IQ tests are tests which attempt to measure intelligence – where intelligence – subject to some contention, is defined as mental ability to among other things, solve problems, comprehend idea, learn new things and benefit from experience.

Attempts at testing intelligence have been with us for quite a long time. Ancient China for example, had an examination system (which really was some sort of an intelligence testing mechanism) and which was employed in the recruitment of civil servants during the Han Dynasty.

Intelligence testing as we know it by that specific name however has its roots in the work of a Frenchman called Alfred Binet early in the 20th century. History has it that Binet – who had established himself as a force to recorn with in psychology in France by that time had been given an assignment by the French government to develop a test that could reasonably predict given children’s potentially for educational achievement. The end result of Binet’s work was what he referred to as the Binet-Simon intelligence scale which was for long was used to ‘measure intelligence’

There have been many developments in the field of intelligence testing since Binet first formally ventured into the field. In fact, the very term IQ test (intelligence quotient) testing has been overtaken by these developments. As it were, when the term IQ test was coined, intelligence was then measured as a ratio of ‘mental age’ and ‘chronological age’.

Simply speaking, there were tasks that were considered apt for a given age and intelligence quotient which was measured by the IQ tests then could be calculated at Mental age/Chronological age x 100. In this case, a child of 10 years who could undertake tasks considered apt for a child of 12 had an intelligence quotient of 120, because 12/10×100 is equal to 120. Ideally, a person could only successfully undertake mental tasks apt for their age, and if a person could do mental tasks beyond their chronological age (e.g. the 10 year doing tasks apt for a 12 year old) was considered remarkably intelligent.

Another 10 year old doing tasks apt for a 14 year old would be even more intelligence and so on and so forth. Obviously, this method of measuring intelligence faced a number of challenges as it proves inadequate for measuring intelligence beyond a given age – because, as we know that (the supposed) intelligence does not just go on increasing with age – and in fact starts declining at a certain age. Modern IQ tests therefore tend to measure the subject’s standard deviation from established means (sort of midpoints) – since it has been established that intelligence in a given sample of people, like many other phenomena, if properly tabulated would form a curve and it is the deviations from the midpoints of that curve which is what is measured by modern IQ tests.

IQ tests and the whole notion of IQ testing have not been without controversy. There is contention, for example, on whether it is really possible to measure human intelligence – given that there is not even consensus on definition of the very term intelligence. The tests employed to measure intelligence have also been criticized for being biased towards certain social groups – especially after a prominent scientist in mid 20th century came up with the argument that certain races were intellectually superior to other races – an argument he backed with data obtained from IQ tests – and which was contested on account that items included in IQ tests give undue advantage to economically privileged (and thus well exposed) social groups – hence their apparent higher IQ test scores.

Maintaining a penny stock website I’m repeatedly asked… “How To Invest In Penny Stocks” there really is no great mystery.

Step One… Decide that you are going to make investments on a regular basis.  There are thousands of people who may have taken one ill informed stab at penny stocks, watched it slide, and then never looked again on what might have been a great opportunity for doubling their nestegg.

Step Two… Be sure that the capital you plan to invest with is money that you can do without.  While we have a great track record at http://whisperfromwallstreet.com we’re not perfect and there isn’t anyone who can go undefeated.  The most important part of investing is to do so regularly.

Step Three… Set up an account with an online brokerage house, many of these can be opened for as little as $500, and added to as necessary.  If you don’t have $500 (see step four below)…

Step Four… Save a little bit every month that you plan to use for investing.  While I can’t give you an exact percentage, 10% of your monthly salary would be a good starting point.

Step Five… Join a penny stock newsletter that you trust.  How can you trust one, check their advice over time and weed out the ones that do not deliver.

Step Six… Prior to making your first actual investment, paper trade (practice trading) so you’ll know how you would have done from one day to the next.

Good penny stocks afford you the opportunity for quick and substantial return on investment.  Even if you’ve been stung in the past, take the time to explore them in detail.

cell-phone–tips.com

To avoid unwanted calls you can use many services offered by your phone company.

Call screen (*60):
Your phone can be programmed to reject calls from selected numbers with a service called call screen (Phone companies might use different names). Instead of ringing on your line, these calls are routed to a recording that tells the caller you will not take the call.

With Call Screen, you can also program your telephone to reject calls from the number of last person who called. This allows you to block calls even if you do not know the phone number. Most phone companies charge a monthly fee for this service.

However, Call Screen is not a foolproof way to stop unwelcome calls. A determined caller can move to a different phone number to bypass the block. Also, Call Screen does not work on long distance calls from outside your service area.

You can also use Priority Ringing:
You can assign a special ring to calls from up to 10 numbers – calls you are most likely to want to answer. The rest can be routed to voice mail. There are ways callers can get around Priority Ringing when it is used as a screening tool. Harasser can switch phone lines and avoid the distinctive ring.

You can try Call Return (*69):
This service allows you to call back the number of last person who called, even if you are unable to answer the phone. Some people suggest that call return can be used to stop harassing callers by allowing you to call the harasser back without knowing their phone number. Use caution with this method of discouraging harassing callers, however, as it could actually aggravate the problem. This service is paid on a per-use basis.

You can use caller id to identify the caller if they are not blocking their number or use a service offered by most phone companies called Privacy Manager. It works with Caller ID to identify incoming calls that have no telephone numbers. Calls identified as “anonymous,” unavailable,” out of area” or “private” must identify themselves in order to complete the call.

Before your phone rings, a recorded message instructs the caller to unblock the call, enter a code number (like inbound call blocking devices mentioned above), or record their name. When your phone rings, you can choose to accept or reject the call, send it to voice mail, or send a special message to telemarketers instructing them to put you on their “do not call” list.

What does it mean when sometimes my phone rings and there is no one on the line?
Oftentimes, when you receive frequent hang ups on your phone line it could be that someone is checking to see if you are home or its simply harassment. It could also be calls from telemarketers who use computers for “predictive dialing” to call consumers where the computer dials many phone numbers in a short period of time. When anyone answers, the computer finds a sales representative who is not occupied at that time and connects the call.

If all sales reps are busy then consumer may hear only silence. These type of calls are called “abandoned calls.” If you are receiving many abandoned calls in a day, you can call the annoyance department of your local phone company. If these repeated calls are from a malicious individual who is harassing you rather than a telemarketer, the phone company will generally report the number to law enforcement.

Assisted living is for adults who need help with everyday tasks. It is not an alternative to a nursing home, but an intermediate level of long-term care appropriate for many seniors. Assisted living exists to bridge the gap between independent living and nursing homes.

How do you know if your loved one needs an assisted living facility (ALF)? ALFs are for people needing assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) but wishing to live as independently as possible for as long as possible. ALFs offer help with ADLs such as eating, bathing, dressing, laundry, housekeeping, and assistance with medications. Statistically, an assisted living resident needs assistance with an average of three ADLs. ALFs are popular because they are less restrictive and less expensive than a nursing home, which is the last place many older adults want to go. They provide the residents with more freedom.

What should you know about ALFs in general? It is important to know what type of environment each assisted living facility caters to so that your loved one will be comfortable and happy. Find out if the assisted living facility offers any exercise programs, shopping trips, and/or other entertainment. Assisted living residences range in size from 3 to over 200 beds. There is no nationally recognized definition of assisted living in the US. Assisted Living facilities are regulated and licensed at the state level. Some assisted living facilities are part of retirement communities. The Consumer Consortium on Assisted Living (CCAL) is a national nonprofit consumer-based organization nationwide focused on the needs, rights and protection of assisted living consumers, their caregivers and loved ones. For more information about choosing the right Assisted Living Facility, just follow our link.

Assisted living costs less than nursing home care. Most Assisted Living residences charge month-to-month rates, but a few residences require long-term contracts. Medicare does not cover the costs of assisted living. So be sure you understand the costs beforehand.

Want to find our more about Assisted Living? Check out our Assisted Living information at ConcerningAging.com.

Author: Staff Writer at www.ConcerningAging.com

Machines tend to break down. That’s just how they are. They tear, waste, use, overheat, fail, etc. Microsoft’s second entry in the video game console industry, the Xbox 360, is no exception. And it’s also known for its hardware failures, the most common being the Xbox 360 three flashing red lights, also known as “the red ring of death.”

The primary cause of Xbox 360 failure is related to a design flaw in the launch version of the console which uses 90nm technology. Essentially, the Xbox has an inadequate cooling system which results in damage to the components. This damage leads to glitches and eventually the so called “red ring of death”. Don’t worry: Your Xbox Live Account and your Xbox 360 achievements are not broken. Luckily, later version with 65nm technology are not affected.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 console has several ways that tell technicians what the problem probably is. One is through the four green lights that are around the power button. When they change to red and flash, they are trying to tell you something. If there’s only 1 flashing red light, then your Xbox 360 is pretty much dead. If you see 2 red lights, it means your Xbox 360 overheated and you should turn it off for a while to let it cool.

If this happens often, you might want to get a fan accessory to help it ventilate. If there are on your Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights, it means that something is wrong with the hardware, but don’t worry. It can be fixed. Finally, 4 flashing red lights just mean that you didn’t connect your cables properly. The 4 lights won’t flash if you connected the Xbox 360 wifi in a wrong way.

And one can identify Red Ring of Death (RROD) problem with their Xbox if they find any of following problem with their console:

* Disc Error problems
* Xbox freezing problem
* Abnormal sound from your Xbox
* Unable to play your Xbox

Once your Xbox breaks down you are left with very few options. Microsoft states that the average wait time for a repair is 4-6 weeks and that the cost of the repair would be $140. That’s in addition to shipping and handling charges! Another option will have you up and running again in less than an hour. This involves purchasing a do-it-yourself repair guide online. The top repair guides are very impressive and cost less than $30. These repair guides will focus on the how to fix your red ring problem and how to make sure it does not happen again.

The easiest way to do an Xbox 360 red ring fix is to prevent the problem from happening at all. If you bought your Xbox 360 within a few months after launch day, do yourself a favor and buy the fan. Also, never, ever place your Xbox (or any other electronic device) next to a heat source. Some people tend to cram all their devices together, TV, DVD player, CD player, VCR, Xbox 360, Playstation, Nintendo Gamecube, etc., which causes them to heat each other. Always leave some space between your Xbox and everything else. This will not only keep it from receiving heat from other devices, but it will also keep the ventilation holes open and with plenty of space to operate.

It’s also a good idea to clean the back of your Xbox 360 from time to time. Just brush off with a dry cloth all the dust and dirt that accumulates in the back of it. It will not only prevent the red light problem, but it will lengthen the life of your Xbox 360.

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Do you have nightmares about public speaking? When you have to stand up in front of a group does your mouth go dry? Hands shake? Stomach turn flip-flops? Feel lightheaded? Think you may pass out?

Welcome to the club. If it’s any comfort, you are not alone!

According to a well-known survey, 65% of us would rather die than speak in public. Many have tried for years to overcome their fear and given it up as hopeless. But wait! There is hope.

We can now turn to one tested method to end the fear of public speaking that has been shown to yield amazing results. It is The Lefkoe Method (TLM).

Probably the least known, but possibly the fastest way of getting rid of the fear of speaking in public, is The Lefkoe Method (TLM). TLM is based on the knowledge that our behavior is governed by what we believe to be true. Therefore, it focuses on finding the 10 or so negative beliefs that make us fear public speaking. These can be such beliefs as, Mistakes and failure are bad; If I make a mistake, I’ll be rejected; or People aren’t interested in what I have to say; etc.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this approach is how consistently it works. In a study published by the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, university researchers found that on a scale of 1-10, participants who used TLM lowered their fear of public speaking from an average of 7 down to 1.5 (1 was a lack of any fear at all). It took an average 3.5 hours for participants to reach this level. In follow-up six months later, the fear had not returned. Based on this evidence, the researchers concluded that, The Lefkoe Method is an effective, quick, and convenient procedure to eliminate the fear of speaking in public.

TLM was created over 20 years ago by Morty Lefkoe, founder of The Lefkoe Institute. He and several other certified facilitators have helped over 12,000 clients rid themselves of their fear of public speaking, along with many other emotional and behavioral problems. Their Speaking Without Fear Program is offered with a money-back guarantee: if your fear is not gone in four or less one-hour telephone sessions, you’ll get a full refund. For more information visit: Fear of Public Speaking.

The Lefkoe Institute (TLI) has a money back guarantee and a 97% success rate.

Keep in mind that most people who have benefited from TLM agree that the skill of the practitioner is of the utmost importance in determining the effectiveness of the program. If you really desire to overcome your fear of public speaking, be sure you are working with someone who is highly skilled, gives you confidence in his/her ability, and makes you want to succeed. And about that money-back guarantee? Couldn’t hurt.

Daily Thoughts

First, some words about .tar files. TAR is a really old file extension. It harkens back to the bad old times when hard drives were a pricy oddity and tapes ruled the field of backup and storage. In fact, “TAR” means tape archive. However, despite it’s telling name, it would hardly be considered a “real” archiving format by many contemporary users because it offers no data compression. A .tar file is basically just a number of different files strung together.

Since a TAR file offers no compression features of it’s own, the files are usually compresed with an additional archiver. Common examples include Gzip (extension .tar.gz) and Bzip2 (file extension .tar.bz2). This means that usually you might need more than one program to extract a .tar file – e.g., a rar converter may be necessary sometimes.

Lets get down to business. To extract a “plain” TAR archive on a Linux-like OS, use this command : “tar -xvf filename.tar”. This will extract the contents of the file in the current directory. In case the archive has been compressed with gzip (.tar.gz), you need to add the “z” flag to the aforementioned command; like this : “tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz”.

If you’re running Windows, you’re even better off – most popular archivers know how to deal with .tar files. For example, WinRAR (shareware) and 7-zip (open source) can both unzip .tar, .tar.gz, and several other archive formats easily. With WinRAR extracting a .tar archive is as easy as right-click + “Extract here”.

The techniques explained in this article should be enough to deal with most .tar archives you’ll ever come across. If you encounter something that wasn’t addressed here, there’s always Google, ready to answer every query.

What type food do you eat? Monitoring the amount you eat; the times you choose to eat, can have a major effect on you if you are a sufferer of  Crohns Disease. Studies have noted, that even a cure for Crohns Disease may be unknown, watching your diet is one way of keeping Crohns Disease under control.

Many people suffering from Crohns Disease, have to deal with such symptoms as abdominal pains, cramps, nausea, and even diarrhea. The symptoms accompanying Crohns Disease can be quite disturbing, embarrassing and a cramp to ones lifestyle. Some have felt restricted from going on social outings with family and friends because of the irratibilty of Crohns.

Crohns Disease sufferers have at their disposal an array of conservative treatments, one being anti-imflammatories. Since Crohns Disease is basically the inflammation of the stomach’s lining, which leads to irritation of the of the gut, anti-imflammatories lessens those symptoms; thus keeping Crohns Disease under control. And depending on the severity of your Crohns Disease illness, surgery may be another or hopefully the last option.

Remember , whatever route you choose to take in finding what you might consider to be, finding a cure for Crohns Disease, consult with your physician. Though many therapies and treatments are out there,  well meaning they may be, consulting with a medical professional is a wise course, its better to be safe than sorry.  So weigh your options and proceed with caution. The more you know about Crohns Disease, the better you can control it and thus cope with chronic illness.

Are you looking for a cheap private health insurance (PKV) in Germany? Use the free PKV comparison, and find the right private medical insurance offer from the plurality of insurance companies. On the market there are many PKV insurance vendors. Here you can find a free comparison of insurance vendors and get your personal sickness insurance offer: Privatkrankenversicherungen im Angebotsvergleich

A private health insurance has different advantages:

You can save charges, if you agree to pay a fixed amount of the yearly medical bills by yourself. This is interesting for healthy people who do not need regular medication. Private patients see the doctors bills and know how much is charged. So you can see how much the different items are. As a private insured, you can control the medical invoices. Before choosing your German private medical insurance vendor, you should always ask for several offers. That can be done online: Privatkassen fuer Selbstaendige. Every German, who is not obliged to be a member of the statutory health insurance (GKV), can join the private health insurance. This applies to civil servants and self-employed persons. In addition to employees, whose salaries are above the GKV insurance limit. The insurance limit is a monthly gross salary of 4012.50 Euros or 48,150 Euros per year in 2008.

Many companies offer the option of making adjustments to the tariff of the active contract. That is very helpful when your personal needs change over time. The PKV usually offers better performance than the statutory health insurance. Private health insurance companies may also pay items, which are not paid by the statutory health insurance. This is dependent on your individual contract. The monthly charges of the private health insurance are only dependent on the individual contract and are not calculated in accordance to your income.

For most individuals, making ends meet can be very difficult. It is very disheartening that most individuals are living from check to check. For those individuals, their world is turned upside down and they find themselves in serious financial trouble when an emergency arises. Banks may not loan them money for a variety of reasons. They may not have any collateral or their credit is not good enough, or the amount may be too small to borrow. Many visit pawn shops and sell their important items at a fraction of what they are worth. If you need money and need it quickly, there are other options to consider. Payday loans might be able to help you out until your next payday. Also remember, there are benefits to payday loans and there are also payday loan drawbacks. Be sure to do your research before taking out this type of loan.

Below are some common questions and concerns regarding payday loans.

Payday Loans – What are They?

Basically, payday loans are short term loans made by specialized companies. Depending on when your payday is, these loans are designed to be repaid within two to four weeks. The process of taking out the loan is fairly simple and the money you receive can be used for anything. The income level will determine the amount you can borrow. The amount of money borrowed will determine the amount of interest. You credit will not be checked and payday loan companies do not report to credit agencies.

What Type of Information Will I Have to Provide?

A few items will be required from you, the first being an open checking account, which has been open for three months or longer. For verification purposes, you will need to bring in your most recent bank statement. You will also have to provide identification and your most recent paycheck stub. Some companies will want you to provide a copy of a utility bill to provide proof of address. Some payday loan businesses require additional items and you will have to ask them what they specifically require.