ADDITIONII

   "Want to learn to speak Japanese? Try a podcast." The Internet has truly revolutionized the distribution of learning materials. In the last couple of years, podcasts as learning aids have become increasingly popular, either as a stand-alone mini-course or as an enhancement to courses and programs delivered through more traditional sources. Spend a few moments Googling "podcasts for learning," and soon you will be downloading podcasts to help you learn to speak Chinese, Japanese, Italian and other languages; or podcasts offering instruction on Plato's philosophy, current scientific issues, environmental concerns, and almost anything else you might want. A podcast, according to Wikipedia, is a digital media file or files that the broadcaster (or podcaster) distributes over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on digital media devices and personal computers. The term is coined from a blend of "iPod" and "broadcast." Unlike strea...

  Our new President rails against it, unions denigrate it, and unemployed blame it. And not without reason. On trade, jobs and economic growth, the US has performed less than stellar. Let's look at the data, but then drill down a bit to the nuances. Undirected bluster to reduce trade deficits and grow jobs will likely stumble on those nuances. Rather, an appreciation of economic intricacies must go hand-in-hand with bold action. So let's dive in. The US Performance - Trade, Jobs and Growth For authenticity, we turn to (by all appearances) unbiased and authoritative sources. For trade balances, we use the ITC, International Trade Commission, in Switzerland; for US employment, we use the US BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics; and for overall economic data across countries we drawn on the World Bank. Per the ITC, the United State amassed a merchandise trade deficit of $802 billion in 2015, the largest such deficit of any country. This deficit exceeds the sum of the deficits for the n...

  The patient slowly enters your office with noticeable pain, carrying records inches thick. After establishing rapport for fifteen minutes, taking the history for an hour and doing a physical exam for twenty minutes, you find yourself already over time. Treatment time? Next visit perhaps - that is if the patient returns. How many times do you find yourself in this situation? Effective history taking and physical exams take time. That is reality. The other reality is that the patient walks away feeling frustrated. They are tired, sick or in pain, and have to wait until the next office visit for what they came for in the first place - treatment. You are also frustrated because you desired to improve your patient's condition on the first visit. As a result, both the physician and patient are not completely satisfied. Adding a therapeutic, safe and inexpensive outpatient treatment is an effective solution. Outpatient treatment alleviates time pressure because you now have a tool that ...

  Allow me to begin by saying that do-it-yourself lawyering has its limits. Surely, you can draft contracts on your own, you can survive gruesome negotiations with your business clients, you can settle a marital dispute among yourselves but when the need to come to court arises, you need to get a lawyer. Expenses will be incurred, professional fees will have to be paid and the usually lengthy process will have to be endured. More often than not, the costs of resolving a problem are far greater than the costs of preventing the problem. Prevention, as they say, is always better than cure. So hire a lawyer and hire a good one. Qualifications The "practice of law" is loosely defined as ministering to the legal needs of another person by the application of legal principles and knowledge by a person trained in the law. By this definition however, a paralegal or even a secretary who has knowledge of the laws, who has been "trained" by the sheer fact of having been employed...

  If you are overweight, don't think "I need to go on a diet", instead think "I need a new lifestyle". When you finally decide you need to lose the weight, don't start a diet as an immediate solution to a problem, like having to buy a larger size dress instead of one two sizes smaller than you are; or your belt is too small and you have to buy a larger one, not a good sign. In men, an increase in waistline can mean your heart may be feeling the pressure of that extra fat around your waist. Time to make some changes; but these changes cannot or should not be made to solve a temporary obstacle. You must decide to change your life-style rather than going on a diet. You know that what you have been doing so far does not work, so perhaps it's time to try something different. Don't be impatient to lose those unwanted pounds, allow yourself enough time to lose them safely. Remember, you did not gain the weight overnight and you cannot expect your body to dr...