Important Handheld GPS Features

I began searching for a handheld GPS unit a while ago and was a little shocked at the amount of choice on the market. GPS receivers have become extremely popular and there are all different types to choose from

I personally wanted a handheld GPS that could go with me anywhere and be used for all types of outdoor activities as well as easily be brought with me traveling.

After a lot of reading I came to realize that there are a few key features that are really important to look for in a handheld GPS unit.

Is it WAAS Enabled?

WAAS stands for Wide Area Augmentation System and is based on a network of twenty-five different ground-reference stations. If you have a GPS unit that is able to read these signals then it will be able to tract your location to less than ten feet. In other words if your handheld is WAAS enabled it is able to be extremely precise and accurate.

How Many Waypoints are There?

Waypoints are reference points and they help to show your location. They are extremely useful in helping to sort the best routes for your trip as they leave a kind of breadcrumb trail for you. It is suggested that a decent handheld GPS should be capable of storing at least 500 waypoints. That way you are covered whether you are on the water, in the wilderness or on the road.

What are the Maps Like?

Maps of course of an extremely important feature of any GPS device. Each receiver will come with different types of maps. It would be wise to decide beforehand what type of maps you will need the most as well as how detailed you would need them to be. A typical handheld GPS will come with a certain amount of maps already stored within and some will have the capability of adding more maps if you need them.

Check to see if the model has enough storage space to be able to upload specific maps that you may need down the road.

Is it Waterproof?

It was important to me that my handheld GPS was waterproof. A waterproof unit is far more versatile and can be used in the rain, while skiing, or even while boating or kayaking.

If you choose a waterproof unit then look for a waterproof rating of IPX7. This means that it can withstand accidental dunks, rain as well as splashes from water. It can also float.

Deciding Which One to Buy

After considering all of the important features above do a little research and watch out for units that offer a lot of unique features that not only drive the cost up but also may never get used

In the end I chose to purchase the Garmin GPSMAP 76 waterproof handheld GPS. It is not overly fancy but it does offer all of the important features and has just the right amount of extras while still staying affordable.

Whichever unit you choose to purchase be sure to read the consumer reviews to find honest opinions from those who have used it first hand.

Treatments for Open Wounds

When we talk about open wounds we are talking about external injuries such as to the mucous membrane or skin, injuries that results in the breaking or opening of tissue.

Open wounds are usually a result of scrapes, cuts, abrasions and punctures. These wounds are mostly accompanied by bleeding. There are various treatments that help minimize extensive bleeding, infection and intensive scarring. The treatment includes applying pressure, cleaning, dressing, stitching and medication. We will discuss each of these treatments in detail below:

- Applying Pressure

If you get a small wound for e.g. paper cuts, applying pressure can be done away with as in these kind of wounds bleeding usually stops within minutes or even seconds. Larger open wounds however, pose a greater threat as they can bleed profusely. Large open wounds that are bleeding require application of pressure in order to stop blood loss. The best way to get this done is to wrap the wound in a piece of clean cloth. This could be a rag, towel or t-shirt. The piece of cloth should be wrapped so that it is taught. This should not be considered as a permanent treatment. This is temporary until proper medical help is available.

- Cleaning

Small open wounds should be allowed to bleed for a few seconds. This will help clean these wounds naturally.

It is also possible that these wounds are washed gently with a mixture of soap and water. Also commonly used for this purpose are rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide solutions.

If you are faced with a wound that is a kind of abrasion and has bits of dirt or other debris, this wound will need to be scrubbed clean so as to prevent permanent discoloration of the skin.

- Dressing

After properly cleaning an open wound, the wound should be covered by applying a sterile dressing. This could be in the form of a bandage or gauze and tape. While doing this a bit of disinfectant gel can also be used on the affected area. Small cuts, it has been found, heal faster when left exposed to open air.

- Stitches

Open wounds that are large or are present in vital or high stress areas a stitch or sutures will need to be used. A cut that is larger than half an inch or is deep enough to reveal the underlying layer of fat generally require stitching.

- Drugs

To prevent infections in open wounds, especially those caused by animal bites or unsanitary objects, drugs may be prescribed to the patient.

How and Why to Use Montmorillonite Clay

Montmorillonite clay is capable of many great things for a certain pond. It contains the idyllic balance of calcium, magnesium and trace elements which promote pond health. Some use it in the summer to fight algae bloom. Others do not even know that this type of clay does a lot of good things in ponds. Montmorillonite clay is actually recommended to be applied in fish ponds all year round to maximize its benefits.

This type of clay is commonly mixed with the fish food. Not only does it have the vital elements that the pond needs, it also promotes better digestion and detoxification for the fish in your pond. Or if you too anxious to directly feed your fish with montmorillonite clay, you can just put it in the water. By doing so, you let it dissolve allowing it to be absorbed by the fish through their bodies and gills. Ample doses of the clay improve the health of the fish and add more glow to their skin colors.

The use of this clay in ponds provides a number of benefits due to its balanced minerals and trace elements. Because of these elements, the clay can easily be absorbed by the creatures living in the pond. Basically, montmorillonite clay is responsible for the enhancement of enzyme production of all the living organisms in the pond. Also, it aids to improve the quality of the water and to detoxify it by effectively absorbing the heavy metals, free radicals and pesticides that go in the pond.

Montmorillonite clay establishes its restorative qualities through its special physical characteristics particularly the allocation of its minuscule particles once introduced to the pond. Since individual clay particles are even smaller than toxic bacteria, it's much easier for them to be flooded with more clay constituent parts. And once this occurs, the toxic bacteria bond together with the clay and can easily be absorbed by the inorganic material. Right away, the pond water gets detoxified and detrimental capabilities of toxins are halted. Fewer toxins in the pond mean less fish infection and less pond algae problems. Montmorillonite clay is so easy to apply in a certain pond. It comes in powder form and can easily be liquefied in water. Once dissolved, pour the solution evenly around the corners of your pond. The doses of montmorillonite clay depend on the size of the pond, the amount of water, and the number of dwellers you have in the pond. The recommended dose however is at 1 level scoop or tablespoon per 1,000 gallons of pond water every other day.

Since this clay is very safe even for human consumption, there is no need to worry when you put too much of it in your pond. The health of fish won't get affected as well. As matter of fact, you need not to worry for the next week's dose of montmorillonite. The only thing that will bug you is that if you put too much clay solution in the pond, it tends to settle at the bottom and before you know it, it already bonded with the silt formed in the pond bed.

How to Knock in Your Cricket Bat and Care For it in the Long Run

Ok, so you have bought yourself a nice, brand new cricket bat then, you cant wait to get out into the nets and use it. However, unless you are a professional who gets their bats for free, or you are rich enough to buy a new bat every few weeks, this is the worst thing you can do. Below I will walk you through the technique for knocking in your cricket bat:

Equipment needed: Wooden bat mallet, Linseed or bat oil, a clear protective face for the bat, an old ball, finishing grade sandpaper.

1. The very first step is to get your mallet and to very lightly brush it off the edges of the bat, starting from the top of the edge and working down. You will see some slight denting, but this is normal. What you don't want to do is to hit the edge hard, as this will start to crack it, you should barely be putting any force into this. This should be done for about 10 times on each edge (a time is going from the top to the bottom of the edge) each time gradually putting a little bit more force into each stroke, in the end you should be hitting the edges with a medium force, so you can feel the bat trying to twist in your hand with the stroke, but you can still control exactly where you want to hit. Ideally your bat will not have a protective face on it, as this makes oiling harder. If it does, no worries but you must take the face off after a season.

2. The same process should be repeated for the face of the bat, working your way this time from the toe of the bat to the shoulder. However, do not hit the splice! (This is the bit where the handle is glued in a 'V' to the blade of the bat) Again you should see a little bit of denting on the face of your bat, this is perfectly normal as the wood is very soft, the process of knocking in a bat compresses the fibres of the wood and makes them tougher, and less likely to split.

3. Now, by this time you should have done about an hour or two of knocking in the bat, and are probably thoroughly bored and want to use the thing, sorry, but you still have some work to do! Again, on both the edge and the face of the bat you should work your way 10 times with ever increasing force, by the tenth time, you should be hitting the face of the bat with the same, and sometimes greater force than the bat will normally be used to in a match, however, please do not do this to the shoulder of the bat, it is a weak point and easily split, use the medium force on the shoulder all the time. Also do not neglect the toe of the bat, this is an important bit to knock in and should be done with the same force as is used on the shoulder. N.B When I say the toe, I mean the very base of the face of the bat, do not turn the bat upside down and hit the bottom of it! Later on, another thing you can do is to hold the mallet upside down and the bat in your other hand and to swing the bat towards the mallet as if playing a stroke.

4. Ok, so that is the mallet work out of the way with, and you should have done roughly 3-4 hours of work on the bat. The next stage is the first coat of oil. Get an old rag and soak it in Linseed oil or specialist bat oil. you should then rub this over the whole of the bat, except for the splice and handle. Leave this stored horizontally for 12 hours.

5. When you come back to the bat, you may see little deposits of oil on the surface, no worries, just get the rag and rub these away. The important thing is not to over oil your bat, one more light coat after this will be easily enough for the whole season. Many people put far too much oil onto their bats, causing them to gain quite a bit of weight and in the end deadening them well before they should be.

6. The next step requires you to grab a mate, and an old cricket ball. Get your friend to give you light throw downs on the full (no bounces). Start off by just blocking these back to them and slowly work up to playing strokes, but no full blooded ones yet! This should be done for another hour. Don't worry if you see some seam marks on the bat, again this is natural.

7. You should now attach a clear bat face to the bat, this will help to reduce cracking in it, and if correctly used, will prolong the life of your bat, try to get no air bubbles when applying this. Newbery's Hammeredge bat sheets are in my opinion the best for this as they are thin, yet still protect.

8. Take your bat to your nets and use there for a couple of weeks, after this, your bat is ready to be used in a match.

9. At the end of the season, remove the bat face and oil the bat again. The reason for removing the bat face is that if you leave it on, the face of the bat will start to dry out and crack due to it not having any oil. To remove the face, pull it off from side to side, minimising the amount of wood that lifts in the process. Once this is done, get some finishing grade sandpaper and rub down the face and edges of the bat before oiling.

10. Apply a new bat face and use the bat for the next season!

Do Not's when knocking your bat in:

Use a metal hammer/mallet, for obvious reasons! Hit the back of the bat with the mallet, this will damage it! Soak your bat in oil, as it will deaden it. Use a new ball straight away, these are very hard and will damage the bat, they have to be played in with an old ball first.

Those are the stages for knocking in your bat, personally I have knocked in a lot of bats by hand, usually to generate a little bit of money, so I have come up with this technique for knocking in and caring for the bats. I will add that sometimes a bat will break during knocking in, or soon afterwards. This is generally not your fault, but one of the bat- you do get some hidden faults in bats, or just a bad one! Also how hard the wood is does sometimes affect how quickly/slowly you move through the stages, if it is very soft wood, you need to spend a lot more time on the early stages.

Also knocking in helps increase the length of time a bat will perform for, but will not increase its performance, if anything, it will be slightly the opposite, but not enough to notice. Professionals do not knock their bats in as they have several and will just be given a new one if they break it!

Japanese Knotweed Removal: Chemical Control V Excavation Why?

There are several accepted methods to remove Japanese knotweed and many people have spent a long time debating which solution is best. The answer we suggest is specific to the property or site in question. Generally other demands put upon the land in question will define how Japanese knotweed should be controlled. Unfortunately money as with everything comes into the Japanese knotweed control equation. The cost of Excavation far exceeds that of the chemical control the normal alternative way to remove Japanese knotweed. So other than money what are the deciding factors that need to be considered? Here we have created a simple chart to help those considering who they should remove Japanese knotweed.

Chemical Control considerations:

· Cost effective

· Beneficial to the environment

· Time; takes 3-4 years to control and even more years for the plant fully decompose so land can be considered re-mediated and/or knotweed eradicated

· Changes in future land use are restricted in areas formally impacted with knotweed. Impacted land will always be considered as knotweed contaminated from a waste perspective

· Requires specialist training and certification for professional treatment

· Restrictions on chemical type under or near trees and EA approval needed near water. Natural England need to be informed in certain situations as well

Considerations for excavation and removal off site:

· Expensive

· Land fill is a scarce resource so excavation that requires waste taken off site will need to go to a specialist landfill site

· Excavation and removal off site is instant and the only true method of eradication

· Once knotweed impacted material is excavated and removed the location is fully re-mediated and can has not restriction on future land use

· Requires experience and expertise so that efficient excavation can be implemented. A knotweed specialist must manage and act as a watching brief at the very least.

· Excavation is restricted near foundation to buildings or other built structures. Excavation will be restricted under or close to trees and may well be considered inappropriate as such an operation my destabilise or make a trees for retention un-safe

There are alternative approaches which is where specialist advice should be employed. Other methods which fall in the middle of the two options detailed above include; on site relocation, on site burial and partial excavation and capping with root barrier; these options are briefly discussed below.

On site relocation: Excavate and move impacted material from one location where redevelopment is perhaps planned to another location within the same legal piece of land where it can be treated chemically over a longer period. The advantage here is that knotweed can be treated economically over time diverting waste from landfill which is generally more cost effective and better on the environment.

On site burial: being able to bury Japanese knotweed impacted material on site removes the need for it to go to landfill and is accepted by the Environment Agency as a viable method of Japanese knotweed control. The impacted material must be free from other forms of contamination and the EA do need to be informed. Normally a root barrier is used o encapsulate the knotweed which is buried to a depth of more than 2 metres

Partial excavation and capping with root barrier: In some circumstances it is possible to excavate to formation level and then use a root barrier to cap the knotweed in situ. This is more economical then complete removal and so long a suitable specialist root barrier is used and correctly installed. This method can be an effective and economical solution but may need to be combined with chemical control.

In conclusion consideration must be given to the site and the demands that will be put on it through future changes in re-development and use. The recommendation is that a proper survey is documented and a strategy developed to ensure that proper consideration has been given to the methodology of Japanese knotweed control. This is often delivered in the form of a management plan. Again it is very important that any such plan contains survey information, risk assessment and proper evaluation of possible control methods.

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Can Save a Life Through Early Detection - No Longer the Silent Killer

You will find out through ovarian cancer awareness that this disease is very treatable through early detection. This virus has been called the silent killer because it has been really hard to detect until now.

By knowing what symptoms to look out for followed by a blood test, 80% of ovarian cases can be treated and cured in the early stages. According to the Cancer Institute, it has been shown that 4 out of 5 woman having this virus is curable in the early stages of this disease.

Every woman must learn to recognize what the warning signs are and if more women learn how to detect the signs, then many more lives will be saved. Without the proper knowledge in how to detect ovarian cancer, this disorder will continue to be misdiagnosed.

One thing you need to know is, this ailment has been misinterpret many times by doctors because the symptoms can be confused with other conditions. And if this disorder is not recognizable, then the results for many women can be tragic.

You will find that ovarian cases is frequently misdiagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome because the symptoms are identical.

According to research from cancer.org, many signs for gastrointestinal problems such as bloating, abdominal or pelvic pain, feeling full very quickly, difficulty eating, tiredness, fatigue, weight loss or weight gain, heartburn, indigestion, blood in the stool, you have pain in the stomach, continuous vomiting, difficulty in breathing, or urinating frequently could indicate ovarian cancer.

The abdominal and pelvic pain, or frequent trips to the bathroom due to urination or diarrhea could signal a red flag for this infection or this just may be a signal that you have gas.

If you have been experiencing the above symptoms at least 15 times within the first three weeks, and this is happening always, you should visit your doctor to check for ovarian cancer by taking a transvaginal ultrasound(TVU) test and a CA-125 blood test. Again, if any of the above symptoms have persist nearly everyday for several weeks, you need to get to a doctor for screening.

Although these symptoms may not necessary mean that you have this deadly disease, and the above ailments could easily be gas, a upset stomach or a urinary tract infection, you still should go and take a visit your physician.

If ovarian cancer is detected early on before it has spread to your ovaries, then 9 out of 10 women will be saved. This is why early detection is the best medicine. Don't let this be a failure on your part because you do not to go for screening. If you are having any of the above symptoms, make that visit now.

Worldwide statistics show that there are about 205,000 new cases of ovarian cancer that are diagnosed each year. And also worldwide, 125,000 women will die this year.

Unfortunately since this disease is hard to diagnose, and by the time this virus is found, it might have already spread through out the body. This is why early detection is so important.

You are now equipped with the knowledge of ovarian cancer awareness because I have made you aware of the symptoms and this information alone can save a life.