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I'm sure you must have seen at least one Samurai movie in your lifetime. You know the scene, with the warrior standing erect and stiff, while tightly holding a sheathed sword in his left hand and the villagers scattering for their lives. The camera zooms in on his face, his eyes move slowly from left to right and beads of sweat trickle down his forehead. Time seems to stop, and after what appears to be a lifetime, he slowly unsheathes the traditional weapon and assumes a fighting stance. Focused and unstoppable he then proceeds to wipe out the villains and save the poor villagers from the bad guys.

How many times have you felt like a samurai as you approach the green. A tournament deciding putt awaits and your partner looks on in helplessness as you prepare your mind for the task ahead. Slowly, you remove the putter from the bag and walk towards the ball. Ouch! That chip shot didn't go exactly as planned and you've left yourself with a ten meter long putt on a green with more hills than Rome. Genuflecting on one knee and holding the putter plumb at 90 degrees, your eyes follow the curves and contour to find the exact line to the cup. You take a deep breath to calm your nerves and bravely stand up. Trying to keeping mind all the factors that will enable you to succeed in making this difficult but possible shot you assume your stance.

Are my feet correctly positioned?

Are my shoulders straight?

Did I get the right line?

Am I focusing on the ball?

Will I keep my head down?

How much power do I need to give it?

Is my grip alright?

You can hear your heart beating in your chest and time slows down.

You could hear a pin drop. (If it weren't for the grass)

again, another deep breath, but this time holding it in, as you bring back the club head and take the shot.

You cannot see where the ball is going as it roller-coasters the uneven terrain but you anxiously wait for the exhilarating sound as ball meets cup in perfect unison.

Nigel Nix has been playing golf on and off since he was 5 years old. He is now 42 and runs a humorous golf blog. Golf Mad Blog

# posted by 34435 : 10:18 AM  0 comments

Hardware is also an aspect that you should take into consideration when choosing a home console. If you are looking for the fastest system, you should be aware of the fact that the three competitors (the Xbox, ps2 and the GameCube) are offering an almost similar gaming experience. But the difference comes in the ability of playing dvd movies or connecting to the internet.

Slight differences can be found in the hard drive area as the three systems (the ps2, the gamecube or the Xbox) have different memory capabilities. For instance, the gamecube and ps2 use memory cards that have to be bought separately from the main system. On the other hand, the Xbox is using an internal hard drive that is obviously larger than any memory card. Therefore, the Xbox is capable of storing and playing things you download from the internet like music or extra levels for your game.

The internet connectivity feature means that you will be able to play with or against other persons via internet, you can download extra levels for your games or you can upgrade your gaming options. When it comes to these internet connectivity features, the Xbox has a built in ethernet port that allow you to easily get online. The ps2 can be purchased in two options: with an integrated ethernet port or with a separate ethernet and modem adapter. The gamecube comes in some models capable of internet connectivity.

Another hardware aspect is the home consoles capacity of playing DVDs. The ps2 has the incorporated ability of playing DVDs. The Xbox is offering you the same capability if of playing DVDs but only after purchasing a separate DVD accessory. The present gamecube is unfortunately too small to hold a dvd playing capability.

In conclusion when you have to choose between the Xbox, the ps2 or the gamecube, you should look into all their features and capabilities. One home console may have a better feature than the others, or the other way around. It is a natural thing to happen in a competitive market. Your own preferences in games, hardware or internet connectivity will be in the end the deciding factor.

# posted by 34435 : 12:07 AM  0 comments

obesity and fast foods - there's little doubt about the link. obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United states. And it's an epidemic that has grown side by side, step by step with the the fast food industry.

Eric Schlosser in his brilliant and shocking book, Fast food Nation, describes the US as "an empire of fat," and he lays the blame for this clearly and convincingly at the door of the fast food industry.

obesity Fast food Data

Twice as many American adults are obese today as in the 1960s. More than half of all adults and a quarter of all children are now obese. over this same period, fast food has become cheaper and easier to buy. Further evidence for the link between obesity and fast food can be found outside the US. Since the early 1980s, American-style fast food culture has spread like wildfire around the world... And obesity has followed, accompanied by its many unwelcome side effects: heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and other ills.

As people in countries like Japan and China have abandoned traditional healthy diets in favour of fast food, the rates of obesity and associated diseases have soared.

In countries which have resisted the spread of fast food culture, like France, Italy and Spain, obesity is far less of a problem. The good news is that there is now more awareness about the ill effects of fast food than ever before, thanks in part to books like Fast food Nation and documentary movies like Morgan Spurlock's popular and punchy Super Size Me.

There also seems to be a genuine change in people's attituded to to food and how it is produced. As Schlosser says modestly of his book: "its success should not be attributed to my literary style, my storytelling ability, or the novelty of my arguments.

"Had the same book been published a decade ago, with the same words in the same order, it probably wouldn't have attracted much attention. Not just in the United States, but throughout western Europe,people are beginning to question the massive, homogenizing systems that produce, distribute, and market their food. The unexpected popularity of Fast food Nation, I believe, has a simple yet profound explanation. The times are changing."

What can we do about fast food and obesity?

So what can we do to as consumers to tackle the problem of obesity and fast foods?

First, we can stop supporting the traditional, unhealthy fast food chains. Let's rather buy from outlets that sell healthy alternatives. More and more of these restaurants and delis are opening. There should be at least one near you. Support it!

Another thing we can do is to lobby our congressperson (or MP or some other political representative if we're in a country outside the US) to ban all advertisements that promote foods high in fat and sugar to children.

As Schlosser points out, prevention is far better than cure. "A ban on advertising unhealthy foods to children would discourage eating habits that are not only hard to break, but potentially life-threatening."

Such a ban may sound far-fetched, until you remember that 35 years ago a ban on cigarette advertising sounded equally unlikely. Five years later Congress banned cigarette ads from television and radio. And those ads were directed at adults, not children.

Smoking has declined ever since.

It's time we did something similar with obesity and fast food

Alan Cooper is a journalist with 20 year's experience and the publisher of http://www.ObesityCures.com, a site with the ambitious aim of being a "one-stop-shop" for impartial information on obesity and weight loss solutions - including fad diets, prescription weightloss pills and herbal diet aides.

# posted by 34435 : 12:03 AM  0 comments