What Is a Good Business For a Veteran Retired From The US Navy?

During the 2012 election there was a debate between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama on the future of the United States Navy. Governor Mitt Romney suggested that the United States needed more U.S. Navy ships. The president stated that since the ships are more technologically advanced these days, we don't need them in the same numbers as we have in the past. It is true that our Navy is having trouble covering the oceans of the world, but it is also true that President Barack Obama is going to cut military expenditures.

The DOD has already decided that it will cut $500 billion over the next decade, and that's probably just a down payment. What does this mean for the U.S. Navy? It means there will be fewer ships. Therefore we will need fewer sailors and seamen. Where will they go? Well, the military will let these individuals go with honorable discharges, and a number of people through attrition. They've already started. Many Navy bases are down to bare-bones already. Robotic ships will take over, and there will be less need for that many seamen (in theory as per the current President's plan).

Okay so, that means that all these retired veteran Navy personnel will be looking for work in the private sector. You must also recall that our unemployment is over 8% right now, and it will surely climb after 2013 as the federal government decides to cut its budget. What if these former Navy veterans can't get work in the private sector? Well, maybe they can start their own business. They have experience, know-how, hard work ethic, and they tend to fall the rules and do everything by proper procedures.

Might I suggest a small business in the marine sector?

How about cleaning and detailing boats?

How about upkeep services for high-end yachts and sailboats?

You may not have been thinking here, but I can tell you from being in the business previously that it is a good business, albeit hard work. Boat and yacht owners will trust retired military U.S. Navy personnel because of their service. It's hard to get someone to clean your boat and do proper detailing and find someone who will be punctual. That's certainly wouldn't be a problem for a Navy retired veteran.

Doing what you say you are going to do in this sector is paramount, and it's the same way in the U.S. Navy. Therefore this might be one potential option, and therefore I ask that you please consider all this and think on it.

How To Setup A Freshwater Tropical Fish Tank

This is an 11 step guide to setting up a freshwater aquarium in your home.

Equipment you will need:

Aquarium

Aquarium gravel

Aquarium filter

Replacement filter media

Heater

Other decorations (such as plants)

Chemical test kits

Fish food

Aquarium vacuum

Fish net

Glass Scrubber

5-gallon bucket

Pasta strainer

STEP 1: Realize the responsibility involved. A tropical fish tank is just like having a dog or a cat when it comes to the amount of effort on your part. In order to have a successful fish tank you will have to work at it. Once a week, or at most once every two weeks, you will need to perform some kind of maintenance on the tank. Most of the time you will be performing water changes. You will also have to feed your tropical fish at least once a day. If you are up to the challenge, please proceed!

STEP 2: Decide on an aquarium size. It's a good idea to have in mind what kind of tropical fish you want to keep before you purchase an aquarium. Some tropical fish only grow to be an inch or two, whereas other types of tropical fish can grow 12 or 13 inches in length! Knowing what kind of tropical fish you want will help you decide the size of the tank they will need. If this is your first time with an aquarium, I would recommend going with a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium for now.

STEP 3: Decide on the aquarium's location. Place your aquarium in an area where the light and temperature of the tank won't be affected by external sources such as windows and heater vents. You will want to place your aquarium on a stand that will be able to hold its total weight. A good rule of thumb for determining the total weight of a full aquarium is 10 pounds per gallon of water. For example, a 55-gallon tank will weigh approximately 550 pounds when filled with water!

STEP 4: Buy your aquarium and equipment. Now is the time to decide on the type of filtration you will want to use. You will also need to purchase a heater capable of heating the tank size you have. Buy the gravel, plants, a power strip and other decorations. A good rule of thumb for the amount of gravel that you will need is 1 to 1.5 pounds of gravel per gallon of water.

STEP 5: Set up your aquarium and stand. Wash out your tank with water only! Do not use soap or detergents. Soap residue left behind will be harmful for your tropical fish. If you are going to use an under gravel filter (not recommended) now would be the time to set it up as well.

STEP 6: Wash Gravel, plants and decorations. Be sure to wash the gravel thoroughly before adding it to your tank. An easy way to do this is to put some of the rocks in a pasta strainer and wash them out in your bathtub. Then place the clean gravel in a clean 5-gallon bucket for transport to the aquarium. After adding the gravel you can place your plants and decorations.

STEP 7: Add water to the aquarium. To avoid messing up your gravel and plants, you can place a plate or saucer in the middle of your aquarium and direct the water flow onto the plate. Use room temperature water when filling. To remove the chlorine and chloramine, use something like Tetra AquaSafe for Aquariums. Don't completely fill up the aquarium until you are sure of the layout of your decorations. Otherwise, when you place your arm in to move stuff around water is going to spill over. Doh!

STEP 8: Set up equipment. Install your heater but don't plug it in until the thermostat in the heater has adjusted to the water temperature. This usually takes about 15 minutes or so. Hook up your filter and any other equipment you have, then top off the aquarium water to just under the hood lip. Place your hood and light on the aquarium and then check your power cords to be sure that they are free of water. I would also recommend using a drip loop on all of the power cords to be extra cautious. Plug all of the equipment into a power strip and then "turn on" the aquarium.

STEP 9. Wait, wait, wait and then wait some more. I know, you want to add some tropical fish. But, in order to do this right you must wait until your aquarium has cycled before adding any fish. There are ways of speeding up this process. Check out the nitrogen cycle page to learn more. If you must use fish to cycle, try to get a hardier species like the zebra danio or cherry barb.

STEP 10. Add tropical fish. Only add one or two fish at a time. Adding a couple tropical fish at a time gives your filtration system the time needed to take on the increased biological load that the new fish introduce. When you bring the fish home let the bag float in the tank for about 15 minutes so that the fish can become acclimated to the temperature and pH of the aquarium water. After 5 minutes of floating the bag you should add some of the aquarium water to the bag so that the fish can become acclimated to the pH level in the aquarium. This will help reduce the amount of stress imposed on the tropical fish. Stressed tropical fish often leads to dead tropical fish! Don't feed your tropical fish on the first day. They probably wouldn't eat any food on the first day anyway. Let them get acquainted with their new home.

STEP 11. Get ready for regular maintenance. Be prepared to spend some time once every week or two to clean your tank. Performing regular water changes will reduce the nitrate levels and keep your tropical fish happy and healthy.

For more tropical fish and aquarium information, please visit FishLore.com - Tropical Fish & Aquarium Information.

Google's Ranking System and Algorithms - The Top 10

The truth is that there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the exact algorithm Google uses in order to determine page rankings. In fact, their algorithms change over 500 times per year, and each time they change, they are not shared with the public. Does that mean that you have no way of knowing how your site will be ranked? Absolutely not! Through dedicated research, SEO experts have been able to determine factual information regarding exactly what factors Google takes into account in their ranking system. There are actually over 200 factors that they use to rank your site, but there are 10 that are absolutely crucial. If you want to ensure that your e-commerce website ranks high in Google's SERPs, each and every one of the following factors will need to be considered.

Backlinks

If this is your first time reading about any type of SEO technique, then you have probably not heard about a backlink. What are they exactly? Backlinks are links that are directed toward your site, and are sometimes called inbound links. When you have a lot of backlinks, this is an indication that your site is popular and important. Search engines like Google will give your site a higher ranking when you have a good number of backlinks.

Page Speed

In 2010, Google officially began to count page speed as a factor in their search engine rankings. Very few people take care of their website's loading speed, and now it is more important than ever. If you need help with your page speed, Google does provide a speed-related mini-site that has a ton of resources and videos about speeding up your page.

CTR

CTR, or the Click-through Ratio, also gets counted toward your ranking on Google's SERPs. If you aren't familiar with the term, it simply means the percentage of time that searchers click on your site when displayed in the SERPs versus another website. The more clicks you have on your site, the higher rank you will get.

Domain Age

It is a sad fact, but the age of your domain name does have an effect on your Google ranking. It should be noted that the domain age doesn't simply refer to how long you have owned a particular domain name, but rather how long ago it was that Google first indexed it, or saw a link to it. If you have a young domain name, your site will likely be devalued for the first few months or so after Google first hits on you. It will be very difficult for you to rank well in those early months.

Page Age

In contrast to domain age, Google also places emphasis on page age when ranking your e-commerce website. This means that they are not only paying attention to the age of each page of your site, but are also concerned with the display of dates on content, including articles and blog posts. While it isn't clear yet whether or not it is a direct ranking factor, page age will definitely affect your CTR. If you have older content on your site, Internet users will be less likely to click on your site.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are another piece of the larger algorithmic puzzle. These Meta tags are looked at by Google when deciding which results are relevant to user searches. Meta tags are essentially text inserted into the source code of a e-commerce website that includes keywords in order to provide information to Google about the contents of a page for SEO purposes.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are extremely important in determining search engine rankings. Meta descriptions are a kind of Meta tag used to describe a document. They are short summaries, about 200 characters or less, that allow an e-commerce website owners to define how the page will be described in the SERPs. Not all engines use them, and Google only utilizes the first 150 characters of a website's Meta description.

Original Content

Duplicate or unoriginal content will not get your page to rank high on the SERPs. In terms of duplicate content, it isn't that Google necessarily penalizes websites; they just won't show it in search results. Rather than show 20 pages with the same content, Google will attempt to present the most relevant and original content and leave out the rest.

Quality Information

Extremely useful and unique information is a very important factor in the Google ranking system. Today, it is not just enough to fill your content with keywords. With the advent of Panda, "the quality over quantity" approach really took the world by storm, and forever changed SEO approaches. The quality of the information you provide is now a major factor, which leads to the quality of your overall site. This focus on quality has dealt a major blow to a variety of online businesses and websites, including auto-blogs, scraper sites, and many article directories.

Keyword Optimization

From the very beginning of the SEO game, the optimum use of keywords has been absolutely vital to the success of e-commerce website rankings. It used to be all about filling your content with as many keywords as possible, but with an increased focus on quality content, only a few important keywords are required today. Many e-commerece websites are also developing accurate keyword phrases, rather than single words, and paying greater attention to the keyword density of their pages.

Raising Capital For Your Business - How Long Does it Take?

Most companies vastly underestimate the time commitment necessary to successfully complete a financing. In actuality, a company seeking financing needs to budget between 500 to 1000 work-hours to the capital-raising process, spread out over a 6-9 month time period.

The key processes in the capital-raising process include 1) perfecting the business plan, offering memorandum, and other company due diligence materials, 2) developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list, 3) contacting this list and responding to investor due diligence requests, and 4) negotiating the transaction.

Completing the business plan typically requires at least 200 hours of work. This time is dedicated to conducting the market research to validate the opportunity, developing a comprehensive financial model, determining the most effective way to lay out the business strategy, and actually writing and proofing the business plan.

The next step, developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list is also very time consuming. There are thousands of potential investors, each of which has very different tastes regarding the types of ventures that interest them. Some invest by market sector (e.g., healthcare vs. telecommunications), stage (seed stage vs. later stage), geography, or a combination of these. Many hours must be dedicated to determine which investors are the right fit for your venture. This process involves creating a master investor list, visiting each investor's website to view investment criteria and past investments, and determining who is the right contact at the firm.

To see how easily the time adds up, consider that only about 25% of prospective investors who show an initial interest in a transaction actually progress to detailed company due diligence. Only about 10% of this 25% actually progress to a bonafide offer of funds, of which only 25% of these actually result in an investment transaction. So completing a financing transaction requires, on average, contacting approximately 160 pre-qualified prospective investors.

The due diligence process, where investors scrutinize the investment, can also be very time consuming for the company. Investors often request many documents, some of which can be easily retrieved from files (e.g., prior tax returns), while others may take more time to prepare (e.g., additional market analysis, customer lists with past purchases, contact information, etc.). Finally, negotiating a transaction can take a significant amount of time depending upon the complexity of the transaction and number of parties involved.

Too many companies fail to raise capital since they are unaware of the significant time requirements to do so. Those firms who understand these requirements and budget accordingly are the ones most likely to persevere and end up with the capital they need.

Anti Spam Software for Extra Inbox Protection

Have you ever been surprised when you open your email inbox and what you can found at there is just useless and maybe dangerous mail? You don't need to be surprised and panic because your email got a spam attack. But, you also can panic because most of the spam mail that you receive contains dangerous content, like virus. This is when your antivirus takes an action to protect your computer. But, that's not the best solution for solving your spam problem. And it's often happen when your antivirus can't detect the virus that comes with the spam and let it through. And if this is happen, you will get more problems. So, the best solution is you need to block all of the spam that comes to your inbox. And for this reason, you need anti spam software.

Actually, every email server that you're using has their own spam filter. It can be helpful though, but, mostly it weak against high level dangerous spam. So, it makes an anti spam software is needed here. There are many software that can help you to filter spam. But, if you want to choose the best one, you need to choose the software that can give you protection for your entire computer. So, it's better if the software that you're use also can be function as the antivirus for your computer.

You can try the free version or paid version for the anti spam software that you need. Each of them has their own advantages. But, to make sure you get and use the best, you need to choose the software that suitable with your need, in this case your email server. So, you will fully protect from spam and the virus that mostly comes with spam mail. And if you have the best spam filter, you won't get any problem in your inbox.

To Kill a Mockingbird - A Book Review

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird revolves around a young girl named Jean Louise Finch who goes by the nicknamed "Scout". Scout experiences different events in her life that dramatically change her life. Scout and her brother Jem are being raised by their father, a lawyer named Atticus and a housekeeper named Calpumia in a small town in the south. At this point in time in the South racism and discriminations towards black was a big issue . The story begins when Scout is 6 years old, and her brother is about to enter the 5th grade. That summer Scout and her brother meet a young boy named Dill who comes from Mississippi to spend the summers there. They become fascinated with a man named "Boo" Radley, a man in his thirties who has not been seen outside of his home in years, mainly because of his suppressed upbringing. They have an impression of Mr. Radley as being this large ugly and evil man. Then comes the trial. Scout's father becomes a defense attorney for a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white women. This has a big affect on Scout. During this trial she gets teased by friends because her father was helping this black man. Scout starts to see the racism that exist. During the trial Scout and her brother and close friend Dill witness the trial. Even though they are young they can see that Mr. Robinson is innocent. Even though Mr. Robinson's innocence was clear even in the eyes of kids, Mr. Robinson was still found guilty. Later in an attempt to escape, Mr. Robinson is shot dead. Scout is extremely disappointed at the verdict and even more at the death of Mr. Robinson and realizes the injustice that exist. Later in a cowardly attempt by the alleged rape victims father, tries to kill Scout and her brother in order to get even with her father for making him look back in court. This is when Mr.Radley makes an appearance again an stabs their attacker. Even though Mr. Radley kills a man he is not tried for murder because he was defending the Scout and her brother. Finally some justice. This gives Scout some hope that is a chance for improvement in this unjust world.

(Discussion of main themes in To Kill A Mockingbird)

There are many different themes present in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The first theme which I will discuss is "Prejudice". The whole story revolved around the prejudice views of this Southern community. The whole reason why the trial was going on was because of people views towards blacks in the south. Since the alleged rape victim's father has such a prejudice view towards black, he is embarrassed that his daughter was actually flirting with a black man. To combat this he falsely accuses the innocent Mr. Robinson of rape. If it wasn't for the prejudice view which existed in the south the accusation would had never been brought against Mr. Robinson. These prejudice views in the south created a double standard of justice. With all the negative points that can be found in the story in respect to prejudice, there was a bright spot when it came to the prejudice issue. This "ray of light" came in the form of Scout's father Atticus. Atticus represented hope. Hope that good people still exist. Even in a society filled with hate. Atticus represented the hope that one day things can change

The "Prejudice" theme also ties in well with the title of the book "To Kill A Mocking Bird." In Chapter 10, Scout and Jem Finch get air rifles for Christmas. Scouts father tells her and her brother that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because mockingbirds are harmless creatures who do nothing but sing for our enjoyment. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird Mr. Robinson is clearly the "Mocking Bird". He is a good man who has never harmed anyone and is figuratively and literally shot by society because of prejudice. The jurors sentence him to death not because he did anything wrong but because of prejudice. He is then later shot for trying to escape this unjust ruling. Mr. Robinson just like a mockingbird is shot for no reason at all.

The second theme which I will discuss is "coming of age". The "Coming of age" theme basically entails a character who evolves to a new level of self awareness through his or her experiences in life. This is clearly the case with Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. An example of Scout's "coming of age" can be seen when she meets her friend Dill. Dill comes from a broken home and lives somewhere beyond Alabama. Scout who comes from a good home is awaken to the different quality of life that exist and is able to come to a conclusion that life exist beyond the world she knows. Through these experiences she grows more tolerant of others, learning how to "climb into another person's skin and walk around in it." On her first day of school she finds that just like with Dill there are both social and poor classes in society, some are respectable and others not. She also learns that her father is an extra-ordinary man, fighting for a Negro's rights in court. During the trial of Tom Robinson Scout learns about equality and inequality and finally about racial prejudice. By the final chapters of the novel, Scout goes to another "coming of age experience." She learns that good people can still suffer injustice. She realizes this when she see's Tom Robinson suffer injustice even though they did nothing to deserve it. She discover that the courts does not always result in justice. In the end after all of Scout's experiences and discoveries we get the sense that she will not follow the prejudice views which her society upholds. In the end Scout had matured and grown more as a kid, than many adults will do in there lifetime.

The third and final theme which I will discuss is "Justice". In the story To Kill a Mockingbird I feel,the author, Ms. Lee portrays true justice as being best seen through the eyes of the innocent. In the story Scout and her brother, being the innocent,can clearly see the injustice being done to Mr. Robinson. In contrary to Scout and her brother other people in society more specifically the older people in the town, the people who have lived through different experiences, become blinded when it comes to true justice. Or maybe they are not blinded but just choose to ignore it. This is clearly seen when they sentence an innocent man to death. This ignorance of justice can be blamed on the prejudice views which are present and eventually instilled in society in the south. So I feel that Harper Lee is connecting justice with innocence to a certain extent. In my opinion Harper Lee portrays justice as being easily detected. The reason I say this is even the young justice. The problem is society can instill beliefs that can act as a veil and blind the people from justice. The only way to uncover this veil is through people like Atticus who can pass his morality and nobility to the young and the "blinded"

(Would I recommend this book?)

I would definitely recommend people to read the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I found it to be an interesting and powerful book. I feel the book does a great job in portraying the extreme prejudice that existed in the south at that time. I feel this book makes a powerful statement on how justice can be altered through racism. I also think that the themes found in the book are themes which can still be found in our current society and that makes it the more interesting. You can even make a case that prejudice still has an effect in our legal system today. So if you are looking for a powerful book of "coming of age" and the battle for justice I would highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.