together with the date in your site's database. This way, you are in a position to know how people are visiting your site daily.

After a successful marketing of your site by creating awareness for it through traffic driving, what your web site has to offer can be known to a large audience. Your site would have been positioned to do some of what conventional marketing does like advertising your products and services in print and electronic media to reach out to people at large. Web site is really a marketing tool and should be accorded such recognition especially those conservative ones who only believe in conventional marketing.

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Web Site - A Marketing Tool

Olumide Bola holds a bachelors degree of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and is currently pursuing chartered membership of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). He is also a member of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS). He has trained scores of people for well over a decade in programming and non-programming courses. He is currently a Software Developer and the Managing Director/CEO of Victolay Technologies Limited.

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The History of Body Piercings - Ancient and Fascinating Around the World

Body piercings have seen a resurgence of interest in the last ten to twenty years and are becoming more and more a part of the mainstream Western culture. Take a look at any fashion or entertainment magazine and you'll see plenty of well-known celebrities with body piercings like navel rings or a labret. You might be surprised to find out that piercing is actually an ancient form of expression that most cultures have practiced at some time or other for thousands of years. Egyptian body piercings reflected status and love of beauty The earliest known mummified remains of a human that was pierced is over 5,000 years old. This worthy gentleman had his ears pierced with larger-gauge plugs in his ears, so plugs may be one of the oldest forms of body modification there is! We also know that the Egyptians loved to adorn themselves elaborately, and even restricted certain types of body piercings to the royal family. In fact, only pharaoh himself could have his navel pierced. Any one else who tried to get a belly button ring could be executed. (Tell that to Britney Spears!) Almost every well-to-do Egyptian wore earrings, though, to display their wealth and accent their beauty. Elaborate enameled and gold earrings frequently portrayed items in nature such as lotus blossoms. Body piercings are also mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament it's obvious that body jewelry is considered a mark of beauty and wealth, especially for Bedouin and nomadic tribes. In many cases, body jewelry was given as a bridal gift or as part of a dowry. It is clear that piercing was a sign of status and attractiveness in Biblical times. Romans were practical piercers Romans were very practical people, and for them piercing almost always served a purpose. Roman centurions pierced their nipples not because they liked the way it looked, but to signify their strength and virility. It was a badge of honor that demonstrated the centurion's dedication to the Roman Empire. As a symbol, it was important and served a specific function, unifying and bonding the army. Even Julius Caesar pierced his nipples to show his strength and his identification with his men. Genital piercing through the head of the penis was performed on gladiators, who were almost always slaves, for two reasons. A ring through the head of the penis could be used to tie the organ back to the testicles with a length of leather. In gladiatorial combat, this prevented serious injury. With a large enough ring or bar, it also prevented the slave from having sex without the owner's consent. Since the gladiator was "property," a stud fee could be charged to another slave owner for the highly prized opportunity to raise the next generation of great fighter. Making love or war, piercing makes it better Going across the ocean at around the same time, the Aztecs, Maya and some American Indians practiced tongue piercing as part of their religious rituals. It was thought to bring them closer to their gods and was a type of ritual blood-letting. The Aztec and Maya were warrior tribes, and also practiced septum piercing in order to appear fiercer to their enemies. Nothing looks quite as frightening as an opponent sporting a huge boar tusk thrust through his nose!

This practice was also common among tribes in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Some of the materials commonly used were bone, tusks and feathers. Hundreds of years later, French fur trappers in Washington State discovered American Indian tribes who wore bones through their septum and called them the Nez Perce, meaning "Pierced Noses" in French. It's interesting that civilizations separated by thousands of miles and even centuries often developed a love for the same kind of body piercings to enhance certain features, isn't it?

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In Central and South America, lip labrets were popular for purely aesthetic reasons - women with pierced lips were considered more attractive. In fact, the holes were often stretched to incredible size as progressively larger wooden plates were inserted to emphasize the lips as much as possible. (Kind of like collagen today). The Aztecs and Maya also sported lip labrets of gold and jade, many of them elaborately carved into mythical or religious figures or sporting gemstones. These were seen as highly attractive and to enhance sexuality. As the world moved into the dark ages, interest in piercing died down somewhat and the medieval church began to condemn it as sinful. For a few hundred years, Western civilization abandoned the practice. As the Renaissance went into full swing, however, interest in piercing began to pick up again. A new era and a new interest in body piercings Sailors became convinced that piercing one ear would improve their long-distance site, and so the site of a sailor with a gold or brass ring became common. Word also spread that should a sailor be washed ashore after a shipwreck, the finder should keep the gold ring in exchange for providing a proper Christian burial. Sailors were both religious and superstitious, so they generally spent a lot for a large gold earring to hedge their bets. Men became much more fashion-conscious during the Renaissance and Elizabethan eras, and almost any male member of the nobility would have at least one earring, if not more. Large pearl drops and enormous diamond studs were a great way to advertise your wealth and standing in the community. It could also designate royal favor if your earring was a gift from a member of the royal family. Women, not wanting to be outshone by the men in all their finery, began to wear plunging necklines, with the Queen of Bavaria introducing the most outrageous, which consisted of not much at all above the waist. In order to adorn themselves, women began piercing their nipples to show off their jewelry. Soon they began wearing chains and even strands of pearls draped between the two.

The History of Body Piercings - Ancient and Fascinating Around the World

Men and women both discovered that these nipple piercings were also delightful playthings in bed, adding sensitivity to the breasts and giving the men both visual and tactile stimulation. Men began getting pierced purely for pleasure as well. While not entirely mainstream, piercing of the nipples and, occasionally, the genitals, continued to hold interest for members of the upper crust of society in Europe on and off for the next few hundred years. The next resurgence of interest was, surprisingly, during the Victorian age, which is usually seen as very repressed. Prince Albert, future husband of Queen Victoria, is said to have gotten the penis piercing that is named after him in order wear the tight-fitting trousers so popular at the time. The ring could then be attached to a hook on the inside of one pant leg, tucked safely away between the legs for a neat, trim look. Although we have no record of Victoria's response to the piercing itself, there is ample evidence she was wildly in love with her husband and almost never left his side after their marriage! Soon, Victorian men were getting Prince Albert's, frenums and a variety of other piercings purely for the pleasurable sexual effects, and women were doing the same. By the 1890's, it was almost expected that a woman would have her nipples pierced. In fact, some doctors at the time suggested it improved conditions for breastfeeding, although not all agreed. It was an interesting double standard -- plenty of people were doing it, but no one was talking about it. Modern-day body piercings In the last hundred years or so, body piercings in the Western world have mostly been limited to the ears, a standard hold-over from the fact that both men and women wore earrings during Elizabethan times. The Puritan movement did away with men wearing earrings, however, and it didn't really regain popularity until recently. Nose rings found new interest when young people (they were called hippies then) from the U.S. began traveling in India extensively looking for enlightenment in the 1960's. They noticed the nostril rings that most women had been wearing there since the sixteenth century. In India, this was a form of traditional, accepted adornment and was often linked to an earring by a chain. For rebellious teens from America, it was a great form of rebellion. After bringing nose piercings back to the U.S., the interest in body piercings of all kinds quickly caught on during the 1980's and 1990's. Celebrities, sports stars and singers all began sporting a variety of piercings. Soon, high school students and even stay-at-home moms were flashing new body piercings. And the rest, as they say, is history! This article on the "History of Body Piercings" reprinted with permission.
Copyright 2004 Evaluseek Publishing.

The History of Body Piercings - Ancient and Fascinating Around the World

About the Author:
Lori Wilkerson is a full-time freelance writer who loves her work because it gives her the opportunity to learn more about the world every day. Right now, she knows a little bit about almost everything, and a lot about body jewelry, belly button rings and tongue rings. She has two dogs who are spoiled and one teenager who is not.

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Nautical Star Tattoos The History, Meaning And Symbolism - What A Strange Mix!

The history, meaning and symbolism of nautical star tattoos is
a hotly debated topic. Today many different groups have
adopted the Nautical star tattoo as a symbol for their own
movement and they have all ascribed their own meaning and
history to the symbol. Thus has lead to a wide
disagreement as the the meaning of the tattoo.Historically
most everyone agrees that Sailors were the first people to get
nautical star tattoos. In fact the very word nautical
relates back to sailing. So this connection has been
pretty firmly established. Most people would agree the
sailors were a pretty superstitious group historically and
sailor lore abounds with superstitious and fantastical stories
of life and death and being lost at sea. Early on
sailors navigated by the stars at night and the north star
became the symbol for finding ones way home. Once you
know where the north star is you can point your ship in the
right direction to get home. So the star became a symbol
for finding ones way home or more symbolically even finding
ones path in life. Therefore many sailors would tattoo
nautical stars on their forearms as a good luck symbol in
hopes of returning home.

However their modern day meaning is a more debated topic.
Many believe that groups including gay and lesbians, punk
rockers and those in the military have adopted the nautical
star tattoo as a very important symbol. The diversity of
these three groups has lead many to argue the meaning of their
tattoos.

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For the military the connection is pretty obviously point
back to the early sailors and the symbolism and meaning is the
same as the early sailors. Many military people get a
nautical star tattoo as a symbol for finding ones path home
safely. Of course this can also include more
symbolically just finding ones way in life.

Nautical Star Tattoos The History, Meaning And Symbolism - What A Strange Mix!

Here is a quote we found from a member of the armed
services and his interpretation of the tattoo:

"I am in the United States Army, an MP who searched towns
and villages for Al Quida and insurgents. I was in Iraq for 1
year. I have a red and black nautical star on my wrist. The
reason I got it was because when I was out there, I felt it
was a guide to guide me home to my family safely. I got it so
that it would remind me that I am going to make it to see my
son grow up. I am not gay, it doesn't matter what you believe
it represents, it means something different for everyone. Out
in the desert, I would look up at the stars and think about
home. So anyone can think what they want to, that is what it
means to me. "

Punk rockers have also adopted this as a popular symbol to
have tattooed. The punk movement traces its history and
use of the nautical star tattoo back to Sailor Jerry.
Sailor Jerry is historically one one of the most famous tattoo
artists ever. He was well known for his innovative and
"cool" designs. Punks have taken this symbol and it has
very much the same meaning of finding one way in life.
Being the rugged individualists type Punks are drawing to the
symbolism of true north and finding one own unique way in
life. So the Nautical star has become a symbol for this.
You see many punk bands that have full sleeve tattoos
typically incorporate nautical star tattoos either on their
elbows or elsewhere.

The lesbian and gay connection is the one that does not
seem so obvious at first. Historically back in the
1940's and 50's when alternative lifestyles were not the norm
and often women had to hide their alternative choices they
would sport a hidden nautical star. Often they would get
the star tattoo done on the inside of their wrist where it
could easily be hidden by a watch during the day but shown off
in the evening when out on the town. Today many lesbians
where the nautical star tattoo to show their connection with
their early pioneering sisters. Here is a little
evidence to support my points.

"Here's the passage (with some pieces dropped) from "Boots
of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian
Community" by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeilne D. Davis
copyright 1993 p. 189.

(talking about the 1940's and 1950's):

"...During this same time period, the cultural push to be
identified as lesbians- or at least different- all the time
was so powerful that it generated a new form of identification
among the tough bar lesbians: a star tattoo on the top of the
wrist, which was usually covered by a watch. This was the
first symbol of community identity that did not rely on
butch-fem imagery. We can trace this phenomenon back to an
evening of revelry in the late 1950's, when a few butches
trooped over to "Dirty Dick's" tattoo parlor on Chippewa
Street and had the tiny blue five-pointed star put on their
wrists. Later, some of the fems of this group also go the idea
one night and did it...The community views the tattoo as a
definite mark of identification..."the Buffalo police knew
[that] the people that had the stars on their wrist were
lesbians and they had their names and so forth. That it was an
identity thing with the gay community, with the lesbian
community". The fact that the star tattoo was created by those
who were firmly into roles, in fact by the group that was
considered the butchy butches and their fems, suggest that the
force to assert lesbian identity was strong enough to break
through the existing traditions of boldness based in butch-fem
roles. The stars presage the methods of identity created by
gay liberation. In fact, the mark has become something of a
tradition in local circles and has seen a revival since the
1970s."

This meaning of the symbol has of course created a lot of
problems and arguments among the other two groups of bearers
of nautical stars. Most puck and military people do not
want to have a nautical star that points back to anything from
the lesbian movement so many will say that there is no
connection there and this is false.

Here is a quote from another armed forces member about the
symbolism of the nautical star among the gay community:

"This "gay symbol" is a load of hooey that someone made up
VERY recently. The nautical star tattoo has been around nearly
as long as tattooing itself. The late Celts (or early Irish,
depending on your view of World History) were said to have
been the first to have the tattoos, although evidence of it
being used on ships in Spain has been found pre-dating the
Irish claim.

As a Marine, it's a very commonplace symbol amongst us if
we have been part of a Boat Raid company, red for port, green
for starboard on varying parts of the body. On ship, I saw
about a million different variations on the Sailors I was was
serving with, obviously harking back to the sailor roots."

Here is a quote from a punk rocker and his feelings about
the symbolism of the tattoo:

"what idiots..even the military boys dont know what it
really means....JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW!!!!!it was used by OLD
sailors.. and the symbol represents North on a Map ...and it
is the North Star the sailors would use it as a baring to get
home....you can find it on Really really old maps and old navy
vessels... Punk Rock.. well we use it because we can and
because Sailor Jerry made the coolest tattoos who started
putting them on everyone.. my grandfather even had one thus
being used as a traditional icon"

It just goes to show that when the same powerful symbol is
used over and over again over decades of time it can taken on
very different meanings for different groups. So all of
those that you see sporting a nautical star tattoo might not
all have the same interpretation of its symbolism.

So do you have a nautical star tattoo or think about
getting one in the future? Which meaning of the symbol
will you get the nautical star for? As long as you know
what the symbolism behind the star is for and you have gotten
it for the right reason to either support the lesbian movement
or as a symbol to finding your way!

Nautical Star Tattoos The History, Meaning And Symbolism - What A Strange Mix!

Chris is an avid tattoo enthusiast, as well as an observer and writer of the tattoo scene. He has run numerous tattoo related website business in the past. However, now he provides great tattoo information in the form of articles and web pages for everyone to enjoy free. Check out this page for more on tattoo sleeve designs, or here for awesome Free Star Tattoo Designs.

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