Author: blogger

The Case Against Sports Drinks In Schools

The beverage industry produces enough soda for every American to consume 52-gallons each year. Although its a mind-boggling amount, the fact of the matter is their industry is stagnating. With soda sales flat, theyre turning to newer products. One of their most popular markets is the educational system. Marketed under the guise of being healthier than plain water, and an implication they are more efficient at meeting hydration needs, sports drinks have become a prominent fixture in many schools. But do they meet those claims, or are they just contributing to the obesity epidemic among U.S. children?

Research by the American College of Sports Medicine has shown that for exercise lasting less than one hour, water is the preferred method of meeting hydration needs. Their research suggests that the loss of electrolytes and carbohydrates from exercise meeting this requirement does not require the burst supplied by sports drinks that one typically gets from a modern sports drink. Their research also has shown that for activities lasting more than one hour, or occurring under intense heat, there are benefits to using sports drinks for hydration. The rapid and continuous loss of minerals under these conditions presents a risk to participants, and replenishing them rapidly improves hydration and athletic performance.

Interestingly enough, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the consumption of water, or a salt-containing flavored beverage to maintain hydration. Not only do they suggest such drinks, but the recommend children consume them regularly, regardless of whether they are thirsty.

Nutritional experts are beginning to question the need for having sports drinks available to kids during regular school hours. The logic of such an argument is that the activities occurring during regular school hours can not justify the extra calories kids consume when drinking these drinks. It has also been suggested that the extra electrolytes, which are just salt compounds, may even contribute to rising blood pressure among kids, when consumed in the absence of physical exertion. While the suggestions are controversial, most regulators are recommending limiting access during school hours, but making these beverages available during after school events and practices.

It seems inevitable that eventually, these drinks will be deemed of little nutritional or functional value for regular school day activities. After all, it doesnt seem reasonable to assume that kids or teens are at risk of becoming deficient in electrolytes while walking between classes. While they certainly offer benefits when consumed during intense exercise, theres little evidence to support the idea that they offer any positive benefits for normal day-to-day activity.

How to Keep Smart Devices Alive on Snow Sports

Winter in many places means skiing, ice skating, sledding and snowball fights. When we enjoy these sports fun, there’s nothing better than well-run electronics like iPhone, tablets, reassuring us. There are lots of useful apps to help us drive to a snow-covered terrain with turn-by-turn directions; locate the base of a route by using GPS coordinates; look at the weather forecast; identify local trees, birds, and flowers; take excellent photos and videos; and later share our experience with Facebook buddies or YouTube clips. The smart devices are so important for us everyone, but all that technology comes with a price. We have to ask ourselves: How are we going to keep the device charged when we are outside? How do we check the important calls if our fingers are freezing? How do we keep the snow out of our precious iPhone or iPad. Otterbox: Secure the Phone from Icy Mishaps The first thing to do before taking our mobile device out snow sports is to invest in a sturdy case to protect our phone from breakage and snowstorm. Not only do we get to tote our phones in the snow, but we also protect it from water, dirt, and shock. Otterbox’s Armor Case is a bit pricey at 100 $, but it protects the phone from 10-foot drop onto concrete, can be submerged for 30 minutes in 6.6 feet water, and can withstand up to 2 tons of crushing force. We will never worry about the phone getting damaged with it.

Kinkoo: Keep Our Device Always Powered A research from Infographicsmania.com says, the total time for everyone use electronics is 9 hours a day, and the average smartphone holds 5 hours on the premise of running at full speed while tablet 4 hours. So we must carry a portable charge in our pack so that we can have precious spare for an emergency call when some apps eat up most of power. One of the best and the one I use for my devices is Kinkoo Infinite One Portable Charger. It can work at minus 22? and contains a massive 8000 mAh capacity to recharge my iPhone 5 times. Most of all, it is the lightest and thinnest external battery at only 162g and 11mm in its class. Also, it’s not cheap enough because it uses the best A+ Quality Lithium Polymer battery inside, which charges faster and give a longer shelf life at least 15 months. Beartek: Take Control of the Phone with Snowsport Gloves We wear gloves to protect us. We use smartphone apps to entertain us. If we want to do both and don’t want to switch phones just for a supersensitive touchscreen, we can have a pair of Beartek’s Snowsport gloves. Wear the gloves like we would wear any other gloves and be able to use the smartphone without even taking it out of our pocket! Its finger touch control system lets us answer calls, play/pause and skip music tracks, and capture our ride in video or photos – all while simultaneously providing warmth. In addition, the gloves have premium goatskin leather outer and are windproof and waterproof. They could be one of the cooler ski/winter gadget gifts of the 2013-14 seasons.

True Professional Sports Arbitrage Trading Software – The Most Powerful and Efficient Sports Arbitrage Software

For a true professional sports arbitrage trader it is virtually impossible to conceive of working in this business without using the most powerful and efficient software they can find. Instead of wasting time scouring the web searching for trades, professionals rely upon their software to do the hard work.

The arbitrage information arrives to their desktop, with all the parameters and calculations already in place. All that the sports arbitrage trader needs to do is to place the wagers, and wait till the event finishes and the profit to roll in.

Nowadays there are many companies offering software to handle sports arbitrage trading online. Some of them are fairly simple and inexpensive, and might appeal to the beginner. Yet if there ever was cause for the argument “cheap is dear” then it certainly applies to sports arbitrage trading software. Starting off with the best is a prerequisite for success.

Any reputable company marketing sports arbitrage trading software will be more than willing to provide short term trial periods to enable you to get the feel of the software. They should also provide learning tools that will allow the new trader plenty of opportunity to approach his or her trading project fully prepared. You may even find yourself able to earn profits during your trial, although you should not be disappointed if this does not happen: the experience you gain at the early stages will be far more valuable in terms of long-term profits.

There is a school of thought that says if you are just learning the ins and outs of being a sports arbitrage trader, you should set aside a little time after registering your accounts at the various bookmakers you will be working with, doing dry run wagers. That means picking out arbitrages located by the software and simply going through the process of finding the bets on the bookmaker sites until you feel comfortable with the software. You might even take this a stage further by putting together some low value arbs to get more of a feel of actual trading.

At this stage, you probably wont recover your subscription overheads and any bank charges, but the real-time experience will enable you to hit the ground running when you eventually start trading with higher stakes.

The fact is that professional-level sports arbitrage software will do almost all of the donkey work for you. It will scan the bookmaker sites frequently and consistently. It will calculate the arbitrage trades and display them for you in an orderly manner on your desktop. It will calculate your stake for you and provide you with a 1-click system to open and log you into the relevant bookmaker sites when you have decided on a particular trade. At after you have placed your bets it will record the information for you so that you have a record of all of your activity.

This leaves you free to focus on the knowledge work aspect of your trading. This will include things such as:

* managing your cashflow to ensure that your accounts are always tradeable when necessary
* looking for new bookmakers to trade with (the best software vendors will add new bookmakers to the software if you request it)
* doing background research on prices once you have been alerted to an opportunity (this is an excellent ay to leverage the information you receive from your software)

As you conduct your research into sports arbitrage trading software, youll discover that there are many different offerings available. Its worth trying them all out (those which offer free trials) to find out which suits you best.

However, there are some features which you should look out for in the sports arbitrage trading software you choose:

Sports Arbitrage Filters

An Arbitrage Filter enables you to restrict the types of arbitrage trades you receive. This will help make your trading more efficient as you will only ever be alerted of opportunities which are of real interest to you. The filters should operate on at least the following parameters:

1. Minimum Profit: This filter will block arbs which yield profits below the threshold you have set.

2. Bookmakers: This filter will block arbs which involve bookmakers you dont want to use.

3. Restrict By Sport: This filter will block arbs which occur in sports you dont want to trade.

4. Rules Coherence: In MLB and NHL, and in tennis, prices may differ solely because of unique rules revolving around things like pitcher-changes, injured players, overtime and so on. This might not bother you, but if it does, your sports arbitrage software should be able to block them

Bookmaker Bonus Trading
As an active sports arbitrage trader, you will almost always have some bookmaker bonuses waiting to be turned over on your accounts. Some sports arbitrage programs will allow you to list those bookmakers and it will then go on to alert you, in a separate window from the main arbs, whenever one of these bookmakers can be traded with either in an arbitrage or break-even trade. This type of feature allows you to become very systematic about extracting multiple risk-free bonuses on a regular basis.

Social Networking
If your sports arbitrage software allows it, the ability to chat and share trades and other information with other traders can be very helpful. As well as providing an instant community of like-minded individuals who are actively engaged sports arbitrage at the same time, if the Chat is built into the software then it should allow much faster sharing of sports arbitrage trades than would be possible using a normal instant messenger service such as MSN or ICQ.

Real-time Updates
With many arb alarm programs, websites and other services, youll receive emails or messages into your private account at a site. The problem with this is that you wont actually know about the arb unless you check for it. Some opportunities come and go in a flash, and if youre only refreshing your email browser once an hour, you may miss some golden opportunities.

Other programs which actually provide up to the minute updates onscreen, by simply keeping a little window open as you browse the internet, work, watch TV, etc. Take a glance at it now and then, and it will only show you the opportunities available at that precise moment. No outdated messages, just currently available opportunities.

Speed
The best arbitrage trading programs should let you complete a trade within 1-2 minutes by pre-calculating your stakes and opening and logging you into your bookmaker accounts automatically.

Comprehensive Arbitrage Calculator
As touched upon above, your software should automatically calculate your stakes for any type of trade, including those with betting exchanges. It should be able to take into account, automatically, issues such as exchange-commissions and up-to-date currency exchange rates.

Free Trials
If you cannot get a free trial of the software, the chances are that the seller has something to hide. You should be allowed to play around with a trial version of any arb program before investing in it. Beyond how effective the software is, you want something user friendly, easy to understand, and easy to use. Remember, youll be using this software extensively as you trade so you must feel comfortable with it.

Some things to consider while using your free trials

1 – Is it fast?
Sometimes a program acting slowly isnt your computers fault, it might just be clumsy or careless programming by the software developer.

2 – Does the user interface make sense?
If you cant get to grips with all of the features of the program in less than a day, its probably going to be too unwieldy to use quickly and efficiently in a trading environment.

3 – Does it get you good results?
This is the most important thing. A good sports arbitrage alerts system is meant to do one thing: help you to make more money. If youre not being presented with plenty of great, genuine & tradeable arbitrage bets, move onto the next software.

Six Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Buy A Super Sports Bike As A Starter Bike

Are you 17 or 18 year old kid? Just barely out of high school and wants a sports bike as graduation gift? Or are you a parent who is worried because your son is begging you to buy him a super sports bike as his first?

Conventional wisdom has it that for a starter bike you should get a smaller bike, a used one at that. Here are reasons why you should keep your rookie’s hands off that shiny, new, powerful beast of a machine called a super sports bike as a beginner’s bike:

1. Super sports bikes are expensive. Plus you factor in additional cash outlay in insurance, (comprehensive, liability, medical) gears (leather jacket, motorcycle boots, full-fingered gloves and full-face helmet) lock and chain, gas money and rising mechanic’s bill for the upkeep.

2. They are insanely fast with over 100+ horsepower. It is going to propel you straight to a concrete wall in a few seconds if you lose control.

3. The brakes are razor-sharp. When you need to panic stop and uncontrollably snatch the lever hard, it will likely flip you over the handlebars.

4. The machine is unforgiving for a novice. It will not leave you any room for slight error. One unintentional blip on the throttle will pull you up in a wheelie (imagine you are in that position in the midst of downtown traffic).

5. The riding position on a sports bike is an aggressive stance. Like you are hunched -over the gas tank. While it is awesome to look at, it won’t be comfortable in the long haul especially on multiple-hour trips.

6. Slow speed maneuvers are difficult on this particular bike, most likely the newbie rider will drop it and fairings don’t come cheap.

You have to have your riding skills established well before thinking of hopping on a super sports bike. No matter how much you justify riding it. It doesn’t matter how quickly you think, you pick up riding abilities. Super sports bike like the R6 can get you to 165 mph top speed zero to sixty in three seconds. You can do 70mph in the first gear. It is like riding a wingless fighter plane.

It is better to slam a slower bike through some corner than to baby a powerful machine through it. You are not going to be experience the full potential of riding an R6 or Zx6R without breaking the law or exposing yourself, pedestrians and other commuters to danger.

Develop good habits. Acquire good riding skills, Build your confidence. Stay off liter bikes, inline fours 600cc like CBR series, Yamaha R6, Zx6r, Ducati, Aprilia or Bmw for the mean time. Don’t be impatient. Don’t be impulsive. Wait until you are ready to have fun when it’s the right time.

What is across the board is that your first bike must be comfortable, lower cc (250 cc preferably), pre-owned, not more than 75hp and not overwhelmed you. Pay it cash. Avoid financing.

While an ideal first bike like a 250 cc lacks the wow factor and can’t really get you all that excited, just think that you are honing your riding skills on a learner bike. Next step will be getting the bike of your liking once you have gained more experience.

Face Painting Ideas For Different Sporting Events

Painting is an art of drawing anything on a particular surface using different colors, and other instruments. If something is painted on face of human beings, it is called face painting. Body painting is a fine art in which human body is used as a medium for painting. People show their feelings, emotions, wishes, and liking for anything, or animal by painting.

Tribal groups to reflect their close association with each other originally did face painting. However, it has now evolved in to a more fun activity, which is undertaken at different occasions, events, and festivals. Theatre actors, jokers, and artists to become more prominent, and stand out from the crowd are using it. Additionally, army commandos in field for disguising their appearances operations are doing face painting.

The display of affection and support for their sports teams is done by painting the flags on their faces by the spectators during different matches, and tournaments. The face painting, and sports body art is increasingly capturing the interest of the sports fans.

Special face painting kits are available in the market for such sports enthusiasts. These are made especially for painting the sports logos and flags. They are very popular among the sports fans and they contain the colours as well as different ornamental things which adds beauty to the whole design.

The major purpose of painting is to attract others, and to draw the attention of others. There are different trendy face painting ideas, and designs that youngsters use for parties. Different designs are selected depending on the use of painting. Mostly children like to paint tiger, clown, and super hero like spider-man, Dalmatian dog, cat, and fairy pirate on their faces.

People try to show their support for their favourite teams in amazing ways. They like a lot of variety in the face paints they use: glitter and metallic tones make each design unique and outstanding. All these paints are the special paints for use on the skin as they are non-toxic and can easily be washed off with the soap.

Face painting is very common in different sporting events where people love to paint the flags of their favourite country, or the country that they are supporting. In sports, people paint their faces to communicate different messages to the team members. The painting of flag on the face reflects the devotion, and love of a person towards the country. The fans of sportsmen or a particular game, love to paint their faces, which would reflect their feelings.

In sports venues, many face painters can be seen who paint the faces, hands, or arms of people professionally. These painters just have an insightful mind, some patience, a handful of face paints, few brushes, and a theme according to the choice of person who wants to paint his/her face, or any body part. Hand art is also similar to face painting in which the hand of an individual is painted like an animal, or an object.