Many of us are driven by the stress of Public Speaking. Many of us fear to face this challenge as they find is hard to face. Public Speaking is necessary in each and every sphere of life. Whether we work for ourselves or an organization, eventually we will need to speak in public to get certain tasks accomplished. The most important thing is that if you want to be a leader or want to achieve anything meaningful in your life, then we will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful.

The basic truth about public speaking is no matter how good a job you do, someone is going to disapprove of either you or your argument. Human beings are always prone to debate on each and everything in this world irrespective of the fact that whether it is good or bad. In a large group of people, there will always be a diversity of opinions, judgments, and reactions. Many will be positive, but on the other end negative comments will also be there.

Public speaking can be called an important constituent of your success. It somewhat reflects your personality. Public Speaking is a kind of art. So one needs to master this art. Anything that comes to your mouth is not communication. Communication without skills does create more harm than good. While speaking on stage or facing crowd of audiences, you need to be tactful. Make sure that your speech should not be monologue. The great public speaker is one who pulls the attention of audiences throughout his speech.

A speech that impresses the audience and leaves them thinking long after the speech is over will also leave the audience remembering the speaker for a long time.

To be a public speaker you need to know your audience and try to match your contents to their needs. Do your homework before you make a speech. Put everything in a in a logical sequence. Always ensure that your speech must captivate your audience and give a full value of their time. They should not feel uncomfortable to listen to your speech. Their eagerness to hear from you more should increase. Practice and rehearse your speech before delivering. Try to be at ease and comfortable in front of your audience. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How your audience perceive you is important. Always look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant. Get hold of your nervousness and be relaxed. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish rapport with your audience.

Public speaking must have excellent persuasion abilities in today’s fast-paced world. As we need the support and cooperation of other people to help us in reaching our goals. The saying “No man is an island” is an undeniable truth. You can persuade people only if you are a good communicator. The more effective your communication skill will pull the things in your favor. As a weapon Public Speaking can persuade masses not just an individual.

Content Developer

Given that tying your own flies provides so much satisfaction, why buy flies online?

Obtain local fly patterns

The first reason is that as your fly fishing experience grows, your desire to test new and foreign waters increases. As a result, your need for localized patterns becomes more important. Sure, you want to do the research and tie your own variations of the Club Sandwich before you hit the Snake River for the first time, but there’s something to be said about fishing the tried and true local patterns on your initial outings to foreign waters. With that idea established, you can either buy these flies from a local shop or purchase them online. I recommend doing both.

Say you live in New Jersey and you’re planning your first trip to Colorado. You and your buddies plan to hit a few a rivers within 10 days. Before you go, do research on the internet – find out what’s hatching on these rivers when you plan to visit them, and what patterns work best. Then, based on your research, purchase enough flies online to cover you while fishing these waters. Now you have a safety net – you won’t have to worry about not having enough flies for the rivers you’ll fish at the end of your trip.

Next, research local shops on the internet – find out who the proprietors are and when they are open for business. Now this idea might seem obvious to many of you, but make it a point to stop at these shops before you fish. When you arrive, ask them about recent fishing activity and what flies they would recommend. Tell them about your trip, let them know you found their site on the internet, and ask for their advice. Tell them what flies you already have and ask about what else you may need. If your budget allows, purchase as many of the flies they recommend.

Save time while supplementing your current collection

There comes a time in which your energy is better focused on fishing than tying flies. A typical North American fly-fisher and fly-tyer spends the “off” months tying flies for the season ahead. Many fisherman focus the bulk of their tying efforts on the winter months to prepare for spring, summer, and fall fishing. If you are one of those anglers who feel like they never have enough flies, purchasing your “basic” flies online can leave you time to focus on the more specialized, region-specific flies that you might not find on the web. For example, why not buy your attractor flies such as Adams or Stimulators, so that you can concentrate on the special mayfly flies that you know will require special attention to detail? The same idea applies to those “hard-to-tie” flies – if you dislike tying size 24 Tricos, why not buy those items online so you have more time to crank out the flies you prefer to tie?

Also, consider how much your time is worth. Think about your fly-tying time as if you were a professional fly-tyer. How much is an hour of your fly-tying time worth? If it takes you two hours to tie twelve size 26 BWO emergers, you might be better off spending $10 on a dozen of the same fly so that you can use those two hours to tie 18 Rusty Spinners.

Variety

No matter what you want to purchase, nothing beats the internet for window shopping. I have seen the same fly pattern tied three different ways on three different sites. This variety allows you to find the best pattern that matches your intended fishing location. For example, if you plan to fish faster moving water, your parachute patterns might need a bit more hackle, or even a brighter post. On the other hand, if you plan to fish tailwaters, your mayfly patterns might need to sit lower on the water. By the same token, if you intend to fish mostly in the spring, your mayfly patterns might need to be a lighter color than if you intend to fish in the fall.

By browsing different sites for the same patterns, you will be able to compare patterns and ascertain the right fly for you. The best way to do this is to open two or three browser windows at a time on your computer. Then go to different sites in each browser and compare the patterns you are interested in.

Save money

Quite simply, buying flies online can save you money. Not only can you find discounts for large orders, the actual cost of individual flies can be lower than if you purchased flies from some of the larger fly fishing retailers. The best online merchants often charge as little as 65 cents (sometimes, even 50 cents for fly patterns). One disadvantage is that you don’t get to inspect the flies before you purchase them, unlike in a store. I recommend buying a few different patterns your first time so that you can determine not only the quality of the flies, but the consistency of the quality across different patterns. For example, a good initial purchase might include a stonefly nymph, a caddis pattern, a mayfly emerger, a mayfly dun, and an attractor pattern. This way you could check the various elements of typical flies such as tails, dubbing, hackle, deer-hair, and hook strength.

Types of web sites

There are hundreds of web sites that sell flies online. These sites fall into two categories: companies that only sell flies, and fly shop owners who run web sites for their businesses.

Businesses whose sole purpose is to sell flies online usually have a greater amount of flies available. One advantage these sites offer is that they are more likely to offer discounts on larger purchases. Also, their web sites tend to be more user-friendly (though not always). Many of these sites typically include advanced functionality that make selecting and purchasing flies easier on the user. The best of these sites allow you to set up personal accounts or use “shopping carts” to store your selections before purchasing. In this manner, the purchase experience is more convenient. Shopping carts tend to be “persistent” – in that a visitor may select items to the cart one day and return to the site at later time to find that the shopping cart still contains the previous selections. This allows you to select items you are interested in, leave the site and do more research, then alter or add to your selections later.

Fly shop web sites, on the other hand, typically present the user with flies specifically relevant to the area that the fly shop services. You have a better chance of purchasing flies that are most effective to the area you want to fish if you purchase them from local fly shops. Furthermore, you are supporting the local economy of the area in which you desire to fish. Many fly shop web sites also include online hatch charts which can inform you of flies you most likely need.

The authors experience

In the spring, and summer I do a lot of fishing on the Delaware River in the Catskills Mountains of New York. Throughout the winter I will tie a decent amount of the flies I actually need. As spring approaches, I have found that supplementing my collection with web-bought flies ensures that I am ready to meet the various hatches encountered in the spring. Any Delaware River fly fisherman will tell you that hatch-matching is a critical part of success on this river. In my limited experience, I have encountered days in which four or five different hatches took place. On top of that, the hatches change from week to week. I have ensured a decent modicum of success by checking local hatch charts ahead of time and then purchasing a dozen flies from week to week.

Hopefully, these tips will help you increase the amount of flies you own, and enhance your fly-fishing experience.

Article courtesy of Steve Clark of TotalFlyFishing.com at www.totalflyfishing.com.

To overcome these shortcomings, the education industry started looking to “open source” as an alternate model. Around a decade back, institutions started debating total cost of ownership in adopting an open source based community approach vis-à-vis proprietary applications, viability of open source based business models, sustainability and security issues.

The success of community developed open source software is quite well established. Linux and Apache are ample proof of its success. A similar trend, though not that widespread in its reach, can be traced to the development of community projects in education like the Moodle and Sakai.

Through the course of its formative years, the open source community based approach in education has developed several alternative models. Some of these models and schools of thought have thrived and been implemented successfully across a significant spectrum of the industry. Progress and success in open source projects like the Sakai, Moodle, Kuali, uPortal, Shibboleth, and many more are being closely watched by the industry.

Community Source Model

One school of thought believes that open source sharing is more a philosophical approach than a viable alternative. The adoption of open source in higher education seems to suggest otherwise. FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) communities are thriving well in learning environments too.

The FLOSS model has been extensively used in initiatives like the MIT OpenCourseWare and Open Source Biology. Project Gutenberg, the Wikipedia, The Open Dictionary project are prime examples of how open source has been successfully adapted to education initiatives.

In a community source project, multiple institutions come together to partner in the project. All partners contribute financially as well as in employing human resources for the effort. In the early stages, the partnering institutions provide all design and development efforts and only in subsequent stages is the project opened to the broader community. This way, the initial support is secured and the institutions have a substantial influence in deciding how the application is modeled and designed.

The initial focus of community source projects is on collaboration between institutions. The focus in the crucial first stages is therefore to form a common economic outlook and an appropriate administrative framework rather than forming a community around a shared code. Most community based open source projects slowly migrate to open source in the later stages.

The Sakai project, for example, started as a joint effort between four institutions (Michigan, Indiana, MIT and Stanford). The initial agenda was to set up a framework of common goals that would produce appropriate software based on an agreed list of objectives. The scope for participation was later increased by forming the Sakai Educational Partners Program (SEPP), whereby other institutions can join and participate in the community for a small fee.

The Current Landscape

An education enterprise like any organization has its own needs ranging from resource planning to budgeting. Additionally, they have typical requirements like the need to integrate with financial aid programs of the government, multiple payroll cycles, and student information systems (SIS) that handle admissions, grades, transcripts, student records as well as billing. All these call for robust ERP systems. Until recently, colleges and universities mostly rely on either custom-developed systems that are more than 15 years old, or have transitioned to commercial products from vendors like Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft or vendors like SunGard that are geared towards the higher education market.

Kuali Financials was borne due to the lack of open source solutions Enterprise applications in the higher education sector are comprised of a mix of some proprietary application vendors and some key open source community initiatives. PeopleSoft, Oracle, SunGard and Datatel are some key vendors that offer tightly integrated ERP packages for the education sector.

Recent consolidation in the industry, like the acquisition of PeopleSoft by Oracle and of WebCT, Angel, etc by Blackboard, has caused considerable unease in the education fraternity. The concern stems from the fear that the trend of consolidation would lead to the monopoly of a few key vendors. The plans of these vendors to offer tightly integrated systems heightens the fear that this will provide an unfair leverage to these vendors as it would extend the community’s dependence on them.

One area of concern about proprietary applications is a seeming disconnect between the industry and software application developers. Institutions also have strong reservations about the currently available administrative software and course management systems. The feeling is that applications provided by vendors such as SAP and PeopleSoft are adapted from other industries and does not work well for educational enterprises. Moreover, the proprietary nature of the applications implies that the source code is not available and customization efforts involve substantial costs.

In the context of such a wide breadth of requirements, open source can prove to be a viable alternative. In fact, these constraints provided the impetus for open source initiatives in higher education. Some of the success has helped provide a strong foundation to building an alternative support model for the education industry.

In the Sakai project, the participating institutions decided to integrate and synchronize their educational software into a pre-integrated collection of open source tools termed Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). Sakai has active implementations running at multiple institutes including the University of Michigan and Indiana University.

In parallel, Sakai also established a set of activity based communities that have spawned an active cooperation between the industry and application vendors. The Sakai Educational Partners Program allows educational institutions to participate in the program for a small fee. Besides, there are the Sakai Commercial Affiliates, who offer fee-based services for installation, integration and support..

Kuali, on the other hand, mainly addresses aspects of educational administration. The Kuali Financial System (KFS) is the most prominent application. It handles administrative and operational tasks like general accounting, purchasing, salary and benefits, budgeting, asset management and grants. The system is designed around modules that enable it to be tweaked to work with existing commercial applications. For example, at Indiana University, Kuali applications work together with PeopleSoft’s HR and student system. The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit consortium of multiple universities and some hardware and software companies. The Kuali Commercial Affiliate program operates on similar lines like its Sakai counterpart. The community has been growing and now includes the University of California, Cornell, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College (Calif.), and The University of Arizona.

Significantly, according to the 2008 Campus Computing Survey, around 13.8 percent of the survey participants have already identified an Open Source LMS – either Moodle or Sakai – as the campus standard LMS.

Besides these, several other projects offer SIS functionality. For example, openSIS manages student demographics, scheduling, attendance, grades, transcripts, and health records, and its parent company makes add-on modules to support additional features like disciplinary tracking, billing, food service, and bulk email/SMS messaging for emergency contact.

Other Key intiaitives are

JaSig community developing uPortal, and CAS (Central Authentication Services) two components serving as input to Kuali Rice.

Internet2 – A consortium led by universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies including products such as Shibboleth and Grouper

Open Source Curricula

As with any “open source” activity, open source curricula by its very definition is one that can be freely used, distributed and modified. A model like this would seemingly be antithetic to the concept of higher education as it strikes at the credibility of the education environment. Campus education is designed to operate as a structured learning methodology. The concept of community collaboration involving academics and students on the same platform brings a lot of unpredictability into the scenario

However, FLOSS communities (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) in education have proved to be quite successful. A key principle of this learning approach is its root in adapting it to the context of ones’ experience. With its stress on learners and their preferences, this learning approach focuses more on learning by collaboration, communication and sharing.

Significant initiatives include the Connexions Project at Rice University, the OpenCourseWare project at MIT and the social learning medium of Wikipedia.

The FLOSS approach in higher education has been operating in combination with traditional teacher centered approaches. The objectives of the FLOSS approach are not to replace traditional methods but to achieve synergies in combination and offer the learner an enhanced learning environment.

The ‘FLOSS-like education transfer report’ published in September 2008, as part of the FLOSSCOM project, notes that FLOSS communities can create effective learning environments. The study has also come up with three different approaches that could be combined effectively with traditional teaching approaches.

Economic Models of Open Source

One aspect that clearly marks the adoption of open source as a winner is the fact that in this scenario, the developers are most often also the users of the software. This removes the perceived disconnect between the developer community and the end-users unlike in the case of proprietary applications. However, this is less evident in the case of administrative applications like payroll or HR. In such cases, adoption of open source has to be a directed process.

Initiatives like the Kuali project have proved that open source can also build up sustainable models that provide adequate support mechanisms. In such models, there is active collaboration between the community that comprises not only developers and end-users, but also an extended support group comprising commercial vendors. These support groups are available to offer timely support to mission critical applications. The community approach also ensures that the code is not closed and that an active community of interest ensures that enhancements keep happening as necessitated.

Projects like uPortal have been developed with minimal resources but are deployed across hundreds of institutions. The community approach has proved sustainable as in the case of the Sakai project. In terms of funding, the Sakai project garnered an investment of $6.8 million over two years.

The viability of the open source, community based model stems not from the monetary or cost aspects but principally the adaptability that it offers. The debate over cost of ownership between commercially available proprietary software and open source applications is yet to be proved empirically. However, the fact that the code is open means it can be easily adapted to suit new requirements and does not involve significant investments in terms of customization or enhancements. This does make significant economic sense in the longer term.

The case for open source in higher education is nicely documented in a study by the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness. In a 2005 study report titled, ‘Will Open Source Software Become an Important Institutional Strategy in Higher Education?’ Rob Abel notes how open source is a “great fit for higher education”. The study, based on an analysis of open source projects in education, opines that the community-based approach is an interesting model that also helps reduce the inherent risks in adopting an open source approach.

As for the cost model, the study notes that while open source has helped generate cost savings in the range of 20 to 30 percent for the commercial sector, the same may not be entirely true in education. The community-based approach, the writer notes, with its associated participation fees, may prove only marginally beneficial in terms of costs. Institutions that have their own infrastructure and resources may however, benefit from substantially reduced costs from their open source initiatives.

The Future

Open source has proved to be adaptable and a reliable platform for collaboration and learning. In their quest for ideal application software to handle administrative, operational and education platforms, most CIOs are looking at interoperability, reliability and scalability of applications. Applications like the Sakai and Kuali have proved beyond doubt that open source applications offer great configurability.

Development communities and the support of commercial vendors, as in the case of Kuali and Sakai, fuel a greater rate of innovation. Moreover, the advantage that is offered by collaboration also provides an impetus to continued improvement of the system. Support systems and enhancements for future requirements are ensured.

On the question of how to approach or adopt open source as a model, the answer would depend on the needs, the infrastructure and the means available to an institution. The community development model has shown that costs can be broadly distributed amongst participants. Experience shows that universities and colleges can collaborate to produce open source software that caters to their needs in a way that is superior to some commercial products. The collaborative model enables educational institutions to pool their financial and technical resources. Moreover, a larger community ensures that the applications are tested in a variety of testing environments, thus aiding in building robust solutions.

In term of core academics, learning systems will evolve to accommodate formative assessments and evaluation outside the classroom. Many higher education institutions have taken the lead of MIT and are offering online course materials that are accessible by anyone, free of cost. It has been adopted at Yale, Notre Dame, Tufts and Stanford School of Engineering, to name a few. The United Nations has launched an initiative that would leverage social media technologies and ideas to offer higher education opportunities to people who would otherwise not be able to afford the costs.

Commercially, open source projects have taken their first steps in the marketplace. The model is evolving aided by some significant commercial vendor backing. For the community-based open source approach to prosper, substantial financial backing is an absolute necessity to prevent it from faltering and to avoid the pitfalls that arise form source code being easily modifiable and rebranded by a different vendor. From the commercial perspective, projects like Sakai and the Kuali Foundation are likely to thrive as they have substantial stakeholders from both the academic and the corporate world.

What could derail further adoption? There are several potential risk areas:

• Lack of understanding of entry points for adoption
• Lack of support to adopt the applications
• Minimal staff to support the applications
• Lack of training / documentation to train staff
• A “runaway” project that consumes much press and develops a negative bias toward the project

Many of these risks may be mitigated though co-operative initiatives between the foundations developing the open source solutions and commercial affiliates looking to support the solutions – and develop complementation solutions. Some examples:

• Further publicity through conventional, non-education related channels such as Google and industry-based sites such as edu1world
• Furrther innovation and cooperation – whether through ’summer of code’ collaborations; or community collaborations that will transform the current listservs to more accessible forums
• Commercial affiliates offering training and webinars
• Commercial affiliates offering ease of use entry points, such as pre-installed servers or virtual images that can be downloaded and used out of the box

In conclusion, open source initiatives in higher education have a long way to go before they enter the commercial mainstream in a significant fashion. However, with industry and academic collaboration, it has a great potential to change the higher education landscape in the longer term.

About Innovativ Consulting Partners: Innovativ Consulting Partners is one of the leading education consultants in the country. Innovativ provides consulting services to clients in the Higher Education and Public Sector industries. Innovativ is a premier Open Source consultant and provides products and services to support Kuali solutions. The Innovativ team have delivered Drupal consulting services and led successful implementations for clients within the Education and Public Sector industries Innovativ is an Oracle Partner

For more information, visit: http://www.innovativcp.com, email: info@innovativcp.com or call 800-787-1889.

The majority of all risks stemming from cat ownership are associated with the cat litter box and/or cat feces. There are two categories of risks. The first category contains health risks posed by bacteria and parasites to both cat owners and their cats. The second category contains injuries resulting from an automatic litter box or self cleaning litter box.

Primarily the health problems experienced by cat owners or their cats come from the first category and the most significant of these risks is called Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a tiny parasite called Toxoplasma gondii which can be found in raw or undercooked meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables, dirty cat litter boxes and outdoor soil where cat feces can be found. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 60 million people in the United States may be infected with the Toxoplasma parasite(1). Fortunately, very few people ever experience any symptoms because a healthy person’s immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. However, pregnant women and individuals who have compromised immune systems, such as individuals infected with the HIV virus, are at risk and should take precautions to avoid being infected by the parasite. For people in this group a Toxoplasma infection could cause serious health problems to the individual or to a pregnant woman’s unborn child.

Again, most of the 60 million plus American’s infected with Toxoplasmosis parasite will never experience any symptoms. Most of those who do experience symptoms will simply think they have the Flu as the most common symptoms include swollen glands, fever, headache, muscle pain, or a stiff neck. For those in the high risk group, Toxoplasmosis can cause damage to the brain, eyes and internal organs. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, children born with Toxoplasma gondii can suffer from hearing loss, mental retardation, and blindness with some children developing brain or eye problems years after birth(2). The CDC estimates that 400-4000 fetuses are infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite each year and as many as 80 infants die from Toxoplasmosis annually(2).

So how does an individual contract Toxoplasmosis? A Toxoplasmosis infection is caused by ingesting the Toxoplasma gondi parasite. Most cat owners are infected with the parasite by accidentally ingesting infected cat feces. This happens when a person touches their mouth after handling a cat litter box, working in a garden or sand box or touching anything that has come in contact with cat feces(3).

People in the high risk group may wonder whether or not they should give up their cat to avoid infection. According to the CDC, it is not necessary for cat lovers to give up their cats, but it is important for them to protect themselves from infections. The USFDA makes the following recommendations for avoiding infections(2):

1) If possible, have someone else change the litter box. If you have to clean it, wear disposable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water afterwards.

2) Change the litter box daily. The parasite doesn’t become infectious until one to five days after the feces are deposited in the litter box.

3) Wear gloves when gardening in a garden or handling sand from a sandbox because cats may have excreted feces in them. Be sure to wash your hands with soap and warm water afterwards.

4) Cover outdoor sandboxes to prevent cats from using them as litter boxes.

5) Feed your cat commercial dry or canned food. Never feed your cat raw meat because it can be a source of the Toxoplasmosis gondii parasite.

6) Keep indoor cats indoors. Be especially cautious if you bring outdoor cats indoors.

7) Avoid stray cats, especially kittens.

Don’t get a new cat while you’re pregnant.

Safer Child, Inc. makes the following additional recommendations(4):

1) Have your veterinarian test your cat for the Toxoplasmosis parasite. If you cat is infected, you may want to consider having someone else keep your cat during your pregnancy.

2) Keep sandboxes covered to prevent cats from using the sandbox as a litter box.

3) Be aware of neighborhood sandboxes as the parasite can be brought home on shoes, clothing and toys.

Similar to Toxoplasmosis, Escherichia coli (commonly called E. coli) can infect humans thru contact with feline fecal material, although the primary means of infection is thru ingestion or raw or undercooked meats. E. Coli is a bacterium commonly found in the intestinal tract of humans and animals. Almost all strains of the bacteria are harmless. However a few strains can produce powerful toxins and cause severe illness, especially in children under 5 years of age(5). Symptoms usually include diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In children under 5, 2%-7% of E. coli cases can cause kidney failure. Fortunately, E. coli is easy to prevent. Using the preventative measures, outlined above for Toxoplasmosis will greatly reduce the risks of you or your children contracting an E. coli infection.

In addition to these human risks, there are a few health risks cat litter boxes actually pose to cats that cat owners should be aware of. Just as a dirty litter box poses health risks to humans, cats are equally at risk if forced to use a dirty litter box. Since cats stay clean by licking themselves, allowing a cat’s litter box to get too dirty can cause infections when a cat cleans it’s paws after using the dirty litter box. The most common infection is a urinary tract infection, and although this type of infection is rarely fatal it can be very uncomfortable for your cat and will most likely require treatment by your veterinarian.

Finally, a lesser-known health risk to cats is actually caused by cat litter itself. What many cat owners do not realize is that some types of cat litter can be harmful or even fatal to their cat. Both clumping and non-clumping litters pose health problems to cats. Clumping cat litters are probably the most popular type of cat litter because of their convenience, hygienic qualities and the fact that clumping litters are required for use in self-cleaning litter boxes. Unfortunately, some clumping litters can be harmful to cats. Clay based clumping litters can contain the mineral sodium bentonite, which can be harmful or fatal to your cat. It is best to avoid using clay based cat litters, especially with kittens. Wheat or corn based clumping litters such as Swheat Scoop, World’s Best Cat Litter and Littermaid cat litter work very well and are non-toxic(6).

By their very nature, non-clumping litters do not absorb and isolate a cat’s urine or feces like clumping litters do. As a result, it is much harder to keep your cat’s litter box clean when using non-clumping litter. When using non-clumping litter it is important to frequently clean and disinfect the litter box itself to reduce the chance of bacterial buildups that can cause urinary or other infections in your cat.

The second category of health risks covers injuries caused by an automatic litter box or self cleaning litter box. Occurrences of this type of injury are rare, but they can happen. An automatic or self cleaning litter box does just what it’s name implies. Usually between 10-15 minutes after a cat uses the litter box, the litter box automatically cleans itself by “sweeping” or “raking” the cat waste into a sealed compartment or bag. For cat owners, injuries can occur if a small child or toddler plays with the automatic litter box during the cleaning cycle. All major brands of automatic litter boxes contain sensors to prevent the cleaning mechanism from activating when a cat or other foreign object is inside the box. However, children can still be injured if they put their hand inside the cleaning mechanism in such a manner as to avoid the sensors.

Although these types of injuries are very rare it is best to take precautions. Placing the litter box in a location where your cat can get to it but small children can’t is an easy method. This is good advice for any litter box as this is the best way to keep children from contracting one of the illnesses described earlier in this article. If you can’t keep the automatic litter box out of a child’s reach then it is best to put the litter box inside a litter box cover. There are many types of covers and all of them will help prevent a child from reaching the litter box and the cleaning mechanism. A final option is to unplug the litter box or put it into a “manual operation” mode. Both of these options will require the cat owner to start the cleaning cycle whenever necessary. Although this reduces some of the convenience of an automatic litter box it certainly removes the danger to children.

Automatic or self cleaning litter boxes are completely safe for almost all cats. However, most manufacturers recommend that the litter box be used in “manual operation” mode for cats under 5 lbs. Cats under 5 lbs many not be large enough to activate the sensors and the cleaning mechanism could cause injury. Since most adult cats weigh over 5 lbs, it is only necessary to use the “manual operation” mode until kittens grow to 5 lbs.

This article is not intended to dissuade anyone from owning a cat. 70 Million cat owners can’t be wrong; cats make great pets! So, if you already own a cat or are thinking of becoming a cat owner it simply makes good sense to be aware of the health risks associated with cat ownership. Understanding the risks can definately increase the enjoyment of cat ownership.

(1)Toxoplasmosis Fact Sheet; http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/factsht_toxoplasmosis.htm

(2) While You’re Pregnant – USFDA

[http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pregnant/whiltoxo.html]

(3) Toxoplasmosis – An important Message for Cat Owners; [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/toxoplasmosis_brochure_8.2004.pdf]

(4) Safer Child, Inc.;

http://www.saferchild.org/pets&.htm

(5) Escherichia coli O157:H7 Fact Sheet;

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/escherichiacoli_g.htm

(6) Stanford Cat Network’s – Guide to Caring for Your Adopted Cat or Kitten;

http://www.stanford.edu/group/CATNET/articles/careguide.html#litter

The author is a long time cat lover who currently owns and operates LitterBoxesandMore.com; a business specializing in high quality automatic litter box. Litterboxesandmore.com also offers other specialty cat products such as pet strollers and indoor cat fences. Come visit us at http://www.litterboxesandmore.com

Picnics in small parks, amusement parks in the next town or a visit to the zoo: these were the previous ideas of people when asked about a good holiday. Now, International Holiday Destinations are the most coveted idea for a vacation among youngsters and old alike. The desire to see far off lands and see in reality something only imagined or portrayed on the television is an attraction for any human being. Add the discounted World Tour Packages to the desire to roam round the globe and you have a wonderful formula of a happy vacation. On a single trip, one gets to visit different countries and cities of different continents and cultures.

A stop at the breathtaking mountain scenes of Switzerland, followed by the sunny glory of Italy is a combination made very much possible by organizations like those that offer a huge range of choices in terms of World Tour Packages. The perfect idea of International Holiday Destinations may vary from person to person, the places ranging from the icy slopes of Switzerland to sunny coast and famous beaches of Australia, from the cold Canada to tropical climatic African countries. Arranging the destinations as per the choice of the traveler is the least of their problems. In fact, there are hardly any problems once these professional planners take over the responsibility of making a schedule ideally suitable for the traveler.

The companies offering World Tour Packages plan the trip in such a way that their customer, and the traveler, is able to enjoy the stay in any given place for at least a few days before being flown off or shipped away to the next destination. They could even go to the extent of arranging a skiing adventure or a desert or jungle safari, as appropriates the occasion. These organizations bring to life the vision of a person’s perfect list of International Holiday Destinations, with the option of customizing the destinations (and sometimes even their sequence) as per one’s desirability.

An exciting feature of these travels is that the International Holiday Destinations also provide a wonderful residential variety according to the country visited. On a trip to Africa, it would be uniquely spectacular to stay in a room made entirely of wood and leaves- a place as close to the natural surroundings as possible. Depending on the organization in question, the World Tour Packages may also include these aspects as part of the normally provided facilities.

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