Wedding And Anniversary Gift Ideas

Have you ever had to buy a wedding gift for someone and been stumped for ideas? It isn’t always necessary to pick something off the wedding gift list, particularly if everything left is too expensive for you to afford.

In this case you might want to go for something like a gift hamper or basket, so your gift stands out as being something different. Just be sure not to buy anything that is immediately perishable, because the happy couple will end up missing out if they are heading off on honeymoon the next day.

Anniversaries are also important days to remember for most couples – especially if the anniversary in question is your own! You might find it useful to go from the items that are listed for each anniversary, as these can prompt some good ideas for gifts. For instance the first anniversary is paper, although the modern version of this is to give a clock of some kind.

INFLUENZA or FLU

A contagious respiratory infection that frequently occurs in epidemics. The term “flu” is also applied to various forms of viral gastroenteritis, com¬monly known as stomach or intestinal flu, which are unrelated to true respiratory influenza. This article will deal only with the respiratory disease.

History. The so-called “English Sweat” of the 16th century was the first definitely identifiable influenza epidemic. Seemingly, pandemics, or worldwide epidemics, of influenza occur in 20-year to 50-year cycles with minor local epidemics in between. Major pandemics occurred in 1627, 1729, 1788, 1830, 1847, 1872, 1890, 1918, 1957, and 1968. The 1918 pandemic, after World War I, was the worst on record. It killed 10,000,000 more people than the war; in the United States, 500,000 people died. Since World War II vaccines have helped contain flu epidemics and thereby reduce mortality. Mortality was very low in the 1957 pan¬demic, known as the Asian flu because it came from Hong Kong, and was relatively low in the 1968 pandemic. In 1976 there was a flu outbreak in Fort Dix, N.J., that in some cases was caused by the swine flu virus, believed by many experts to have caused the 1918 pandemic. Fearing another disaster, the United States and Canada set up a crash mass vaccina¬tion program. But when some people who had been vacci¬nated developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare type of temporary paralysis, the U.S. program was canceled. A pandemic never developed.

Internet Addiction

Internet addiction, sometimes called as cyberspace addiction or online addiction, can show itself in many ways in today’s teens.

If your daughter just spent an entire beautiful weekend tweaking her MySpace page, foregoing a trip with the family to an amusement park, she may be showing signs of addiction. If you checked your Internet browser’s history only to find out your innocent, naïve teenage son has spent the last five afternoons accessing pornographic Web sites where the titles alone are enough to make you blush, he may be addicted.

Obesity Spoils Sexual Health

The study reports that the rate of unplanned pregnancies is four times higher among single obese women than normal weight women, despite them being less likely to have been sexually active in the past year. Obese women are less likely to seek contraceptive advice or to use oral contraceptives. Obese men have fewer sexual partners in a 12 month period, but are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction and develop sexually transmitted infections than normal weight men.

Ways To Save Energy

With climbing fuel costs, massive unemployment, and pollution problems faced by many large cities, most Americans have more than one reason to save electricity. Contrary to most beliefs, homeowners don’t need to invest in expensive solar energy systems or residential wind turbines to save significantly on electricity costs. Most people can reduce their electricity bill dramatically by implementing these simple energy conservation techniques.

* Heating and cooling are by far the highest users of electricity in the average household. This should be your first line of defense when tackling high energy bills. Installing a programmable thermostat to control the temperature of your home can be a great low cost method to reduce your energy consumption dramatically.A programmable thermostat will allow you to automatically raise your home’s temperature in the summer by a few extra degrees while everyone is scheduled to be away. By the same token, you can use a programmable thermostat to lower the temperature a few extra degrees while everyone is away in the winter. The great thing about a programmable thermostat is you can set it to bring your home back to the normal temperature just before everyone is scheduled to be back home.