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Barron Trump Had Covid-19, First Lady Confirms

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Image source Wikimedia

President Donald Trump’s son Barron had Covid-19 but has since tested negative, First Lady Melania Trump revealed.

Melania Trump said her “fear came true” when 14-year-old Barron tested positive for the new coronavirus.

However, the first lady said, “luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms”.

Both the president and first lady also tested positive for coronavirus – as well as other White House staff – but have since recovered.

At a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, President Trump said: “He [Barron] had it for such a short period of time.”

The president said his son had had a mild case of the virus: “I don’t even think he knew he had it because they’re young and their immune systems are strong and they fight it off.”

He added: “Barron is beautiful and he is free.”

President Trump cited his son’s recovery as a reason why American schools should reopen as soon as possible, a move opposed by teachers’ unions who fear their members could be infected by students.

He told the crowd: “Barron’s tested positive. Within, like, two seconds it was Barron is just fine now. He’s tested negative, right?

“Because it happens. People have it and it goes. Get the kids back to school.”

Melania Trump revealed Barron’s positive test result in an essay entitled “My Personal Experience with Covid-19” on the White House website.

After the first lady and the president received their positive results two weeks ago, she said “naturally, my mind went immediately to our son”.

Melania Trump said it was a “great relief” when Barron initially tested negative, but was concerned he would later test positive for the virus.

“My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive,” she said, adding that Barron exhibited no symptoms.

“In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time so we could take care of one another and spend time together,” the first lady wrote.

Melania Trump also reflected on her own diagnosis. She said she experienced a “roller coaster of symptoms”, including body aches, a cough and fatigue.

“I chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food,” she wrote.

In her statement, Melania Trump also said the “most impactful part” of her recovery was “the opportunity to reflect on many things – family, friendships, my work, and staying true to who you are”.

She said she would be resuming her duties as soon as she could.

While the first lady remained in the White House, President Trump spent three days at Maryland’s Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after his own Covid-19 diagnosis. He received a number of different drug treatments, including dexamethasone, a steroid, antiviral treatment remdesivir and monoclonal antibody therapy.

The president’s personal doctor said on October 11 that he was no longer a Covid transmission risk to others, and he returned to the campaign trail on October 12, telling supporters he felt “powerful”.

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Melissa Earnest’s Defense of Barron Trump Becomes Viral

An event at the White House on September 26, for the unveiling of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, was thought to be the root of the localized outbreak of coronavirus.

The White House press secretary, former Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway and two senators were among the people around the president who tested positive for the virus.

Opinion polls suggest President Trump is trailing his Democratic opponent Joe Biden barely three weeks before the November 3 presidential election, but polling is close in several key states.

Joe Biden did not have any public campaign events on October 14, but held a virtual fundraiser and delivered taped remarks to an American Muslim association. The Biden campaign announced that it had raised a record-breaking $383 million in September.

The Democrat was expected to spend much of the day preparing for October 15, when he and President Trump will take part in rival televised town hall-style events.

The two candidates have struck different tones on the pandemic, with President Trump downplaying its severity and Joe Biden criticizing him for not encouraging Americans to wear masks and social distance.

The US has recorded more than 7.8 million coronavirus cases and more than 215,000 deaths – the highest figures of any country in the world.

White House 2020: Joe Biden Criticizes President Trump’s Handling of Covid-19 While Courting Erderly Voters in Florida

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Image source: Getty Images

Joe Biden has criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of Covid-19, while courting elderly voters in the key battleground state of Florida.

The Democratic presidential nominee told them that the president saw seniors, who have been more at risk in the pandemic, as “expendable”.

There are sharp policy differences between the two candidates on Covid-19.

In Pennsylvania, President Trump told thousands of supporters he felt like “Superman” after his Covid treatment.

He tested positive for the virus on October 1, spent three nights in hospital and was cleared by doctors to return to the campaign trail at the weekend, holding his first rally in Florida on October 12.

Battleground states like Florida and Pennsylvania are crucial for gathering the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidential election, which is not determined by a simple count of votes nationwide.

Opinion polls suggest Joe Biden has a 10-point advantage over Donald Trump nationally, but his lead in some key states is narrower. In Florida, the Democrat is 3.7 percentage points ahead, according to an average of polls collated by Real Clear Politics.

Second Presidential Debate: President Trump Refuses to Take Part in Virtual Debate

VP Debate 2020: Kamala Harris and Mike Pence Clash over Coronavirus Pandemic

Presidential Debate 2020: Donald Trump and Joe Biden Clash in Bitter Debate

President Trump narrowly won Florida in 2016 in a result buoyed by senior voters. But the latest polls suggest a shift away from the Republican among them this time around.

Joe Biden spoke to a group of people at a community centre for seniors in southern Florida, with social distancing measures in place.

The event was in stark contrast to the president’s mass rally on Monday in Florida.

The Democratic candidate accused the president of dismissing the threat that coronavirus posed to senior citizens.

He said: “You’re expendable, you’re forgettable, you’re virtually nobody. That’s how he sees seniors. That’s how he sees you.”

The “only senior Donald Trump seems to care about” is himself, he added.

Joe Biden also criticized President Trump for holding “super-spreader parties with Republicans hugging each other without concern of the consequences”, while senior citizens couldn’t see their grandchildren. A recent White House event for the Supreme Court nominee led to several attendees testing positive for Covid.

Introducing Joe Biden at the Florida event, congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said it was voters aged 65 or over who would “swing elections in the Sunshine State”.

Joe Biden, 77, and Donald Trump, 74, are the two oldest candidates to contest a US presidential election.

However, President Trump has regularly mocked Joe Biden as a senior citizen who lacks energy and is “sleepy”. On October 13, the president tweeted a doctored image of Joe Biden as a wheelchair-user and the words “Biden for Resident”, implying a nursing home.

Coronavirus: China to Test Whole City of Qingdao in Five Days

The entire population of the Chinese city of Qingdao will be tested for Covid-19 over a period of five days.

The 9 million population testing comes after a dozen cases were found linked back to a hospital treating coronavirus patients arriving from overseas.

In May, China tested the entire city of Wuhan – home to 11 million people and the epicenter of the global pandemic.

China has largely brought the virus under control.

That’s in stark contrast to other parts of the world where there are still high case numbers and lockdown restrictions of varying severity.

In a statement posted to Chinese social media site Weibo, Qingdao’s Municipal Health Commission said six new cases and six asymptomatic cases had been discovered.

According to the Global Times, all the cases were linked to the same hospital.

China now has a strategy of mass testing even when a new coronavirus cluster appears to be relatively minor.

Qingdao’s commission added that a citywide testing program had been launched, with five districts to be tested within three days – and the whole city to be tested within five days.

Some 114,862 people – including medical staff and newly hospitalized patients in the city’s hospitals – have already tested negative for the coronavirus, it said.

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Videos circulating online showed local residents lining up on October 11 to get tested, said the Global Times, adding that some of these test points were open from 7AM to 11PM.

The new cases come a week after China’s Golden Week holiday – which saw millions travel across the country.

A Global Times report quoting the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism said the city had received 4.47 million passenger trips over this period.

The nearby city of Jinan, which is also in the same province as Qingdao, called for anyone who had visited the city since September 23 to get tested for the virus, according to a report by The Paper.

Earlier last month, Qingdao announced that two port workers in the city who handled imported seafood had tested positive for the virus. However, they were not known to have infected anyone else.

Daily coronavirus infections have fallen drastically in China, and for the most part the country appears to have recovered from the worst of the virus.

China currently has 85,578 virus cases and the death toll stands at 4,634.

Earlier this year, China completed a mass testing program in Wuhan saying 11 million people had been tested in 10 days.

Second Presidential Debate: President Trump Refuses to Take Part in Virtual Debate

Image source: Getty Images

The commission organizing the second presidential debate in Miami on October 15 said it would have to take place remotely after President Donald Trump tested positive for coronavirus.

President Trump has refused to take part in a virtual TV debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

The president’s refusal sparked a day of wrangling about how and when any further debates would take place.

At the moment it appears a debate could take place on October 22, although in what form remains to be seen.

The first presidential debate on September 29 had descended into insults and interruptions. The vice-presidential debate, held on October 7 between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, was a far more measured affair.

Latest opinion polls suggest Joe Biden has a high single digit lead nationally, but the outcome is often decided in battleground states where the races can be much closer.

Six million votes have already been cast in early voting.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that candidates would take part in the Miami debate “from separate remote locations… to protect the health and safety of all involved”.

This infuriated the president who, in a phone-in interview with Fox Business Channel, said he was “not gonna waste my time” on a virtual debate and “sit behind a computer, ridiculous”.

Joe Biden said the president “changed his mind every second” and his campaign team added that Donald Trump “clearly does not want to face questions from the voters”.

The Trump campaign answered back, with manager Bill Stepien calling the commission’s decision to “rush to Joe Biden’s defense… pathetic” and saying President Trump would hold a rally instead on October 15.

The Biden team then proposed the town-hall style debate, set for Miami, should go ahead on October 22 instead.

This brought a brief moment of agreement, on the date at least.

However, the Trump team said there should be a third face-to-face debate – on October 29, just five days before polling.

The Biden team refused. Three dates had been set for debates – September 29, October 15 and October 22. That would be it.

VP Debate 2020: Kamala Harris and Mike Pence Clash over Coronavirus Pandemic

Presidential Debate 2020: Donald Trump and Joe Biden Clash in Bitter Debate

On October 15, Joe Biden will now take part in his own primetime event on ABC answering questions from voters.

Quite what format any Biden-Trump debate takes now is hard to pin down.

The president touched on a number of key matters, including his health and the possibility of movement towards a stimulus package for the economy.

On his health, President Trump said: “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen.”

He said he had stopped taking most “therapeutics” but was still taking steroids and would be tested for Covid again “soon”.

Although his doctor has said he now has no symptoms, questions still remain about when the president first became infected and whether he could still be contagious.

And although the names of many people who have interacted with the president and tested positive are now known, it remains unclear just how many were exposed at the White House. New Covid safety measures are in place there.

One of the top Republicans, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, said on October 8 that he had not been to the White House since August 6 because its approach to handling Covid with social distancing and masks was “different from mine and what I suggested we do in the Senate”.

October 8, President Trump said that “somebody got in and people got infected” but gave no more details.

A gathering on September 26 announcing President Trump’s Supreme Court pick has been seen as a possible “super-spreader” event, with several attendees known to have tested positive.

Does A Cable TV Use Bandwidth?

Image by Alehandra13 from Pixabay

Bandwidth is a calculation of the frequencies used by whichever medium they are being consumed. When it comes to broadcast, especially when compressed, digital TV streams are more powerful than analog ones. This tends to work even though, says UFC, many people on a common cable TV distribution viewing the same show at the same time. On one frequency category also known as a channel, the provider will transmit and all the subscription receivers on that node are tuned to the center frequency of the channel. One source, numerous receivers.

Speaking of cables predominantly, bandwidth is usually referred to as the selection of frequencies that are used for transferring the information over data cables. The wide-ranging the bandwidth the more amount of data it can carry. The standard parameter for measuring bandwidth is cycles per second or Hertz (Hz). Some top-notch cable TV service providers in the US including spectrum TV assure their bandwidth remains intact irrespective of the number of people using it simultaneously.

If you only want to know “You having broadband access and cable television, my access is impacted by utilizing TV,” the answer would be: No. Although some cable TV’s capacity in your home is potentially used, the bandwidth is not the restraining factor for your internet access thus far. Cable TV does consume a part of your bandwidth, but then again it could be deemed as a comparatively smaller share of the bandwidth. For the reason that this is broadcast, and the cable signal for every station is transmitted once and for all the consumers to get it.


If you particularly want to know, “Does cable television broadcast use space that would only be reserved by the internet,” when you searched for ‘Does cable TV use bandwidth?’ the answer is going to be: yes. Cable TV does consume a majority of the bandwidth of the network but should be reckoned as a comparatively smaller part of the bandwidth. The cable signals for every channel is only pushed once when it is transmitted, and all viewers access it simultaneously. However, if both viewers simultaneously were viewing the same TV programs on a streaming service i.e. Netflix, the degree would be greater with the overall bandwidth accessed on the network.

However, on the cable TV system, they do consume the bandwidth. But content providers such as Netflix do have not the same advantage. And if you and your neighbor are watching the same thing from the same internet service provider at the same time, you’re both still having your own Netflix data stream. Fortunately, modern internet service provider’s mechanisms are so fast that much of the time the link is possibly idle, facilitating reuse of the frequency. This ensures that the same data stream from your ISP is processed from both your neighbor’s modem and your modem (i.e. cable, not DSL). Your modem only receives packages sent to it and disregards everything for your neighbors. Moreover, Wi-Fi also functions (simplistically speaking) in a similar manner.

Thus, the frequency of bandwidth that is needed to transfer one analog audio-video one-track stream will provide many consumers with a high speed of the internet. This depends, of course, on the high-speed broadband requirements along with the physical state of the networks. One of the many benefits of modern broadcasting (not the web) is that it transmits the material that is being viewed. If nobody is actually watching MTV on your delivery node, so it may not be passed on, and will not be until anyone updates the station and demands the particular video & audio streaming from their device. When the station is changed again, it no longer needs the content stream down the node, and the sending finishes. It means that a TV network like the cable system will sell thousands of channels which includes names like ABC, central comedy, NBC, but at any given time there will usually only be a few hundred participating subscriber recipients on the node.

Conclusive Notes

The aforementioned discussion specifies that cable TV at its maximum uses a few hundred channels to transmit the stations needed by such receivers. For other forms of data, internet-based data often needs validation, which means there must also be an upstream link. The simplest reply to the title is yes, cable TV does consume a small portion of bandwidth.

VP Debate 2020: Kamala Harris and Mike Pence Clash over Coronavirus Pandemic

Image source: Getty Images

Vice-presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Mike Pence have clashed over the coronavirus pandemic in their only debate ahead of next month’s election.

Democrat Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic “the greatest failure of any presidential administration” in history.

Republican VP Mike Pence said the Democratic Party’s pandemic plan amounted to “plagiarism”.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Trump with 26 days to go to the vote.

Opinion polls indicate President Trump is trailing by single digits in a handful of battleground states that will decide who wins.

Vice-presidents have tie-breaking power in the Senate and are required to step in if a president is unable to perform their duties. Their day-to-day responsibilities vary with each administration, but they typically serve as top advisers and some take on specific policy portfolios.

October 7 meeting was a civil debate between two smooth communicators compared to last week’s belligerent showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which degenerated into insults and name-calling.

Mike Pence did not interrupt as much as the president last week, but when he did, Kamala Harris interjected: “Mr. Vice-President, I’m speaking, I’m speaking.”

The viral moment on October 7 was a fly landing on Mike Pence’s head and remaining there for some two minutes.

Presidential Debate 2020: Donald Trump and Joe Biden Clash in Bitter Debate

The 90-minute TV debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City was marked by disagreements over the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

The 55-year-old California senator accused VP Mike Pence and the president of deliberately misleading Americans about the lethality of coronavirus.

“They knew, and they covered it up,” she said, adding that they had “forfeited their right to re-election”.

Mike Pence accused the Biden-Harris campaign of copying the White House’s pandemic strategy, alluding to a blunder that ended Joe Biden’s 1987 run for the presidency when he plagiarized a speech by then-British Labour leader Neil Kinnock.

Kamala Harris was asked by the moderator whether she would take an approved Covid-19 vaccine distributed ahead of the election.

She said she would not take a jab touted by President Trump without the say-so of medical professionals.

Mike Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, retorted: “The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration I think is unconscionable.”

The Plexiglas barriers separating the two debaters seated 12ft apart were a vivid reminder of the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.

President Trump – who is himself recovering from the virus – returned to the White House on October 5 after three nights in hospital, with his opinion poll numbers drooping.

On October 7, the president declared that catching the disease was a “blessing from God” that exposed to him to experimental treatments he vowed would become free for all Americans.

The virus, meanwhile, has spread through the West Wing of the White House and infected figures inside the president’s re-election campaign.

ABC News reported that an internal government memo, dated October 7, said “34 White House staffers and other contacts” had been infected in recent days.

The White House has not yet commented on this.

Financial Problems That Are Possible When You Work at Home

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Truth be told, before Covid-19 many people want to stay back in their homes and relax after a long day at the office. One of the things you are afraid of is waking up early to evade looking unkempt and the need to rush on the train. Part of your budget is clothing because you must look your best, presentable, and decent every time.

Unexpectedly, the pandemic broke out, and graciously you did not lose your job. Nonetheless, you are expected to work from home. I believe you find this idea very exciting because all the inconvenience of rushing a train to get to work among many other people are no longer required.

Now, to the main question, Is this how you imagined it?

You need to bear in mind that working from home has disadvantages that may not be glaring to you. The idea of working from home in your pyjamas and working at your pace might be interesting, but endeavor to avoid the following financial issues.

First Problem: Excessive spending on Food Deliveries

We can’t deny the fact that we need to help food vendors and drivers earn a living. Likewise, we need to support small businesses at this trying time. Nonetheless, it would help if you were careful while spending. It would be best if you did not rely on food deliveries all the time.

It’s quite convenient, but you need to know that the delivery fees will accumulate in the long run, and you would be surprised to know how much you have spent on deliveries.

While you are working from home, you can prepare your food, be self-sufficient, and are on your way to saving more at the end.

Second  Problem: Lack of Budget

Keep the excitement about working from home, although it gives you the chance to save more because you don’t have to spend on transportation fare, new clothes, and lunch-outs, which does not mean you can afford to spend more money on things you want.   

You presently need a budget to work on more than ever. You have to save your salary and spread it accordingly on rent, grocery, bills, and amortization. Don’t forget savings and investment when you have a budget you work with it gives you room to be frugal.

Third Problem: Lack of Savings

Many people don’t have the habit of saving, especially during this pandemic period. We can also say your chance of survival is dependent on savings.

Do not allow the pandemic to make you neglect saving habits; always try to place aside part of your salary as savings.

In case an emergency need arises, and you need the money more than anything. Nobody knows how long the pandemic will last, this is when the saying “saving for the rainy day” becomes essential, and it shows having savings is paramount.

Fourth Problem: Terrific Shopping Habits.

Many people are terrified because of the pandemic. You will always meet a lot of people at the grocery store, no matter the time. When it’s your turn to shop, endeavor to go easy on spending and cut out what you don’t need. 

Always make sure you buy essential things, so you don’t run out of groceries and have to go back to get more often. Do not spend on snacks and sweets, it will only make you have more bills to pay. Also, they are not nourishing, and it could be harmful to your health. Remember to pay with cash and avoid paying with credit; it will save you the stress of paying outside.

Fifth Problem: Becoming Too Complacent

Working from the comfort of your home has its benefits, and at the same time, has its disadvantages, which include being complacent. You might feel too lazy and want to be in bed and watch movies all day.

This may sound like having the fun you have ever waited for long to have; you must never forget your responsibilities. You can plan your day by having a schedule for work and relaxation. Do not attempt to work in the bedroom to avoid the temptation of falling asleep on your bed. Mute your notifications on your phone to avoid checking your phone each time the phone chimes.

Urgent financial assistance if you are out of the budget

In case you have not been able to work with a budget during the pandemic and need money for emergency needs, do not worry, you have online lending company. Robocash gives 24 hour payday loan to people who need a money to meet urgent needs. Once you are ready, log on to their website robocash.ph to fill the form.

You may be wondering what you have to do to qualify for the loan. Here are the requirements:

  • Generate personal space on the Robocash website. The first thing you need to do is fill a form with personal data.
  • To do this, you need a valid ID and phone number. It takes a few minutes to do this.
  •  Fill in how you want the loan transferred. Robocash works with significant partners in the Philippines for you to receive and pay back the loan in a convenient way.
  • You need to sign a contract with Robocash. You must consent to apply for a loan. You will receive confirmation code on your phone through a text message. You will receive the Robocash loan without any delay.

Here are some of the benefits of getting a loan from Robocash:

– You can request the loan amount from 1000 to 25000 pesos and its duration from 7 to 30 days.

– You can request a loan by filling out the form at any time of day, on holidays and weekends.

– You can apply for a loan without co-borrowers, collateral and references from work.

While working at home, do not forget to search for other means of earning money. Remember to be grateful for what you have as this time is challenging.

Great Barrington Declaration: Thousands of Health Experts Join Anti-Lockdown Movement

Nearly 6,000 scientists and health experts have joined the Great Barrington Declaration – a global movement warning of “grave concerns” about Covid-19 lockdown policies.

They say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society.

Experts are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives.

The declaration has prompted warnings by others in the scientific community.

Critics have pointed out that a more targeted approach could make it difficult to protect vulnerable people entirely and the risk of long-term complications from coronavirus mean many others are also at risk.

The movement – known as the Great Barrington Declaration – started in the US.

The declaration has now been signed by nearly 6,000 scientists and medical experts across the globe as well as 50,000 members of the public.

They say keeping the lockdown policies in place until a vaccine is available would cause “irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed”.

The health harms cited include lower childhood vaccination rates and worsening care for heart disease and cancer patients.

They point out the risk from coronavirus is 1,000 times greater for the old and infirm, with children more at risk from flu than Covid-19.

As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls, they say.

This would be a much more “compassionate” approach.

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The declaration recommends a number of measures to protect the vulnerable, including regular testing of care-home workers, with a move as far as possible towards using staff who have acquired immunity.

Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered, it says.

When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside.

Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick, should be practiced by everyone.

However, young low-risk individuals should be allowed to work normally, schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching, sports and cultural activities could resume and restaurants reopen.

5 Strategies for Improving Your Golf Game

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Image by HeungSoon from Pixabay

Golf is one of the world’s biggest sports and is a great way to stay healthy and keep fit. It is also an amazingly competitive sport that lets you compete with yourself as you try to get a lower and lower score on your local courses. Here we have five strategies that should help a golfer of any level of ability to improve their golf game.

Know Your Clubs

The chances are you have the right club in your bag for every shot you need to make. Many golfers, even semi-professionals, don’t know enough about their clubs and the distances they are capable of reaching. Practice with your clubs at the driving range to get a better idea of the distances and shots you can make with your clubs, so you are better informed when you are on the course.

Know Your Hazards

The biggest challenge on the golf course for many golfers is getting past the hazards like sand bunkers and lakes and streams.

Hazards like bunkers are usually man-made and have been put there intentionally to make a hole more difficult to play. These bunkers are usually placed before the green to make your approach more challenging, so a good technique is to over hit your shot to fly over the hazard and work back to the green from the far side.

Be careful with water hazards. Many golfers will plan an overhit shot to make sure they land comfortably clear of the water, but then have to hit back towards to get back on the fairway or green. Don’t go with too much club when you are near water; give yourself enough range to get to the other side, just. The worst thing about facing a water hazard is hitting so hard you have to face the same hazard twice to stay on the course.

Practice Makes Perfect

Getting out to the course can be difficult. Weather and family commitments can often prevent you from practicing your shots and getting the extra time you need to improve your game. A golf launch monitor lets you practice at home and provides very precise ball data that can help you correct mistakes and develop your shots.

The Most Important Yard is in Your Head

If you don’t have your head in the right place when you golf, you are going to have a bad day on the course. Golf should be relaxing and fun, and a place you can go to get away from the stresses and strains of life. Taking your trouble to the golf course will cause you trouble while you play.

Don’t play angry is great advice. Use golf as a way to clear your mind and concentrate on one thing – and do that thing well. Your greatest competitor on the course is yourself, so get your head in the right place to play. You will see your game improve and reduce the number of strokes it takes you to get around the course.

Analyze Your Game

The biggest mistake most golfers make is not analyzing their game, replaying their best and worst shots in their head, and looking for places they can improve their technique.

Think about your best shots and what made them work. Posture and swing are important in every golf shot, so you need to know what you did right so you can bring those elements to other areas of your golf game. Know your weaknesses too. You could spend hours practicing your drive, but if your putting lets you down, you are not going to improve. Take some time to strengthen the weaker aspects of your game to reduce the number of shots you have to take.

With these five tips, you should be able to knock some strokes off your game and sink your balls in fewer strokes when you go out on the course.           

Market Research Methods Guaranteed to Increase Your Revenue

Market research is one of the most valuable methods to gain insight and data to your target market. By conducting market research, you learn exactly how your customers think, what their habits are, how much they are willing to spend, and how you can stand out from your competition.

With all of this data, you are guaranteed to create a killer strategy for your business and increase your revenue year after year. These are some of the most effective market research methods for your business.

Interviews

There is no better way to gain insight to your consumer market than sitting down face-to-face and interviewing them. Have a list of questions ready to ask them about their spending habits, where they get their news, and what they think about your product.

This insight will help you understand the wants and needs of your customers so you can tailor your product or service to meet them. It also gives you insight on how to position your brand to stand out to your customers.

While this process may be time consuming and tedious, it is worth the effort.

Surveys

How many survey opportunities do you come across every day? There are millions of surveys available online just waiting to collect data. Take advantage of the survey culture and create your own for your market research.

There are a few different ways to go about collecting data from surveys.

The first is to have an online survey with an incentive. This incentive can be a coupon for your product or a free piece of literature.

The second is interactive voice response surveys done over the phone. This allows you to reach consumers directly and gives them an easy way to answer your questions.

Lastly, send out surveys by referral to your own network and your team or employees’ network.

Competitive Analysis

Know where you stand in your industry with a competitive analysis. This type of market research studies your competitors and how they are conducting business within your market.

This data will give you insight on what you need to do for your business to stand out from your competition. Take what your competition is doing and do it better!

Pricing Research

Another essential market research method is to study the pricing aspect of your consumers. You can include these questions in your interviews and surveys or take data from studies that have already been done.

This data will tell you what your target market is willing to spend on your product. With this data, you can price your product or service accordingly to appeal to customers and increase your sales.

Secondary Research

If you are running a small business or startup and don’t have the budget to spend on large market research studies, you can always take data from secondary sources. There are thousands of studies done each year on different markets and this data is available to you either for free or for a minimal cost.

President Trump Discharged from Hospital

Image source Flickr

President Donald Trump has been released from hospital and returned to the White House to continue his treatment for coronavirus after a three-night hospital stay.

The president, who is still contagious, removed his mask on the balcony of the White House, while posing for pictures.

Donald Trump’s physician said he would continue treatment from there, and he “may not entirely be out of the woods yet”.

Several of President Trump’s staff and aides have also tested positive for the virus in recent days.

Questions remain over the seriousness of the president’s illness after a weekend of conflicting statements.

The US remains the country worst-hit by Covid-19, with 210,000 deaths and 7.4 million cases.

President Trump’s diagnosis has upended his campaign for a second term in office, less than a month before the Republican president faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the presidential election.

Wearing a navy business suit, tie and mask, President Trump walked out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the Washington DC suburbs on Monday evening pumping his fist.

After a short helicopter ride, the president was pictured alone on the Truman Balcony of the White House. He removed his protective face mask, before giving a thumbs-up and a military-style salute.

A couple of hours later, he tweeted a campaign-style clip of his return set to stirring music.

President Trump also recorded a video message, urging Americans to get back to work.

“You’re going to beat it [coronavirus],” he told them.

“We’re going to be out front. As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front, and led.”

President Trump also speculated: “Now I’m better, maybe I’m immune, I don’t know”.

President Trump Criticized for Leaving Hospital for Car Ride

President Trump Flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center

President Trump and First Lady Test Positive for Covid-19

The WHO says it is too early to know if people who have recovered from Covid-19 are protected from a second infection, and if so, how long this protection might last. President Trump’s own medical team does not consider him to be fully recovered yet.

He also promised that vaccines were “coming momentarily”, although the CDC has said no vaccine is expected to be widely available before the middle of next year.

Before leaving hospital, President Trump told Americans in a tweet not to fear the disease and said he would be back on the campaign trail “soon”.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden said he was “glad” the president appeared to be “coming along pretty well”.

However, Joe Biden criticized President Trump, saying: “Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying masks don’t matter, social distancing doesn’t matter, I think is responsible for what happens to them.”

According to US public health guidelines, President Trump should remain in isolation for up to 10 days after symptoms first appear. The White House says the president first started to appear ill on October 1, and later tested positive.

His physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said on October 5 that the president, whose oxygen levels dipped twice over the weekend, would be “surrounded by world-class medical care 24/7” at the White House.

Dr. Conely refused to answer questions about when President Trump last received a negative test or to go into the specifics of his treatment. He would not offer details regarding the president’s scans to check for pneumonia, citing patient protection laws.

President Trump Criticized for Leaving Hospital for Car Ride

Image source Flickr

President Donald Trump’s decision to greet supporters in a drive-past outside the hospital where he is being treated for Covid-19 has been widely questioned by medical experts.

There are concerns the president, who wore a mask, may have endangered Secret Service staff inside the car.

However, White House spokesperson Judd Deere said the trip on October 4 had been “cleared by the medical team as safe”.

Questions remain over the seriousness of President Trump’s illness after conflicting statements over the weekend.

Donald Trump has been in hospital since October 2, after he announced hours earlier he had tested positive for the virus.

Covid-19 has infected n

Nearly 7.4 million have been infected in the US and nearly 210,000 people died across the country, according to Johns Hopkins University.

President Trump’s diagnosis has upended his election campaign, as he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden on November 3.

A growing number of people around the president, including First Lady Melania Trump, senior aides and Republican senators, have tested positive with the virus.

President Trump waved to well-wishers from behind the glass of a sealed car after tweeting that he would leave Walter Reed hospital, near Washington, to pay a “surprise visit” to “patriots” outside. Inside the car, at least two people could be seen wearing protective gear in the front seats, with President Trump sat in the back.

Experts say Donald Trump’s short car trip broke public health advice to quarantine when seeking treatment for the virus, and may have put Secret Service agents inside the vehicle at risk of infection.

“That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of Covid-19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures,” tweeted Dr James Philips, a doctor at the same hospital where the president is being treated.

Those inside the president’s car would now need to quarantine for 14 days, he said.

President Trump Flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center

President Trump and First Lady Test Positive for Covid-19

Coronavirus: President Trump Denies Downplaying Seriousness of Covid-19

Democrats have also criticized the trip, with House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffries tweeting: “We need leadership. Not photo ops.”

However, the White House’s Judd Deere defended the move, saying “appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those supporting it, including PPE [personal protective equipment]”. Meanwhile, NBC News reports that the first lady, who has remained at the White House with mild symptoms, decided against visiting her husband in hospital because of the risks to staff.

“She has Covid,” an unnamed official told NBC on October 3.

“That would expose the agents who would drive her there and the medical staff who would walk her up to him.”

Over the weekend it emerged President Trump’s condition was more serious than previously reported when he went to hospital on October 2.

The White House had said the president was experiencing “mild symptoms” of Covid-19, but then it was confirmed that he had received extra oxygen after his levels dipped twice in two days.

He was also given the steroid dexamethasone, which is normally reserved for serious cases, according to experts.

On October 4, White House Physician Dr. Sean Conley addressed widespread confusion over the state of President Trump’s health, after conflicting accounts from him and the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

Dr. Sean Conley had offered an upbeat prognosis on October 3, which was later contradicted by Mark Meadows who said the president’s vital signs the previous 24 hours had been “very concerning”.

Dr. Conley told reporters on October 4: “I was trying to reflect an upbeat attitude of the team and the president about the course his illness has had.

“I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction.”

There is skepticism over the prospect – raised by doctors earlier – that President Trump could leave hospital as early as October 5.

Coronavirus: France to Close Paris Bars as Covid-19 Cases Spike

Image source: Max Pixel

Starting with October 6, Paris will shut all bars completely as the French government raises the city’s coronavirus alert to maximum following a sustained period of high infection rates.

The restrictions will last two weeks, with full details to be announced on October 5, PM Jean Castex’s office announced.

On October 4, France reported 12,565 cases of Covid-19.

The southern city of Marseille closed bars and restaurants last week.

France’s maximum alert level comes into force when the infection rate in a locality exceeds 250 per 100,000 people and at least 30% of intensive care beds are reserved for Covid-19 patients.

The prime minister’s office explained in a statement: “These measures, indispensable in the fight to curb the virus’ spread, will apply to Paris and the three departments immediately surrounding it, for a duration of two weeks.”

Paris restaurants will have to put in place new sanitary arrangements in order to stay open and university lecture halls must be no more than half-full.

Restaurants and bistros that serve food as well as alcohol can stay open, as long as they register contact details from customers and shut their doors at 22:00.

Working from home must be prioritized “now more than ever”, the statement said.

On September 26, Marseille, France’s second city, closed all bars, restaurants and gyms for two weeks. Public venues including theatres, museums and cinemas have also had to close unless they could introduce strict anti-viral measures.

The measure prompted anger from local officials who said they were not consulted.

Coronavirus: Partial Lockdown Imposed on Madrid

On October 4, France reported nearly 17,000 infections, its highest rate since the country started widespread testing.

The French government says it doesn’t want to order another nationwide lockdown, but will enforce tougher measures in those cities where the virus is concentrated.

Elsewhere in Europe, a state of emergency has been introduced in the Czech Republic as the government struggles to control a resurgence in coronavirus. From Monday new measures will be in place for two weeks, including closing secondary schools and limiting restaurants and bars to six customers per table. Primary schools will remain open. Over the past two weeks the Czechs had the second highest number of new cases per 100,000 in Europe after Spain, and the fourth highest number of deaths.

President Trump Flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Image source Flickr

President Donald Trump has been flown to Walter Reed Military Hospital for treatment after testing positive for coronavirus.

The president tweeted after his arrival: “Going well, I think!”

According to recent reports, his symptoms include a low-grade fever.

President Trump has so far been treated with an experimental drug cocktail injection and the antiviral medication remdesivir after both he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19.

In exactly one month, President Trump faces Joe Biden in the presidential election.

His diagnosis has upended his campaign and also cast doubt on his attempt to get a new Supreme Court judge confirmed before polling day.

The latest update from President Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, in a memorandum late on October 2, read: “I am happy to report the president is doing very well.”

He said the president was not in need of supplemental oxygen.

President Trump was taken to hospital “out of an abundance of caution” with “mild symptoms” and would be there for the “next few days”, the White House said.

The list of other people to have tested positive around the president include close aide Hope Hicks – believed to be the first to show symptoms – campaign manager Bill Stepien and former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Republican Senators Mike Lee and Thom Tillis have also tested positive.

President Trump and First Lady Test Positive for Covid-19

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President Donald Trump remains in charge. VP Mike Pence, to whom under the constitution the president would transfer power temporarily should he become too ill to carry out his duties, tested negative.

Wearing a mask and suit, President Trump walked out across the White House lawn on October 2 at 18:15 to his helicopter, Marine One, for the short flight to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center close to Washington DC.

He waved and gave a thumbs-up to reporters but said nothing before boarding the aircraft.

In an 18-second video posted to Twitter, President Trump said: “I think I’m doing very well. But we’re going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well. So thank you very much.”

Ivanka and Eric Trump re-tweeted his post, praising him as a “warrior”. Ivanka Trump added: “I love you dad.”

Donald  Trump Jr. said his father was “obviously taking it very seriously”.

The president was admitted to the presidential suite at Walter Reed, which is where US presidents usually have their annual check-up.

Shortly before midnight, he tweeted again: “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!”

Dr. Sean Conley, said the president was “not requiring any supplemental oxygen, but in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate remdesivir therapy. He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably”.

Tests have shown remdesivir, originally developed as an Ebola treatment, disrupts the new coronavirus’s ability to duplicate and can cut the duration of symptoms.

On October 2, Dr. Conley said President Trump had “as a precautionary measure received an 8g dose of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail” at the White House.

Coronavirus: Partial Lockdown Imposed on Madrid

Edificio Metropolis

Spain’s federal government has imposed new restrictions on more than three million people living in Madrid as the country tries to control the most serious second wave of Covid-19 infections in Europe.

From this weekend, people living in the Spain’s capital can travel outside their home districts for essential journeys only.

Bars and restaurants cannot serve after 10PM. A maximum of six people are permitted to meet in any setting.

The measures have been demanded by Spain’s federal government.

They also take effect in nine towns around Madrid.

The restrictions have been resisted by Madrid’s city authorities, which tried to use the courts to block their imposition. Madrid’s justice minister said it would cost the capital’s economy €8 billion and regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso wrote on Twitter: “Thanks for the chaos, [Prime Minister] Pedro Sánchez.”

Signs of the second wave of coronavirus infections now breaking over Spain can be seen at the emergency admission unit of the 12 de Octubre hospital, one of the biggest in Madrid.

Every hour ambulances arrive with new patients.

Some of the patients are helped into wheelchairs; others, already needing oxygen, have to be stretchered in by medical staff wearing full protective gear.

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A red warning signal indicating the seriousness of Spain’s predicament is that, at many hospitals across Madrid, existing ICU’s are again full with Covid-19 patients.

Hospitals are being forced to use overflow capacity prepared at the height of the pandemic, including beds usually reserved for burns patients and for post-operative recovery.

At La Paz Hospital, another of Madrid’s biggest, all 30 ICU critical care beds are occupied.

Some 10,000 new Covid-19 cases are now being identified in Spain each day.

On October 2, there were 11,325 new infections and 113 deaths.

Around one in four of all tests being done have been coming back positive, another warning signal about the prevalence of the new coronavirus.

Breonna Taylor Death: Grand Jury Tapes Released

In a rare disclosure, recordings from the grand jury investigation into the Breonna Taylor police shooting case have been released.

Some 15 hours of audio were made public on October 2, following a lawsuit.

The recent decision not to charge any officers for Breonna Taylor’s killing on March 13 renewed outcry over racial inequities.

Unrest gripped Breonna Taylor’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky for days afterward.

With roughly 15 hours of audio released, not all the details have yet been reviewed.

However, early reviews of the tapes reveal testimony from at least two Louisville police officers who said that they knocked several times and announced themselves as police before entering Breonna Taylor’s apartment.

“We knocked on the door, said ‘police’, waited I don’t know 10 or 15 seconds. Knocked again, said ‘police’, waited even longer,” said Louisville police lieutenant Shawn Hoover in an interview recorded on the day Breonna Taylor was shot, later played for the grand jury.

“So it was the third time that we were approaching, it had been like 45 seconds if not a minute,” Shawn Hoover said.

“And then I said, ‘Let’s go, let’s breach it.'”

The officers were so loud, one testified, that a neighbor came outside saying something like “Leave that girl alone,” Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly said.

Whether or not the officers announced themselves before entering has been questioned by Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and a number of her neighbors.

Kenneth Walker, who fired at police, said he did so in self-defense, believing the officers to be intruders.

In a police interview played for the grand jury, Kenneth Walker said that they had not heard police identify themselves before they entered her apartment. If they had, “it changes the whole situation because there was nothing for us to be scared of,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

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Officer Myles Cosgrove – who the FBI said fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor – described a chaotic scene to investigators, in which he was “overwhelmed with bright flashes and darkness”, and seemed confused by the precise order of events.

“I just sense that I’ve fired,” he said in a recording, according to the New York Times.

“It’s like a surreal thing. If you told me I didn’t do something at that time, I’d believe you. If you told me I did so something, I’d probably believe you, too.”

When police entered the apartment, they encountered a figure who looked as if he or she was holding some type of long gun, said officer Brett Hankinson in a recorded police interview.

Brett Hankinson has since been charged with wanton endangerment for firing shots into an adjoining apartment.

However, Kenneth Walker was holding a handgun, not a long gun.

He told investigators he was “scared to death” when he heard banging on the apartment door, the New York Times said. He said he fired one shot from his gun before he could see who was at the door.

“All of a sudden there’s a whole lot of shots,” he said.

“Next thing I know, she’s [Breonna’s] on the ground… And she’s right here bleeding. And nobody’s coming and I’m just confused and scared.”

Grand jury deliberations and prosecutor recommendations were not recorded, and so were not included in the released material.

The death of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical worker, during a police raid in March has been a high-profile case, prompting protests against police misconduct and racial inequality.

Breonna Taylor was shot dead at age 26 when officers Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove stormed her Louisville home. They were executing a search warrant as part of a drugs investigation.

Last week, Brett Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment, but no-one was charged in connection with Ms Taylor’s death.

The decision not to charge any officer with murder or manslaughter has led to repeated Black Lives Matter protests in Louisville and elsewhere.

It also prompted questions over the handling of the case by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, with critics calling for greater transparency.

President Trump and First Lady Test Positive for Covid-19

Image source Wikimedia

President Donald Trump has announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19 and are now in quarantine.

Donald Trump, aged 74, and therefore in a high-risk group, tweeted: Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”

It comes after Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest aides, tested positive.

President Trump’s announcement comes just over a month before the presidential elections on November 3 where he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Hope Hicks, 31, travelled with President Trump on Air Force One to the first presidential TV debate with Joe Biden in Ohio on September 29. Some of Donald Trump’s family members who attended the debate were seen not wearing masks.

President Trump has mostly spurned mask-wearing and has often been pictured not socially distanced with aides or others during official engagements.

More than 7.2 million Americans have been infected so far and the new coronavirus killed more than 200,000 of them.

Donald Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, released a statement on October 1, saying the president and the first lady were “both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence”.

“Rest assured I expect the president to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering, and I will keep you updated on any future developments,” the statement said.

The physician provided no further details.

According to President Trump’s most recent physical examination earlier this year, he weighed 244lb. This is considered to be obese for his height of 6.3ft.

However, Dr Conley stated at the time that the president “remains healthy”. President Trump will also have the best medical care available.

The CDC says a person must go in quarantine for 10 days after a positive test.

President Trump said he and his wife, who is 50, were going into quarantine after Hope Hicks’s positive test.

The president tweeted: “Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible!

“The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”

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It is not clear how President Trump’s positive test will affect arrangements for the second presidential debate, which is scheduled for October 15 in Miami, Florida.

Donald Trump is not the first world leader to have tested positive. Earlier this year, British PM Boris Johnson and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro were infected. They both have since recovered, although Boris Johnson had to receive regular oxygen treatment to help his breathing during hospitalization.

In May, VP Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller tested positive and later recovered.

That same month, a member of the US Navy who was serving as one of President Trump’s personal valets tested positive.

The White House said at the time that neither the president nor vice-president were affected.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, a number of Secret Service agents, a Marine One pilot and a White House cafeteria worker have also tested positive.

The White House tests aides and anyone else who comes into contact with the president daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Zossc5vMk

Jimmy K Lauder Case: Will Kim Ogg Deliver Justice In Houston Family Arson Case?

Image source: Getty Images

Press release

Jimmy Klayton Lauder now admits he set his Houston house on fire while his wife and two little children were inside. Friday morning, October 2nd, we will find out his fate.

For nearly two years Dolcefino Consulting has watched the case closely as the family of the victims seek justice from Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

“Everyone in Houston should be paying attention to this case. Protecting crime victims is what Kim Ogg said she was going to do when she was in office. Instead, she has given get out of jail free cards to so many criminals,” said Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.

“The District Attorney owes this family justice.”

Jimmy K Lauder, 31, has agreed to plead guilty to the arson at his home while his family was inside, but he refuses to take responsibility for the additional crime of endangering a family member. The family demands the District Attorney fight to send Lauder to prison.

“It is my wish that we get justice and that he gets the time that he deserves for the crime that he’s done and for the pain and suffering that he has put our family through,” said Tessie Fraysur, mother of Lauder’s now ex-wife, during a press conference in February of 2019. The fire was set in December of 2018—that is how long this family has waited for justice.

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Kim Ogg has come under fire recently for her soft on crime tactics and has been criticized by former prosecutors for putting politics before justice. Just this week she was dealt another embarrassment as a judge dismissed the criminal case against Arkema executives. There were allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and other ethical violations by the DA’s office in the case.

At 9 a.m. on October 2nd, 2020, Judge Brian E. Warren will set punishment on arson charges. The hearing will be held virtually in the 209th Criminal Court.

Agency Care Or Independent Care? Your Complete Pros and Cons List For Deciding on Caregiving

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Photo credit Matthias Zomer

When it comes to caregivers, we are spoilt for choices. From family caregivers to home care agencies to independent caregivers; we have numerous options at our disposal.

Generally, family caregivers shoulder the responsibility of taking care of senile members in their family, but a few remain unaware of how to get paid as a family caregiver and have to abandon their responsibilities due to financial issues, leaving home care agencies and independent caregivers as the two viable options.

Both home care agencies and independent caregivers provide an assortment of services, making it difficult for the families to choose the apt one. However, by reflecting on certain factors, you can make a sound choice.  The factors listed below can help you decide which one is the best for you.

Factor #1: Cost                          

The cost of the service is one of the most relevant questions that pop up while choosing between agency care and independent caregivers.

A caregiver agency takes a fat paycheque in exchange for its services, which is duly justified considering the quality of the service they offer. The agencies do not let you worry about the tedious tasks like tax paperwork, insurance requirements, payroll details, employee background checks, reference checks, etc., and hence, save your valuable time and effort.

Independent caregivers, on the other hand, cost you much less as compared to the caregiver agencies. However, they leave you with the responsibilities of all the paperwork and background investigations.

Factor #2: Quality

The quality of care or services is not a debatable factor as it largely depends on the interpersonal skills, background, and training of the caregiver.

However, when talking inclusively, the agencies score better in terms of quality of services. They always send qualified, certified, trained, and licensed caregivers to you. Moreover, they carry out a thorough background check of their employees.

Factor #3: Types of services

Caregivers are trained to provide an array of services to the aging, ailing, and disabled people. They provide medical care like wound care, monitoring vital status, administering injections, etc, and also assist the recipients in their day-to-day activities, like walking, eating, getting dressed, etc.

Independent caregivers go the extra mile by assisting the recipients in the instrumental activities, like running errands, going shopping, taking them for a short walk or to the doctor, etc.

If you are looking for a caregiver, well-versed at providing medical care to the recipient, seeking help from an agency will be a better option as finding a trained and licensed independent caregiver may take months. However, the caregiver assigned by the agency won’t run errands for you as it will be against their company’s rules.

Factor #4: Ease of hiring

Of course, hiring a caregiver from an agency is much easier than looking for an independent caregiver.

With home care agencies, you just need to go through a simple process- tell them what you want, and they lead you to a perfect caregiver who checks all your boxes.

Factor #5: Coverage for sick days or vacations

All human beings, including doctors, nurses, and caregivers, fall sick. When a private caregiver falls sick or takes a break for any reason, you won’t have any backup. You will have to walk into the caregiver’s shoes and take care of things until they resume their duty.

But, with a home care agency, you will always have someone to swoop in for the off duty caregiver. If a caregiver is sick, has a family emergency, or goes on a vacation, the agency appoints someone else to cover for them, brushing all worries off your head. 

Bottom Line

Hiring a caregiver for our loved ones is an inevitable decision that we all make at some point in our lives.  We hope this information helps you in making the right choice.

Presidential Debate 2020: Donald Trump and Joe Biden Clash in Bitter Debate

Image source: Getty Images

President Donald Trump and Joe Biden have fiercely clashed in the first of the three White House debates.

The Republican president frequently interrupted, prompting the Democratic candidate to tell him to “shut up” as the two fought over the pandemic, healthcare and the economy.

Donald Trump was challenged over white supremacist support and refused to condemn a specific far-right group.

Opinion polls suggest Joe Biden has a steady single-digit lead over President Trump.

However, with 35 days until Election Day, surveys from several important states show a closer contest.

Polls also suggest one in ten Americans have yet to make up their mind how to vote. But analysts said the September 29 debate – the first of three – probably would not make much difference.

Overall, the 90-minute debate in Cleveland, Ohio, was light on serious policy discussion. Both candidates talked over each other but President Trump cut in some 73 times, according to a count by CBS News.

The tenor became clear early on as the two candidates sparred over healthcare. Hectoring from Donald Trump saw Joe Biden call the president a “clown”.

As they moved on to the Supreme Court, the rancor continued, with Joe Biden refusing to answer when asked if he would try to expand the number of judges.

“Will you shut up, man?” Joe Biden snapped at President Trump, later adding: “Keep yapping, man.”

President Trump responded: “The people understand, Joe. Forty-seven years [in politics], you’ve done nothing. They understand.”

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In one of the most talked about exchanges of the night, Donald Trump was asked by the moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, if he was prepared to condemn white supremacists.

President Trump initially said he would but when asked to denounce the far-right Proud Boys group by name, he sidestepped.

He said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The Proud Boys, an anti-immigrant, all-male group, took to social media to celebrate.

“Standing down and standing by sir,” it posted on Telegram.

Antifa, short for “anti-fascist”, is a loose affiliation of far-left activists that often clash with the far right at street protests.

Joe Biden said Donald Trump had “panicked” over the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans.

“A lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker,” he said.

President Trump objected to Joe Biden using the word “smart”.

“You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class,” he said.

“Don’t ever use the word smart with me. Don’t ever use that word.”

Local rules required everyone in the room to wear masks but of the president’s family members present, only First Lady Melania Trump donned a face covering during the debate.

Due to the pandemic, the forum at Case Western Reserve University had a small, socially distanced audience and the traditional opening handshake was skipped.

How to Prevent Hair Loss for Men

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Image by Sammy-Williams from Pixabay

Root cause

By the age of 35, approximately 66% of men will have experienced hair loss according to the American Hair Loss Association. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Hair loss can be a result of many factors but the most common reason is androgenic alopecia (according to the American Hair Loss Association, 95% of hair loss in men is caused by androgenic alopecia). Androgenic Alopecia is a genetic condition that can affect both men and women. It is also called male pattern baldness (for men). Eventually, the hairline will recede. There will be loss of hair from the crown and frontal scalp. It can start affecting men from as early as their teens or in their early twenties. Other causes of hair loss include hormones, stress, illness, ringworm, drugs, cosmetic products, medical conditions, and even diet. Scientists are only just beginning to understand the process known as miniaturization. Miniaturization refers to the process of hair thinning that leads to pattern baldness.

Is there a cure for hair loss?

Yes, there is. But be careful when choosing hair loss treatment. Many products will be offered as a solution. Despite these numerous offerings, there are still only two medically approved drugs for the treatment of hair loss. The two drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are minoxidil and finasteride. There are also several products like shampoos and vitamin supplements that can be useful for resolving hair loss.

Talk to an expert first

There is a tendency for individuals to self-diagnose the cause of their hair loss. With the internet, individuals throw themselves into an avalanche of hair growth products that promise hair restoration with ridiculous timeframes specified. The advisable thing should always be to seek professional opinions on how to restore hair. Always speak to physicians about hair loss problems. As mentioned earlier, the causes of hair loss are several. Different approaches will be required to treat them. Several outfits that offer hair loss treatments have dedicated professionals available for consultation about hair loss. Several organizations offer avenues where you can speak with professionals who work with personal information to provide the right diagnosis for hair treatment. Hair loss information is important. It is advisable to seek expert opinions before taking any step.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Hair loss treatment

Minoxidil had been used in the past to treat high blood pressure. However, scientists would discover that one of its side effects was hair growth in unexpected areas. It has since been approved by the FDA to treat hair loss. The minoxidil lotion is applied. Theoretically, it expands the blood vessels and it opens potassium channels. This allows more flow of oxygen, blood, and nutrients to the follicles. The minoxidil lotion is applied to the scalp, and it is to be used regularly for a positive result. Discontinuation of minoxidil allows hair loss to continue. Note that it does not help the hormonal process of hair loss. Organizations like Myhair.life offer Minoxidil alongside shampoo and supplements to help combat hair loss.

Since 1992, finasteride has been approved for the treatment of hair loss by the FDA. It is still being used to treat enlarged prostates. It is taken orally. It decreases the production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the prostate gland and the scalp. It protects endangered hair follicles from being affected by the hormone. It has to be taken daily for effectiveness.

Dutasteride also helps to treat male pattern baldness and is also used to treat enlargement of the prostate, just like finasteride. While it is often more effective than finasteride, it has not been approved by the FDA. It is still used as a treatment for hair loss in other countries. Discontinuation also leads to continued hair loss.

Cosmetic surgery

For hair transplants, hair from thicker parts of the head or even other body parts is grafted to the thinner sections of the scalp. While there are emerging medications to treat hair loss, more people are choosing hair transplants to solve the problem. According to the Indian Dermatology Online Journal, between 10-80 percent of the transplanted hair will fully grow in an estimated three to four months.

In conclusion

Before taking any steps, it is important to consult an expert. Find a dermatologist close and seek advice. Consultations to get to the root of the problem help narrow down the approach to take. By seeing a board-certified dermatologist, individuals can get in on inside secrets that help with hair loss. These are tailored to individual needs.

Amit Raizada on Healthy Eating in the COVID World

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Over the course of six months of quarantine, Americans have been desperate for things to do. To cure some of the boredom, many have taken up new hobbies, learned new languages and started new home improvement projects. But with more free time than ever, many have turned to exercise, seeking to shed a few pounds during quarantine, explore some new trails, or achieve some fitness milestones.

But when it comes to personal fitness, exercise is but one side of the coin. A proper diet is just as integral to maintaining personal fitness as any run or weightlifting routine. But eating properly is easier said than done. Beyond merely counting calories, those seeking to eat healthily should find ways to incorporate fruits, vegetables, and other key nutrients into their diets. 

Since even before the onset of COVID, plenty of innovative startups have been hard at work devising new restaurants and products that offer tasteful, healthy food while catering to the unique preferences of young consumers.

We sat down with Amit Raizada—an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and CEO of Spectrum Business Ventures to talk about how the startup and VC sectors are helping to develop new products that can help fitness enthusiasts enjoy healthy, low-calorie meals that complement their workout routines.

“One of these companies is Tu Me Water, which Spectrum Business Ventures is proud to support,” said Raizada. “Tu Me is an excellent post-workout choice, as it offers flavored water injected with turmeric.”

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Raizada explained that turmeric is a critical, yet often under-consumed, nutrient that helps aid muscle recovery. Turmeric is often used to reduce inflammation, which Raizada said comes in handy after a difficult weightlifting routine or a strenuous run.

“Tu Me really got it right when it came to turmeric,” Raizada said. “The nutrient has long been celebrated for the ways it reduces inflammation in the body. Tu Me combined this with water—which we all drink after our workouts—and unique flavoring to create a healthy, enticing product.”

Raizada cited Tocaya Organica, an SBV-backed venture, as another firm making waves within the health-food sector.  

“Tocaya Organica offers clean, fast-casual Mexican cuisine in an upbeat setting,” said Raizada. “Tocaya’s food is vegan-base, meaning that all meals conform to vegan standards. Customers can add additional, non-vegan ingredients as they wish, but no matter how you build your meal, Tocaya is delicious, healthy, and low calorie.”

Both companies, Raizada said, created innovative models that align with many of Spectrum Business Ventures’ guiding investment philosophies.

“I always seek out ventures that have identified a demand popular among younger consumers and have devised a solution to fulfill it,” Raizada said. “That was the case with both ventures, which saw the ways in which personal fitness and healthful living had become major markets, and developed innovative, health foods that quickly took hold.”

Raizada said that, often, successful ventures need not reinvent an established market to make a sizeable splash.

“Younger generations are particularly health- conscious, and during quarantine, this has become even more mainstream,” said Raizada. “Companies like Equinox, for example, have come up with trailblazing ways to cater to this increasingly well-established trend. By tailoring their cuisines to meet the appetites of an increasingly health-conscious clientele, Tu Me Water and Tocaya Organica became hits.”

Who Is Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s SCOTUS Pick?

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Amy Coney Barrett, a long-term academic, appeals court judge and mother of seven was the hot favorite for the Supreme Court seat.

Donald Trump – who as sitting president gets to select nominees – reportedly once said he was “saving her” for this moment: when elderly Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and a vacancy on the nine-member court arose.

It took President Trump just over a week to fast-track the 48-year-old conservative intellectual into the wings. This is his chance to tip the court make-up even further to the right ahead of the presidential election, when he could lose power.

Amy Coney Barrett’s record on gun rights and immigration cases imply she would be as reliable a vote on the right of the court, as the Notorious RBG was on the left, according to Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University.

Judge Barrett’s vote, alongside a conservative majority, could make the difference for decades ahead, especially on divisive issues such as abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act (the Obama-era health insurance provider).

Her legal opinions and remarks on abortion and gay marriage have made her popular with the religious right, but earned vehement opposition from liberals.

However, as a devout Catholic, Amy Coney Barrett has repeatedly insisted her faith does not compromise her work.

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Amy Coney Barrett lives in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband, Jesse, a former federal prosecutor who is now with a private firm. The couple have seven children, including two adopted from Haiti. She is the oldest of seven children herself.

Known for her sharp intellect, Amy Coney Barrett studied at the University of Notre Dame’s Law School, graduating first in her class, and was a clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, who, in her words, was the “staunchest conservative” on the SCOTUS at the time.

Like her mentor Scalia, Amy Coney Barrett is an originalist, which is a belief that judges should attempt to interpret the words of the Constitution as the authors intended when they were written.

Many liberals oppose that strict approach, saying there must be scope for moving with the times.

Amy Coney Barrett has spent much of her career as a professor at her alma mater, Notre Dame, where she was voted professor of the year multiple times.

She was selected by President Trump to serve as a federal appeals court judge in 2017, sitting on the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago. She regularly commutes to the court from her home – more than an hour and half away.

Amy Coney Barett’s confirmation hearing for the appeals court seat featured a now-infamous encounter with Senator Dianne Feinstein, who voiced concerns about how her faith could affect her thinking on the law. Defiant Catholics adopted the phrase as a tongue-in-cheek slogan on mugs.

Judge Barrett has defended herself on multiple occasions.

“I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge,” she once said.

LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has voiced strong opposition to Barrett’s confirmation, declaring her ”an absolute threat to LGBTQ rights”.

The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research organization, declined comment on Judge Barrett specifically, but said appointing any new conservative Supreme Court justice would “be devastating for sexual and reproductive health and rights”.

To secure the position on the Supreme Court – a lifelong job – Amy Coney Barrett will still have to pass a grueling confirmation hearing, where Democratic senators are likely to take a tough line, bringing up many of their voters’ concerns.

Amy Coney Barrett is President Trump’s Nomination for Supreme Court

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Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite of social conservatives, is President Donald Trump’s pick for the new Supreme Court justice.

Speaking by her side at the White House Rose Garden, President Trump described her as a “woman of unparalleled achievement”.

If confirmed by senators, Judge Barrett will replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died last week at the age of 87.

Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination will spark a bitter confirmation fight in the Senate as November’s presidential election looms.

Announcing Judge Barrett as his nominee on September 26, President Trump described Amy Coney Barrett as a “stellar scholar and judge” with “unyielding loyalty to the constitution”.

However, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged the Senate not to “act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress”.

He said: “The United States Constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the Court. That moment is now and their voice should be heard.”

If Judge Barrett is confirmed, conservative-leaning justices will hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court for the foreseeable future.

She would be the third justice appointed by the current Republican president, after Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

The court’s nine justices serve lifetime appointments, and their rulings can shape public policy on everything from gun and voting rights to abortion and campaign finance for decades

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In recent years, the Supreme Court has expanded gay marriage to all 50 states, allowed for President Trump’s travel ban on mainly Muslim countries to be put in place, and delayed the US plan to cut carbon emissions.

After graduating from Notre Dame University Law School in Indiana, Amy Coney Barrett, 48, clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. In 2017, she was nominated by President Trump to the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Amy Coney Barrett is described as a devout Catholic who, according to a 2013 magazine article, said that “life begins at conception”. This makes her a favorite among religious conservatives keen to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

LGBT groups have criticized her membership of a conservative Catholic group, People of Praise, whose network of schools have guidelines stating a belief that sexual relations should only happen between heterosexual married couples.

Judge Barrett has ruled in favor of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies and expressed views in favor of expansive gun rights.

Conservatives hope Judge Barrett will rule against the Affordable Care Act – a health insurance scheme introduced by President Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

Some 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage if the court overturns the legislation, also known as Obamacare.

Following September 26 announcement, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned fellow senators that voting to confirm Judge Barrett could spell the end of Obamacare.

He said: “A vote by any senator for Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for millions of Americans.”

On September 26, Judge Barrett said her rulings as a Supreme Court justice would be based only on the law.

“Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy view they might hold,” she added.

The White House has begun contacting Republican Senate offices to schedule meetings with the nominee, sources told CBS.

Hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee – the panel tasked with vetting nominees – are scheduled to begin on October 12, and will last three to four days, committee chairman Lindsey Graham told Fox News late on September 26.

Afterwards committee members will vote on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate. If they do, all 100 senators will vote to confirm or reject her.

Republicans hold a slim majority of 53 senators, but they already seem to have the 51 votes needed to get Judge Barrett confirmed.

Amount of Active Online Traders in Nigeria

Nigeria has the second biggest Forex market in Africa. The local trading community is robust and ever-expanding. Last year, it was estimated to include 200,000 active Forex traders. In the future, the region may forge ahead and lead the industry.

Facts and Figures

Today, online trading comprises different avenues of financial speculation. The most popular instrument in Nigeria is Forex. The global foreign exchange is the largest and the most liquid market in the world. Its daily volume is spectacular — close to 6 trillion US dollars.

Retail traders account for a fraction of this volume. The market is also assessed by large institutions like banks, hedge funds, and businesses. Until the 1990s, the foreign exchange was off-limits for individuals. Today, FX trading is all the rage.

The BRICS nations account for the largest share of daily trading. On the African continent, South Africa is the leader. Last year, according to Forexbrokers.co.za, its traders bought and sold 20 billion US dollars per day. Nigeria came second with 314 million USD.

Despite the difference in volumes, the two African countries have a similar number of traders. South Africa has 190,000 — slightly fewer than Nigeria. Nigerian traders make deposits of $514.42 on average (it is $742.04 for their South African peers).

Overview of the Markets

The global currency market has no physical centre. It is classified as over-the-counter, which means that buyers and sellers connect directly. Today, foreign exchange has a colossal turnover. World currencies flow between institutional and retail traders. Individuals use digital terminals and gain access through brokers.

Through a live trading account, clients may assemble diverse portfolios. Global brokers give access to Forex, stocks, spot metals, and derivatives. The more instruments are managed — the lower the overall risk.

A sophisticated system like MetaTrader 5 allows convenient trading of different asset classes. Here are the most common options:

  • currency pairs (Major, Minor, and Exotic);
  • spot metals (gold and silver);
  • stocks of US corporate giants;
  • stock CFDs;
  • cryptocurrency CFDs;
  • commodity CFDs;
  • CFDs on market indices.

Through an online trading account, a client may buy and sell different instruments. Stocks allow you to profit from the performance of US-based corporations. It is possible to choose the biggest household names like Apple and Facebook.

Contracts for Difference (CFDs) are virtual derivatives linked to underlying assets. They are highly leveraged, which means that trading volumes can be increased by the broker. The holder does not own the asset: instead, they bet on the direction of the market. The broker pays the difference between entry and exit points.

Regulatory Landscape

Despite its rapid growth, the Forex market in Nigeria lacks regulation. Traders may use local or foreign brokers for connection to the marketplace. Due to its popularity, Forex is a gold mine for scammers. Traders must choose providers very carefully.

The safest choice is global brands licensed by foreign regulators. For instance, the ForexTime broker is part of a group which has licenses from different jurisdictions: Cyprus (the CySEC), the United Kingdom (the FCA), and South Africa (the FCSA).

Regulated brokers have to comply with industry requirements. They provide negative balance protection, so traders never lose more than they deposit. In the event of bankruptcy, their clients are eligible for compensation.

Trader’s Arsenal

Modern systems are different from pit trading, which you can see in old Hollywood movies. In the past, the speed was slow. Clients had to call their floor brokers if they wanted to buy or sell shares. Each operation involved several people. Today’s systems offer 1-click trading, which allows you to capitalize on momentary changes.

Everything is managed through an app or a desktop terminal. Traders analyse the market using streaming prices, charts and news updates. They can customize their aids to pursue different strategies. Timeframes may be switched to highlight changes over a certain period, from one minute to one month.

The most popular trading terminals, such as the FXTM Trader app, are all-in-one products. Users can research the market, place trades and withdraw their profits. Every operation is a tap away. The largest global markets are now at your fingertips, and they can be monitored at a glance.

The Bottom Line

Today, the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the local economy. Nigerians are increasingly interested in opportunities for remote work. As the job market is shrinking, online trading is a viable choice.

By 2019, Nigeria had a vast army of online traders. Today, over 200,000 residents buy and sell financial instruments through the internet. Regulated brokers provide access to a broad choice of tools, from currencies to derivatives.