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Three days shy of Easter 2001, the high priests of plastics packaging gathered to present their own version of the resurrection story. Stung by environmental criticisms of their industry, they proclaimed that milk jugs, foam cups and egg cartons would no longer remain entombed in landfills for centuries to come. Instead, plastic packaging would rise again through the modern-day miracle of recycling.

“Nationwide plastics recycling will be second nature to a majority of Americans in only a few short years,” said John Pepper, president of Procter & Gamble (P&G), as he unveiled a “Blueprint for Plastics Recycling” at a press conference convened in the nation’s capital.

“By 2005, 25 percent of all plastic bottles and containers will be recycled,” pledged Ed Woolard, chairman of Du Pont, at …

There’s a lot you may not know about sunscreen. Here are ten ways to ensure it works right.

1. Sunscreens and sunblocks aren’t the same. Sunscreens contain chemical ingredients that absorb harmful ultraviolet light; sunblocks are formulated with micronized minerals like titanium dioxide that reflect rays. Both offer what’s called broad-spectrum protection from ultraviolet B (UVB) and ultraviolet A (UVA) rays, those responsible for speeding up the aging process. But blocks generally provide more coverage, especially for those with sensitive or fair skin, because they act as a physical barrier against damaging light. To be sure a product is a sunblock (many go by the generic term, sunscreen), look for the words chemical-free or ingredients like titanium dioxide or zinc oxide listed on the label. Two examples: …

Disk failure is very common now especially as the life cycle of many business computers come to an end.. If we talk about disk failure, then it is important to note that all the big hard drive companies design their hard disks in such a way that causes the minimum risk of failure. But sometimes because of negligence or even aging hardware, failures can occur. These tend to cause major data losses, which can be very harmful to a company’s bottom line.

Sometimes the hard disk faces external harmful factors such as severe physical damage by heat or humidity. Sometimes the hard disk gets contaminated by virus attack that can corrupt the file system beyond usefulness. A data recovery service like this one can help. Whatever the …

The lack of representation of people of color in recognized student environmental groups (which most people will associate with predominantly white campuses) can be attributed to many factors, including recruitment and publicity. Who does the campus environmental group reach out to or work with in coalition? Like often attracts like, and so if the group begins as predominantly of a specific race, the tendency to remain racially homogeneous is great.

As an individual, woman and a person of color, my experience in working with a predominantly white campus educational organization was one of discomfort. My frustration was not only due to my minority standing, but also to the group’s tendency to address issues of “cultural diversity” rhetorically while conspicuously leaving out the issues programmatically.

I …

It’s almost bedtime in the Sugarman home, and pandemonium has broken out. The 2-year-old twins, Kyle and Erin, are clamoring to be chased, their baby shoes thumping as they race, pink-checked and shrieking, from room to room. Soon Randy and Hone Sugarman will round up their son and daughter in preparation for a favorite nighttime ritual: The whole family makes a train as the toddlers chug off to bed, chanting, “Na-na-na-na, choo! choo!”

It is a scene that is remarkable only for its ordinariness. And yet for the Sugarmans, both 39, the ordinary is remarkable indeed. “It’s been an amazing journey,” says Randy, laughing over the din and flashing a warm glance at his wife.

“There are so many things,” Hope concurs, “that could have gone the other way.”

Hope Stolley Sugarman came to Los Angeles from New York City in 1989 to work. She was 31, and nothing in her life had worked out the way she’d planned.

Her father was a successful journalist, and she’d always had high expectations for herself. But everything seemed to fizzle, from her attempts to become an entertainment manager to the live-in romance she had struggled to sustain. Read the rest of this entry »

Mac users can find themselves in a sticky spot when they are looking for an online backup service. Not all programs are compatible with Mac so these users need to ensure that they are going to trust their data and their files to a service that knows how to store the information properly and without damaging it.

There are a few services available and we’re going to go over the benefits of using IDrive®. The name alone is a clear indication that they are Mac friendly. It is a great service that is designed to work with the cloud to backup and store your information.

While other services are truly unlimited with their storage options, IDrive® doesn’t have that same freedom. But that’s okay as it makes …

A shocking number of violent crimes–more than a million a year–are committed by people carrying handguns. Now a new hid before Congress promises a way to keep us ad safer. Can it work? Yes, says Doug Perkins of Hunter’s Harvest.

Go ahead: Guess how many hand guns are in circulation in the United States right now.

Seven million? Seventeen million? Try 77 million. But that’s not all. Close to two million new ones are manufactured and added to the marketplace each year.

Why? Guns are in demand. Guns make money–it’s a nine-billion-dollar-year industry.

And guns kill people. Of course, the tenet of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Of course, the NRA has enemies of their own. But people who kill are very often holding guns. In fact, though violent crime overall has dropped slightly, the number of times a gun was used in the commission of these crimes remains high–23 percent of aggravated assaults, 41 percent of robberies, and 68 percent of murders last year involved firearms. “The nineties have become the most prone to firearm use in history,” the FBI’s 1995 Uniform Crime Report ominously warned. Read the rest of this entry »

Sending your kids to camp is a great way to help them grow as individuals. It also can give you a break, which ain’t so bad, now is it? But, there are things to look for when you’re choosing an activity camp for your kid.

Each state has its own camping association. These are governing bodies that demand specific standards for camping. You should make sure that any camp you’re considering is accredited by the provincial association.

Each association also puts out a guide that can be very useful for parents of first-time campers. In addition to a complete list of accredited camps, the guide often includes a list of sample questions to ask camp directors.

What’s the camp’s philosophy?

Virtually all camps issue a brochure or at least have a website. While they brim with programming information, such as what kind of kayaking programs they offer, few brochures delve deeply into the camp’s philosophy. “You’re not only buying into sailing, canoeing and windsurfing,” says Polly Marston, owner and director of Camp Hurontario, an all-boys camp on Georgian Bay in Ontario. “You’re buying into how a camp thinks.”

Who’s in charge?

“You want to know the person who has ultimate responsibility for your child. Who makes all the decisions? And who is physically on-site,” says Matt Martin, Director of Operations at Secret Agent Squad, a spy camp in San Francisco, CA.

Take the time now to make an appointment with the director of a camp you’re interested in. “It’s critical to have a personal connection with the senior director to make sure there is Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a worrier, from a long line of Women Worriers. Around my neck, I wear the mascot of my ancestry: a clawshaped charm said to ward off the evil eye. A gift from Mom, of course. She worries most about freak disasters, like a hurricane blowing away her house. “If we’re still here next year” is a favorite conversational opener. My ruminations are usually more grounded: We’re not saving enough for college. Why do the kids prefer Happy Meals to mine? But when I really get going, I can embroider fantastic tapestries of worry. Like last summer, when I convinced myself that stray cats were poisoning the herb garden, and we had to stop eating homemade pesto or we’d get rabies.

That said, you can see …

Have you always had skin tags and want to find out how to remove it? There are a lot of creams for skin tags all over the Internet that you can easily search for but some of them may not work as good as the other ones. To know which creams for skin tags to purchase it is recommended to always check if people wrote any reviews for it. By reading other people’s reviews, you will know whether or not to purchase that product.

Some people may be allergic to some ingredients in the cream so it is also important to know what is in it in case you get a skin reaction to the cream. Some creams are only for skin tags on your body and not for anything else. Since some creams are a bit more expensive than the other ones, it is always good to try out the cheaper ones first so that you can see whether or not it is effective. If the cheaper creams are not effective, it is good to take another step forward and purchase a more expensive cream, such as the well known Revitol (review here). You can compare both of the creams and see which one is more effective for skin tags.

If You Want To Get Rid Of Those Stubborn Warts, Try Creams For Skin Tags! Read the rest of this entry »