Bowling Etiquette - Do's & Don'ts

Bowling, like any other sport, has a set of DO'S and DON'TS that must be followed so that all can enjoy the game. The rules are based on common sense, and express courtesy and good sportsmanship.

Here are ten of the most important ones:

1) DO yield the 'right of way' When two bowlers are on adjacent lanes, and simultaneously ready to bowl, the bowler on the right delivers first. The other bowler ought to remainoff or to the rear of the approach area. This rule doesn't apply if the bowler on the left is shooting for a spare.

2) DON'T take a practice swing with your bowling ball on the concourse or behind the approach. Wait until you are upon the approach itself before doing any practice exercises.

3) DO be ready when it's your turn to bowl. Remain in your lane area while your teammates are bowling, don't wander off.

4) DON'T use an excessive amount of body gyrations at the foul line after delivering the ball. Confine your body 'English' to your own lane.

5) DO bowl immediately when it is your turn. Once you have your ball, assume your stance and start your delivery, it isn't necessary to wait for lanes on either side of you to be cleared before you bowl, just observe the 'right of way' rule.

6) DON'T bring food or drink into the settee or bowlers area, a drop of liquid or any type of foreign substance spilled on the approach could cause a slip and serious injury.

7) DO wait until you have completed the frame before checking your score. Don't come back to the scorekeeper after the first ball has been rolled.

8) DON'T bench jockey while others are bowling. Friendly bantering is an accepted part of the sport, but don't overdo it. Be a good competitor.

9) DO return your bowling shoes to the counter control desk after bowling, and if you've borrowed a 'house ball' return it to the storage rack.

10) DON'T linger at the foul line after releasing the ball. As soon as your ball hits the pins return to your seat.

New Theory On Increased Military Suicides Considered

In previous wars, we've had our military war fighters come back and often they had psychological challenges readjusting to society. This is normal, it has been talked about since Roman times in Western culture. It is also been discussed in ancient Chinese and Japanese writing as well. It's no secret, warfare, that is to say real war up close and personal changes a man. The young gung ho soldier running into battle is all about bravado, but their steely eyes once it's done don't lie, their innocence is lost.

We already know this, we don't need more psychologists studying this topic telling us what we already have discovered, and humankind has not changed from that historical record for as far as we can tell in the last 6000+ years; so why would it change now, because our technology has; doubtful?

The RAND Corp recently put out an interesting report in the 4th quarter of 2012 titled; "The War Within - Preventing Military Suicide" by Rajeev Ramchand, Joie Acosta, Rachel Burns, Lisa H Jaycox, and Christopher G. Pernin. The report's introduction discusses combat stress in the theater, prolonged deployments, multiple deployments, etc. and then on the issue of stress it stated;

"This stress can manifest itself in different ways - increased divorce rates, spouse and child abuse, mental distress, substance abuse - but one of the most troubling manifestations is suicide, which is increasing across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The increase in suicides among members of the military has raised concern among policymakers, military leaders, and the population at large."

The report also noted all the military is doing with "state-of-the-art suicide prevention programs" and "prevention science" including robust monitoring. That's all well and good, and it makes sense to get to the bottom of the problem and find a way to prevent it.

However, I have a different theory on all of this, it is a new theory, one you haven't heard before, and I would like to discuss it with you. First of all we know that sand often has in it lots of bacteria. This shouldn't surprise anyone because if you look at sand particles under a microscope you see it is all filled with old organic material. As that old material decays, and since it is high in nutrients and minerals, there is an abundance of bacteria around even with all of the sunlight and UV radiation constantly on it.

These last two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq occurred in regions filled with sand. That bacteria in the sand does have an effect on the human bio system, gene expression, and disease. We already know that people in the Middle East often feel it is their duty to commit suicide through suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. Maybe they've been subjected to this bacteria in the sand all their lives.

Now that we have brought hundreds of thousands of Americans into that theater to fight a war, they are experiencing the same thing now, to a greater degree in previous wars. I'd say this bacteria effect is an enhancement or force-multiplier to the suicide problem and psychological issues of human warfare. There's your new theory, do with it what you will, but don't deny what I've said unless you can empirically prove me wrong. Please consider all this and think on it.

A Fan's Guide To Sports Merchandise

When you travel to another city, you can sometimes find yourself staring face to face with the need to understand the finer points of a fan's guide to sports items. This is especially true if you are often in a situation where you need to buy a nice gift for a coworker or a person in your family that is a sports fanatic.

With a little bit of advice on the types of sports collection that are available today, you can add to your personal collection for your favorite team or truly give someone else a gift they will actually treasure.

Sports merchandise for memorabilia, everyday, and gifts

It goes without saying that a signed card or autographed picture are the type of sports collection that some fans are looking for. On the other hand, this is more of an antique and unusual purchase. Instead, most people that are shopping for sports merchandise are looking for the season's latest wearable team logos. This includes your usual sports merchandise such as hoodies, sweatshirts, and hats.

These items can be generic, but many sports fans will not want to do without those wardrobe basics. If you are a gift giver, you should probably avoid the usual suspects that a typical collector of sports collection would get. As an alternative, buy a sports memorabilia gift that is custom personalized.

Personalized sports merchandise purchases

If you want to keep the logo and the idea of sports merchandise clothing, there is one angle that you will want to cover. On many of the websites that allow you to personalize coffee mugs, t-shirts, shoes, and hats, they also offer you a chance to put your team's logo on practically anything. While most of the offerings are conservative, there are several wild ideas that will give you unique sports merchandise piece that become team treasures.

Weird sports merchandise purchases are a must

If you search for gifts online that are related to your team, you will see that there are several strange options. For instance, there is a toaster that brands your team logo onto every slice of bread. There are also painters that will paint the likeness of your favorite athlete and frame it and quilters that use official logo fabric to make bedspreads.

Finally, there are weird sports collection items that are part of the souvenir or bobble-head world that are colorful ways to have a good laugh. In other words, the deeper you did, the more weird sports merchandise you will find ready for sale trade that include your favorite team.

Compulsory Licensing (CL): A Ray of Hope for AIDS and Cancer Patients in Least Developing Countries

Pharmaceuticals patents are the foremost requirements to sustain a better level of public health in least developing countries (LDCs). Threatening diseases like AIDS, Cancer are most commonly found in these poor countries. Many other reasons are also responsible for the severity and morbidity of these diseases.

If these LDCs have their own patents or some protected drugs to cure the diseases like AIDS and Cancer, then it will be great relief for those concerned patients. Generally, pharmaceuticals companies of LDCs do not have much protected life saving drugs. Due to lack of their own protected drugs, these companies are not able to sell life saving drugs at affordable prices.

LDCs and some developing countries (Brazil, China, Canada, India, and Thailand) are enjoying compulsory licensing mechanism of TRIPS agreement to resolve out the problem of life saving drugs availability at affordable prices. Compulsory licensing mechanism is very purposeful in achieving the public health targets like the availability of life saving drugs at affordable prices.

First time, compulsory licensing (CL) procedure was approved by Paris convention and TRIPS agreement. After some time, Doha declaration added some amendments in the pre-existed procedure such as all members of TRIPS agreement can import patent protected products except some countries.

Doha declaration purposed three relevant paragraphs (paragraph 4, 5 and 6).

Paragraph 4 states some provisions related to more adequate use of compulsory licensing mechanism of TRIPS agreement by all WTO members.

Provisions of Paragraph 5 are very supportive for the health objectives of LDCs. Whenever any member country will face the problem of national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency related to public health crises (for example, abrupt hike in patients of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics). In this situation, every member country will carry the right of medical emergency determination. Each member country is free to create its own IP regime related to CL mechanism up to certain circumstances.

Paragraph 6 provisions were responsible for the delegation of a General Council to circumvent the issues related to allowing generic versions of life saving drugs those made under the compulsory licensing to be exported to countries that lack production capacity.

On August 30, 2003, General Council established some new provisions to approve the CL mechanism with some certain conditions and procedures. This temporary report of the General Council containing provisions related to compulsory licensing was permanently accepted by WTO members in 2005.

Amended paragraph (f) of article 31 provides significant flexibility to LDCs for enjoying the compulsory licensing mechanisms during certain medical emergencies.

Cressey's Fraud Triangle - Part 1: Perceived Pressure

Once upon a time...

Mr. Y had just dropped his mortgage payment and life savings at the poker table in Atlantic City, NJ. Returning home to VA, he became worried and quite embarrassed at losing such a huge sum of money, not to mention this months mortgage payment. He couldn't tell his wife, she would flip out, she wouldn't understand. Mr. Y couldn't borrow the money either as it would cause further embarrassment.

When Mr. Y returned to work on Monday, he "stumbled" upon a way to get the money back. His company EFG Technologies was a rapidly growing company that had lax internal controls. The company only required approval on payments made to vendors that were over $750.00. Mr. Y decided to set up dummy corporations with his wife's initials and use PO boxes to receive the "payments." Mr. Y thought to himself, "once I get that huge Vice President promotion, I can repay the money from the yearly bonus' the company pays all the executives each year."

Mr. Y was able to forge invoices from commercially available software; the accounts payable clerks were overwhelmed with the amount of work volume and they did not check invoices for accuracy. Mr. Y began "billing" his employer for invoices that were under the $750.00 threshold. In a years time he stole over $50,000; enough to make up the mortgage payment and replace his lost life savings.

However, in time, Mr. Y did not get that big promotion he was expecting. Angered by his boss's screw job, Mr. Y continued to bill his employer for the fake invoices and increased the frequency so that he bilked the company of $150,000 in fraudulent payments. Mr. Y felt justified for taking the money since he would have earned as much IF he had gotten that promotion; to make himself feel better he decided to by a new Lexus.

A few months later, Mr. Y's scheme unraveled when internal auditors discovered that his dummy corporations had the same PO boxes. Mr. Y confessed to defrauding the company and was prosecuted and convicted.

Interesting story, wouldn't you say? The story is fictional but it is a common occurrence in today's world. The headlines are full of similar stories such as this one. So what can we learn from this in our pursuit of learning about fraud? The first step is to understand why Mr. Y decided to commit fraud against his employer. We can gain an understanding of why Mr. Y defrauded his EFG Technologies by using Cressey's Fraud Triangle.

Cressey's fraud triangle states that where fraud is present there must be 3 factors. These 3 factors are perceived pressure, perceived opportunity & rationalization. Think of a fire; in order for a fire to burn it must have heat, oxygen and fuel. When all three are present a fire will burn out of control. The same is true for a fraudulent act. When perceived pressure, perceived opportunity and rationalization intersect, fraud is highly likely to occur.

Before I end, let's look at the first component of Cressey's fraud triangle...the perceived pressure. I call it "perceived" since what one person may feel is a pressure may not be a pressure to another. In most cases every fraud perpetrator feels some kind of perceived pressure. Most of the time it is a financial need, like Mr. Y who needed to replace the mortgage payment and his life savings he lost through gambling. However, in some cases the pressure is non-financial in nature. For instance, the underling who is pressured by their superior(s) to report financial results that are better than the company's actual performance.

Pressures can be divided into four main categories: financial, vices, work related and other pressures. Lets look at each one individually.

Financial Pressures

Financial pressures typically involve greed, living beyond one's means, high bills or personal debt, poor credit, unexpected financial needs and personal financial losses. From our example of Mr. Y, he faced financial pressure from losing the money for his mortgage and life savings. One thing to note and we will discuss later, is that financial pressures can be caused by vices, like gambling (in Mr. Y's case).

Financial pressures can sometimes occur without warning (casualty loss), suddenly (vices) or be long-term (disability or sickness). In many cases the fraudsters do not inform others of their financial pressures. From our example, Mr. Y felt he could not tell his wife because she would be angry with him. He felt too embarrassed to reveal he had lost such a significant amount of money to others; others who may have been willing to help him.

Vice pressures

Vice pressures are created due to vices like gambling (Mr. Y), drugs/alcohol or extramarital affairs. Simply put, vices are the worst kind of pressure to commit fraud. Anyone who is willing to go through anything to place that bet, get high or find that thrill from an illicit relationship will definitely look for ways to steal from their employer or commit other types of fraud.

Work-Related pressures

The majority of fraud is motivated by financial or vice pressures. However, in some cases some people will commit fraud to get even with their employer or other people. From our example, we see that Mr. Y decided to continue his fraudulent billing scheme due to being passed over for the Vice President promotion. Other factors that can contribute to fraudulent acts are: getting little recognition for job performance, job dissatisfaction, fear of losing a job or feeling underpaid.

Other Pressures

Finally many fraudsters are motivated by other pressures, such as a spouse who demands a higher standard of living. Sometimes many of us have trouble deciding between wants and needs. We are envious of the brother-in-law that drives the BMW and has the nicer house. Sometimes we all make bad decisions or we are far beyond driven by our vices and they take over our lives. We all are guilty of measuring success by the amount of money someone else has. Don't fall into these traps; concentrate on building lasting friendships and or relationships. Remember life is not all about you, and learn to measure success in other ways than relying on dollars or material possessions.

In my next post, I will discuss part 2 of Cressey's Fraud Triangle, perceived opportunity, stay tuned...

How to Get the Most Value From Your Private Health Insurance Policy

It's been 10 years since the federal government began its series of financial motivators to encourage Australians to purchase and maintain private health insurance, despite the hefty price tag that goes with it. By setting in place a 33 percent premium making private coverage more expensive to purchase after age 30, and by establishing a tax - a Medicare levy surcharge - for high income earners who do not have a private health plan. These rules gave high income earners and those individuals 30 and under an added incentive to purchase and maintain private health care.

When you're comparing private insurance policies, how do you know if you're getting value from the health care plan you choose?

Becoming informed about health care options in Australia is your first step toward making sure you are getting the best value for your health insurance. No matter how you look at it, purchasing private health coverage is not cheap. Data from the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (privatehealth.gov.au) shows that coverage for a family can cost between $141 and $245 monthly, and can run as high as $413 depending on the policy and the level of services you choose. Extras, such as optical, dental, chiropractic and alternative therapies such as acupuncture will raise the price of your premium.

Purchasing less expensive policies may be more budget friendly for many Australians. However, it's important to weigh the benefits of selecting a cheaper policy if the coverage limitations are going to hurt you down the road, if you or a family member is injured or becomes sick. In order for your health insurance to be both comprehensive and affordable, it is critical that you are well informed when it comes time to compare plans. The more you know about the options available to you and your family, the better the value you will receive on insurance coverage that suits your needs.

Avoiding the surcharge makes purchasing private medical coverage a sound financial choice. Consider this: If you're a single individual who earns more than $77,000 yearly, you will be saddled with a one percent tax increase if you do not have private insurance, a valid financial reason for high income earners to maintain private hospital insurance. If you have a spouse and children, and your combined taxable income is $154,000 or more, your surcharge increases by $1500 for the second dependent child and every child that follows. Keep in mind when comparing insurance plans that there are medical policies available that actually cost less than paying the one percent surcharge. Although these policies will most likely not cover as much as other more expensive plans, they will provide you with the coverage you need to avoid the Medicare tax. Make sure that the policy you choose is Medicare levy surcharge exempt, as not all private insurance plans are.

We all know that avoiding a surcharge is not the best reason to buy private health care coverage. Having options regarding your treatment if you or a family member are injured or become sick makes having comprehensive private health insurance an excellent value in the long run. Private coverage ensures avoiding public hospital waiting lists if you prefer private hospital care. Keep in mind, you can still access public hospitals if you prefer. With private medical coverage, you have s choice.

Your health insurance also frees you and your loved ones from the burden of worrying about the high cost of treatment when illness or injury strikes.

Purchasing the least expensive private health insurance plan, however, will not provide you with the peace of mind that comprehensive coverage offers. When comparing insurance policies, look into the best coverage you can afford that is recommended for your life stage, and make sure you are paying for coverage with your needs and your family's needs in mind.

To get the most value out of your private health plan, know the benefits you're paying for. The value of those benefits will determine the value of maintaining your private health coverage.