Posts Tagged ‘recreation’
What Is The Low Down On Bed Bugs?
Most individuals under seventy years of age in the West will not have encountered bed bugs. This is largely due to improved living conditions, DDT and better public education. The DDT was used in the thirties and forties and eradicated the problem in the more wealthy countries.
Bed bugs are a member of the arachnid or spider family, although bed bugs are parasites that suck blood, not all bodily fluids. They will feed on most warm-blooded animals and there is some proof that humans are not their first preference of prey.
The most common form of bed bugs are known as Cimex lectularius by their Latin name. They are quite small but very fast moving insects and they are members of the spider family, although many of them do not look like spiders at all. Rather, most of them look like little beetles, until they have satiated themselves, after which they can hardly move and are at their most vulnerable.
Bed bugs feed in a similar way to mosquitoes. They insert a tube into the skin of its victim and suck blood out. It is not a great deal to you, about a quarter of a millilitre, but is a lot to them. It allows them to live and procreate.
Bed bugs, unlike their relatives the ticks, are not known to convey any diseases. In fact, they are one of the few insects that do not pass on a disease.
A bedbug bite is similar to an ant bite in appearance, but it will itch like a mosquito bite. You will probably experience a slight swelling with a red dot in the centre and an itch. Not much more.
You can check for bed bugs quite easily by soaking a bar of soap in a little water for half an hour while you lie on your bed reading a book. Then get up and fetch the soap, wet-side down and throw back the bed clothes. Pat up the bed bugs, if there are any with the soft soap. This is a speedy method of getting rid of a small number of bed bugs, but cannot be seen as a solution.
With regards to the annihilation of an infestation of bed bugs, it depends where you are. If you are in a hotel, the bar of soap will be proof enough of a problem and it is the hotel manager’s duty to provide a solution. If they do nothing, report the hotel to the local tourist bureau.
If you live in rented accommodation, it is your landlord’s responsibility to resolve the predicament. If he or she is reluctant, then go to the council hall and seek advice.
If the problem is in your own house, then take the skirting boards and architraves off. Spray or paint very strong insecticide onto the wall and refit the woodwork. If you are still worried, seal the woodwork off on all sides with mastic or silicone.
These actions will ensure that your house will be free of bed bugs.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently concerned with natural tick repellent. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at tick Repellent For Dogs.
Welsh Music Styles Of Past And Present
Wales has a long tradition of music and has been known as the ‘land of song’ since at least the Nineteenth Century. This reference to Wales as the land of song, almost certainly comes from the passionate singing in Welsh churches and at Welsh sports meetings, particularly at rugby matches. However, Wales’ links with music go much further back than that.
Wales has a tradition of folk music which is closely linked with Scottish and Irish folk music. There are several forms of musical gathering that are comparable to those in other Celtic countries in the United Kingdom. For instance there is the twmpath (folk dance session), g?yl werin (folk festival) and noson lawen (a traditional party comparable to the Gaelic “C?ilidh”).
Contemporary Welsh folk musicians have often resurrected traditions which had been suppressed or forgotten, but have competed with imported and indigenous rock and pop trends. This has been especially the case since the 1990’s.
Despite modern Welsh trends in music, Wales will always be linked with Male Voice Choirs such as the Morriston Orpheus Choir and Treorchy Male Voice Choir which enjoy world wide fame.
These choirs were frequently made up of workers from one village or one coal mine and so it was quite natural for men to sing when one town played against another, especially if that game was Wales’ national sport of rugby. The first time the Welsh National Anthem, ‘Yr Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ (’The Old Country of my Fathers’, normally translated as ‘Land of My Fathers’), was sung at an International sporting event was in 1905
Along side the choirs, brass bands developed in villages, working men’s clubs, churches and at work especially in South Wales where brass bands are still very popular. In fact, the Cory Band is one of the most successful brass bands in the world.
There were more than a few world famous Welsh singers in the Twentieth Century and some of them are still singing to packed audiences worldwide. Ivor Novello was one of the first who became well-known during the First World War as a singer songwriter. Then there was Geraint Evans and Delme Bryn-Jones during the Second World War.
After that, Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey began their singing careers in the 1950’s and are still singing fifty years later. There were also popular bands during the Seventies and Eighties such as Man and Budgie and solo singers such as Shakin’ Stevens, nnie Tyler and John Cale (Velvet Underground).
In more recent times, we have seen the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci; the latter two bands being famous for lots of their songs’ lyrics being in Welsh.
There have always been operatic singers as well such as Rebecca Evans, Aled Jones, Bryn Tervel and Charlotte Church. Cardiff hosts the ‘Singer of the World’ competition but the Wales also has its very own Eisteddfod, where Pavarotti performed for years. It was because of Wales tradition as a nation of singers that Paul Robeson visited Wales in the Fifties
If you are interested in dogs or Welsh corgi puppies, or even Wales in general, go to our website at Welsh Products Online
How Hybrid Cars Work
Basically, hybrid electric cars have two engines: a conventional petrol or diesel engine (the same as you would find in any modern car and an electric, battery powered engine, as you might find in a milk float or a forklift truck. The magical difference is that the car’s on board computer judges which engine is necessary to provide the power needed by the driver and switches it on.
Therefore, if you are accelerating to cruising speed for motorway driving; going up hill or overtaking, the car will probably use its liquid fuel engine but then as you ease off the accelerator to, say, cruise down the motorway; go down the other side of the hill or to drive in slow traffic, the computer will turn off the liquid fuel engine and turn on the electric engine.
The electric engine can be regarded as free to run, because it runs off batteries which are recharged by the car while it is using petrol or diesel and at some other times, such as whilst it is braking (and the alternators are recharging in both modes). You should never need to recharge your car’s batteries overnight as they do with forklift trucks.
There are in essence two types of hybrid cars: the semi hybrids and the full hybrids.
The semi hybrids have the same sort of set up: two engines, one running on liquid fuel and the other running on batteries, but the electric motor is not capable of running the car on its own. It is there to ‘assist’ the petrol or diesel engine.
In this type of hybrid, the electric motor is called an ‘assist’. These semi hybrids will save money on fuel, but when the car is moving, you are burning fuel all the time.
The main difference when it comes to the full hybrid is that both engines are capable of powering the car autonomously. Whilst you are running on electricity, you are running at zero expense to your wallet and at zero expense to the environment, unless you are actually pushing the car and then both engines might be working in union.
This changing of power sources is done automatically without any intrusion from the driver. In the case of the Prius, for instance, this remarkable achievement is accomplished by what Ford calls its Hybrid Synergy Drive. Other businesses have their equivalent to the HSD.
In order to get the most out of these full hybrids, you actually need to be doing an ‘average amount’ of driving under ‘average’ or ‘mixed’ circumstances. For instance, if you are driving in traffic, the car will try to use the electric engine, but if all you do is drive in inner city traffic jams the batteries will soon become depleted and you will be driving on liquid fuel all the time, which sort of negates the main reason for spending a great deal extra on a hybrid in the first instance.
The car needs to travel on open motorways in order to recharge its batteries so that it can use them when it gets back into town. If you only drive in town traffic, you might be better off getting a small run about instead.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with how to compare tyre prices. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Car Tyres For Sale.
Gun Safety For Shooters And Hunters
Most boys and an increasing number of girls like to shoot. Not everybody wants to kill something but that is neither here nor there. The test for shooters is to be able to hit the target whenever required. Gun safety is important, obviously, because guns can be lethal weapons, yet at the end of the day, a gun is merely a tool but tools can be used and mis-used.
Guns though are specialized tools, as are all tools actually, but they have such an evocative reputation. Some people are vehemently against them yet others uphold their legal right to hold them in a world where a higher percentage of criminals hold guns than innocent civilians.
Criminals will not toe the line by definition, but for the rest of us gun holders, it is quite vital to demonstrate that we are responsible – that we know how to be safe towards others with our firearm. It is a of dispelling fear in non-shooters and showing that we are not all red-neck, gung ho idiots.
So, the first law is: always to regard a gun as if it were loaded. You never, ever point a gun at anyone in jest. Several well-known individuals have been killed in shooting accidents. OK, often while they were stoned, but ‘being out of it’ is no excuse whatsoever for behaving irresponsibly. Do not aim a gun at anyone you do not want to threaten – and that means threaten really big time!
There is never, ever any valid reason for having to aim a gun at anyone in joke or accidentally. Whilst loading a gun, it ought to be held so that the barrel is pointing away from anyone, even yourself.
If you are asked to pass a gun to someone, either you have to know them well or you do not do it. Whether the gun is loaded or not. The number of times I have been handed a loaded gun is incredible and I cannot put it down to my charisma.
If you must show off your gun, unload it in front of your friend and check that it is unloaded in front of your friend. If he or she does not know about guns, at least you are showing how to check the safety of the gun and that you are responsible.
One means of demonstrating or reminding yourself that a gun is safe is to fasten a ribbon to a blank case and put that in the cylinder of a revolver and take the magazine out of a semi-automatic. Always hand a revolver over for viewing with the cylinder flipped out so that the person can establish that the chambers are empty except the one with the ribbon.
Never, ever play around with guns if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs – it is just too simple to make mistakes that can land you in jail and regretting the incident for the remainder of your life, because the one wounded or killed in these circumstances is usually a friend – someone you were having a great time with.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is now involved with Oakley safety glasses. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at Safety Glasses Bifocal
History Of Hurling
While hurling is generally recognized as a Gaelic sport it should possibly be called a Celtic one. For the history of hurling is in fact older than the history of Ireland itself. It predates Christianity, arriving in Ireland more than three thousand years ago with the Celts.
The earliest references to hurling in Ireland is in early Irish laws dating back to the fifth century. Hurling played a prominent part in early Irish mythology. Legendary Irish heroes such as Cuchulainnt and Fionn Mac Cumhail and his Fianna are both written of as playing hurling.
Hurling is, in essence, a stick and ball game. The game is thought to be related to the games of shinty that is played primarily in Scotland, cammag on the Isle of Man and bandy that was played formerly in England and Wales.
The stick was, and indeed, still is called a hurley and the ball a sliotar. Early Irish lawn Law stated that the son of a r? (local king) could have his hurley banded in bronze, while others could only make use of copper. It was unlawful to confiscate a hurley.
The object of the game is for players to use the hurley to hit a small ball through the opponent’s goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is the same as three points.
The sliotar can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or hit on the ground with the hurley. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who wants to carry the ball for more than three steps has to bounce or balance the sliotar on the end of the stick and the ball can only be handled twice while in his possession.
The English occupation of Ireland led to many statutes prohibitting or restricting the playing of hurling as it diverted people from archery practice. The earliest of these goes back to the 13th century.
However, it was the Eighteenth Century that came to be known as the ?The Golden Age? of hurling as members of the Anglo-Irish landowning gentry often kept teams of players on their land and challenged each other’s teams to games for the amusement of their tenants.
Stories of colourful hurling games from this period continue to be gathered from contemporary Irish storytellers and newspapers of the era. The contemporary era of hurling In Ireland dates from the formation of the Gaelic Athletic Association formed in 1884 in Thurles, County Tipperary under the illustrious patronage of Thomas Croke, Archbishop of Cashel and Charles Parnell.
The 20th Century saw greater organisation in hurling. The all-Ireland Hurling tournament came into being along with the provincial championships. Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary dominated hurling in the 20th Century with each one of these counties winning more than 20 All-Ireland titles each. Wexford, Waterford, Clare, Limerick, Offaly, Dublin, and Galway were also strong hurling counties during the 20th Century.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several subjects, but is currently concerned with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.