Optimum IT Service Management

Upon getting information about an upcoming school science fair and the need to consider a topic of interest, many students will typically have no idea where to get started. While the science fair is typically a common occurrence in any school at any grade level, there are different types of topics that should be taken a look at depending on the age of the student. After first taking a look at the many different categories of science projects, you will be able to locate a suitable choice of topic to take to the next level.There is a wide variety of categories that fall under the types of science projects that can be chosen for a school science fair. These include biology, chemistry, physics, microbiology, biochemistry, medicine, environmental, mathematics, engineering, and earth science. While you may not have yet learned very much in any of these categories, don’t be afraid to see what each one entails. Taking a good look at your interests will allow you to focus on the right direction to take.Many resources are also available for those who are unsure as to the topic they are wanting to use to create their science projects. If you take a look at the topics that fall under the biology category, you will likely notice that there are topics that deal with plants, animals, and humans. For those who are in 2nd grade or 3rd grade, an interesting topic may be to determine if ants are picky over what type of food they eat. While this topic might not be of interest to an 8th grader, it is certainly something in the biology category that an elementary school student would enjoy.Along with the biology category, a high school student may want to take a look at diffusion and osmosis in animal cells as this would be a more appropriate topic for the grade level. A student in 6th grade would be more advanced than an elementary school student, but not as advanced as a high school student. At this middle school grade level, a topic of how pH levels effect the lifespan of a tadpole may be of interest.Whichever resource is used to locate a topic for science projects, it is always a good idea to consider the grade level of the student prior to making a selection. It is always assumed to be best to have a project at an appropriate level in order to keep the attention of the student and provide a fun and enjoyable learning experience.

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How to Play the News in the Stock Market

We have all been there, I certainly have. I bought a stock I really thought was a winner, like the perfect first date, it looked good, it felt good, it sounded good, it smelled right, and most of all it acted right. Even when it came to paying the bill, she paid. The bill of course was the earnings report. Earnings were great, the chart looked good, the fundamentals looked great, it had an order book of new contracts in a booming economy, an industry leader delivering a good service. Yet when the excellent earnings were reported, beating estimates no less; the stock plummeted by 50% in one day.

I guess my free news sources including Routers and other sources saw me as the last drop off point for their baggage. Did you know that unless you pay for the premium services offered by Bloomberg and Reuters you receive the news with at least a 30 minute delay? On release of the earnings the company decided to issue more new stock to the market, the stock price had quadrupled in the previous 4 months to over $2 and the future was rosy, yet my delay in news hurt me. When this charlatan of a company decided to issue extra stock to raise capital for one of its new mega projects it issued them at 50% of the value of the stock available on the market. This immediately involved carnage to the stock price. In fact the price although eventually recovering, has again slumped to under $1.

I was not playing the news, the news played me. However there are those that play the news with some success. The problem with playing the news is it is not hard and cold facts it is feelings, interpretation and an abstract appreciation for how the public interprets news events.

How often does it happen that when a good earnings report is announced the stock falls? Too often! Why? There is a saying on Wall Street that you “buy the rumor sell the news”. That’s great if you mingle in the rumor circles that might pay, insiders, employees, good buddies with the CEO. However for us mere mortals we might not have these advantages. I have also heard of too many rumors that have backfired, tips from a friend in the industry, the nod from the supplier to a new startup company with a bright future. Apart from being illegal, insider trading of this nature especially when second hand is completely unreliable.

But to some extent we all play the news. One way or another it gets us. Turn on any news channels and the reporters are constantly overstating the meaning of things. We should not believe everything we read. One of my favorite headlines was from USA Today.

“Gas price decline may spur inflation” here

Honestly, really!

Of course economists can rationalize anything, but I am not buying it.

The fact is if we take news with a pinch of salt and make our own minds up it can be useful. But too much news can drag you in with the sheep on the road to the slaughter house. Try to imagine how important the news “really” is. Big headlines equal big readerships, big readerships mean more advertising revenue. Only you can decide what news is really important and what impact it will have on the stock market and your investments.

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The Four Basic Methods of Fine Art Printing: Refief, Intaglio, Planographic and Screen Printing

Fine art printing is about printing images using artistic tools that have a long tradition behind them and therefore excludes the new digital printing technologies such as the giclee print which is a fancy ink-jet print. Fine art prints include those by the great masters of the last five centuries as well as a multitude of talented artists whose work is less known.The four basic methods at the disposal of fine art artists are relief, intaglio, planographic and screenprinting.Relief printing is the oldest of the four. The artist uses sharp tools to cut away at the surface of a material they want to use to print with. At first artists used wood and created the woodcut. They would gouge out slivers of wood out of a woodblock using their knives to leave only raised edges. These raised portions could receive ink which with a laid piece of paper on them could transfer an image on to the paper, creating a print. To get an even pressure on the wood to transfer the ink a press would be used. One could also use a spoon or rounded tool to put pressure on the paper to receive the inks. Centuries later linoleum would be used as well creating the linocut print.Intaglio printing is pronounced “in-Tah-lee-oh”. It is essentially the opposite of relief printing as ink is in the grooves rather than on the raised relief of a woodcut. The prints made using intaglio printing are mainly engravings and etchings.Engravers use sharp tools called burins to cut into a metal plate made of copper and later steel. By incising minuscule grooves in the metal the engraver creates an image that can be printed. Ink is rolled onto the metal plate, the ink penetrates the incisions and the excess wiped off. Paper is applied to the metal plate and under great pressure from a press an engraving is pulled.An etching is another type of intaglio print in which the artist applies a varnish substance to a metal plate and then draws with needle-like tools on the metal plate. The tools expose the metal by removing the varnish, called ground. Acid is then applied to the metal plate and the acid cuts into the areas of the plate that have been exposed by the removed ground. The metal plate is then inked and an etching is pulled from a press.Planographic prints is the domain of lithography, which uses a stone to apply the art work. The artist can draw immediately on a lithographic stone with oily pencils and crayons. A substance is then layered on top of the drawing that will allow the drawn area to accept inks. The stone is then inked and then a lithograph print is pulled. This method was discovered in 1796 by Alois Senefelder in Austria.Screenprinting is the most recent addition to fine art printing, it is also known as a serigraph. It is much like a stencil in which the artist stomps out the area not to be printed on a screen with special glues. Screenprinting is often associated with commercial printing but American pop artists loved the ease it offered in creating art.

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