How Weight Loss Can Provide an Individual a Healthier Lifestyle

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Losing weight can be a challenge for many men and women, especially as they age. Weight loss is typically an indicator of increased exercise, and a lower consumption of calories. Many individuals attempt to lose weight by fad diets, or excessive exercise as a way to burn off extra calories. Weight loss is often a critical component to help maximize an individual’s health. It is also used a way to enhance self-esteem, and develop an aesthetically pleasing appearance.

There are specific types of weight loss that are both unintentional and intentional. Losing weight might be an unintentional event that is a result of poorly managed conditions, or untreated health issues including diabetes. Some people want to lose weight intentionally, and plan weight reduction through exercise programs and diets that are designed specifically to reduce the amount of calories consumed, or energy burned.

Stress is often a factor that can cause individuals to lose weight when they do not intend to. This is often a result of increased depression, or high levels of anxiety where it is simply too challenging to consume food to generate energy that the body requires.

Weight Loss Benefits

For any individual that is overweight, losing unwanted pounds and inches can provide significant benefits. Not only does it make the person feel better, but they can actually add many more years to their life. Sometimes losing weight can reverse significant health issues including high blood pressure, heart disease and especially diabetes. Even specific types of cancers can be reduced, or eliminated, by losing weight.

Excessive body fat, especially when found around the abdomen, has the ability to increase the inflammation of the body’s blood vessels which often can increase the potential for heart disease. There is a direct link between obesity and specific types of cancer that may be due to the release of hormones in fat cells. Minimal physical activity and poor eating habits often produce a negative impact on the body.

A Healthy Time Frame

For individuals that are attempting to lose significant amounts of weight, the process is a simple one. Every 3500 calories that are consume, produce 1 pound of unwanted body fat. To reduce that amount, requires eliminating 3500 calories over time, which can play a significant role in losing one pound of weight. However, it needs to be done in a healthy environment. Simply cutting out 350 calories each day from the diet can help the individual lose one pound of weight every 10 days. This is a healthy time frame that can produce positive results.

Exercise

Performing some type of routine exercise can play a significant role in the positive effects of a weight loss plan. Exercise will help increase the body’s metabolism, and burn significantly more calories than just sleeping or sitting. It will also help to increase the level of energy. Simply walking, or participating in a sport, instead of watching TV or other sedentary activity, can help enhance an individual’s lifestyle, help them lose weight, feel better about themselves, and maintain better health.

Spoil sprouts: How little greens can make you sick

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Sprouts may sound cute, but the tiny greens have sickened more than 2,500 people and caused 186 hospitalizations and three deaths in the past two decades, a new report finds.

“Sprout contamination continues to pose a serious public health concern,” the researchers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in their report. The arm of the FDA that wrote the new report focuses on investigating outbreaks and finding ways to prevent them. The findings on sprouts were presented on Oct. 28 at IDWeek 2016, a meeting in New Orleans of several organizations focused on infectious diseases. The report on sprouts has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

From 1996 to August 2016, 48 outbreaks of illness were associated with sprouts, the researchers found.

Alfalfa sprouts were the most common culprit during the study period, with 30 outbreaks. There were seven outbreaks linked to clover sprouts, six outbreaks linked to mung bean sprouts, two outbreaks linked to unspecified sprouts, two outbreaks linked to multiple sprout types and one outbreak linked to a food ingredient called sprouted chia powder, the FDA found.

Sprouts carried a number of different types of bacteria, the researchers found. Salmonella was implicated in the greatest number of outbreaks, at 35, followed by Escherichia coli (11 outbreaks) and Listeria monocytogenes (two outbreaks), according to the report.

Of the three sprout-related deaths during the study period, two were attributed to Salmonella and one to Listeria.

Sprouts “certainly rank up there” among types of produce that have been linked to outbreaks, said Dr. Kathleen Gensheimer, the director of the FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network and the lead author of the study.

Sprouts’ propensity to harbor dangerous bacteria has to do with how they are grown, Gensheimer told Live Science. To grow sprouts, seeds are placed in water in a warm, humid environment that is ideal for rapid bacterial growth, she said.

That means that if a seed is contaminated with bacteria before the sprouts are grown, the problem gets worse during the sprouting process, because the bacteria will multiply, Gensheimer said. Indeed, in most sprout outbreaks, the outbreak stemmed from seeds that had been contaminated with bacteria before the sprouting process began, she said. Bacteria can get on a seed when it’s being harvested and can survive for months in the dry conditions in which the seeds are stored, she said.

Alfalfa sprouts, the most common source of an outbreak in the study, are the most popular type of green seed sprouts that are typically eaten raw, Gensheimer said. Sprouts that come from green seeds, including alfalfa sprouts, clover sprouts and radish sprouts, typically aren’t cooked before they are eaten, and so they are more commonly associated with outbreaks. In contrast, sprouts that come from beans, such as mung bean sprouts and soy bean sprouts, typically are cooked, she added.

Thoroughly cooking sprouts can reduce a person’s risk of getting sick, because cooking can kill the harmful bacteria, Gensheimer said.

But sprouts can be a “stealth ingredient,” Gensheimer added. They’re the type of ingredient that may be added to sandwich or a salad in a restaurant or deli without being mentioned, she said.

Currently, the U.S. government says that people who are the most at-risk for infectious diseases should avoid eating raw or lightly cooked sprouts of any kind, Gensheimer said. This includes children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, she said.

Originally published on Live Science.

foxnews

Trump on potential conflicts of interest: ‘The law is totally on my side’

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President-elect Donald Trump is facing more potential conflicts of interest than any other Oval Office occupant in U.S. history. And the billionaire businessman’s response is: So what?

Trump shrugged off any hypothetical entanglements that could occur due to his worldwide real estate enterprise and asserted the law stood with him during a meeting with The New York Times on Tuesday.

“I mean, I know that from the standpoint, the law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” Trump said. “…And I understand why the president can’t have a conflict of interest now, because everything a president does in some ways is like a conflict of interest.”

TRUMP REVERSES COURSE ON CLINTON, DEFENDS BANNON

According to a Congressional Research Service report issued in October, Trump is right.

“Because of concerns regarding interference with the exercise of constitutional duties, Congress had not applied [criminal penalties for conflicts of interest] to the President,” the report stated. “Consequently, there is no current legal requirement that would compel the President to relinquish financial interests because of a conflict of interest.”

The present model assumes the president will be tried in the court of public opinion before he takes office.

“In other words, the current regulatory scheme suggests that any potential conflicts will be addressed by the electorate at the ballot box,” the report stated.

The majority of previous presidents – Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – have voluntarily “divested” any financial assets. President Obama did not, however, because his assets were tied up in Treasury notes and mutual funds he did not control, according to the report.

Trump told The Times he is beginning to take steps to separate a President Trump from the Trump organization. He noted that he’s “greatly reduced” signing checks and meetings with contractors and other interested parties. But Trump is acutely aware that he has no legal obligation to build a metaphorical wall between himself and his business.

“In theory, I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly,” he said. “…But I would like to do something. I would like to try and formalize something, because I don’t care about my business.”

Though he’s been president-elect for fewer than three weeks, already several controversies involving potential conflicts have bubbled up – and mostly petered out.

Trump met last week with three Indian real-estate executives who are involved in building a Trump apartment complex in Mumbai. Trump said it was merely a congratulatory meeting and the men simply took a photo.

During a Nov. 12 conversation with UKIP leader Nigel Farage, Trump allegedly brought up the topic of wind farms, the building of which Trump had previously tried to stop because the structures obstructed the view at one of his Scottish golf courses.

“I might have brought it up,” said Trump, who then detailed his long-time opposition to windfarms due to their effect on the bird population and because he said most are manufactured in Germany or Japan.

After Trump spoke with the President of Argentina by phone after the Nov. 8 election, a report emerged from the country saying Trump brought up the topic of obtaining permits for an Argentinian office complex he’s been trying to build. Both Trump and President Mauricio Macri denied the report and the source of the rumor later said he was joking.

The Trump International Hotel which opened in October in Washington, D.C. is, Trump admits, “a hotter brand than it was before.”

“I can’t help that, but I don’t care,” he told The Times.

What will truly serve as a check on any potential conflicts, Trump said, is the chance he has to serve the nation and govern effectively.

“I don’t care about my company. It doesn’t matter. My kids run it…” Trump said. “The only thing that matters to me is running our country.”

Foxnews

5 Easy Ways To Download YouTube Videos In Ubuntu

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Be it Ubuntu or any other platform, one thing I learned over the years is the fact that people like to download their favorite YouTube videos and would want to keep a local copy of it no matter how hard it is. Luckily, there are plenty of tools to do this in Ubuntu without any hassles. Here, we’ll explore 5 of the most capable YouTube video downloading tools for Ubuntu.



Minitube: When it comes to “conventional” YouTube video streaming and downloading in Ubuntu, nothing beats Minitube. You can type any keyword, and Minitube will give you an endless stream of videos to watch, as simple as that. Minitube does not use the Flash Player either, which means lesser CPU consumption. And of course you can download videos in the quality you choose with the click of a button. What more, Minitube is available for download in default Ubuntu repositories (Edit: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS supported). Click the link above.

Youtube-dl: Command line tools are a big no-no to many. But I would argue otherwise. Youtube-dl is the best and easiest way to download YouTube videos in Ubuntu. It is fast and obviously nimble. And make no mistake, it has quite a wide range of functionalities. But if all you need is to download the best quality version of a particular video, open up the Terminal and type “youtube-dl”. Does that look complicated? A more detailed installation and how-to-use instructions can be found in our previous post on Youtube-dl. 

Gmediafinder: A good Minitube alternative loaded with YouTube streaming and downloading capabilities. In my experience, Minitube has been more stable and a little bit more easier to use when compared Gmediafinder. But it gets the job done. To install it though, you have to add the following PPA and it is not readily available in Ubuntu Software Center (Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 supported). Just do the following in Terminal.

Movegrab: Yet another command-line tool for downloading YouTube videos in Ubuntu. Somehow, I am finding it difficult to download YouTube specific videos using Movgrab at the moment, even though I didn’t had any problem with sites like Dailymotion. Many consider Movgrab to be a superior alternative to my favorite Youtube-dl. More details and how-to-use instructions on Movgrab at WebUpd8. Do the following in Terminal to install Movgrab. 

YouTube Downloader Script: Here’s a simple cross-browser script that will add a download button to the YouTube page, literally. It will let you download your favorite videos in MP4 format (HD, Full HD and even 4K supported). See installation instructions below,

For Firefox: You need to download Greasemonkey extension for Firefox first. Afterwards, simply visit the script download page and install it.
For Chrome/Chromium: Install Tampermonkey extension first. And then, like before, visit the script download page and hit Install button on top.

Make no mistake, almost all the tools featured above (except the cross-browser script) does support other popular sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak, Blip.tv etc. apart from YouTube. Try them out and let us know your feedback. Thanks for reading. 
Source : http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/10/5-ways-to-download-youtube-videos-ubuntu-linux.html

An Open Source Self-Driving Car? Udacity Is Planning To Build Just That!

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Open Source is not alien to self-driving car technology. We know for fact that Google’s self-driving cars are using‘lightly customised Ubuntu’ at its core, and we have spotted Ubuntu on Mercedes-Benz driverless research car. But what Sebastian Thrun and Udacity is proposing is something radically different.

Not many here must have heard about Udacity. They are a for-profit online education startup who recently created a self-driving car engineering Nanodegree program to cater the burgeoning autonomous car industry. The company is partnering with Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Didi, Otto, and Nvidia on this nanodegree program for self-driving cars.

During the TechCrunch Disrupt event, Udacity co-founder, Sebastian Thrun revealed that the company intends to build its own self-driving car as part of its self-driving car engineering Nanodegree program, and that it also intends to open source the technology that results, so that “anyone” can try to build their own self-driving vehicle.

Consulting firm BCG believes the market for partially and fully autonomous vehicles will be at $22 billion by 2025. And Udacity intends to fill some of that gap for skilled engineers with its new Nanodegree program. The open-sourcing of resulting tech could help the eco-system grow even faster. The crowdsourced autonomous vehicle plans will ultimately be created in service of the school, rather than as an end-product. More on Udacity’s attempts to create the first fully open-source self-driving car here.

Source : http://www.techdrivein.com/2016/09/open-source-self-driving-car-udacity.html

The Real Definition of Affiliate Marketing

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Have you come across the term “Affiliate Marketer” and wondered what exactly does that mean? In recent times it has become a very well used term, particularly for those people searching for a way to improve their income or give up their full time employment, better known as a “job”.

The simple definition is that an affiliate marketer is a person who forms a business relationship with a merchant selling goods or services, and who is then paid a commission on the sale of goods that they promote for the merchant. If for example you are promoting a specific product or service on your website and a visitor clicks on your link then proceeds to buy the item in question you are paid a percentage of the sale as a commission from the merchant.

As an affiliate you can choose to act on behalf of one specific merchant and set up an arrangement directly with them, or alternatively you can sign up for one of the hundreds of affiliate programs that cater to a wide range of products and services then just search through the offers available and select the ones you are interested in. In this latter case instead of being paid directly through the merchant you are paid by the Affiliate Program Company generally each month. Affiliate marketing has become increasingly popular for those wanting to build up an extra source of income, basically because there is little or no outlay to start up and no great technical knowledge is required.

Before making any decisions as to whether you want to promote an individual merchant or be part of a larger affiliate company it is a good idea to study and learn about the advantage and disadvantages of each type of affiliate program.

Another thing to consider is whether you want to sell physical products or digital products. Visit sites like Amazon and EBay; familiarize yourself with popular products that are currently selling. If digital products have more appeal sign up for Clickbank or PayDotCom, check out gravity and number of affiliates. You can guarantee if a particular product is being promoted by a lot of affiliates it must be selling after all experienced affiliates are not going to promote something that is not getting sales.

It’s important to have the right mindset when you start to set up your affiliate marketing business. Don’t just jump in and expect instant riches, no matter what blurbs and emails you see promising 7 figure incomes within 7 days or at the click of a few buttons. It just doesn’t work out that way. An affiliate marketing business is exactly that a “business” and should be approached with that mind set. Draw up a business plan setting out you goals, time-frames and how much time you are prepared to allocate to your new business.

Don’t rush in, you need to arm yourself with some knowledge first, take the time to join and learn from some of the more experienced forums such as the warriors marketing forum. Read expert blogs, do your research, understand exactly what path you want to follow.

95% of marketers give up when they don’t make their money instantly or see results straight away, why not aspire to be one of the very successful 5% by just following the suggestions above.

The Potential of Affiliate Marketing to Make You Money

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If you are looking for a creative way to make additional income without going through the time consuming process of creating your own products, affiliate marketing may be a great fit for you. Affiliate marketing is essentially the act of referring a potential customer to another company’s product or service, and then receiving a commission upon purchase of that particular product. It can be a part-time or full-time endeavor, and really depends on how much time you can put into it, as well as the extent of your audience reach. It can be an honest, fun way to bring in additional income, while simultaneously providing value to your chosen audience.

1. There are various types of affiliate marketing, and the sky is the limit in terms of what kind of product you offer. It can range from e-books to software to blenders.  There are several different forms of affiliate marketing, which include pay-per-click marketing campaigns through programs like Google AdWords, niche marketing via your own authority website, and involved marketing that includes a close relationship with the creator of the product and special discounts made available to your audience. The key is to choose the one that will fit well with your comfort level and time commitment.

2. There are many appealing advantages to affiliate marketing, with the most obvious being that you do not have to take the time to create your own product.  In addition, if you select a product that will actually help your audience, it brings them added value, for which they will be thankful. For example, if you create an authority website on the best oils for skin care that includes informative articles on the best natural oils your skin, and then offer direct affiliate links to a site where your reader can immediately purchase that oil, you will get a certain percentage of people who will potentially earn you a commission, and never at any point did you have to bother with bottling and shipping the oil yourself. Other methods of promotion consist of including your affiliate link in emails and newsletters. Always to remember to disclose the fact that it is an affiliate product you are offering.

3. However, there are a few notable disadvantages to consider with this type of marketing. Mainly, you do not have ownership of the product, and therefore have less control over how much you make, and the life of your product. The commission rate is set for you, and is only a percentage of the cost of the product, naturally. In addition, if the company who created the product goes out of business, you will no longer be able to offer that product. However, with countless companies offering affiliate programs, you will have no problem finding another product to offer that goes well with your nice.

In a time where information and advertising is everywhere, affiliate marketing is an appealing, flexible way to make additional income, and with little financial risk, it is worth trying. If done correctly, it is a win-win situation that benefits you, your audience, and the company that created the product. It is important to choose a method, make a plan, and then consistently stick with it. If you have the patience and motivation, then go roll up your sleeves, give it a try, and see where it takes you!

The Benfits of Affiliate Marketing

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To become an affiliate with the best and highest paying commission is a dream for most and indeed affiliate marketers are paid significant commissions, sometimes up to 70%.

That said, what exactly is affiliate marketing and why should you care?

The basics of affiliate marketing is sending people to a merchant website/product via a link the affiliate has placed somewhere on the web, most often on their website.  For doing this, and assuming the visitor buys, the affiliate receives a commission.

While it varies, affiliates will normally earn in the neighborhood of 25 to 75% for each sale generated from their efforts and tracked via their link.

In most cases they are paid via Paypal or via direct deposit, however special arrangements can be made if the affiliate is sending sufficient traffic and making sales.

Being an affiliate can pay handsomely and the merchant is only too happy to do so, why?  Because if his product is popular, he can have a virtual army of people around the world doing the selling and they are only paid if someone buys.

And while the above speaks of the normal model, other affiliates can be paid for clicks (as in Google adsense) or via leads that are sent to an offline business.  The ways to make money as an affiliate are only limited by the imagination.

If you’re reading this and wondering how to become an affiliate, or possibly how the process works, just go to Google and type in “affiliate opportunities” or “affiliate companies” and you’ll quickly have plenty of results to look at.

And while being a merchant eventually will bring the most money (think McDonalds), many merchants, in addition to selling their own product, are also affiliates for other products.  They may as well offer their visitor something of value and not limit the opportunity.

Once you signup as an affiliate (usually very simple) usually the next question is how to go about marketing the products.  There are entire courses to answer that, but the most common are solo ads, banner ads, PPC (pay per click), media buys and more.  Depending on your budget, the reach can quickly be far and wide.

If your budget is small, writing a product review or making a YouTube video is an excellent way to get the word out.  In most cases, unless you consider software costs, these methods are free for the affiliate to accomplish.

The great thing about affiliate marketing is simply this, there is no limit to what you can earn, and it’s simply a matter of getting target traffic (visitors) to look at the offer or product.  From that point it’s simply a numbers game, a certain percentage of visitors will click, a percentage of those will buy.

And… while affiliate marketing is not MLM (multi-level-marketing) there are cases where an affiliate can receive spill over commissions on other affiliates that they refer.  These are called sub-affiliates.  Do this well enough and the profits can be staggers, but it won’t happen overnight and it will take some work.

If you’re considering becoming an affiliate, don’t wait, do it now, there are people right this minute interested in what you have to say, and some of them will click your link.

The key?  Find a good product, make certain they pay a commission you are comfortable with, then take action.

The Basics Of Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate marketing is a great way to start making money on the Internet. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you pick the right program, so that you can make money right away. Here are some tips to make sure that you are a success with affiliate marketing.

The first thing you need to do is to think about what you want to do. A lot of people jump into affiliate marketing to make money, so they try to make sure that they get into a business where they are sure they’ll make money. However, that is not always a smart idea. After all, you will have to spent a lot of time with this topic, and if you don’t have a passion for it, you’re not going to do as well as if you chose something you were passionate about. Therefore, pick something that you enjoy. Your passion for it will be contagious.

Not only do you need to pick something you’ll enjoy working with, you need to make sure you pick the right company to work with. You want to make sure that the company you join up with is a reputable one. If you choose a reputable company, people will be more likely to buy your products. If you choose a badly reviewed company, you are going to have to fight the company’s reputation. That will make your life more difficult.

You have to check on the compensation structure as well. What percentage of the sale will be yours, and what will the product creator keep? How often are you paid? These are the questions you need to know the answers to before you agree to be an affiliate. When you know when you are going to get paid, you can spend all your time working on making sales.

You need to read any agreement that the product owner wants you to agree to. For instance, if the product owner only wants you to sell his or her products, that might be a problem for you. You need to be able to diversify if you choose, and if you can only sell one thing that might cut into your success.

Another thing you need to make sure of when you are getting into affiliate marketing is to make sure that you learn to market your product. If you spend all your time working on your site, you aren’t going to be getting the word out about your product.

You are not the only affiliate out there, so you need to have something unique which sets you apart from the other affiliates. You can do this by being unique in your internet marketing. That means starting blogs, using social media and other internet techniques.

Being an affiliate marketing pro is not the easiest thing to do in the world, but it is definitely a possibility for you, if you stay focused. Use the tips in this article to help you really get the feel for what you need to do to be a success in this field.