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What Exactly is a Siamese Cat?

Siamese cats were originally from Siam and have gained popularity in the past one hundred years or so as house pets. They were typically bred only for the wealthy, but these days anyone who wishes to can own a Siamese cat can do so with ease.

For those who are not familiar with the Siamese cat breeds, there may be some confusion when choosing these types of cats as a pet. Most people do not even know that there are sub types in the category of Siamese cats. While most Siamese cats will be light tan in color with darker brown points on their ears, tail and legs, they will also have a darker mask around their eyes, which are always blue. There are some rarer types that will have a more blue tint to the darker brown coloring. All Siamese cats have hind legs that are longer than their front legs are.

They are different from typical house cats in that they can not sheathe their back claws. There are two main types of Siamese cats that you can own, the first is called an Apple Head Siamese cat and the other is called a Wedge Head Siamese cat.

How to Differentiate Between the Apple Head Siamese and Wedge Head Siamese Cats

There are two basic types of Siamese cats; the classic, which is also know as an apple head, and the extreme type which is known as a wedge head Siamese cat.

The Apple Head Siamese Cats

The Apple Head or classic Siamese cat will be a sturdy cat which is larger and has a fuller body than the Wedge Head. This type of Siamese cat will be larger than the Wedge Head as well and will have brilliant blue eyes. Many feel that the Apple Head is more like the Siamese cats of old in that these properties were bred out of the Wedge Head Siamese cats.

The Wedge Head Siamese Cats

The Wedge Head Siamese cat is much thinner than the Apple Head is and has a more tapered or pointed face. This type of Siamese cat is typically what you will see at cat shows and are bred mostly for this purpose. Their eyes have more of slant to them and are the shape of almonds. The ears are much bigger than the Apple Head Siamese cat have.

Pros and Cons to Owning a Siamese Cat

Pros

Siamese cats of any type are typically very playful cats. They are highly intelligent and make great pets. They can be taught many of the same "tricks" that you can teach a dog. I have a friend whose Siamese cat will fetch, rollover, sit and lay down to hand commands. They do not require much grooming as they have short coats, which makes them a good pet for those who are allergic to long haired breeds.

You will still need to brush them to keep them looking nice, and not mention that brushing your cat will help build a bond between you. When you get a Siamese cat, you want to play with it as much as possible as they are very social animals and will revel in your time with them. These cats have garnered a reputation for being stand offish, but the opposite is true; Siamese cats are actually quite affectionate and love attention.

Cons

While these are very playful cats, they can also be big climbers, if you have areas where you do not want your cat to climb, you may want to keep them out of that room as you may find that your Siamese cat has climbed there just because they can. You may want to get a nice scratching post that has towers on it for them to climb instead.

Siamese cats are very vocal and will chatter with you when they are feeling anything at all. If you are looking for a quiet cat, the Siamese may not fit your needs. You will need to be careful when you purchase a Siamese cat as there are many breeders who are not legitimate and you may end up with a cat that has been inbred to the point that they are no longer fit for pets.

About the Author

Susan Miler is a cat enthusiast who writes for
Siamese Cat World
, a website dedicated to Siamese cats. If you love Siamese cats visit
http://www.siamesecatworld.com
where you can read lots of original
Siamese cat articles
.

When wearing colored or multi colored shoes, what color belt should I use?

****Example...If I"m wearing jeans with a red top and red / tan wedges.
Would it look wrong wearing a brown belt with the clothing mentioned?

one of the colors that DOESNT stand out very well compared to the others in the shoe.. just make sure the belt is a solid color.. if it looks bad then do the color that stands out the most.

Tan learns to ski

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Bone Platforms

Pivotal Vibration Training: The New Frontier Of Functional Strengthening

Pivotal Vibration Training: The New Frontier of Functional Strengthening

The days of dissecting the human muscular system into a collection of isolated, independently acting muscles are now in the past. When it comes to our daily muscular demands, those that ultimately determine our degree of physical and often mental exhaustion at the end of each day, strengthening muscles in single planes of motion no longer makes sense. When was the last time anyone accomplished anything functional in their daily lives by repeatedly flexing and extending their knee while the rest of their body remained stationary? Or better yet, when did human movement involve abducting and adducting your hips while you sat in a chair. While I am not suggesting that these exercises do not provide value, they simply fail to succeed at preparing the body, or the nervous system that operates it, for the actual activities that we engage in each day. This realization is behind the mass movement in the physical therapy field towards abandoning the monotonous, robotic movements that have been prescribed for so many years and embracing what has come to be known as functional strengthening.

Functional strengthening involves exercises being performed with body weight, cables, or other forms of resistance through movements designed to reproduce functional activities of our daily lives (pushing, pulling, squatting, etc.). With origins linked to sports performance enhancement and neurological rehabilitation, functional strengthening theory tells us that in order to continue to efficiently and effortlessly carry out the many complex interactions that our muscles undergo on a day to day basis, there must be specificity in the way in which they are trained. This approach emphasizes the importance of coordinating the complex interactions of both the neural and muscular components of functional activities. This is the incomparable value of this approach and it is accomplished primarily by enhancing our nervous systems ability to communicate; in other words, taking advantage of its “neuroplastic” capabilities.

Neuroplasticity

The neuroplasticity model of the nervous system, arguably the biggest scientific breakthrough of the 20th century and a subject of many recent studies, explains that through repeated exposure to a given activity, no matter how old we are, our central nervous system is capable of reorganizing itself to meet our demands. This reorganization process has been hypothesized to be the result of increased synaptic transmission speeds through increasingly dense neural networks. In the paraphrased words of Donald O. Hebb (1), a pioneer in nervous system learning theory called Hebbian Learning, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Through this reorganization process, the ability to carry out the activity with greater accuracy, less energy expenditure, and faster speed is improved. As this concept translates into the functional strengthening approach, the more frequent and precise a specific functionally relevant exercise is performed, the faster, stronger, and more efficiently that movement can be reproduced when needed.  Thanks to functional brain imaging, neuroplastic theory’s validity is increasing rapidly and has begun to change the way we look at our patient’s potential to respond to physical therapy. As a result, our increased desire to maximize our patient’s functional and recreational status has forced us to look towards newer methods of achieving functional strength. One method, referred to as vibration training, is rapidly emerging and has distinguished itself due to its amazing ability to directly “tap in” to the nervous system. Capable of safely reproducing compound involuntary muscle contractions with repetition rates never before seen, vibration training may be the next great leap in rehabilitation.

Pivotal Vibration Training

There are currently two types of vibration training platform systems on the market today. The first system, referred to as lineal, linear, or vertical, moves straight up and down and predominantly stimulates muscles that work along the sagittal plane. The second type of system referred to as a “pivotal”, or “alternating” system, moves in a teeter-totter direction and engages muscle that work along the frontal and transverse planes. While both have significant value, when considering the reciprocal nature of human locomotion and the need for training specificity, pivotal vibration training provides the greatest potential to maximize an individual’s functional capabilities in rehabilitation settings. 

Created in an effort to combat bone density loss, the first pivotal vibration platform was created in Germany in the 1990’s. This platform system, referred to as the Galileo, is behind the majority of the research that exists today in support of vibration technology for rehabilitation purposes (2, 3, 4). Pivotal vibration training involves anything from simply standing on to performing complex functional strengthening exercises on a moving pivotal vibration platform. When performed correctly, pivotal vibration training allows for the body to undergo thousands of reciprocal muscular contractions in minutes. The number of contractions is calculated by multiplying the frequency of the platform by the time of exposure. These contractions are easily tolerated by most patients, no matter their level of function.

To better understand how these contractions occur, one must “pop open” the physics book for a quick review. As a result of the motion of this platform, the body is safely “thrown” side-to-side at very high speeds over small distances. This movement can occur at a distance of anywhere from 2-10 mm (amplitude) depending on the foot position one assumes on the platform. It takes place anywhere from 18-27 times per second (frequency). As a result of this forced movement, the body utilizes its natural stretch reflex to contract the muscles that are required to counter this movement. This is done in an unconscious effort to maintain the body in an upright position and has been hypothesized to involve higher centers of central nervous system modulation (5). These involuntary contractions are achieved primarily through the fast twitch fibers of the postural musculature and are believed to occur in up to 90% of the involved muscle’s fibers. This is a dramatic difference from the 40-50% percent thought to be used for most voluntary strengthening exercises; those exercises that comprise a great deal of traditional rehabilitation protocols. These additional contractions occur simultaneously with the larger movements being actively performed on the platform and therefore serve to enhance the demand on the muscles involved.

With vibration training, the strength of the reflexive muscle contractions is a reflection of the acceleration of the platform. Acceleration, often referred to by manufacturers as the platform’s “g-force”, is a reflection of the frequency and amplitude of the platform’s movement (higher frequencies coupled with higher amplitudes equates to higher g-forces).  In contrast to traditional exercise, where we work to increase muscle force output by increasing our mass with weights against a constant acceleration (gravity), vibration training exercises are accomplished by maintaining a constant mass against a changing level of acceleration.

With vibration training, one also achieves increased blood flow (6), lymphatic system movement, and mechanically induced deformation of restricted connective tissue. These benefits further emphasize that pivotal vibration training is simply one of the most effective forms of functional strengthening that our profession has seen yet. This is supported by the exponentially increasing amount of research being done throughout the world in support of its efficacy; research that has demonstrated its ability to increase muscle power (7), increase bone density (8), improve body composition (9) balance hormone levels (10), and improve balance (11).

The Future

Up to this point, vibration technology has been nothing more than a curiosity to the western physical therapy world. Its growth has been slow as a result of confusing claims and ambiguous explanations of how exactly it works. For those who have taken the time to explore this technology, questions over the legitimacy of this technology have been raised thanks to cheaply manufactured equipment; equipment incapable of functioning properly and therefore unable to deliver any real value to the patient. Much like any device that transfers or utilizes energy, the quality of the materials used ultimately determines its ability to perform properly and with accuracy.

With consideration of the importance of proper manufacturing and a review of simple physics, this technology is actually quite simple to comprehend. When better understood, the strength of this technology becomes apparent. With its endless applications, this is a clear example of the impending evolution of exercise science. Time will soon prove that there is no better means to jumpstart a patient’s nervous system than vibration training. In accomplishing this otherwise difficult feat, we will be able to more effectively treat our patients and maximize their progress.

About the Author

Gabriel Ettenson, MS, PT is a NY Licensed Physical Therapist. He is the owner of Equilibrium Physical Therapy and Amplitude Vibration Studio in NY, NY.

help interpret this dream ?

i just had a dream i just woke up from.. It was about this guy who was some sort of a demon, he showed no expression..but he would kill and control people by some sort of mind control..he would make people kill themselves..and if you were within his radius he would kill you.. at first you would be able to get away because he would be in another area... but soon he was able to control all area's of the building and there was no where to hide till we were in one open room like a gymnasium, as the demon appeared people went into a panic and rushed throught he doors that were shut and people started jumping off of a platform that was about 3-4 stories high, some broke bones, some made it safe. and some died.. but i didnt jump off the platform i jumped off some sort of balcony into another room and i was safe.. any ideas on what this dream means?

Maybe you did something you knew you shouldn't have done, as the demon could represent.
Also, running from the demon could mean that you aren't facing what you did wrong and you are just running from it.
Instead of taking the painful way to safety (telling someone what you did wrong and taking the concequences for it) you jumped to a place you thought you would be safe (kept running from it).
Otherwise, it could mean nothing.

Mega Man 4 - Part 3: Dueling With Dead Guys

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Unisa

Common Swaziland Government Business Trends – ‘The Case of Income Tax and the Road Transportation Board’

I’m fortunate to be in a study group with people from different working environments and industries as I pursue my Masters in Business Leadership at UNISA by correspondence from Swaziland. It’s always interesting to learn how some business declares themselves loss making to escape taxation while they make millions. This was declared by a colleague whose business clients undoubtedly make millions yet they send false reports to government income tax offices. The only sad part is that the employees are the ones who shoulder the government on taxes as they have no ways of escaping. I happen to be an employee who knows how much the government collects from my salary. I bet, if all my annual tax could come to me at the end of the year, I would take my family for a holiday in Mauritius because it’s relatively high. 

Who cares when tax collectors are sleeping on the job. It is very common to have managers doing their personal businesses at work while government work is suffering. This goes to extend of abusing working tools like computers, cars and the telephone. Apparently, no one cracks the whip.

Another good example is that at the Road Transportation Board where two officers are reported only to come to work for at most five hours and sometimes not at all yet they get their full pay at the end of the month. This is no surprise because the boss knows them and fails to call them to order for reasons best known to him. This undoubtedly results in long queues from staff shortage, high work pressure levels for the few that remain to do the job and to fruitless expenditure on full salaries to employees that don’t deserve it.

I do motivational blogging at yeboyesafrica.com and am from Swaziland and surely get disappointed each time I visit a government office whose officers have assumed ownership of the working tools and fear none in bridging working rules. 

About the Author

A writer, motivational speaker, teacher and a businessman. Authoring six motivational books and a freelencer for two local magazines. Website is yeboyesafrica.com.

I need to register with UNISA. What are their contacts?

http://www.unisa.ac.za/

unisa fisciano

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