Why Bear Farming Has To Be Stopped
If there’s one practice in China and other parts of Asia that must be stopped, it must be bear farming. At first glance, bear farming may have a good purpose which was to reduce the number of bears poached from the wild. However, wild-life researchers are now concerned over its danger to bears overall.
The practice has been around for some time. It was used by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to gather the bile of bears to produce medicinal goods. During the early 1980s, the practice was even intensified when it was commercialized. Now, there is an estimated 7,000 bears held captive in China and some more in other neighboring Asian countries.
The Plight of Bears - Farmed bears are practically in living hell. First, let’s talk about the bears’ living space - or the lack of it. The bears are confined in crush cages, which are hardly bigger than the animal. Oftentimes, they are rusted shut. There is no form of sanitation and the bears do not have continuous access to water. The bears suffer from injuries, worm, peritonitis and other parasites. There is not much space for movement. As a result, their muscles weaken and waste away. They almost cannot stand or move. Their diet is no better. It consists of grain mash or porridge because it’s the only thing the bears can handle. This is because the bear’s canine teeth and claws are taken off to prevent injuries to the farmers. And I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet.
Bile Extraction - The prime purpose for farming of bears is bile extraction. It causes extreme pain and agony to poor bears. I, myself could not even describe the process without grimacing. It is a sick and crude method.
Who Performs It - Most of the time, untrained and unskilled technicians are the ones conducting the procedure. Again, there is no sanitation to the process. During the process, the bears gnash their teeth, bite the bars, twitch and utter distress calls. And afterwards, they are seen curling up, shivering, and holding their paws to their stomach. And this goes on for the rest of their lives. Bile is taken repeatedly over the bear’s whole life. As a result, they suffer from liver cancer due to chronic infection and inflammation of the liver and gall bladder.
All these, the insufficient and inhuman habitat, the repeated torture, add up to cause real suffering and agony for the bears. Their health depreciates very quickly and their life span is only 4 years.
Why It’s Now Useless - And all this, the torture of bile extraction, is for nothing. The use of bile is obsolete. There is no need for the bears to undergo such confinement and suffering for something that is not even needed. There are at least 75 alternatives to using bear bile. Synthetic bile is available, which contains the active ingredient found in bear bile. Demand for bile is decreasing, and right now, the farmers have an oversupply.
How Credit Rating Scores Determine If You Can Get a Credit Card
Do are all those credit card companies intent on filling your mailbox with a bunch of credit card offers? There are so many companies who want to benefit from your spending that it has become somewhat easy to apply for a new card.
However, while they’re quick to make the offer, getting approved is another ball game. Credit card companies may be liberal with their invitations, but their requirements are very strict. Good credit rating scores are one of the requirements you have to meet.
You can improve your credit rating scores if they aren’t very good, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Improving your scores takes time and work, just like anything else. However, you’ll have a much easier time getting approvals once you have a good credit score built up.
There’s no way around it: It’s a must if you want a credit card. Now you may be wondering, how can you improve your credit rating scores? You can do at least three things to get things started.
One of the best things you can do right now is always pay your bills on time. To maintain good credit rating scores, and to get approved for a new credit card, you need pay all your bills before they’re due.
There are problems in life when you have to make a late payment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ever have a credit card. If you make sure you pay your bills on time, then over the next few months your credit rating scores will improve.
Have you ever been tempted to cancel old credit cards you never use? As odd as it may sound, this is really not the best thing to do. Each and every credit card you own just keeps contributing to your credit score. A credit card shows potential lenders that you have funds to pay them back if necessary.
Even if you are still paying on them, keep your old credit cards. You should do this even if you don’t use them. You will have a much easier time applying for a new card if you keep paying your bills and increase your score.
The last recommendation is to not max out the credit limit on your current credit cards. If more than 50% of the limit is used, it is likely that your score will drop.
Staying below 50% will not only help you maintain a higher credit score, it will also help you maintain bills. Hopefully, these few tips have helped you understand how your credit rating scores affect your eligibility for a new credit card. Now go out there and get that credit score up.
Earning your Green Building Certification
We are watching the federal government, states, and municipalities pass rules for corporations to “Go Green.” There is a lot of confusion about what it takes to take a company Green. In the big view, Green business is a full-scale change from any harmful practices, reduce drain on our limited resources, and reduce our dependency on oil. Unfortunately, this can not be done in one easy step. Like eating an elephant, it must be done one piece at a time.
The best place to start is to with the simple and affordable levels of janitorial and office practices that can be modified without a serious overhaul of the company. Let’s face it. Going Green can be a huge financial outlay that may not be reasonable for many businesses. Certifying a Green Building can be a progressive and affordable task that turns any building into a Green Building that benefits the community.
Green Clean Institute offers a federal trademark certification for Green Buildings if they will submit a simple Green Survey and start a transition to a Green certified janitorial service. The cleaning service is the first step in operating a healthier and Greener office. The Green Survey creates a baseline for a Green program, and lays a foundation for improvements on a month by month basis.
Get more information about Green Building certification at www.GreenBusinessLeague.com. Download a copy of the Green Survey, and start the program that can get your facility a Green Building certification in a month’s time. This is not a rubber stamp program. It requires that the cleaning service provide Green products and practices in the cleaning of the facility.
Month after month, the program details affordable steps that help the building transition to Green program in a year’s time. Green Business League gives credibility to every member participant. Green buildings are listed with Dun & Bradstreet and the Green Business League. To keep the program relevant, the program revisits the subject each year. There are certifications that make Green Building qualification more difficult by creating a point system that is hard to obtain, but it need not be that complex. There are many steps such as trash management techniques that require only small changes to your present operation.
The Green Awareness Report is the training program that is provided to the business each month with smart ideas for Greening. Each edition offers advice of the next step in Green practice. You will learn about the ten best plants for a Green office that remove pollution and add oxygen. You will learn outgassing and simple steps to reduce these harmful fumes from the building. Our system removes the barrier between the day workers of an office and the janitorial service.
There are dozens of easy-to-follow steps to achieve a truly Green Building. You could hire a consultant, pay money for restructuring of your facility, and trust that the benefits will outweigh the trouble. You could also appoint a key person in the office to start the Green Survey and take your building Green in a serious way. It all starts with the Green Survey and ends with a healthier building.
Alternative Fuel Vehicles: Go Green
It is very important that scientists begin work on more efficient automobiles that take advantage of alternative fuels because most of the resources on the planet are of a limited nature and fuel consumption remains as high as ever. Fuel prices are skyrocketing and if current trends continue then soon a day will arrive in which there is no more oil.
The potential of hybrid vehicles is drawing the attention of international automobile manufacturers. These vehicles don’t use fossil based fuels like petrol and diesel for power. Another similar vehicle exposed to the consumer markets years ago is the electric car. Many countries around the world have started to replace their diesel and petrol fueled vehicles with hybrid vehicles. This is in response to their citizen’s increasing awareness of environment preservation and energy conservation.
Automobiles powered by alternate fuels are gaining popularity in every nook and corner of the world. They are in the ‘priority- list’ of almost everyone- film stars, businessmen etc. Bio- diesel, for example, is being used as a fuel for running cars and even large vehicles. Alternative fuels have many advantages over regular fuels like petrol and diesel.
Green cars (the name given to those cars which run on electricity, solar cells or bio-diesel) are being manufactured by top notch automobile companies all over the world. Considering their positive effects on the environment, they surely are here to stay. Research has proven that energy alternative fuel vehicles consume less fuel and give better mileage in comparison to the automobiles which run on gasoline or diesel.
At the present time, alternative fuel vehicles have higher sticker prices than many other cars. The price will come down in time, especially as more and more people purchase these environmentally-friendly vehicles. Have you ever wondered why so many people in the world today suffer from respiratory problems? Just take a look at all the cars out there for your answer. Automobile exhaust contains many harmful gases which are causing people to develop allergies, respiratory infections, and asthma.
Alternative fuel vehicles are considered to be totally free from pollution. Since diesel or petrol are not used by these vehicles, there is no pollution in the environment. In several countries cars powered by solar energy is becoming popular. Production of vehicles using alternative energy is being experimented by automobile manufacturers.
Understanding the Role of Expert Witnesses In Lawsuits
We all know that DNA plays a critical role in a criminal trial thanks to the things we’ve learned watching court room dramas on television. Nobody, however, really talks about the witnesses testifying on such evidence.
A trial is actually a fairly simple procedure. The law sets for the elements that must be proved. The parties then argue their sides of each issue. Problems arise, however, when the subjects being argued over get complex.
When things get complex, expert witnesses are introduced to a trial. They have one duty. They must explain complicated things in simple terms you and I can understand if we are on the jury. A few examples will help.
Let’s assume we have a case involving a traffic accident. The sides might argue who was at fault. Experts might be called to testify in regard to the speed of the cars at the time of the accident, which had right of way and so on.
While experts testify in civil cases, you probably know them more by their roles in criminal matters. Specifically, they testify as to cause of death and the all important DNA tests and results that often sink or save defendants.
While experts play critical roles in lawsuits of all types, they don’t always have the impact you might expect. Why? Well, experts tend to cancel each other out if lawyers aren’t careful. One case in particular showed how this can happen.
The battle of experts in the Simpson trial was classic. The prosecution experts testified Simpson’s DNA was on various evidence, but the defense testified nobody could say how it got there. The jury ignored the DNA and acquitted him.
As the Simpson case shows, many lawsuits can end up as a battle of the experts. This really contradicts the purpose of experts wherein they are supposed to be helping the jury understand something instead of further clouding the issue.
Ultimately, the role of expert witnesses in litigation may be a bit confused, but they are still critical to getting a decision by a jury. Without them, it would be nearly impossible for a jury to decide on something like a medical malpractice case.
Stop Barking Dogs The Easy Way
This has been a part of our lives at one point or another. Someone has a dog that barks all the time and it doesn’t ever seem to stop. What makes it even worse is when it is you own dog that is causing all that ruckus and you have no clue how to stop barking dogs or where to even start.
You should be relieved to find out that all dogs bark for a reason, even though the reasons may not always stand out as clearly as we would have hoped. However, we do know that the main reason for dog barking is warn us of strangers who are walking near by.
If your dog is a chronic barker then you may need to look at several different causes before finding the right one that will stop a barking dog successfully. The majority of the time a dog barks because he is bored. If you have been very busy lately and haven’t been spending as much time with your furry friend as you’d like this may be the reason for your barking troubles.
Also, check to see if your dog has food and water, this may be a reason why your dog wont stop barking. Also consider the temperature outside. Is it too hot or too cold for your furry friend to feel comfortable? If so, consider getting him a dog house or some sort of protection and shelter.
You can usually stop barking dogs by just making sure they have everything they need, spending high quality time when you are home and providing some nice toys for them to play with when you are not around.
Training your dog will make a huge impact because in doing so, you will be able to teach him a command that will tell him when to stop barking. Plus, as you spend time training your dog he will grow to trust you more and you will grow to love him more.
Please think about your neighbors. Imagine how it feels to live next to a dog that barks all day and all night. It is bound to get stressful, I know because I lived next to a chronic barker myself. Try not to be offended if your neighbor comes over stressed out and asks you to stop the dog barking. Your dog may be barking up a storm when you aren’t home and you haven’t even realized it.
Even though we may be tempted to stop dog barking completely, keep in mind that barking is the main form of communication your dog has. You don’t want to eliminate his ability to speak to you. So the focus here is to make sure his needs are met and then to teach him proper barking etiquette. When it is alright to go bark and when you have heard enough.
