Are Steps Causing Your Knees to Ache? There May Be a Solution

Are Steps Causing Your Knees to Ache? There May Be a Solution

(NewsUSA) - For individuals with knee pain due to
injury, surgery or simply old age, going up and down stairs at home can be an additional burden.

Common knee conditions or medical issues affecting the knees that may make stair climbing
more difficult include the following:

* Arthritis activity. Arthritic hips and/or knees can limit flexibility and make
stair climbing difficult.

* Patellar problems. The patellar tendon is responsible for straightening the knee. If this
tendon is injured or damaged, the resulting inflammation makes stair climbing painful.

* Kneecap tracking. The kneecap is designed to fit smoothly into the thigh bone, but if it
slides out of place, it can cause severe knee pain, especially when taking stairs.

* Cartilage concerns. Knee pain and swelling occur if the cartilage in the knee area
is damaged because of a twisting motion.

* Hip hindrance. Weakened hip muscles make lifting the knees (and climbing stairs)
challenging and painful.

* Poor core. Core muscles that are weakened by inactivity or injury can contribute to
stair climbing problems because a strong torso is needed to keep the spine aligned when climbing up
and down stairs.

A stairlift can make a huge difference for individuals struggling with knee pain. Stairlifts
are becoming increasingly popular in the United States, and today's stairlifts, such as those made
by Acorn Stairlifts, are easily installed with no structural changes to the home and no damage to
home decor. In addition, stairlifts from Acorn Stairlifts are powered by two small 12-volt batteries for quiet but
effective operation.

Consider stair style when choosing a stairlift. Stairlifts can be designed to suit straight
stairways, curved stairways and outdoor stairways, and the modular design of Acorn Stairlifts
allows for easy installation without structural changes to the home.

Acorn Stairlifts' safety elements include a chair and built-in footrest that can fold up
when not in use to allow for easy passage on the stairs. They also include remote control
components and foot platform sensors that stop the lift when triggered. Other features include
safety belts, swivel seats that lock and light touch controls for those with limited dexterity.

For more details about finding the right stairlift for your home, visit www.acornstairlifts.com.

Is Your Home As Childproofed As You Think?

Is Your Home As Childproofed As You Think? 

(NewsUSA) - Sponsored News - It happens more often than we like to think.

Nearly seven times a day, some young child is rushed to the emergency room after being burned -- or worse -- from having stuck something as innocuous as a paperclip into an electrical outlet, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Ah, but being the diligent parent you are, you're sure those plastic outlet caps you installed for childproofing purposes will keep your own kids safe, right?

Not so fast.

A study conducted by Temple University found that it took less than 10 seconds for 100 percent of children ages 2 to 4 to remove them from sockets. And that should scare you for an additional reason.

"It poses a choking hazard for small children," says Brett Brenner, president of the nonprofitElectrical Safety Foundation International (Esfi.org), which promotes electrical safety in homes and workplaces. "And because plastic caps do need to be removed for the outlet to be functional, there's the inherent safety threat of forgetting to recover the outlet when it's no longer in use."

Brenner, as it turns out, also has a problem with the less-popular sliding receptacle covers. "They're no match for the impressionable minds of children, who can learn to defeat the devices by watching their parents plug objects into them."

So what does he recommend? The same technology -- called tamper-resistant receptacles -- was deemed so effective that it's actually been required in hospital pediatric care facilities for more than 20 years. But it remained something of a trade secret until its use was finally mandated in all new home construction under the National Electrical Code in 2008.

To look at them, TRRs appear to be ordinary outlets -- a blessing for those who consider plastic caps a bit of an eyesore -- but they're specifically designed with spring-loaded receptacle cover plates that close off all openings or slots. Only by simultaneously applying pressure to both sides do the cover plates open to allow standard plugs to make contact with the receptacle contact points.

"Without that simultaneous pressure," Brenner explains, "the cover plates remain closed, preventing the insertion of foreign objects and thus protecting children from painful, traumatic electrical injuries."

The best part may be that the added safety will only run you 50 cents more than a standard electrical outlet, though TRRs should only be installed by a licensed electrician.

But getting back to that opening U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission statistic -- know that of those nearly seven children a day:

* 89 percent are under 6 years old.

* 50 percent are 2 to 3 years old -- the highest risk group.

* Boys are most at risk, regardless of age.

Definitely not something we like to think about.

The History of Mickey Mouse

The History of Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a famous cartoon character of a talking mouse. It is owned by The Walt Disney Company and has a very strong franchise for the company, its theme parks and other merchandise opportunities. Mickey Mouse is very unique among cartoon characters, it has large and round black ears, a pointed nose and wears red shorts with white buttons and yellow boots. The outline of Mickey s ears and nose are basically the logo of Walt Disney. The origin of Mickey Mouse is not very clear. All the parties owing its creation have passed away and the real truth may never be known. Walt Disney Company claims that Walt Disney, the founder of the company had created the character himself.

Disney recalled that he drew pictures of a cartoon mouse and his best friend Ub Iwerks reworked the pictures into a form that would make the character quick to draw. The voice, attitude and personality of Mickey Mouse were provided by Walt. Many described him as the real father and rightful designer of 

.Mickey Mouse

A contradictory story claimed that the mouse character was originally drawn by Hugh Harman around a photo of Walt Disney in 1925. These were later used as ideas for a new character when Disney separated from Universal Studios. He was contracted to provide shorts on the character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He asked his friend Ub Iwerk to come up with ideas which included dogs, frogs, cows, cats and horses. Iwerks was nearly at his wits end when he remembered Harman s sketches of mouse around photo of Walt and agreed. They agreed to it and they envisioned the mouse being like a human. They had named their character as Mortimer Mouse. Mortimer had struggled for its identity, Walt s wife was convinced that the name was snobby and would not match with the character s audience appeal. Disney wanted his new character to be cute and lovable for children. Walt credited part of the personality of Mickey Mouse to Charlie Chaplin in a later interview.

The first Mickey Mouse short entitled Plane Crazy was ready for distribution by May 1928 but it was not successful in finding a distributor. A second short named The Gallopin Gaucho was filmed and introduced a previously shown character called Pegleg Pete. This also failed to find a distributor. It was   however an unusual production

Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse animated short that was successful to find a distributor. It was released in November 1928. It proved to be a quick hit and the audiences loved the use of music and sound effects to add humor to the production. It encouraged Disney to adopt sounds in tits animations and included Mickey s first spoken words in the production of The Karnival Kid in 1929. There was a minor change in the appearance of Mickey and Minnie in late 1929. By the early 1930s, Mickey Mouse had left behind 'Felix the Cat and Mortimer Mouse had been introduced as Minnie s 

rancher uncle.

A new animator at the Disney Company redesigned Mickey Mouse in 1935. In 1978, the 50th anniversary of Mickey Mouse first short film being produced and distributed. Mickey was also awarded a star on Hollywood Boulevard and was the first cartoon character to receive a star.

The Walt Disney Company was successfully operating Mickey Mouse Clubs in cinemas across the US and claiming over a million members. The members also received coloring books and badges. By the mid of 1930s, the administrative costs for managing these proved to be uneconomic and they were closed down. However the Mickey Mouse Club was revived again in 1955 through 1959 as a television series. The Mickey Mouse Club was aired in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, many famous pop celebrities like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears got their first broadcasting role as cast members of the revived show. A new format show named the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse began airing in 2006 and 

was aimed at preschoolers.

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Article Written By: taamiv 

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Math Is Not Hard!

Sep 28, 2010 • By Manjit Singh Atwal 

As a math tutor for 15 years, what I found in more than 80% of the students I met? They have something very common in all of them, that is, they all say, "the mathematics is very hard." Why most of the students find mathematics a hard subject and try to avoid it?

The answer for the above question is hidden in a simple explanation. I always give an example to my students, and giving the same example in this article, the example of staircase, we use to reach the different floors of high-rise buildings. These days, all high-rise buildings are equipped with elevators, but they must have stairs to use in case of emergencies. Consider this high-rise has stairs only and no elevators, for the purpose of the article.

As you know, to reach any of the higher floors from the ground level, we can't jump from ground to reach higher floors, or if we try we will fail and probably will hurt ourselves. You might agree that it is very hard (impossible) to jump to second floor from the ground. So, we use stairs to reach the higher floors in a building. What, if the stairs are broken? Can we still make it to our destination floor with the same ease and comfort? Think about it, and compare the math classes or grades to steps in the stircase and whole mathematics to the high-rise building.

Now, the kindergarten, first grade and second grade are like first couple of the steps of the whole staircase to the math high-rise and you can learn this level of math easily and anytime, same as you can jump enough to take yourself to second or third step of the staircase with ease. Also, if you are smart enough, you can learn the kindergarten to grade three or probably grade four math, easily. As it is very hard to reach sixth or seventh step of a staircase by jumping from the ground, exactly the same way to learn grade five or higher grade math is very hard (or impossible most often) without having the good knowledge of the kindergarten to grade three or grade four math.

Now, consider one person is jumping on the ground to reach the third floor of a building, can he make it? Never, if he is not Spiderman. For this person, to reach the third floor by jumping is impossible or very hard and he will give up after trying it for some time. But another person used the stairs to reach the same floor and found it very easy and reach there with little effort. Exactly the same way if a student has all the basic knowledge, he/she obtained in elementary grades, with him/her, then he/she is, let's say, at fifth step already and he/she need not to jump to go to the sixth step, actually the student can do it easily by taking one step to the next level. On the other hand another student is in grade six and doesn't know the lower grade math concepts such as, times tables, factors or number system. This student is in the same situation as the person trying to reach to third floor from ground level by jumping.

I think, its very clear now that mathematics in each grade have the same importance and it lives with us and support us always, (not like a person but like our eyes or other senses, it helps us to succeed in life). So, whichever grade you are in, start focusing yourself on math. Ask your teacher lots of questions. Keep asking until you are not clear about the concepts or topics you are working on. Each grade act as a step in the whole staircase to the mathematics high-rise building, and performing poor in math in any grade is like breaking one step in the whole staircase which will make the whole staircase risky or scary to use in the future.

So, what it takes to be smart in mathematics? My answer is, keep yourself focused on math in each and every level of your studies. Participate in the class math practice sessions. Ask your teacher lots of questions until you are not clear about any concepts taught by your teacher in the math class. Mathematics is a subject which demands lots of practice on solving the problems on paper rather than reading them only.

As in case of Social Studies taking more readings make you smart, in case of math practicing lots of problems and solving them by hand makes you smart. To practice math problems math workbooks are the good source, when you learn a concept in a workbook, then in the same book you have more problems to practice on the same concept you just learned. Another good method to practice mathematical concepts is using math worksheets and you can print mathworksheets free of charge from the web.

Finally, choice is yours, you can choose the jumping method to reach your math destination or you can use right and proven path to reach your math destination. The right and proven path to math destination has the following steps:

* Start learning math as soon as you start your kindergarten * Focus in your math classes, listen to your teacher * Ask your teacher lots of question until you are not clear about the concept, you are learning * Practice, practice and practice. For this you can use math worksheets or math workbooks.

If you take the proven path, one day you might say, "Math is not hard."

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