The Helpful Pointer

Periodontitis, also known as gum disease and gum infections, is one of the most common things that people go to the dentist for today. Healthy gums play a vital role in maintaining the integrity and longevity of the teeth that they hold in place.

Gum infections can lead to all sorts of problems including but certainly not limited to tooth loss or even alveolar bone loss. Fixing these types of problems with your dentist later on can be extremely time consuming and expensive. If you suspect problems with your gums, make an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible. Needless to say, you can not have healthy teeth without healthy gums. Your cosmetic dentist may first treat your gum disease before restoring your teeth.

Your dentist is probably a veteran when it comes to stomping out gum infections. People have a much better chance at recovering from gum infections if they catch it in its earlier stages. To see how far along a gum infection may be your dentist will used a periodontal probe to determine the size of pockets that lay in and around your gums. These “V” shaped pockets are a direct indicator as to how many bacteria may be living and breading in and around your gums. The deeper the pockets may be the more bacteria are likely to be living there. This area between the teeth and gums is known as the sulcus and tells your dentist a lot of your oral health.

One of the biggest problems with gum infections that many people fail to recognize is that red, irritated and swollen gums, especially those that are bleeding provide bacteria in the mouth direct access to the rest of the body. Doctors have found direct links in people that have heart disease to the bacteria living in their mouths. Bleeding gums literally provide bacteria an open portal to the rest of the body and many areas of the body aren’t able to handle this onslaught.

Gum infections may also give medical professionals an indication of other disease that may be present in the body as well. Such is the case with HIV/AIDS. One of the first signs of HIV/AIDS or other auto immune diseases may appear in the mouth as a severe gum infection. Many times in auto immune disease situations, the gums are the first thing in the body to become infected because of the nature of the tissue that exists in the mouth as it is soft and can be easily damaged.

As gum infections can be an indicator or not only oral problems but other diseases, it’s a good idea to see your dentist early in any developmental stage. Gum infections can be extremely problematic and finding out what is causing them may be the key.

Do you feel stressed or overwhelmed in your life? Are you juggling many balls in the air, with many external demands on your time and energy? Do you feel burned out? Is your life out of control? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, there’s a good chance that there is a need to examine and balance the priorities in your life.

Balance - now that’s easier said than done, especially in this fast-paced mode of living that most of us are in. Yet we crave that balance desperately. So just how do we create the work-life balance? Well, let’s try a simple exercise.

1. Think of your life as a wheel. On a sheet of paper draw a circle. You are in the center. Every area and aspect of your life is represented by a spoke, each which extend as a line radiating from that center. Name those areas - they can be any category in your life - e.g. relationships, finances, health, job or career, security, personal development, recreation, energy, family and friends.

2. Go around the wheel and rate each spoke from 1 to 10 (with 1 being low and 10 being great) based on how you feel at this moment about that particular area in your life.

3. Mark each spoke with a dot representing your rating, with 10 at the outer edge of the circle and 1 close to the center.

4. Now connect all the dots and take a close at the picture that emerges. How does your Wheel of Life actually look?

The first step to creating the balance is to ascertain which areas are lacking. Your completed picture will show you on which areas you focus versus those that are being neglected.

The second step is deciding what actions you could take towards strengthening those areas in need of attention. For example, if you rated yourself low on the Recreation aspect, what could you do to infuse more play-time and fun into your life? Perhaps it will involve scheduling non-negotiable time for yourself, for example, 30 minutes twice a week. Or perhaps it’s about taking a walk, or planning an outing with your children or friends - time devoted solely to fun and enjoyment.

Finally, it’s all a matter of applying your actions. The steps need not be huge. But just like your car’s gas tank, your inner energy reserve needs to be replenished. If it becomes depleted, you won’t function as well, and may burn out. Balancing your life provides this replenishment.

So, go ahead and implement the changes in your life. Seek support from others around you. And the result? A more balanced and effective you.

Olena Gill is a life and business coach and owner of Indigo-Crystal Coaching Services in Errington, BC. She assists people in re-balancing in both personal and business envioronments and is the author of several forthcoming books on personal development. You may contact her at http://www.indigocrystalcoach.com.

Copyright 2005

In this paper, I will:

1. provide a framework for creating total system power at all levels and in all positions;

2. describe the regularly recurring pitfalls that limit total system power, and

3. demonstrate how these pitfalls can be avoided in order for systems to realize their full potential.

***

An Empowered System

A system in which people at all levels and in all positions
are able to make happen what they want to have happen and what the system needs to have happen

I. What is the fundamental business of all systems?
Whether we are dealing with the family, a sports team, a division within the organization, the organization itself, or a nation, the fundamental business of all systems is survival and development, continuing their existence and realizing their full potential.

II. How do systems survive and develop?
All systems interact with their environments. In these environments are dangers to be avoided and opportunities to be taken advantage of. Systems survive and develop by coping with dangers and prospecting among the opportunities.

III. How does each part of the system contribute to Total System Power?
Each part of the system has its unique potential contribution to Total System Power. These potentials are often not realized for reasons described below.

Tops as Shapers. The unique contribution of Tops is to function as system Shapers. Tops shape the system by looking outward, studying the system’s environment, sensing its dangers and opportunities, and by looking inward, seeing that the system has the structure, culture, inspiration, and resources needed for coping with these dangers and opportunities.

The following are areas that Tops as Shapers are responsible for. This does not mean that Tops are expected to do these things alone; it does mean that whether or not these functions happen is Top’s responsibility.

Tops empower the system by:

1. developing a vision of what the system is and can be, a vision that inspires system members, that taps their passions.

2. developing structures that mobilize human energy and enable to system to live out its mission.

3. developing a culture that supports creative, productive, and satisfying work. Culture involves such elements as atmosphere, traditions, rewards, and acknowledgement systems.

4. seeing that the system has the resources - human and material - to do its work.

*

Workers as Producers. The unique contribution of Workers is to function as System Producers. Workers produce by being the experts on the system’s products and services, by fully applying their intelligence and expertise to the work of the system, by having an intimate knowledge of customers’ needs and aspirations, by using their closeness to work and expertise about work to determine how work best be done in the organization, and by involving themselves in ways of improving products and services.

*

Middles as Integrators. The unique contribution of Middles is to function as the Integrating Mechanism of the system. They coordinate system parts such that the system functions smoothly with the parts feeding and supporting one another while avoiding dysfunctional conflict and unnecessary redundancy. Middles integrate the system by regularly integrating with one another, sharing information, diagnosing common system issues, and solving problem.

Customers as Validaters. The unique contribution of Customers is to function as system Validaters. They are in the best position to determine if the system is doing what it is supposed to be doing and doing it as well as it should be doing. Customers validate the system by providing the system with timely feedback positive and negative, by offering concrete suggestions as to how the system could improve service, and sometimes organizing with other customers in order to accomplish these matters.

IV. These sources of power support one another.

There is no conflict among these sources of power.

1. The better the job Tops do in shaping, the better the structure, resources, and climate there is for the Workers to produce.

2. The better Middles are at integrating, the more freed up Tops are to shape, and the more Workers are supported in producing.

3. The better Customers are at validating, the more everyone knows how well the system is doing what it is supposed to be doing.

V. Pitfalls to Total System Power: Burdened Tops, Oppressed Workers, Torn Middles, and Righteously Screwed Customers.

Why Tops don’t shape. Tops exist in a world of complexity: difficult issues to deal with, unpredictable issues, things that Tops felt were dealt with keep coming back. In the face of complexity, what Tops often do, reflexively, without thought or conscious choice, is suck that responsibility up to themselves and away from others. When that happens, Tops become burdened by this overwhelming complexity. Under such conditions, shaping becomes a good idea but something for which, unfortunately, one just doesn’t have the time or energy.

Why Workers don’t produce. Workers exist in a world of disregard: there are things that are wrong with their condition, and things that they see that are wrong with the system, and their sense is that “higher-ups” should be fixing these things, and they are not. In the face of this disregard, what Workers often do - again, reflexively, without awareness or choice — is hold “higher-ups” (not themselves) responsible for their condition and for the condition of the system. When that happens, workers become oppressed: there is energy focused on higher-ups, what they are doing or not doing, disappointed at them, angry at them. Under such conditions, Workers are not inclined to be the Producers as described above.

Why Middles don’t function as the integrating mechanism. Middles exist in a tearing world, pulled between the often conflicting demands and priorities of Tops, Workers, Customers, Providers, and other Middles. Middles find themselves caught between other people’s conflicts. In the face of this tearing, what Middles often do - again, reflexively, without conscious choice - is slide into other people’s issues and conflicts and make them their own. Middles hold themselves responsible for resolving these issues, and what makes this even more difficult is that the others also hold middle responsible for resolving their own issues. When this happens, middles become torn: torn apart from one another and torn internally, weak, confused, loss of independence, not fully satisfying any of the folks they feel they should be serving. When that happens, being the integrating mechanism of the system is not a possibility.

Why Customers don’t validate. Customers live in a world of neglect - products and services not coming to them as fast as they want, in the quality they feel they deserve, or at the price they want to pay. In the face of this neglect, what Customers often do - with out awareness or choice - is to hold the delivery system responsible for delivery. That is, it becomes crystal clear to the customers that the responsibility for delivery rests fully on the delivery system and not at all on them. When this happens, they become the righteously screwed customer: angry at the system, frustrated by it, feeling entitled and unfairly treated.

VI. The keys to Total System Empowerment: Awareness, Choice, and Stands.

1. All parties need to see their potential contributions as Shapers, Producers, Integrators, and Validaters.

2. All parties need to recognize the reflex response as they are happening.

3. All parties need to be able to say NO to the reflex responses and to have alternative stands from which to operate.

Top Stand. In the presence of Top overload, instead of sucking responsibility up to myself and becoming the burdened Top, my stand is: Be a Top who creates responsibility throughout the system.

Bottom Stand. In the presence of Bottom disregard, instead of holding higher-ups responsible for my condition and for the condition of the system and becoming the oppressed Bottom, my stand is: Be a Bottom who is responsible for my condition and for the condition of the system.

Middle Stand. In the presence of Middle tearing, instead of sliding in between other people’s issues and conflicts and making them my own and becoming the torn Middle, my stand is: Be a Middle who maintains my (and my middle peer group’s) independence of thought and action.

Customer Stand. In the presence of Customer neglect, instead of holding the delivery system responsible and becoming the righteously screwed Customers, my stand is: Be a Customer who gets in the middle of delivery processes and helps them work for me.

VI. Final Note. The reflex responses that destroy the possibility of Total System Empowerment are predictable, but they are not inevitable. The Stands, on the other hand, are not predictable, but they are a human possibility. These stands not only enable us to create more powerful systems, they also elevate each of us to higher possibilities for ourselves as human beings.

Barry Oshry is the Chief Theoretical Officer of Power + Systems, Inc. He is the creator of the Organization Workshop on Creating Partnership and the Power Lab which is the subject of the prize-winning documentary Power Lab: Living in New Hope. His books include Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organization Life and Leading Systems: Lessons from the Power Lab.

email: barry@powerandsystems.com

http://www.powerandsystems.com

http://www.seeingsystemsblogs.com

A persons choice of screen reader is dictated by many factors, including platform and the role of organizations like charities, schools, and employers.

Linux distributions for the blind include Oralux and Adriane Knoppix. Experimental approaches in sensory substitution are beginning to provide access to arbitrary live views from a camera.

Increasingly, screen readers are being bundled with operating system distributions. There are also open source screen readers, such as the Linux Screen Reader for GNOME and NonVisual Desktop Access for Windows.

Nevertheless, using a screen reader is, according to some users, considerably more difficult than using a GUI and many applications have specific problems resulting from the nature of the application. The latter developed in part by Knopper who has a visual impairment. Later versions of Microsoft Windows include an Accessibility Wizard and Magnifier for those with partial vision, and Microsoft Narrator, a simple screen reader. Web browsers, word processors, icons and windows and email programs are just some of the applications used successfully by screen reader users. Screen reader choice is contentious: differing priorities and strong preferences are common. Recent versions of Microsoft Windows come with the rather basic Narrator. Most legally blind people 65 percent do not use computers. A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen.

The rest have some vision, from light perception alone to relatively good acuity. The movement towards greater web accessibility is opening a far wider number of websites to adaptive technology, making the web a more inviting place for visually impaired surfers. Indeed functionality remains limited compared to equivalent desktop applications, the major benefit is to increase the accessibility of said websites. The open source GNOME desktop environment long included Gnopernicus and now includes Orca. Only a small fraction of this population, when compared to the sighted community, have Internet access.

While Apple Mac OS X includes VoiceOver, a more feature-rich screen reader. Access technology such as screen readers and Screen magnifiers enable the blind to use mainstream computer applications. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers. Almost 8 percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, have no vision.

The console-based Oralux Linux distribution ships with three screen-reading environments: Emacspeak, Yasr and Speakup. The Macintosh OS also comes with a built-in screen reader, called VoiceOver. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. This season medical volunteer Anthony Loeff is writing about screen readers for Screen readers can be assumed to be able to access all display content that is not intrinsically inaccessible.

The primary audience for such applications is those who have difficulty reading because of learning disabilities or language barriers.

Hook up the two of everybody’s most important quests and what you’ve got is a phenomenon that’s universally termed a Web sportsbook. Can you imagine anything that could be more inventive? Think of a clique of sports fanatics cheering to support a given preferred lineup, and almost all the time stakes will be calculated parallel to the din. Because they want to get a share of the pleasure, spectators will ordinarily seek to figure who is the likeliest to prevail the coming contest. Put together, this all eventually develops into a warmhearted contest called Web sportsbook.

Sign up for the best sports wager action online today!

Admittedly it might easily sound quite neurotic, but sports betting is essentially simply for fun and of forging bonds with fellow sports buddies. You can bet a a piddling sum of chips and nonetheless enjoy an amazing time. Here are a few remarks to get going sports betting.

If you want to wager, you should search out a Web sportsbook, i.e. a setup that tenders Web sportsbook. In the United States, we have no less than four states where to go for sports betting legitimately, but if legality is no concern, you may attempt it anywhere you like as long as you can pin down a bookie and happen to be of age. On the list of sports activities you have a choice of betting on are pro and, of course, college basketball plus college class football, professional baseball, professional hockey, and, of course, betting on both horse and dog racing. You’ll have a choice of wagering on the general result of a contest, at which point a given party will go under, and even whether a given tossed coin in a contest will land heads or tails.

The sportsbook setup will depend on stats be of assistance to you arrive at a conclusion which lineup you feel is most likely is the likeliest to prevail. First, we have the distribution, in other words point lead allocated to the trailing competitor anticipated to be beaten by a specified number points. Obviously, this describes the bookie’s proven method of offering even antes for a Sportsbook. For example, a gambler could choose to risk money on a contestor anticipated to be beaten and and nonetheless profit from that wager as long as the competitor loses by a specified number of points.

So why don’t you just have a crack at it, and enjoy the recreation as well? Simply make certain that you won’t get unduly carried away and exhaust your complete retirement pension on a conceit… If you don’t, you’re going to find yourself lamenting it all your life…

When you first start an Internet business one of the first items on the list, after you’ve written your business model, is getting a domain name. In years past it wasn’t as difficult to find a decent name for your site. Today however, it’s not as easy to get your dot com name. The process of registering a name has improved substantially but the availability for descriptive names is far more difficult. Why is this a problem you may ask? It’s more of a problem for small and home business sites than it is for larger companies. The reason is simple and I can sum it up in one word: money.

Larger companies, especially public companies have the funding to advertise their new sites, therefore they don’t really need to have names that reflect the type of business they are in. I can site a perfect example, Go Daddy.com, has absolutely nothing to do with the type of business Go Daddy is in. But being the largest register of domain names, GoDaddy can advertise on all media levels to get business including buying advertising time on the Super Bowl! If you are starting a home based business on the Internet, I’ll bet that you won’t be buying time on television not to mention next year’s Super Bowl.

Okay, where am I going with all of this? You are on a limited budget when you start your business and you must rely on free traffic to your site, because without traffic you have no business. This is what I described in my article on organic traffic a few weeks ago. In order to get substantial traffic to your site you’ll need to have an optimized site. This all has to do with keywords and something called keyword density. You achieve this by having your most important keywords dispersed throughout your website and your domain name. (See I did come to the point of this article.)

Most SEO, search engine optimization, programs first look at the domain name and your major keywords. They look to see if your domain name and site title have any commonality. If they do your site receives extra points in the SEO algorithm, (a logical step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps, often involving repetition of the same basic operation.) I hope that I haven’t lost you here because all of this is very important, especially to home based Internet business owners.

Most SEO programs will constantly refer back to the domain name and those words which match the dominate keyword phrases that you have chosen. When your site is optimized, search engines will pick up your scent, so to speak, and you will have great placement and positioning on searches that have your keywords. All of this amounts to substantial traffic.

I’m not an expert on SEO and I don’t pretend to be but I’ve spent my share of time in attempting to understand it and how it effects my site. I can recommend two areas of my site that I think are beneficial to you: Web Site Design and Search Engine Optimization. You can find them at: http://www.homebusinessresearch.com There are a lot of submission services as well. Some of them are good and some of them are not so good. Try to optimize first.

Rick Carbone is the owner/webmaster of Home Business Research a web site devoted to starting and running a home based business. In addition to hundreds of articles and information on start up, management and business opportunities Home Business Research offers digital products for home businesses. Visit our site for tons of free information.

http://www.homebusinessresearch.com