Bodybuilding shows are some of the most subjectively-judged events in the entire competition world. You have guys like Ronnie Coleman (very big and very awkward) defeat men like Rusty Jeffers (as graceful as they come!) in the posing round. You have men like Dorian (yes, with one bicep) Yates toppling the visually flawless Shawn Ray in the Symmetry round. In bodybuilding, the judges often decide at first glance who the winner will be, and they write out their scorecards accordingly. It’s not fair, but it’s life, and it will likely both help and hinder you one day.

Here are some tips for best navigating the politics that is bodybuilding judging.

Accept your placing with dignity win, lose or draw

Whether you come in first, last, or somewhere in between, your behavior should always be the same. Smile humbly, shake hands with everyone around you, pose for a picture, and leave the stage with dignity. Carry yourself as a professional, and new opportunities you could never consider may arise. Modeling, endorsements, etc often fall into the hands of the 4th place finisher who acted like the champion.

Be Careful On The Forums

In the recent years, bodybuilding forums have become a great place not only to learn and share information, but for self-promotion as well. This can be a double-edged sword. The judges and fans read these boards too. While you can make sure you’re not overlooked at pre-judging, you can also get yourself into serious trouble. This brings us to:

Never Discuss Drug Use

They’re not going to give you any trophies for your honesty. But the judges may knock you down a few places if you’re foolish enough to admit using steroids, or worse, share cycle advice, on the forums. Use your real account for posting self-promotional information, and a gimmick, or fake, account for your little forum battles and for discussing the use of steroids. Other competitors or those involved with the industry will alert the promoter and/or judges of your actions, and it could cost you placings.

You’re Just Not What We’re Looking For

Your image may be used on next year’s show materials. Heck, your picture might end up in the local newspaper the next day. And, the look and image you portray will also affect the sponsorship abilities of the show promoter. If you choose to wear a nontraditional hairstyle, sport some wicked tattoos, or act unfriendly onstage or in posing, there s a good chance you won’t be the man in the winner’s cycle being photographed at the end of the show. Remember that bodybuilding shows are a business, and no matter how great your muscles look, if you are bad for business, you may not win shows.

Ask The Judges What They’re Looking For

Show them you value their opinion. If they tell you to bring up your back, and you do, they will appreciate that you value your advice, and you may place higher as a result. This sport is a subjective one, and as long as you learn to play the game, you will place well.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

Politics

local political parties

 Enterprising Stephen Canning has become the voice of young people in Braintree, Witham and Halstead -proposing a youth council for the district.

Stephen, 14, visited Brooks Newmark MP this week to talk over plans for the council and ask for his backing.

The teenager, from Mountbatten Road, Braintree, has used his own money to set up a website for the project and has received support from 30 other young people interested in the idea.

The youth council will meet at the council chambers at Causeway House, and it is hoped the first meeting will take place in the next few months.

Southend High School pupil Stephen will also be putting together posters and publicity to send to schools in the district asking young people to come along to meetings.

He said: “We will meet once a month and it will be a place for the young people of Braintree to bring up their ideas about what the adult council should be doing.

“One of the main aims of the council is to get rid of the stereotypes of young people in the district. It is also helping young people learn about politics.

“Anyone can turn up to the meetings, and after they have been there for three consecutive meetings they will be considered a member.

“The MP said he will attend the meetings as well.”

Stephen said he will be temporary leader of the council until the council has been formed and elections can take place. He hopes that issues raised at Braintree District Council will be passed down to the youth council, and that their ideas will be passed up.

Stephen said: “I was just thinking about some of the things the council has done -to be helpful to the youth of Braintree- and none of them have worked. I thought it would be better if they could ask the young people.”

Mr Newmark said he hopes to work closely with Stephen in future.

He said: “I was delighted to meet with Stephen at the House of Commons do discuss his very thoughtful proposal for a Braintree Youth Council.

“I think that it’s very important that young people in our community feel that they have an opportunity to influence the decisions that affect them and the Youth Council will offer them a way of doing just that.

“I look forward to helping Stephen make the Youth Council a reality and I hope very much that as many young people as possible from our community will get involved.”

www.braintreeconservativefuture.com

Politics

state local politics

 Stephen Canning attended a recent meeting of the Department for Children, Schools and Families along with Ed Balls (previously Secretary of State for Education) and Directors of the Education Department. Stephen has a real interest in politics and being invited to the meeting to represent the views of children provided a chance for his own views to be considered. Being asked to attend the meeting and contribute to the discussions was extremely interesting. Stephen is a member of the National Childrens Bureau, a childrens rights organisation, and has researched and considered how young people are perceived through his membership of this group.

During the meeting at the Department of Schools, Children and Families in Westminster Stephen raised the view that advertising can mislead children. Following the meeting and further discussions planned for January a report will be produced looking at the impact of the commercial world on childrens well being,

Stephen will be attending another informal discussion tonight with David Blunkett at Portcullis House where he will be discussing democracy, equality and how to achieve genuine universal suffrage* in the United Kingdom. Stephen will argue for a democratic system that is more diverse and inclusive.

Since joining Tabor, Stephen has been keen to encourage others to use their student voice. As chairman of the Braintree Conservative Future, Stephen has arranged a young peoples discussion to be held on the 31st January at Avenue Lodge, Witham. Brooks Newmark MP for Braintree will attend the meeting.

www.braintreeconservativefuture.com

Politics

local government politics

 Oil drilling is one of the major activities that is bieng doen in this current century to keep our engines running along. All the countries in the world depend on the oil that is being drilled and which is then pumped into the pipes so that it can reach us.

Of course this oil drilling has made the fortunes of few countries in the world and the main nations are the so called Arab nations like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. In fact, Russia too has a lot of oil. This oil drives their economies as they have nothing else in terms of manufacturing industry or the other industries.

At the other end of the spectrum are countries that are consumers of the oil and they practically represent the whole of the world and among them some have a very large demand of oil like India and China . The countries which are oil suppliers came together two decades to control the oil supply and hence make sure that the oil prices are always up. This cartel or the organization is known as the organization Of Petroleum Exporting countries and it is commonly known as OPEC.

That said oil is definitely a resource which will be not there endlessly and they say that it takes about a million years for the oil to be formed. The way the consumption is growing there will be hardly any oil left in a few decades and that is definitely a cause for worry.

If you look around you will find that almost anything which is there either runs on electricity or fuel. This fuel dependence has caused deep economic troubles for a lot of countries.

To reduce the dependence of oil in future there are many companies and countries in the world who are trying to use the oil in a better conscious manner. For example in some countries or cities there is a walk to work day whereby no cars ply on the road and that means less of oil consumed in a day. Some effort there for sure.

Then search for alternative sources of energy is being done fervently so that we can get energy form sources which are not dependent on the fuel. Green cars are now being manufactured by all big carmakers.

Wind energy is being harnessed and also the ocean energy is being harnessed so that we can provide a good healthy future to our kids as well as have some oil left in the bowels of the earth for later consumption.

The author writes about the life and love and the diamond drill bits.

Politics

local politics

 The economic news continues to herald even more horrible times up ahead. If only January were here, already! If President-elect Barack Obama manages to pull off the public works improvements he is proposing, maybe blue skies are on the horizon.

On January 6, Obama laid out his expansive plan to revive the economy through a job-creating public works project on a scale not seen since the building of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. According to the plan, millions of jobs will be created across a wide range of sectors, from construction jobs working on the improvement of the highways, to high tech jobs working on expanding broadband Internet access and improving the IT infrastructure at healthcare facilities. The expansion of broadband was on the slate during the Clinton administration, but the effort never came to fruition. And hospitals and doctors’ offices have been making do on antiquated systems running ancient applications for decades.

The plan also includes details about green-job programs and energy efficiency improvements in the efforts to both address global warming and stimulate the economy. The program would include weatherizing homes, installing monitors in homes to monitor and reduce energy use, and upgrading federal buildings to enhance their efficiency. It would also include tax breaks and subsidies to encourage clean energy projects like wind farms, solar, biofuels, and technology for capturing carbon dioxide emitted by power plants.

This initial plan looks smart, progressive, and frankly pretty exciting. But will it work? Just a month ago, in the weeks prior to the election, John McCain was arguing that the economic crisis could only be resolved by putting a freeze on federal spending. Since that time, however, economists such as Robert Pollin, writing for The Nation, spelled out a different plan. He argues that money must be spent by the federal government in order to maximize the number of jobs created, to increase the long-term productivity of the economy, and to reduce our collective carbon emissions.

But the deepening economic crisis is pushing the working poor into complete destitution, and how will this stimulus proposal help them? Looking at statistics from 2007, more than 37 million Americans live in poverty, meaning they earn less than $21,200 a year for a family of four. And unemployment is on the rise, and with it food stamp usage and the demand for social service agencies and shelters. The USDA’s annual report on food security reported that almost one in eight Americans were “food insecure,” meaning that they have trouble getting enough food as a result of a lack of resources.

Preventing the human suffering brought on by the recession will have to be yet another item on the long list of must-haves in the Obama proposal. Bolstering food stamp funds, rental assistance, and extending unemployment benefits will be critical to stabilizing distressed households. And the effect of this should likewise provide a boost to the economy. Focusing the economic policy on only the middle class won’t be enough as the economy continues to deteriorate and more and more of the middle class falls into poverty.

Escapeso Realty works with buyers in the Austin real estate market. Their site has a search of the Austin MLS. They also provided general information about the the dripping springs real estate market and the Austin real estate market.

Politics

local politics

 After a nail-biting, emotionally-draining year of watching what some people call the most gripping election campaign of modern times, the election now comes down to the opinion of the much-touted undecided voter. Who is this stubbornly indecisive population and why are they taking so long to make up their minds?

Untold millions have been spent by the candidates in trying to woo this elusive electoral subset, who now stand poised as the true deciders in this election year’s final hours. Pundits have talked themselves hoarse attempting to characterize their bias and pin down their final leanings. Whose attention wasn’t riveted by the little squiggly lines on the screen during the CNN televised version of the debate, the output of 30 undecided voters and their handheld response-dialers? And yet, despite the fact that they clearly were pleased or displeased with the two candidates’ performance, at the end of the evening many of them remained steadfastly undecided. Who wouldn’t hold out on making a decision if but to bask for a bit longer in the steady outpouring of national, even international, attention?

Even now, on the very eve of the election, some 6.4 percent of voters still cannot make up their mind for whom they will be casting their vote. Even after the many dozens of debates, the two conventions, the endless interviews, television appearances, newspapers articles, radio spots, the differences between the two candidates laid out in such sharp relief, these voters still haven’t figured it out. At this late stage of the game, you have to be trying pretty hard to avoid paying attention to the campaign, suggesting that maybe these undecideds never intended to vote in the first place.

And Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center has discovered just that–the undecided voters are in large part people who will not be voting on Tuesday. Kohut says that undecided voters typically fall into three general categories: those who are torn between the candidates, those who disengaged and not following the campaign, and those who are nonvoters.

Kohut’s research finds that a majority of the voters are women, at 63 percent. Many are less educated and more religious than their more decisive counterparts, and they also tend to make less money, so maybe don’t have as much time to be obsessing over politics. Of those who will cast a ballot, Kohut finds that they will be divided fairly evenly, with a slightly higher tendency to vote for McCain than voters who have already made up their minds.

Some polls show that in the swing states, such as Florida and Missouri, the number of undecided voters is larger than the lead of either candidate. So it seems that by playing coy, we will all be waiting breathlessly to see just how Josephine the voter decides to vote, if she votes at all. And perhaps we all should thank her for keeping us all so busy these last months. Without the undecided voters, the candidates wouldn’t have had anyone to spend their ad dollars on, Gallup wouldn’t have had anyone to write their debate questions for the last debate, and we wouldn’t have had any reason to keep watching this campaign so intently to its very end. So thank you for adding some suspense to what would otherwise have been a foregone conclusion to this election year!

Jill works for Inside Houston real estate. Their site has information on different suburbs of Houston like Clear Lake real estate and Woodlands real estate. They also provide general information on the Houston real estate market.

Politics

local government politics

 I’m really not the sort of person who’s interested enough in politics to be compelled to take time out of my busy schedule to help a political candidate. If I have any free time, I’d rather be working on my little art projects. However, something very interesting happened recently. Somehow, a few months before the presidential election, I got inspired to help Obama.

Like many others, I’d been freaked out about the state of our country and our world. At one point, all the bad news just kept piling up. The economy has been going downhill for a long time, but only recently did people start noticing; and I was worrying about what will happen when China decides to stop buying our debt.

With gasoline at $4 per gallon and rising at the time, our fuel and energy situation clearly didn’t look sustainable. Weird climate changes and strong hurricanes were making the global warming problem a little harder to ignore. I was worried about having no health insurance…

And of course I’d been upset about the war. As far as I’m concerned, there is no good reason to start a war. Most Americans have no understanding of the horrors of war on a deep level. It’s just all so abstract when it’s half way across the world. Now there are two wars to be upset about.

And here was a presidential candidate who was saying all the things we all wanted to hear, with real, coherent ideas and plans. I actually heard a calling. I somehow felt compelled to help Obama win, and the feeling was too strong to ignore.

What’s interesting to me is that so many others heard the calling, and like me, many of them were not the activist types. It was like a large number of people woke up at the same time. We all realized that if things keep going in the same direction, things could get very ugly very quickly.

Many of the volunteers I met have never worked on a political campaign before either. Some of them took months out from their busy lives, flocking to the swing states, just to help the cause, which was pretty amazing in itself. There were busloads of college kids from New York, here to help in the final weeks.

There were so many volunteers here in Pittsburgh, PA, that we needed many local headquarters locations, and more were being added all the time, to have more space for phone banking, and getting the canvassing shifts started.

My friend Lance, who’s the Outreach/Student Coordinator for the Santa Clara, CA election board, said, “Our county had an almost 90% voter turnout. Everything about the election was unusual and amazing - even months ago. We are a non partisan organization, and offer the same services to all political parties and campaigns. During the summer, I was training Obama precinct captains on voter registration, and their foot soldiers - 15 and 16 year old teenagers - would show up at our office every week for more voter registration forms. I received 1900 applications to work in this election from the high school student program - usually we get about 600.”

I wasn’t really aware of the extent of what was happening until I too decided to help. I just walked into one of the local headquarters, and asked how I can be helpful.

Again, something interesting happened. I got on the Obama email list, and started getting a couple of emails every day. These emails kept me posted on what was going on, encouraged me to get involved and most had a donate button, so that people could donate to the campaign.

The whole campaign was funded by regular people like me, without taking any money from special interests. Most other political candidates can be bought, but not this one. Even the brokest of the broke in this country, can afford to chip in a few bucks for a cause they believe in. With everyone giving whatever they could, apparently these contributions did add up and did the job.

This campaign used email and the internet like no other political campaign I’m aware of. I’ve been saving these emails.

I have emails from James Fogarty, the team leader from my local headquarters; from Barack Obama; Joe Biden; Michelle Obama; David Plouffe - the brilliant campaign manager for Obama for America; Craig Schirmer, Pennsylvania State Director, Obama for America; Eric Greenwald, Voter Protection Director, Pennsylvania Campaign for Change; Al Gore; Marianne Markowitz, Chief Financial Officer, Obama for America. There’s certainly some direct communication going on, making me feel like I’m in the loop, like I’m being treated like an intelligent adult.

I’m recognizing all the internet marketing strategies used in business, employed in this brilliant campaign. Marketing research shows that you usually need to make at least 7 contacts with a prospect before he or she decides to work with you. Hence the repetition with emails, phone calls and home visits in the campaign. Many people were annoyed that we pestered them so often, but you can’t argue with results. We had unprecedented voter turnouts here in PA, not to mention all the volunteers and donors.

There are YouTube videos put out by the campaign, designed to inform and involve the public. I got lots of these videos in the emails from the campaign. You can watch any speech or debate that you missed, as well as a wide variety of campaign related videos posted by a wide variety of people. Surely, the media has normally been a very powerful catalyst in politics, but media + internet takes it to a whole new level. Not only can we watch the videos any time, and as often as we want, but anyone can make their own campaign related videos and post them on YouTube, therefore truly having an uncensored voice.

I’ve been blown away by the extent to which every American has had an opportunity to be informed and involved in this campaign. While the US has been fighting wars in the name of democracy in far away lands, our own democracy has been lagging to say the least. You can’t have democracy when no one is paying attention; democracy requires involvement and participation. Americans got too comfortable and too distracted by their televisions, video games, pro sports, and other fun distractions.

On November 5th, I got a very gracious thank you email from Barack Obama:

Emilie —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

I was very much moved by this email, but I hadn’t even thought about what comes next. But of course, this was only the beginning. The campaign has built up so much momentum, it would be a huge waste to stop here. If we could get an unlikely candidate elected with just grass roots and internet strategies, couldn’t we do something similar, to help create the change we want to see? Even the president of the United States can’t do it alone.

Today, I got an email from John Podesta, from the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team; that includes a video of a meeting of our Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team, an interview with team member Heather Zichal, and a link I can click on to submit my ideas. When was the last time your federal government asked you for your ideas?

In the spirit of continued communication, Barack Obama is creating very short, weekly addresses, and posting them on YouTube.

Now, with every email I get from the campaign, with every video I watch, I realize that something magical is happening - something many of us have been hoping for, but were too cynical to really expect it to happen.

The problem is, I don’t think everyone realizes this yet, and I know that not everyone is on Obama’s email list, and not everyone scours Video Sift for the latest Obama videos. This is what motivated me to write this article. I think it’s important for everyone to be aware, to get involved, because this is what Democracy was supposed to be all about in the first place.

Emilie Nottle is a graphic/web designer, online strategist, and principal at Zooop Design - a full service graphic and web design firm.

Politics

local politics

 Oil they say is the major driver of the world and that is no doubt about the veracity of that statement. Oil is one resource which has truly revolutionized the world and it has been the object of wars even.

Oil is a finite resource of energy and we cannot say that it will be there forever. Oil is formed in the earth’s bowels and it takes millions of years for the oil to be in a stage where it can be extracted.

The major oil exporting countries have become rich because of oil found in their estates. They usually keep the supply less than the demand so that the prices are high. But that is their motive. The major thing to worry is not the costly but the fact that the oil will get depleted very fast and it is not replenished at the speed at which it is being depleted.

The major source of consumption of oil is the automobiles and if you see the automobiles on the road in the past few years the number have grown tremendously. The availability of finance to own the automobiles have led to mushrooming growth in the automobile sector but has also led to major consumption of petroleum and its derivatives.

Of late however experts have been warning about the over dependence of oil as well as the depletion of major reserves of oil. This has instigated major governments all over the world to initiate developmental programs for alternative sources of energy.

Automobile companies all over the world have been putting money in to the research so that they can have cars which can run on electricity or with hydrogen fuel cells. This is easier said than done. The alternative fuel acres which have come into the market are very expensive and yet to become a mass medium of transport.

Power generation has also found success in wind farms generating power as well as nuclear power plants.

Some governments and city councils have been more proactive than the others and they have initiated a green day or a no car to work day. At least for one day the consumption of petrol will come down. A big thing if you estimate the number of cars and the amount of gas they consume.

Hopefully all these steps will help us prevent the day which we all dread which is that there will be no oil to drill.

The author has a blog for diamond drill bit and also writes about special things in her life

Politics

state local politics

 Rioting started almost 7 days ago in Greece and is still continuing to go strong. The rioting began when police shot dead a 15 year old boy, claiming they had fired a warning shot in the air as youths threatened him and a fellow officer. But there defence lawyer states that the young boy was killed from a ricochet rather than a direct fire shot.

Police have been trying to control the rioting with tear gas, but it is now said that it is starting to run out after battling for 7 days in a row. The police are said to have already fired over four thousand canisters. The police have already asked other countries to help them with supplies, as it was also stated that the police were using old stock from the 1980’s, which in fact is said to have some corroded chemicals which is causing some people to need urgent medical attention.

Rioters are torching hundreds of shops and banks and then camping out inside them. Police have been told that it is forbidden for them to enter as it is too dangerous.

We all know the reason that people are rioting it is very upsetting to see a young boy shot, but I believe there must be another way to get the message across of there unhappiness as a lot more people could end up getting hurt in the long run, which will be terrible.

People are running around and police are firing canisters everywhere it is only a matter of time until someone else gets hurt and we start seeing a lot more casualties, who will probably end up being innocent by passers or tourists.

Left-wing demonstrators have been chanting things such as “Cops are murderers” and carried placards saying “Bullets in the kids, money in the bank” and “Down with the government of property and privatization”.

It is also now stated that over 100,000 people could lose there jobs in the run up to Christmas and New Year. Students at mass demonstrations have also been handing out timetables indicating another week of the civil unrest that has brought violence to Athens and other parts of Greece. At least 70 people have been injured and hurt. Hundreds of stores and banks have been smashed and looted, and more than 200 people arrested. A lot more people will end up getting hurt if a resolution is not found.

Great Safari Holidays and Holidays to Africa

Politics

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