10 Things That Make Your Home a Target for Thieves

1. Leaving your garage door open or unlocked. Once inside the garage, a burglar can use any tools you haven't locked away to break into your home, out of sight of the neighbors. Interior doors between the garage and your home often aren't as strong as exterior doors and may not have deadbolt locks.

Instead: Always close and lock the garage door. Consider getting a garage-door opener with random codes that automatically reset.

2. Hiding spare keys. Burglars know about fake rocks and leprechaun statues and will check under doormats, in mailboxes, and over doorways.

Instead: Give a spare set to a neighbor or family member.

3. Storing ladders outdoors or in unlocked sheds. Burglars can use them to reach the roof and unprotected upper floor windows.

Instead: Keep ladders under lock and key.

4. Relying on silent alarm systems. Everyone hates noisy alarms, especially burglars. Smart thieves know that it can take as long as 10 to 20 minutes for the alarm company or cops to show up after an alarm has been tripped.

Instead: Have both silent and audible alarms.

5. Letting landscaping get overgrown. Tall hedges and shrubs near the house create hiding spots for burglars who may even use overhanging branches to climb onto your roof.

Instead: Trim any bushes and trees around your home.

6. Keeping your house in the dark. Like overgrown landscaping, poor exterior lighting creates shadows in which burglars can work unobserved.

Instead: Replace burned out bulbs promptly, add lighting where needed, and consider putting fixtures on motion sensors or light sensors so that they go on automatically.

7. Not securing sliding doors. These often make tempting targets.

Instead: When you're out, put a dowel down in the channel, so that the door can't be opened wide enough for a person to get through.

8. Relying on your dog to scare away burglars. While barking my deter amateurs, serious burglars know that dogs may back away from someone wielding a weapon, or get chummy if offered a treat laced with a tranquilizer.

Instead: Make your home look occupied by using timers to turn lights, radios, and TVs on and off in random patterns.

9. Leaving "goody" boxes by the curb. Nothing screams "I just got a brand new flat-screen, stereo, or other big-ticket item" better than boxes by the curb with your garbage cans.

Instead: Break down big boxes into small pieces and bundle them together so that you can't tell what was inside.

10. Posting vacation photos on Facebook. Burglars troll social media sites looking for targets.

Instead: Wait until you get back before sharing vacation details or make sure your security settings only allow trusted "friends" to see what you're up to.

Source

5 Email Habits That Send the Wrong Message

Abusive Subject Line Behavior
Intention: By typing the word "URGENT," "ACTION ITEM" or "READ ME" in the subject line, she is hoping to stress the actionable items of her email. Her message is clear. Perception: Her subject line implies that she presumes her message is more important than any other correspondence you might have received. The perception is that she is over-confident and thinks very little of your time.

Answering The Wrong Question
Intention: When a colleague on a group email answers questions that are under your purview before you have a chance to. He's saving his colleague the hassle of answering—hey, he knows the answer too! Perception: It's the online version of shouting out the answer without raising your hand. His colleague might think that he is undermining their authority or worse—out to get their job.

Copyediting A Coworker
Intention: He wants to ensure that the higher ups see a clean, well-spoken document. By editing his coworker's email and resending it, he ensures that the grammatically correct email is higher in the supervisor's inbox. Perception: Public shaming of a colleague is never going to get him anywhere. Both the colleague and the supervisor are made aware of this one-upsmanship. And neither of them like it.

CC'ing Up
Intention: When you're having an email exchange with a co-worker, and s/he escalates the conflict by sneakily CCing a higher-up. She's resolving the issue efficiently by letting a higher-up in on the conflict. Perception: She's sneaky, conniving and out to make them look bad. Even more nefarious: the BCC.

Instant Follow Up
Intention: He wants to make sure you've received and read his email—calling or emailing right away seems like the logical way to find out. Perception: Give me a break! If you expect an instant response to a query, the more efficient route is to pick up the phone. Following up shortly after sending an email makes you seem impatient and self-righteous.

Source

Harmless Headache


The good news about these headaches, says Dr. Holt, is that they're all completely harmless. But not every aching head is a simple headache. 


1. Tension headache: This is your garden-variety headache, with diffuse pain wrapping across the top of your head. These headaches often result from stress or lack of sleep. They're not usually disabling, typically fade overnight, and can be easily relieved with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin.


2. Migraine headache: Migraines tend to hit one side of the head, and can last from several hours to several days. They’re usually marked by a sensitivity to sound and light. When a migraine strikes, you can manage it with Advil Migraine or Motrin Migraine Pain (both ibuprofen medications) or Excedrin Migraine (a combination of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine).


3. Cluster headache: This one is an excruciating attack that explodes behind one eye, reaches a crescendo after about an hour, and then vanishes—only to return in a day or so. This goes on for a few weeks, and then stops for months. Numerous drugs target clusters, including some of the migraine meds.


Serious Headache


Here are six that could be a sign of something serious—and potentially deadly. Watch out for....


1. The Thunderclap Headache
If head pain hits you like a bolt out of nowhere, intensifying in a few minutes into the worst headache you've ever had, call 911. The list of causes for this kind of headache isn't long (aneurysm, stroke, meningitis) but almost everything on it can be very quickly fatal, says Dr. Holt.
2. The Exercise HeadacheIf your headache comes on quickly and furiously with violent physical exertion, see a doctor right away. Chances are, the cause is benign, says Dr. Holt. But it also could be a subarachnoid hemorrhage.


3. The Headache that Spreads to Your Neck
Benign headaches stay in your head, says Dr. Holt. Headaches that don't can be meningitis or a hemorrhage. So yes, call 911, especially if you have a fever, are just getting over a bacterial infection, have a rash, or can't think clearly.


4. The Headache that Won't End
A headache that comes and goes for days—with a low-grade fever, visual disturbances, and aching in one or both of your temples—often signals an inflammation of the arteries that can leave you blind if not treated. See your doctor right away, says Dr. Holt.


5. The Contagious Headache
Your family is all home on a cold, rainy Saturday. As the day goes on you develop a headache that grows steadily worse. If anyone else has the same headache, move everyone outdoors immediately. There's a malfunction in your heating system and it's spewing carbon monoxide. Once you're out of the house, call the fire department. Your headache should clear up in a few hours.


6. The Headache that Wakes You Up
You should also be concerned if your headache has been worsening for weeks, says Dr. Holt, or if it’s present every morning when you wake up. This is the classic pattern for a slowly expanding mass. It may not warrant a 911 call, but you should see your doctor and schedule an MRI right away.


Source http://health.yahoo.net/experts/menshealth/6-head-pains-you-should-never-ignore

5 little-known ways to flirt

Attractic #1: Wear red
Red is a power color, and that doesn’t just apply to politics and carpets at Hollywood events. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, simply wearing the color red or being surrounded by the rosy hue makes a man more attractive and desirable to women.


Attractic #2: Eat celery
Real men don’t eat rabbit food, right? WRONG. If you want to reel in the ladies, try increasing your crunches — of celery stalks, that is, not the gym variety. And it’s not just because women tend to congregate around vegetable trays at parties; in fact, eating celery increases the amount of female-attracting pheromones that men emit. Why? It seems that the cytoplasm found in celery contains the same chemicals as those found in human male sweat (specifically, regular sweat that’s responsible for a subtly masculine scent, which may not always be perceptible through clothing); both contain the steroid Androstenone, which makes men more attractive to women. 


Attractic #3: Play romantic music
Looking to score a gal’s digits or get her to think that you’re Prince Charming? Take a cue from the French and play a little love song first. According to a recent study by researchers Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob from the Université de Bretagne-Sud (along with Lubomir Lamy from Université de Paris-Sud), women who were exposed to romantic music before interacting with eligible males were more likely to hand over their contact information (ostensibly, to set up a date) than those ladies who were exposed to “neutral” music in the same scenario. And while sappy ballads might make more macho guys want to gag, if your goal is to get the lady in question’s email address, it might behoove you to stomach a little Il Divo or Josh Groban in the presence of female subjects (the researchers showed positive correlations between romantic feelings and background music). Or try attending a crooner’s concert performance solo; who knows — you might just find yourself fighting off a whole group of swooning women! 


Attractic #4: Order a chocolate dessert
Meeting a lady for coffee? Order some food, too. And if you can, make it something with chocolate in it. Here’s why: when people talk about falling in love, what’s really going on is that you’re participating in activities that promote forming an attachment to each other. Things that facilitate the attachment process raise your oxytocin levels (the love and bonding hormones) in the brain. According to Dr. Alan Hirsch, Neurological Director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, eating and the smell of food increases oxytocin levels in humans. So, by ordering an appetizer or dessert as an accompaniment, your date’s oxytocin levels will spike, thus encouraging a mutual bond to develop.


Attractic #5: Learn some dance moves
So you think you can dance? Go ahead and bust a move, then! Actually, make that a good move (if you are a horrible dancer and you know it, please try options #1-4 above first). Why? The movements associated with men perceived as being skilled at dancing appear to send a subliminal signal to women that you’re in good health and have reproductive potential. 

How to relieve eye fatigue caused by your computer screen

Source : How to relieve eye fatigue caused by your computer screen

1. Adjust settings and your environment If glare isn't the culprit, there are plenty more tricks that will make your weary eyes thank you. Erica Dixon, Visual Neuroscience researcher at American University, suggests that trial and error can be the best method. "Unfortunately, there are so many causes of eye strain that it's impossible to say what would help everyone, but there are certainly easy solutions to try," Dixon said. "Try out different settings on your computer, spend an hour or two with the screen at a lower brightness level and see if that feels better. Just play around and find what feels best for you."

Experimenting with lighting in the environment can't hurt either — swap a bulb or move a harsh light source to find a good balance."Think of how you physically feel yourself straining to see a screen if there is too much sunlight coming in to the room and how much better it feels when you put down the shades," said Dixon. "The less competition your screen has from sources that irritate your eyes, the better."

2. Screen calibration

Calibrate your screen While there's no silver bullet when it comes to eye fatigue, Dixon also stressed the importance of calibrating your screen. "Calibrating your computer means that images are displayed as they are meant to be seen, with accurate colors, brightness, and contrast."

Many external monitors include this feature in the settings menu. If you're working on a Mac, a built-in tool called Display Calibrator Assistant walks you through this, step-by-step. You can find the tool by opening System Preferences > Displays then choosing the Color tab and clicking Calibrate. On other computers, a web tool called Screen Check can perform the same function. Don't be afraid to explore the settings to decide what looks right for you.

3. Take a break


Beyond screen calibration, there are even more basic, simple tricks to give your eyes a break. If you wear contacts, switch to glasses while you're on the computer to keep your eyes from becoming dried out and irritated. One trick called the "20-20-20 rule" suggests that every 20 minutes you should look at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

If you can't commit to such a strict routine, just taking short, frequent breaks from your screen can do wonders for your straining vision. If you're prone to getting absorbed in work, simply set a recurring alarm on your phone that reminds you to get up, take a stroll, and get away from the computer — your eyes will thank you.