Monday, March 15, 2010

Common Myths About Prescription Drug Abuse

People have many myths regarding prescription drug abuse. But they are not aware of the facts regarding prescription drug abuse. Few myths and facts regarding prescription drug abuse are:

Myth:
The abuse of prescription drugs is just a limited part of the nation’s drug problem.

Fact: At present, prescription drug abuse exceeds the use of all illegal drugs combined, with the exclusion of marijuana.

Myth: There is no specific thing as converting to an addict innocently.
Fact: Many people become unintentional addicts. These are generally individuals who have no previous history of drug abuse, and first started using a prescribed drug for certain medical problem. Then at some stage they started raising the dosages on their own as the drug make them feel well. Slowly the abuse results in developed addiction.

Myth: Taking a narcotic for long time results in addiction.
Fact: A person can become physically dependent on a drug like pain medication, over time. If the drugs were discontinued, the body will suffer from withdrawal symptoms. But, this type of dependence is not called addiction. A patient who suffers from physiological dependence can terminate the drug, generally by being reducing it slowly under medical supervision and without including a drug treatment program.

Myth: You can quit drugs cold turkey (complete and sudden withdrawal from an addictive substance)if you really want to.
Fact: The side effects of withdrawal of particular prescribed medications will be dangerous, resulting in seizures and even death. So, it is harmless to reduce the use of drugs under medical supervision.

Myth: Once you have overcome addiction to a drug, you can cautiously take other addictive medications.
Fact: Unfortunately, relapse generally happens when recovering drug addicts consider they are not risk for addiction to other addictive substances. But, people who get addicted to drugs have a brain chemistry which inspires them to dependency. This makes them at risk for relapse.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

How to keep the apartment clean

Many of us are not naturally neat. It takes conscious reminding, effort, and building habits. One does not become clean overnight, but in order to improve, one must dedicate small amounts of time to learning how to clean. Over time, many of the chores will become second nature, so you can let your mind wander while you clean. The starters after their minneapolis apartment search and entered in to a new apartment life should use the following tips to clean their apartment.
  • Washing dishes: Any tough food should have been soaking already, making this dishwashing go more smoothly. Wash the pans thoroughly, and you're done washing. Don't forget to clean the bottoms of pans. Any oily residue left will burn onto the bottom of the pan at the next cooking session. If you have a double sink, dish washing is a snap. Use the second sink to rinse of the dishwashing suds from the dishes. If you don't have a double sink, you can use a dishpan filled with hot water to rinse/dip your dishes clean.
  • Cleaning the sink: To remove water spots from a stainless steel sink, use a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol. Spots on stainless steel also can be removed with white vinegar. If your kids leave toothpaste in sinks, take a washcloth and clean the sink and fixture with the paste. Rub stainless steel sinks with lighter fluid if rust marks appear. After the rust disappears, wipe with your regular kitchen cleaner.
  • Cleaning the toilet: Cleaning counter tops daily with a mild dishwashing liquid and water should keep them clean looking. Polish counter tops with club soda to make them sparkle. Pour club soda on counter and clean with a soft cloth, rinse with water, and wipe dry.
  • Dusting: Dusting is a necessary chore for any apartments in atlanta a few reasons. Dust on surfaces can make surfaces look dingy and dirty. Dust can actually cause scratching and damage to household surfaces. Dust also presents allergy and breathing problems for many groups of people. Dusting as a regular chore can protect family members and the surfaces of our homes.

Voting machine security and HAVA

Incompletely in response to the 2000 presidential election argument in Florida, where problems with punch card voting systems led to Bush v. Gore, Congress approved a law called the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which appropriated $3.8 billion to replace punch-card and lever voting systems. Around 50 million votes were cast using electronic voting machines, while 32 million votes were cast with punch cards in the 2004 U.S. election. s the use of these machines became mainstream, several reports were released that highlighted insecurities with Optical Scan and DRE voting systems. The electronic voting machine industry joined the Information Technology Association of America, an industry organization that represents hundreds of the top technology companies in the U.S., and created the "Election Technology Council" in order to address these concerns. Many voting machines do not record votes on a paper medium. Demonstrations have shown important vulnerabilities with some electronic voting machines. Some, including Stanford professor David Dill, believe a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is required for proper auditing of electronic results and that auditing is hard if not impossible without it, though he has acknowledged security concerns with VVPAT systems, as have other experts. According to a team of security experts, even a small alteration of the machine could have been enough to change the result in battleground states. Some computer scientists have said these machines are not tamper resistant and that open-architecture voting machines would make the process more transparent.

The voting public is denied access to the manufacturer's proprietary software, and the official certifications often do not comprise third party software (such as a Windows operating system. In several cases, agencies and experts examining the machines expressed dismay at their quality and security. At least one voting machine began counting backwards to zero when it reached 32,000 votes. The manufacturer, ES&S, allegedly had known of this issue for two years but had failed to fix the bug. In two cases, an Independent Testing Authori (CIBER Inc.) recommended voting machines for certification without testing core firmware or attempting to verify any of the crucial security aspects of the machines. CIBER's accreditation has since been terminated by the Election Assistance Commission. Some managers and/or affiliates of each of these also have criminal records, including cases of computer fraud, embezzlement, and bid rigging. In addition, voting machine companies have been accused of major security and law violations. Employees have been found to have had multiple prior convictions including bans for bid rigging, embezzlement, and drug trafficking, installing uncertified and untested versions of software on touch screen voting machines, and tampering with computer files. According to internal email messages at the manufacturers, data files used in the machines are not password protected to prevent manual editing.