On a cold, gray morning in late January 2000, the historic Mapes Hotel in Reno was imploded by 75 pounds of explosives tucked into the art-deco structures support columns. The controlled demolition came despite years of effort by a number of groups within the community and nationally to preserve the building with lawsuits, redevelopment proposals, and grass roots lobbying efforts.

While the logic and necessity of demolishing the Mapes is very questionable, one thing that is certain is that the hotel was an important part of Northern Nevada history. The Mapes opened in’47 and with it ushered in a new era for casino gambling and the state of Nevada. Despite some historical revisionism that suggests that the modern era began in Las Vegas with Bugsy Siegel’s famed Flamingo, the Mapes was actually the first building in America to have a hotel, casino and live entertainment under the same roof. The Mapes attracted countless celebrities who’d make it their home when business brought them to Northern Nevada–this included movie stars like Clark Gable, TV stars like the cast of ‘Bonanza’ and political power brokers like infamous anti-Communist crusader Joseph McCarthy.

In the 50s and 60s it became, along with Lake Tahoes Cal-Neva Lodge the place to be seen in Northern Nevada. The top floor, window-walled Sky Room showcased performances by the legends: Sinatra, Louis Prima, Mae West, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr., and the Marx Brothers among others. Subsequent years were not kind to downtown Reno but the Mapes prospered during the 60’s and 70’s. The hotel finally closed in’82, due more to financial difficulties experienced by the Mapes family caused by one of their other Northern Nevada gaming properties than anything else.

While the last twenty years brought an amazing boom in the population and economy of Southern Nevada, the Northern part of the state didn’t see much of it at all. For that reason, the urgency of destroying the Mapes is even more questionable. In the Las Vegas area, its easy to justify the demolition of older hotels with simple economics–the older properties simply can’t compete in the current mega-resort dominated marketplace. Furthermore, the insane valuation of the land on which they sit makes it financially unfeasible to preserve them as pop culture museums.

This is not the case in Reno, where land and buildings for development in virtually every casino area are abundant. The city argued that the land on which the Mapes stood was necessary for their redevelopment efforts–a somewhat absurd position given the realities of downtown Reno and the lack of any real development on the property since the demolition. Despite receiving a number of viable concepts for the Mapes Building, the City Redevelopment Authority rejected all of them and the Mapes was destined for demolition.

The role of the City Redevelopment Authority was questioned throughout the process. Overlooking the Truckee River, the hotel was on a prime location between the downtown casino area and the riverfront district. A number of sound financial proposals were presented that would preserve the integrity of the structure including condominiums, office space, and perhaps most viable, upscale senior apartments. Oddly, all of these proposals were turned down by the citys Redevelopment Agency which continued to maintain that demolition was the only viable option despite copious evidence to the contrary.

After the demolition of The Mapes Hotel, the lot remained vacant for almost a year until a temporary ice skating rink was constructed in the winter of 2001. The site now houses a permanent ice skating rink which, while not a bad use for the land, brings into question the insistence by the City Redevelopment Agency that none of the proposals to preserve the building were viable. Clearly, they had no specific plan or even general idea of what to do with the land but for some reason wanted to see the hotel come down. This has led to all manner of speculation, ranging from financial self interest to a rumor that the structure was ‘haunted’ and needed to be destroyed to forestall future paranormal activity in Washoe County. Whatever the reason, the city of Reno lost a valuable landmark of a more civilized era.

Just use these hints and youll improve your reading speed:

You can read lines of text, more easily, by reading groups of words at one time than reading a single word, and your reading speed increases when you just widen your eye span (peripheral vision).

1. Methods will teach you have to activate hand-to-eye coordination, then you’ll be speed reading quickly and immediately. Improve your reading abilities for business or personal use with just a little practice. You can double, even triple your current rates of reading without hurting comprehension or retention.

There are different speed reading Methods for different kinds of reading material:

1. Fiction, especially romance novels. Try speed reading a hot and passionate love scene. You can’t! I don’t speed read romance novels. I don’t know anyone who does that.

2. Non-Fiction. Speed reading is perfect in this dimension. Where there is something to learn that is not based on the emotions speed reading is great. And it comes in various forms: newspapers with narrow columns, magazines, with slightly wider columns, books, computer screens, and in the mail and email.

Slow readers struggle. They cant identify the techniques to success and they struggle due to slowing down to identify words that don’t understand — they will see a particular word, slow down, think about its meaning, then restart the reading process. Perhaps they won’t sound out all of the words theyve been reading, but they will spend more time on some phrases than others. That’s because, they are just skimming across those small sections that are easy to understand.

Creating balance in comprehension and reading speed is what gives us our base reading speed. You will also need to establish a base-line reading speed for what you read the most. There are different techniques for different types of reading, with varying speeds, and comprehension rates.

Study speed reading, and practice doing the exercises, they will improve your reading speed drastically with practice. But, before you begin practicing the speed reading techniques, which you’ll learn in the Complete Speed Reading Program, let me suggest that you learn to coordinate your eye-to-pacing finger movement.

In the beginning proposes you reread the same material over and over, until you develop a well-coordinated reading speed. When you feel comfortable with it, your rate of speed will increase almost immediately almost 50%. Then, once you are comfortable practicing at that rate, move on to more advanced techniques that will increase your reading speed further.

Take in mind:

1. You will be reading very fast (scan read) pre-reading for important facts 300%.

2. You should use a 50% over normal rate when reading for information saturation.

3. Post-read for quick review will be fast reading; just a fast scan. 300-400% faster.

4. For testing, scan before prepare for tests your score speed will be medium fast 200%.

That’s how easy it will be. Your mind will be trained to be the perfect learning machine. Just begin right now with Complete Speed Reading Course, a beginner course, and intense in-depth program, and audio reinforcement. Guaranteed to bring you greater success.

Wireless home security system has made the things so convenient that every homeowner is now looking forward to purchase it instead of a wired security system. Its detection power is stronger. A person having full knowledge of using the system can really prevent his/her house from any well planned robbery. Let us now discuss some points that can help you in making best use of a wireless home security system.

Carefully count the number of doors and windows that you want to make secure with the help of your security system. It will give you a rough estimate of the coverage area by which you can look for an appropriate sized security system.

Select a suitable place where you can place your control panel and from where you can easily operate the security system. The place should such that you can easily reach there anytime and in any emergency.

It is extremely essential to install the security system and its various components at the proper place to make every area in the house secure from robbery. This will ensure that no area is away from the wave range of the security system.

In case you have a pet at your home then you should surely go for a pet friendly security system. Generally, an ordinary security system is not pet friendly and disturbs you time and again with the alarm sound, detecting your pet as an intruder.

Cameras can be set up in home to visually monitor the areas of your house. Generally, a typical wireless home security system can accommodate up to 16 cameras. You can also install some microphones which will make the alarm ring in case the noise level crosses a predetermined threshold.

Intruder can run away by hearing the alarm, so to solve that problem you can install the silent alarm system. A silent alarm system will alert the local police but not the intruders. Ensure that any other wireless systems in your house or your neighbor’s house don’t interfere with the waves of the home security system. Hence, try to choose a place for the installation of your security system, very cautiously.

Various kind of sensors are available in market like lamp sensors, motion sensors, glass break sensors, smoke detector, panic buttons, voice dialing etc. If you will use all these alarm system along with your wireless security system then you will have an all in one alarm system that will alert you against all the things. It will cost you one time but will give you a lifetime security.

Your computer has died, and there is no hope for its resurrection. You have already replaced it, but now what do you do? What options are there for disposing of your old computer in a safe and environmentally friendly way? The answer is computer recycling.

Why Recycling Computers Is Important

Computers and other consumer electronics items make up around two percent of all of the materials in todays landfills. We already know that recycling in general is important, as the landfills are not getting any smaller, but recycling computers and monitors is especially important. These items contain lead and toxic metals that can cause serious damage to the environment, particularly if they end up in the water supply.

Additionally, your computer contains personal information that you may not know how to completely remove. You do not want a computer guru finding it in the dumpster and taking your personal information off of it. This can lead to identity theft and a lifetime of problems.

Advantages of Recycling Your Computer

Recycling your computer responsibly carries many benefits. First, by working with a responsible recycler, you are ensured that your personal information is completely removed from the machine. This will protect you from dumpster divers who are just waiting to find a hard drive to tap into.

Another benefit of recycling your computer is the fact that you will be doing your part to protect the environment. You will be keeping the toxins that are in your computer out of the landfills and away from the water supply. Additionally, the precious metals and other materials used in these electronics must be mined, which takes a tremendous toll on the environment. By recycling your computer, you ensure that these precious materials are reused, reducing the amount that must be removed from the earth through costly mining efforts.

In many cases a recycled computer can actually be put to use again. Even if a major part of your computer is broken, there are other components that can be used to rebuild other computers. This can provide an affordable computer for an individual or organization that otherwise would not be able to access one. Often these computers are donated to charitable organizations, so in this way you could be helping the community simply by recycling your broken computer. When you choose a recycling center, choose one that works closely with a charitable organization.

How Computer Recycling Works

The first step in a responsible computer recycling program is wiping all information off of the computers hard drive. This ensures that your finances and personal information are protected. Then, the recycling program should look at the machine to see if there are any usable components. These are harvested to be used to build new machines. Any non-usable parts are broken down into their basic components, such as metal or plastic, and further processed.

The recycling center will then take these basic components and organize them according to the type they are. These parts will then be sent to a smelting facility to be turned into tiny pieces and melted to be made into other things. For instance, plastic can be melted and used again in another computer or for a completely different plastic item. As part of this process, the precious metals that are in circuit boards are extracted for reuse. This keeps them out of the environment.

Today, only 18 percent of all computers and other consumer electronics that have reached the end of their lives are recycled. This means that 1.84 million tons of this type of waste ends up in the landfills. By recycling your old and used computer, you can ensure that you do not add to this sad statistic.

There are many critics of the Six Sigma methodology who insist that it is nothing more then a waste of time and money, and it is more of a hindrance to your business then it is a help. There are, however, many successful business who have implemented Six Sigma, and seen the results first hand. The critics of Six Sigma are often those who have not been trained properly and do not have adequate Six Sigma experience, and therefore they have not been part of a successful implementation of Six Sigma. If you are trying to decide if Six Sigma is right for your company, you should talk to some experienced Six Sigma experts at companies where Six Sigma continues to help improve quality and eliminate defects.

Most companies that claim Six Sigma is a waste of time have either never implemented Six Sigma, or implemented it poorly which led to poor results. When you are going to bring Six Sigma into your business you need to ensure that your employees receive the necessary training, so they fully understand the Six Sigma methodology, processes and tools. If you lack Six Sigma experience in your company it is also advised that you bring in some individuals with experience, either as consultants or as full time employees, to help oversee the project. Another argument against Six Sigma is that numbers and formulas cannot help you improve quality, and eliminate defects in your business. The people making this argument do not understand how these processes help you identify your problems, and evaluate your solutions, and it is a combination of the Six Sigma process, and knowledge of the business, that makes for a successful Six Sigma project.

It does not matter what your peers, friends or employees say, the point of every business is to provide a product or service to a customer, which will satisfy their needs. Your customers are certainly not going to complain about the fact that you are implementing a process to improve the quality of the products or services you are providing to them by eliminating the defects in the process. If you explain to your customers that you are looking to increase their satisfaction, by providing a better product or service, then they would be all for it.

If the people that you talk to, who are opposed to Six Sigma, had an opportunity to talk to a Six Sigma expert, then maybe they would find out why their Six Sigma effort was not successful. Most of these people who are telling you that you are making the wrong decision often do not have enough information and understanding of the Six Sigma process to actually make an informed decision.

If you want to improve your quality, reduce the number of defects in your process, increase revenue, reduce expenses and improve customer satisfaction then you should seriously consider implementing Six Sigma at your business. Six Sigma can help you find out the true cause of your problems, and help you determine what the ideal solution to your problems is. The best people to decide whether or not Six Sigma is right for your business are the people who know your business best, not outsiders who have had either a bad Six Sigma experience or no Six Sigma experience at all.

Many say that meta tags have no influence on your placing with the search engines. Well that is almost true except for one ” the description meta tag. Almost all search engines (including Google) do not actually take it into account for ranking purposes ” yet ” many use it in their search results.

The content of the description tag is used more often than not by Google when it displays the results pages for a keyword. It uses only the first 156 characters though so make sure if you are using it to check the length of the text. If you do not check the length your text will be truncated and it will look funny.

To check the length of a piece of text just paste it into a word document and then select the text and then double click the word count box at the bottom of the screen on the status bar.

All meta tags should be at the start of the page inside the head tags.

Google is a little scallywag when it comes to using or not using the meta description tag. When it does use it you can have full control of what is displayed to possible visitors but it will often switch what it uses at will with sometimes it just picking up a piece of text from your page.

To make sure you have more control over what Google chooses as the text in the search results as well as setting the description tag carefully also make sure that the first 156 characters of text on your page says what you would like to appear in Google.

If you have a flash site or just use pictures with a little text, you have a problem! We have seen Google pick up the alt text from an image and display this when it didn’t choose to use our description tag. This will tell you to ALWAYS have some text on your page even if it is only 156 carefully chosen characters (including spaces).

A millionaire created through giving!

There is a Japanese folk tale about the power of giving and it exemplifies how we can get the most wonderful of gifts when we’re gifting things to others and are positive about what we have already got.

Here is the story.

Once upon a time, there was a poor young farmer. Everything he did in his life never seemed to produce any wealth for him. He was totally broke with no money, no family and no food. So one night he sneaked into a temple and sat by the altar and in desperation asked the Gods what he was supposed to do.

“I have always been truthful and assiduous, but all my industry never resulted in anything good for me. What did I do wrong?”

He fell asleep besides the altar just after having asking his question. In the morning, as he was waking up, he saw one of the Gods in his dream surrounded by a blinding golden light. The God’s voice echoed through his mind.

“After you wake up in the morning, value that which you have in your hand and keep giving it fully to others as you move forward,” the God told him.

The farmer was brimming with questions when he woke up but he tried to shake off his sleep and clear his mind of the strange but clear dream he had. However, he saw a bit of a straw in his hand. It must have remained on his clothes while he worked in his fields.

He almost threw it away, but stopped short of doing it recollecting what God had said about it. He seated himself again and stared at the straw in his hand.

He sat for a long while wondering what that meant. He had no idea how a broken bit of a straw can be of any use to him. Suddenly he saw a wasp buzzing around. The wasp soon alighted on the tip of the straw. He caught hold of the wasp and bound it to the straw with a piece of string from his dress. Thus with a piece of straw with a wasp at one end, he proceeded.

He had proceeded only a bit when he saw a woman and her child coming from the opposite direction. The child was crying. When he wished them, the boy saw the straw in the farmer’s hand with a wasp dangling at the end. The child was curious and asked the farmer if he could have it. He was about to refuse when he remembered how God had told him to cherish what he had and also at the same time to give to others what he had. So he offered the straw to the child. The mother became happy since the child stopped crying because of the gift. In return for the straw the lady gave the man three tangerines.

The farmer continued on. And as he walked, he began feeling a little hungry. He thought of eating the tangerines but he reminded himself it was about giving the gift to others, not to himself.

The farmer was going over a steep hill and on the way he saw a merchant sitting under a tree. The man had a wooden box near him. The farmer wished the man. He appeared to be very tired. He saw the tangerines the farmer held and asked him if he would give it to him. The merchant told the farmer that he was very thirsty.

The farmer was also quite thirsty having walked for a long time during the heat of the day but he offered all the tangerines to the merchant. The merchant ate the three tangerines and regained his strength. He was very grateful for the kindness of the farmer and opened the wooden box next to him. There were rolls of hand dyed silk fabric. The merchant handed him one roll, thanked him and walked off.

The farmer walked again and continued on the same path. After a while he found a river from which he drank water. He felt recharged. He went forward with more energy and a feeling of ease.

He walked for some more time but did not come across anyone else. He felt that the silk might be that which would bring him something good. So he chose to go to a town in the vicinity and trade the fabric.

But just as he went around the corner, he saw in front of him a band of fighters. One of the fighters who looked liked the head of the band stood near a horse that was lying on the earth. The farmer heard the leader talking to his men.

“This horse is not likely to live long. We will have to abandon it here. Just look after it and follow me.” Saying this, he climbed on to another horse and rode off and disappeared.

The remaining soldiers were left discussing what to do about it. They were reluctant to kill the animal but they did not have much of a choice. At last one of them took out a sword.

The farmer pleaded with them not to do that. He said he was ready to look after the animal. He said they can have the bolt of silk for letting him care for the horse. They agreed to the deal and left the place quickly.

With the dying horse by his side, the farmer just remained there. He wondered if he had done things wrongly and whether he would never become rich. Suddenly he remembered the river he had seen on the way.

He made his way to the river and once there stripped off his shirt and dipped it in water to be able to feed the horse. He made his way back to the horse again and fed it by squeezing out the water into its mouth. After the water trickled in for a while, the horse reacted and soon became conscious. The farmer was then able to pull it up and make it stand.

Once the horse could stand, the farmer was able to take it to the river. The horse drank directly from the river and the farmer also led it to the patches of grass nearby. Very soon the animal was rejuvenated.

Now the farmer had a horse! They set off again together, this time the man had to run to keep up. The horse was actually leading the way. They ran together for miles. As the sun starting to go down, the horse finally stopped in front of a large house. As the farmer caught up, the horse pushed him with his nose to the entrance of the house.

When the farmer moved towards it, the gates opened and an old man came out of the house. The old man had dashed out of the house and he looked wan. He spotted the horse and the farmer, both just in front of the house.

The old man asked the farmer what he was doing. The farmer said he was looking for a place to stay the night. The old man said he was going to the town for an urgent matter. He asked the farmer if he minded looking after his house until he returned. He said he might not be able to come back for a little while.

The old man looked as if he was in a hurry, so the farmer told him he can take his horse. The old man was very grateful about it and immediately left with the horse. As he left, he said something totally unexpected to the farmer.

“If I do not return within three years, this house is yours.”

As you probably guessed, the old man never returned.

The farmer stayed in the big house for the remainder of his life with a land that yielded a rich harvest and had friendly neighbours. And he always remembered to give away whatever he had.

Thank you for reading this story. And what do you think it is all about?

There is always a pattern to things. If the venture of getting can be converted into the venture of giving, our life would pour forth with greater profusion. But it may be a bit difficult to make this ancient wisdom a part of our lives.

Here are some of the interesting distinctions we can find in this story :

* When we give the things that others want, they usually value it more than we value it while when we are trying to ‘sell’ something (because fundamentally, we want to get something from the deal), they compare the value with our asking price and try to pay less.

* When we are not attached to the things we have, we often find that we attract better opportunities as we can let go of existing ones.

* When we are down and out with the problems of life, instead of worrying about the negativities if we kept focus more on giving others and caring for them, life would surely bring glad tidings later.

* When we try to ‘cash in’ what we have built up, thinking that “this is the best it gets”, because we think we may lose out it if we do not cash in now, our life’s growth often ends there. What if instead, we continued to be giving generously no matter what we owned or how physically wealthy we were or were not.

Giving is intrinsic in the lives of many who have made it to the top. When giving is done first, we are better able to lead a life of grandeur, comfort and glory.

Litigation support services – (What is this) help for the trial attorney is here. If you are a trial attorney you know how complex this field of law has become. Yes many cases do not reach the trial stage. Many cases are settled out of court. Many cases are handled in dispute resolution. But many cases still get in front of the jury. And that is where litigation services can help.

Who can say why the public is fascinated by jury trials? Movies and television depict them as high drama. We see the wrongly accused being defended by the courageous truth seeking trial lawyer who only wants to find out the truth. The lawyer backs the diffident witness into a corner and she is able to squeeze out the fact that the witness is trying to protect a friend who was the real criminal in all of this. The witness breaks down in tears and the wrongly accused is free thanks to his lawyers tenacity and quest for justice.

In this day and age of jury trials much is not so much dependent on oral testimony as it is on video evidence. Part a litigation support services in providing your case with video evidence to support your case. If it is a personal injury case involving a pedestrian being struck by an automobile litigation support services can create a video that recreates the accident.

The reality in this 21st century is that we all watch television and all see movies with special effects. We are used to the video image. This is what the average jury wants. They want to see a video to help them understand your position. Litigation support services is where you need to go to help you give the jury what they expect.

If your client has suffered from an alleged malpractice you can show an animated video to the jury showing the procedure that was supposed to be performed on your client. You can then explain to the jury how the procedure was fouled up. When they see the correct way the procedure was to be done they will understand why your client is in court seeking a remedy. The litigation support staff can create these videos for your case.

Most experts do well under direct. But they fail you sometimes under cross examination. You need a litigation support service to provide experts who will hold up under tough cross examination. You do not want all your time and money you spent on one expert witness to be wasted.

Some lawyers think that all they need to film a deposition is a video camera and a charged battery. Then after they realize that there is no audio on the tape they wish they hired a professional You want to look at litigation support services for all your video recording needs. Most services even keep a back up of your videos like your depositions in their archives.

Litigation is a complicated area of law. You want to make sure you have the advantages a litigation support service can offer.

Most people do not join MLMs because they just don’t want to chase after friends and family to join up. Going up and talking to strangers even if you were to see them every day is not everyone’s cup of tea. When you are expected to make a list and try and make everyone you know join as well, it can lead to feelings of embarrassment and frustration.

Not everyone like to be involved in network marketing and just knowing you is no reason for them to join. Liking the product and wanting to promote a business through network marketing are different and not all want to be a part of it.

A more effective partner may be someone who has shown interest in home businesses and has requested information from you. Many people earn a lot using the internet as all MLM give their distributor’s free websites for use.

These sites are useful to lead prospects to after they have already pre-qualified. To get them there, you might want to look at a Squidoo lens, a blog or a web site of your own so you can promote this site.

Having your own web site or blog introduces you first, rather than your company and it is a known fact that successful people on the internet, market themselves first. If you learn how to market your MLM via the internet you will be able to find a large number of business partners whom you would not have come across otherwise. You will be able to train people from any part of the world through the internet while you enjoy the comfort of your own home.

The use of the internet does not change the basic concepts of MLM and network marketing which is about establishing relationships. One needs to foster relationships not just with the leads generated but also the people on the team. There are a whole lot of free communications services like Yahoo, MSN and Skype that help you keep in touch with all your business partners no matter where they are. Even a few years ago, it would not have been possible to stay in touch like we do today what with the cost of phone bills being so terribly high.

Using the internet to build an MLM does not have to cost a lot of money; in fact, many of the most effective methods are either free or at a low cost. You need to work hard and have patience – that’s what it takes to build a business.

Avoid all scams that promise to build your business on your behalf. Don’t get fooled that you will get something in return for nothing as network marketing cannot be successfully built on that premise. You need to be focused and you need to be determined to succeed if you want to make it big in this field.

You need someone to keep things order at home, and a maid very well fits the bill. When it comes to maid services, a domestic helper agency is the best place to start looking.

A maid agency can significantly make things a lot easier for you. You don’t have to go through the trouble of posting ads in your local daily, conducting interviews, and performing background checks because the agency makes sure that you are going to hire the services of someone with good family background and the right skills.

You’ll begin to appreciate the services of a maid through a domestic helper agency when there are no more clothes and dishes to be washed when you arrive home from work. You don’t have to vacuum the floor or dust the countertops, either. You can just simply relax, bond with your family, or watch your favorite soap on TV.

Before, hiring maid services was limited to the rich only, but not anymore. Middle-class families can now afford maid services, but of course it has to be emphasized that aside from the basic salary, you also need to provide food and accommodation, insurance, and medical expenses.

Before dealing with a particular agency, it is of utmost importance that you find out if that agency is legal; if so, find out, too, if it is still active. There are many agencies that are legal but no longer active, you see. You can check this with certain government agencies involved in the regulation of maid agencies. If possible, ask for a copy of the list of legal and active maid agencies and do your own investigation. Visit the websites of these agencies and compare them with each other.

Get the royal treatment you deserve; get a house help through a domestic helper agency.