How to Fix Ps3 Yellow Light of Death

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If you don’t know how to fix your ps3 yellow light of death error, than it’s quite hard to fix it. But, if you know how to fix the problem, it’s getting easier. For those who don’t know how you can fix the error, take a look below. I’ve put up tips and options for you and all work to fix the problem you got on your playstation 3.

How to fix ps3 yellow light of death 3. tips first

1)Turn off your playstation 3. If you think your ps3 has been caught by the heat, then wait at least 20 minutes and put it back on again

2) Check if there’s any loose cable.

3) Try to put out your playstation’s hard-drive, and put it back in. You might want to repeat this 2-3 times for better results.

If this did not work, then there are 2 options left for you on how to fix your ps3 safe and fast!

Send your playstation 3 back to Sony

You might think that this is an great option, but take a look at some statistics. Most users had to wait at least 4-6 weeks before they had their Console back. And also, if your warranty is expired, you have to pay a big fat $150,- to get the job done! Does this still sound as a good option?

The last option is to repair your console by yourself.

When you fix the yellow light error by yourself, you will take control in your own hands. Meaning that you decide how much it costs and that you decide how long it will take to fix it. This is the best and most recommended way to fix your ps3 savefully and fast! Users who didn’t know a thing about Hardware, have fixed it within 1 hour with the use of a repair guide. You should really use a guide because if you don’t, it will be guess work.

Format For a Resume Reference Page – The "How to" Guide

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There are plenty of “how to” guides on writing a resume, but very few address the issue of what the format for a resume reference page should look like. A reference page is a critical part of the resume/job search process. Notice I stated, “reference page” as your references should be placed on separate page rather than in your resume!

DON’T place your references in your resume – that is not the proper format!

The first step in learning how to put references in a resume is don’t put them in it…

Create a separate sheet and use a resume reference sample page as a guide.

The standard in the “Job Search” world is:

3 Professional References

3 Personal References

If you stick to this standard you should be more than prepared for any inquiry from employers.

The format for a resume reference page is a simple layout with no extra fluff. Stay away from trying to sell yourself to the employer – just give them the facts.

Your Professional References should be listed as follows:

Name

Job Title

Company

Address

Phone Number

Email Address

William J. Myar

Corporate Accounts Manager

Inglewood Production, Inc

444 East Steel Road

Joliet, Illinois 12345

(123) 456-7890

Email address

List your Personal References as follows:

Name

Address

Phone Number

Email Address

Steven L. Pinkerton

321 Jenkins Avenue

Milan, Illinois 12345

(123) 456-7890

Email address

Don’t forget to contact your references prior to placing them on your list. This keeps your references from being blindsided by the employer and allows them some time to prepare for the call.

Another good idea is to send them a copy of your resume so they can get an idea of your qualifications.

The Format for a Resume Reference Page is no more than one page and creates a convenient way for you to respond to reference inquiries from employers.

An Easy Meatloaf Recipe For A Busy Cook

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There are as many meatloaf recipes are there are cooks. This one is my favorite, an easy meatloaf recipe that can be varied to suit your tastes. Start with the basic recipe and add seasonings from the list below to suit your family. You can vary the meats used and the seasonings.

To keep my meatloaf recipe easy, I use ground beef. Many cooks use a combination of ground beef, ground pork or ground veal. Some use sausage in their mixture. If you desire a mixture of meats, use 1/2 to 3/4 pound of pork, veal or sausage to 1 pound of beef. Using the seasoned Italian style bread crumbs seasons the meatloaf, making this recipe easy and quick to prepare. I don’t actually even measure anything. I just dump the ingredients together using a reasonable amount of each. If the mixture is too moist, add more bread crumbs. If too dry, add more ketchup. It really is an easy meatloaf recipe that is foolproof.

Basic Easy Meat Loaf Recipe

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck

3/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs

2 eggs

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder, optional

1/4 cup catsup + more for top if desired

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, optional but good

1. Preheat oven to to 375 degrees F.

2. In a large loaf pan or ovenproof baking dish, mix all ingredients.

3. Shape into loaf shape.

4. Bake at 375 for 1 hour or until done.

5. I like to cover the top with more catsup during the last 20 minutes of baking.

You can try additional seasonings such as diced bell pepper, chopped celery leaves, minced parsley and thyme. If using sausage, try adding finely diced apple, and eliminate the garlic, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce. Small diced vegetables such as potato, carrots, or peas can be added if you like. Some cooks add chopped olives or chopped pickles or hard boiled eggs. You can substitute canned soup for the catsup, pouring more over the top as it bakes. The variations are endless.

If you are blessed with leftovers of this easy meatloaf recipe, this makes a delicious sandwich filling the next day, but don’t count on it. My family eats this up.

Have You Installed A Riser On Your Septic Tank Yet?

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What Is A Septic Tank Riser And How Can It Benefit Me?

A septic tank riser is an extension of your tank up to ground level, which provides you access without having to dig up your yard.

Locating a septic that is completely underground can be time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive if you pay a professional do it for you. A riser solves that problem by providing an above-ground access point from which you can reach your tank.

What Types Of Septic Tank Risers Are there?

Septic risers are most commonly made of either concrete, PVC, or polyethylene.

Concrete risers should, for the most part, be avoided. They are heavy, ugly, and difficult to install. Heavy equipment is often needed in order to install a concrete riser. Also, concrete is more prone to leaking than some other materials.

Polyethylene septic tank risers are another option. This material has the advantage of being resistant to soil and chemical corrosion, and also not being prone to rust. Polyethylene risers are also thoroughly sealed by a gasket, both stopping water from getting in and stopping gases from escaping.

PVC is a relatively light material, making for easy installation. As with the polyethylene models, PVC is sealed and waterproof.

How Much Will A Septic Tank Riser Cost?

Cost will depend of the material you choose, as well as the size of the riser itself. Concrete is the cheapest material, with risers available for under $100. PVC and Polyethylene, however, will be closer to $200 or more.

Your cost may increase if you are having the riser professionally installed, rather than doing it yourself.

Conclusion

Every septic tank owner should have a riser for his or her tank. In fact, it is even required on new installations in some areas.

As you can see, septic tank risers are cheap, long-lasting, and can make your life a whole lot easier if there is a problem in your tank.

Celebrity Breasts – What Size Are They, and Who’s Had Plastic Surgery?

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Celebrities and Breast Size – They’re Not as Naturally Blessed as You Might Think

The obsession over cosmetic perfection and, more recently, breast size, has sparked a rash of Hollywood “upsizing” in the breast department. Who’s natural, what cup size are they, and who’s had breast surgery? The answers may or may not be surprising. In other words, you might be shocked at just how much a push up bra can deceive to the tune of 1,2 and even three cup sizes!

Celebrities – How they Influence What We Want in a Breast Size

What determines the size of a full grown woman’s breasts? Is it primarily environmental or outside influences, or is it all “in the genes”? The final size of a woman’s mature breasts is mostly determined by heredity and can range from very small AA cups to very full EE cups. Breast size varies greatly among women, but the average breast size is a B cup, and all sizes and shapes are normal and healthy, although they may not fit the conventional idea of breast beauty.

For some reason, probably the increasing popularity of breast augmentation surgery and the overwhelming number of female celebrities who are considered sexy who have this breast size, the common perception today is that the perfect size is a C cup. See some famous celebrity breast sizes below, and you’ll see these famous women are as diverse as the rest of us. Although they may all look like they have C cups in the movies or in videos, you’ll see what they’ve really got without the padding, underwire and inserts!

Celebrity Breast Sizes – Does Their Cup Truly Runneth Over?

Jennifer Lopez cup size: Modest B cup

Angelina Jolie boob size: C cup: Hate to break it to you, but these are probably real. Yes, she is genetic perfection in the form of a waif thin body and large breasts, I’m afraid.

Britney Spears breast size: Modest C cup (when she’s not pregnant or is on the slimmer side)

Christina Aguilera: Pre Breast Implants: A cup

Post Breast Implants: Large C cup

Catherine Bell cup size: Large D cup: Not definitive that she has implants, but I suspect she was a fairly busty woman who also had implants, which is why this large breast size looks so natural on her, and yet she doesn’t have a whole lot of sagging for such a large size.

Jessica Simpson bra size: Small D cup: Jessica Simpson is another celebrity that has been puzzled over as to whether she has implants. Some “experts” say yes, and some say she’s natural. I just want to know how she lost all that weight and didn’t lose a bit of breast size. Hmmm…

Jessica Alba bra size: Small B cup: Although Jessica Alba is one of those celebs that has worn many a push up bras and I suspect has also worn gel inserts to change cup size so drastically between films, you can tell she has a natural breast size of about a small B cup. She also has very little body fat, which accounts for her perfectly natural smaller size.

While many of us may not be happy with the appearance of our breasts, it is good to know that they do come in all sizes and shapes, and we can actually improve their appearance – whether it be increasing their size, enhancing the shape and contour of the breast, or adding to the perkiness, firmness and perfect beauty of the female form, if we are not happy with our current breast size and appearance. There are lots of ways to do this. Massage, exercise, supplementation and just an all around good diet are a few of the ways.

It’s just good to know that some of the most beautiful celebrities in the world have either had a lot of help from a plastic surgeon in the breast department, or they are not as large as they are made to look on screen. It goes to show that the most important thing is that you are happy with yourself, and feeling beautiful has much more to do with confidence and other areas other than your breasts.

Create Computer Games – Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

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I’ve always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend’s computer in the afternoon after elementary school. There’s something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please. I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong. But what about the common person: the person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows, and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so.

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight, you can jump on in and slap a game together. However, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been well thought out beforehand.

There are two methods of planning a project. You can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like, and then remove the ones that you can’t use when you’ve decided on the technology you’re going to implement the game with. In general, the second type is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you’re first starting out however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you’re going to want a pretty simple idea. Don’t get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you’re not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time with your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it’s just your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded. Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games such as ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Pacman’ or even ‘Pong’ are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenges. ‘Pacman’ for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. ‘Space Invaders’ is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it’s almost infinitely extensible.

If you’re stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘King’s Quest’ etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and so on? Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as ‘Quake’, ‘Half Life’ or ‘Doom’? I don’t recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it’s time to flesh it out. Don’t worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of. Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it’s set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I’ll go into this more later) or you’re likely to enter ‘development hell’, where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:

- A written outline of the game’s characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against)

- A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn’t too vital for ‘Space Invaders’ or ‘Tetris’, but for ‘Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness’ it’s a really good idea)

- A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren’t fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it’s time to work out how this will all get put together. If you’ve gotten to this point and are worried that you’re going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you. There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a ‘scripting language’ (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn’t too complicated or involved. I’ve compiled a brief list of some of these I have found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you’ve gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you’ll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times and ask others to do the same. Take note of what isn’t fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions so that if a change doesn’t work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work. It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you’re working on a solid foundation.

When you’re happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation. Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It’s a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun!

Links:

General Game Creation:

(Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types)

Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl

MegaZeux: http://megazeux.sourceforge.net/

Adventure Games:

(Games such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Space Quest etc.)

Adventure Game Studio: [http://www.bigbluecup.com]

AGAST: http://www.allitis.com/agast/

3D Adventure Studio: http://3das.noeska.com/

ADRIFT (for text adventures): http://www.adrift.org.uk/

Role Playing Games (RPGs):

(Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo)

OHRPG: http://www.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/

RPG Toolit: http://www.toolkitzone.com/

Fighting Games:

(Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.)

KOF91: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kof91/

MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French): http://www.streetmugen.com/mugen-us.html

Side-Scrolling Games:

(Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.)

The Scrolling Game Development Kit: http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam at: [http://www.clickteam.com/English/]

Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming:

http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp

http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming:

[http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm]

C++ Game Programming:

http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm

http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information:

http://www.gamedev.net/

http://www.gamasutra.com/

Can’t Relax? Here’s What to Do If You Can’t Relax – Even During Meditation

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If you find it impossible to relax and always feel wound up, you’re not alone. It is happening more often and to more people. The problem is sensory overload, i.e., you are just getting too much input and your body can’t cope with it all. Standing in line at the bank or coffee shop, there is a giant screen to keep you occupied and on the screen is the latest news being flashed across the screen, but as if that wasn’t enough of a distraction, there is also a little text ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

As you try to follow the news items you are distracted by the scrolling text and soon you are lost in a world of sound bites and news headlines written for their shock value. As you drive to the day care center to drop your child off, on your way to work, your child watches a video in the back seat and you hear it and are aware of it subliminally, while you also answer your cell phone and try to prepare for your day’s work.

Some time after being bombarded by news and information all day, you try to settle down and meditate, to turn off the thoughts for a moment and just relax, but the thoughts don’t stop and you just can’t seem to get into meditation. Frustrated, you crawl into bed to try to fall asleep. For some people the struggle doesn’t end there because of the television in the bedroom. On top of all this, some people just simply find it hard to sit still. If you can’t relax, you’re not alone, we live in a country and world of people who are on edge all the time.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, in spite of all the ways your buttons are being pushed by a world that wants your attention and demands way too much of you, there is a simple way to relax. First of all, you must realize that your mind is in high gear and has been programmed to be racing along, trying to keep up. You can’t turn the world off and for most people, turning off their brain is out of the question as well. Those neurons will keep firing and that is that.

However, there is a way to use that energy in a positive way. Your mind needs to keep busy, so instead of fighting, allow it to keep busy, in fact, it is a good idea to keep it busy, but you take control of what is flooding into your mind and senses. Remember the old saying, “fight fire with fire.” In this case you are fighting information with information. Use the information provided by a guided meditation to stimulate the neurons in your brain to trigger the release of neuro-transmitters that actually soothe and calm the body. We all have powerful hormones and neuro-transmitters, chemicals that can slow the heart beat, promote deep, restful breathing, and even slow our thoughts.

A good, powerful guided meditation is scientifically designed to give your mind something to work on while triggers begin the relaxation process without struggling. There are many health benefits to meditation and other mind body techniques that have been proven by the National Institute of Health.

Natural Sea Salt Versus Table Salt, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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If you have read other health articles that I’ve written you know that I am not a believer in Man messing with Mother Nature when it comes to the food we eat. In this article I want to address a common spice we all use on a daily basis. Salt!

Salt as we know it is a pure white free flowing spice that we find essential to flavoring our daily foods. Usually one doesn’t even think about it much unless we have a medical condition where a doctor will tell us to decrease the amount of salt intake.

Table salt is normally rock or ocean salt that is mined, heat blasted, chemically treated, and then anti-caking agents and iodine added to it. What you have left is table salt that is basically dead. It is now just dry sodium and chloride. Once again man is cheating us of one of Mother Natures most perfect foods. Processed salt is now devoid of all the essential minerals and macrobiotic nutrients that our bodies need to survive.

Consider this, when you cry your tears are salty, and if you’ve cut yourself and tasted your blood, you know it is salty. The fluids in our bodies are like an ocean environment. Salt is essential for life and yet our bodies cannot make it so it must come from an outside source. Most often it comes from meat or regular table salt. The problem is that our bodies don’t really know what to do with processed salt. Years of processed salt intake can damage almost all areas of the body such as the heart, kidneys, muscles and bones and it is processed salt that bloats us and causes water retention. Processed salt can put a body out of balance. According to Dr Langre’s book, people that have an aversion to salt or tell you they dislike salt most likely have too much sodium chloride attached to their organs and tissues, are really telling you that they are sick and are in need of essential minerals.

100% natural sea salt maintains its integrity. Quite frankly, natural, organic sea salt is completely unfooled around with and is still harvested the same way it was done 2000 years ago by French salt farmers. It is hand raked and left in the sun to dry. All of the trace and micro-nutrients are fully intact. The correct balance of sodium and chloride are present as well as calcium, magnesium, potassium and 90 other trace and micro-nutrients. These are charged minerals that retain a lot of moisture and are grey in color. If your sea salt from the health food store is white and free flowing then it is processed and should not be used.

When natural sea salt is ingested, it immediately works with the saliva in the mouth (amalese in particular) and starts the digestive process. The more minerals present in the mouth the more digestion takes place. Digestion continues in the stomach. Natural organic sea salt has been known to lower blood pressure and decrease water retention. It enables the liver, kidneys and adrenals to work much more efficiently. It can boost the immune system. Natural sea salt has all the elements of the ocean and this means that the survival potential of a body is much greater than if you remove these vital elements.

Do your body good and get natural grey sea salt. It won’t pour like table salt because of the moisture content, but the health benefits can be significant.

Which is the Easiest Language to Learn? Rating the 14 Most Popular Course Offerings

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Which is the best language to learn? Which is the easiest?

Two different questions, often uttered in the same breath. But that’s okay, because there will be only one answer. Whichever language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be both the best and the easiest. However, here’s some help choosing.

The choices.

Here is the Modern Language Association’s 2002 list of the most commonly studied languages at university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages like Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purposes languages like American Sign Language, or U.S. heritage languages, like Hawaiian or Navajo since the choice of those languages follows a different dynamic:

1. Spanish

2. French

3. German

4. Italian

5. Japanese

6. Chinese

7. Russian

8. Arabic

9. Modern Hebrew

10. Portuguese

11. Korean

12. Vietnamese

13. Hindi/Urdu

14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider some cold facts. The U.S. State Department groups languages for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The “easiest” languages for speakers of English, requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency: the Latin and Germanic languages. However, German itself requires a bit more time, 750 hours, because of its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requiring 1100 hours of classwork: Slavic languages, Turkic languages, other Indo-Europeans such as Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-Europeans such as Georgian, Hebrew and many African languages. Swahili is ranked easier than the rest, at 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requiring 2200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean and the Chinese languages.

Will you get a chance to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful learner you need the chance to hear, read and speak the language in a natural environment. Language learning takes an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely in the classroom. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses according to a combination of linguistic ease and accessibility.

1. Spanish. Category One. The straightforward grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a major presence in the insular linguistic environment of the U.S. Chances to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollment in the MLA study.

2. French. Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it’s words have entered English. For this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to attain an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the internet, in films and music.

3. German. Category One Plus. The syntax and grammar rules are complex with noun declensions a major problem. It is the easiest language to begin speaking, with a basic vocabulary akin to English. Abstract, advanced language differs markedly, though, where English opts for Latin terms. It values clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category One. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages (along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You might need to go to Italy to practice it, but there are worse things that could happen to you. It is also encountered in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category Two. This highly inflected language, with declensions, is fairly difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet is not particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the numerous borrowings from French and other western languages are a pleasant surprise. It is increasingly accessible.

6. Arabic. Category Three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don’t exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good calligraphy is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not normally written (except in children’s books) and this can be an obstacle for reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at every level of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category One. One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, though the phonetics may take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category Two Minus. It includes many borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English and French. It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu “tones”. The sound system is familiar, and it is written using the Latin alphabet. One major grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary, and are predictable.

9. Hindi/Urdu. Category Two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing. Words often have clipped endings, further complicating comprehension. Hindi uses many Sanskrit loans and Urdu uses many Persian/Arabic loans, meaning that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the phonetically precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Predictably, Urdu’s use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two. Revived as a living language during the nineteenth century, it has taken on characteristics of many languages of the Jewish diaspora. The resultant language has become regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English and Arabic. The alphabet has both print and script forms, with five vowels, not normally marked. Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it does occur. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of liaison makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category Three. Difficult to learn, as the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and the requirements of the sound system so strict that even the many words that have been borrowed from English, French and German will seem unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is forbiddingly difficult to read and write. Also, social constraints may impede useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category Three. Whether your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (the MLA survey does not make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all of the most difficult aspects: unfamiliar phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system, and an equally unfamiliar vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the positive side, it is easy to find, since Chinese communities exist throughout the world, and Chinese language media, such as newspapers, films and TV, are present in all these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category Three. This language belongs to an unfamiliar family of languages, but it does borrow much vocabulary from Chinese (helpful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones, and a grammar with an unfamiliar logic. It’s not all bleak, however, Vietnamese uses a Latin derived alphabet. The chances of speaking this language are not high, though there are 3 million speakers in the USA.

14. Korean. Category Three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, which accurately represent 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2000 commonly used Chinese characters for literary writing and formal documents. Speech levels and honorifics complicate the learning of vocabulary, and there is liaison between words, making them hard to distinguish. The grammar is not overly complicated and there are no tones. It borrows many Chinese words, but the language is unrelated to other languages of Asia.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation

The third, most important factor is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that you are most motivated to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. It is useless to try to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language involves participating in its behaviors and identifying with its people.

So, consider all three factors: motivation, accessibility and linguistic ease, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that we humans are hard wired for a great amount of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to turn on the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of the language are clear to you, you will be able to get those rusty language synapses sparking in your head and start the words rolling. Bonne chance!

Signs of Cocaine Use – What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Use?

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Cocaine (aka coke, crack, snow, blow) is an addiction that can occur very quickly and be a very difficult habit to break. There have been animal studies, which have shown that animals will work very hard, such as pressing a bar over 10,000 times, after a single injection of cocaine. They were also choosing cocaine over food and water and chose cocaine even when their behavior was punished. It was proven that animals must have their access to cocaine limited in order not to take lethal doses. Studies have shown that people addicted to cocaine also behaved very similar. One of the signs of Cocaine use is that Cocaine addicts will go to great lengths to get cocaine and continue to take it even when it hurts their school or job performance and their relationships begin to suffer.

Some of the major routes of administration of cocaine are sniffing or snorting, injecting, and smoking, including free-basing and crack cocaine. Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the act of using a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.

“Crack” or “crack cocaine” is the street name given to cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking.

Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine-using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of cocaine that can be smoked. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated), presumably from the sodium bicarbonate.

Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that interferes with the reabsorption process of dopamine, a chemical messenger associated with pleasure and movement. Dopamine is released as part of the brain’s reward system and is involved in the high that characterizes cocaine consumption.

Signs of Cocaine use include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased temperature, heart rate and blood pressure, hyper-alertness, lack of fatigue/sleeplessness, panic, extremely talkative; fast speech, runny nose or bloody nose, seizures from high doses or bad reaction, white powder seen on face or clothes, small spoon-like items used for snorting, mirrors and razor blades used for making lines, rolled money bills used for snorting, small bottles with screw on lids for storing and possession of small plastic packets with white residue.

The duration of cocaine’s immediate euphoric effects, which include hyper-stimulation, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. On the other hand, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes. Increased use can reduce the period of stimulation.

Some other signs of Cocaine use are feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. An appreciable tolerance to the high may be developed, and many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Scientific evidence suggests that the powerful neuropsychological reinforcing property of cocaine is responsible for an individual’s continued use, despite harmful physical and social consequences. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. However, there is no way to determine who is prone to sudden death.