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When we walk down the street and encounter a stray cat, it is hard for us to imagine that this seemingly healthy and vibrant kitty might actually be very sick. This phenomenon is true with even our human counterparts. Part of this deceiving reality is the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, or FIV. This virus affects more than 11% of cats worldwide.

The probable immediate association, once a person hears this, is with HIV or Human immunodeficiency Virus. The two are very similar in how they are transmitted and also how they affect the body. It seems, though, that cats are better able to deal with the disease in terms of life expectancy after it has been contracted.

Contracting FIV is not a death sentence for a cat. In fact, most cats go on to live happy and healthy lives and carriers and transmitters for several years. FIV attacks the body much more slowly than HIV does. Transmission usually takes place in the form of deep bites or scratches, although other forms of transmission do occur, as traces of the virus are found in other areas of the body such as the vagina, the rectum, and the mouth.

The disease occurs in three stages: the Acute stage, the Subclinical stage, and the Chronic stage. The first stage, acute, happens immediately after transmission, during which time the cat experiences fever and depression. Once the cat has survived the first stage, it goes into the second stage, Subclinical, when the cat appears to be completely healthy for an extended period of time. At the third and final stage, Chronic, the cat suffers from the effects of the disease, developing one or several other nonrelated diseases that it would not have contracted were it able to maintain a healthy immune system.

Despite the fact that cats, especially those house kept, can survive for very long periods of time without treatment, many cat owners insist on treating the symptoms of their pet. A new treatment, released in 2006 and sold exclusively through, IMULAN Bio Therapeutics, LLC, has been developed to counter some of the internal symptoms of the disease, like anemia and thrombocytopenia, a small amount of blood platelets.

FIV affects the entire cat family and is found in numerous big cat species found all over Africa. It seems though that these cats have developed a certain evolutionary resistance to the disease over time. If you think your cat might have FIV, be sure to contact a veterinarian in your area. For more information, consult us at http://houstonveterinarianclinics.com/

Joseph Devine

Organic foods have become more and more popular over the past couple decades. Even though its usually significantly more expensive, people still fork out the money. I’ve always assumed that most people do it for the health benefits. But lately there has been a growing market for clothing made from organically grown cotton. Obviously people aren’t buying these clothes for their health, unless they misunderstood what a ‘high-fiber diet’ means.

Organic Cotton: Good for the Earth

So, obviously the implications of organically grown cotton isn’t geared towards the body as much as it is geared towards the Earth. Organically grown cotton essentially refers to the way the cotton is grown and manufactured. Eco-friendly farmers try to find ways to limit the kinds of harmful chemicals that are put into the ground. Once those chemicals mix in with the soil, it effects future vegetation and animal life for years and years to come. The chemicals also find their way down into the water table (our natural fresh water supply deep down under the soil).

Substituting Chemicals with Brains

Instead of the lazy mainstream farming model where chemicals are used to maximize on profits, organic farmers substitute chemicals with innovation. Instead of using synthetic fertilizers which over time can throw off the soil’s PH and cause other problems for animals, organic farmers are using natural composting. Instead of pesticides which can throw off the food chain and effect larger animals, organic farmers are introducing beneficial insects and predators, and also using insect traps to pin-point a very small area for insect control. Instead of using harmful herbicides, organic farmers are coming up with innovative weeding techniques.

Market Driven Activism

The old model of standing on the street with signs just isn’t enough. The smart way to help people become aware of organic cotton is the capitalistic model. Many smart companies are jumping on the coat tails of the Earth-friendly trend. The more we support these farmers by spending money on organically grown cotton, the lower the prices will get and the smaller the human foot print will be on the Earth.

Cameron Postelwait is the admin for the forum about GoYin and works at Sewell Direct: a retailer of Organic Cotton Clothing

From early childhood and throughout the schooling system, we learn the “3R’s”: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic – the science of numbers. (Nowadays, you need to add a fourth “R”- gRaphing!).
Later, we reach a certain level in our education where were may feel rightly or wrongly (often complacently) that our levels of mastering reading and writing are satisfactory.

However… What about numbers? Generally, we do not fully realize the extent to which numbers control and regulate our lives. We are all identified by innumerable numbers from birth to the very last moments of our lives. Just reflect only on some of our important dates: birth, starting school, finishing primary school, finishing secondary school, the admission to university and then also with every stage of our education imprinted with our marks, marks and marks (percentages!). Then other numbers: the first love (the date, some of us remember!), dates of: marriage, birth of children, the first work, salaries, divorce, then blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels, the first operation, the passing away (not yet?) and so on. These numbers are unique to you and unique to me. They all identify you and identify me.

Some numbers quantify information. These are essential to understanding facts, events, processes, laws etc… The US novelist, Nathanel West, 1903-1940, stated aptly: “Numbers constitute the only universal language”.

Studies have shown that even rhesus monkeys can understand the relation between numbers 1 to 9 i.e., they are able to judge whether the specified number is smaller or bigger than the other number.

So, what is the present state of arithmetic? Unfortunately, most of the people satisfy themselves on a very low level of its cognizance. (As an anecdote, I may tell you that I was approached by a lawyer who asked me: “I have to assign a plaintiff 15% of the amount demanded by defendant; how much is it?”). Most people fear numbers if they require any further calculations: making fractions, multiplying, using proportions or inverse proportions, converting to percentages or substituting to formulas. What are the implications of this fact? It often leads to impaired judgement of the average citizen regarding handling their home economics, investment and, as the case may be, the events in their own country and on our globe. As the citizens of a “global village”, we are all affected by events not only in our place or country but even in far-away-countries. Consider these numbers: people affected by HIV, bird flu, tsunami, price of a barrel of oil, tsunami in financial markets, increasing ozone hole, decreasing shoals of fish in oceans, decreasing number of polar bears, the increase in the average yearly temperature, increasing extinction of species of animals and plants. One can present endless number of examples.

The numbers can be puzzling, depressing, shocking, fascinating, mystifying or upsetting. Well, they can be… An educated, intelligent and honest person will perceive them this way. A Polish film director Jerzy Konwicki (renown for his “Ashes and Diamonds”) used to say: “only a cow does not care”.

True, a cow does not know, for example, about the “mad cow” disease and does not understand what it means that a certain percentage of cows are affected by foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue virus. There are however, unfortunately, also some examples among educated as well as decision making persons, institutions and governments who do not care. They have dubious motives to ignore some numbers (and related facts) they do not like. What will be the consequences of their arrogance to human beings in the future? A Japanese proverb says that more intelligent are those who see further…

Below there are several examples of numbers compiled from the Internet, Time and Trumpet. They may not be exact; however you may find them interesting and worthy of your attention:

65 000 – estimated population of Africa’s black rhinos in 1970
3 600 – estimated population of Africa’s black rhino in 2007
2 000 000 000 000 USD – US cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so far

3 500 000 – Jews murdered in Poland by German Nazis

32 000 000 – population of Poland before II WW; 24 000 000 after the war

1500 – new HIV infections a day in South Africa

1 000 000 – Americans killed yearly by heart attacks (cardiacnetwork.net)

7:2 – ratio of average number of TV sets to children in the USA

1500 – number of hours, the average USA teenager spends watching TV

67% – percentage of Australian and USA men are overweight

1 in 12- South Africans who had access to the Internet in 2007

15-30 000 000 – men suffering from erectile dysfunction (NIH, USA government statistics)

690 000 000 – number of Asians living on $1 or less per day (Asian Dev. Bank)

142.8 – number of women raped per 100 000 in South Africa; 150 per day

66 000 000 – number of people in the USA suffering with arthritis, the most common chronic health problem in the USA

3% – rate of the green gas increasing per year

7 600 000 – number of cancer death worldwide in 2007

5 200 000 – Americans suffer from full-blown diabetes and don’t know it…yet.

14 000 – dolphins killed annually in Japan

400 000 000 – number of people in the world suffering from depression and mental disorders (WHO).

Look again at the numbers. They alone are meaningless. However, together with the descriptive information, they carry powerful information, obviously to those who are intelligent enough to understand them. Unfortunately, it does not mean yet, that those who understand them and have authority to make decision/s to change some of the numbers/trends are willing to act…

Are you already feeling depressed? You should be… You are intelligent…
Till the next time… (2).

P.S.: While proofreading, my wife counsels me that I have omitted three other important R’s. During a whole life one should learn: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for your own actions. She is absolutely Right!

Wacek Kijewski is the author of stimulating and entertaining resource material on experimental science: “SI Units, Conversion and Measurement Skills” (the 2007 edition, IBN 0629340584, 186 pp, USD97. The book is recommended for students and lecturers science and engineering courses. Visit website: http://www.wacek.co.za and http://www.wacek.co.za/review.html Read seven reviews: UNESCO, UK, South Africa, Botswana, United States, Hungary. His other ezines:”The Travellers Temperature Tips”, “Is IQ a Metric Unit of Intelligence and…Stupidity”, “Al-Gebra and Illuminati Links Discovered”, “How to Measure Cultural Differences in Metric Units”, “The Traveller’s Temperature Predicaments (2). NB: The book is being sold by Amazon and other booksellers illegally.

It time again to revisit alternative financing strategies for business owners needing money. Whether your business needs capital to grow, meet payroll, or to just simply survive, there are numerous alternatives for your company when banks so ‘NO’.

Personal loans are no longer viable options for business owners. Banks have tightened their purse strings on personal credit just as they have with business credit. This tightening typically does not have anything to do with the state of your credit or the value of your collateral. But more reflects their past indiscretions with their depositors’ money. Further, most business owners, over the last two or three years, have already encumbered all of their personal assets, leaving nothing of value to collateralize.

The following lists many alternatives that may still be available to your business. These alternatives allow business owners to capitalize on their previous hard work; be it from building relationships with suppliers and other business partners to closing sales and building a strong customer base:

Using Your Business Relationships!

Trade Credit: It never hurts to work with your suppliers. Ask for better terms; either more discounts or longer time for payment. Here you can reduce your overall costs or allow more time to collect money from your customer before payment is due to these suppliers. Now, your suppliers may baulk at this discussion as they are probably feeling the same pinch as you are. However, impress upon them that it does their business no good (short term or long-term) if you go out of business, have to cut back your standard orders, or are forced to find other suppliers who offer better terms.

In conjunction with trade credit, do all that you can to collect your receivables from your customers, as soon as possible. If your suppliers offer you discounts for early payment, offer the same to your customers (just maybe not at the same magnitude) or offer discounts for cash. This allows you to collect payments faster as well as reduce you costs by paying less for the goods you need to run your business. Just remember, in this type of economy, cash is king.

Using The Strength of Your Customers!

Receivables and/or Purchase Orders: If your business has accounts receivables sitting on its book just waiting to be collected, you maybe able to get cash for those assets NOW. There are cash advance companies (not banks) that specialize in purchasing your receivables. Companies like Bridgeport Capital Service, RTS Financial Services, or Paragon Financial Group. These companies will purchase your invoices for up to 90% of their amount. They will then work with your customers to collect these receivables (saving you both time and money on collection). When the invoices are paid, these companies will refund to you the remaining 10% of the invoice amount. This type of funding is great for struggling companies as these cash advance businesses will focus more on your customers’ credit and business strengths than your.

Many of these same companies will also finance your purchase orders. If you place an order with your suppliers and agree to pay for their goods over time, these cash advance companies will finance these agreements. This could allow your business the opportunity to take advantage of trade discounts (percentages off the purchase amount) as your company will have immediate cash to satisfy your supplier. This is very similar to having a line of credit with your bank but as an individual credit facility for each purchase.

Credit Cards: I not saying go out and get more credit cards. If your business accepts credit cards, there are companies (again, not banks) that may advance cash to your company based on your FUTURE credit card receipts. These facilities are only paid back when your business generates credit card sales. Thus, if you have a slow month, you are not stuck with a huge monthly loan payment. As your credit card sales ebb and flow, your repayment of these advances will ebb and flow in tandem.

Using Your Character!

Need just a small amount of cash to get you by? Try social lending sites like All World Private Funding!, Zopa, Prosper, or Lending Club. These sites create peer-to-peer lending in which ordinary people, who have additional cash, can review your request and contribute to the funding of your loan. The benefits of these programs include getting the money you need, possible lower rates and better terms than most banks offer, and you get to tell your story directly to the lenders.

Similarly, there is Micro-Credit companies. The largest in the US and around the world is ACCION USA. Micro-finance companies limit their total out lay to a maximum of $25,000 per loan. However, most micro-credit funders like to build relationships first with their borrowers. Thus, they may only approve smaller amounts in the beginning and increase your loan amount as you pay back each facility. These companies will also work with startup firms or those that have been turned down by traditional banks and other financial institutions.

Never forget your friends and family. These are the people who know you best and may better understand what you are trying to do with your business. There are many cons with borrowing money from those closest to you but new companies like Virgin Money will help you manage this new relationship. Companies like Virgin will help you keep everything in a business like manner.

Now, while there is a lot of focus these days on traditional banks, most communities also have Credit Unions. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations. Thus, they do not have to worry about Wall Street or shareholders. While the majority of Credit Unions have yet to fully adopt commercial lending departments, they should have lending programs in place that will meet your business needs.

Some of these alternative options maybe a little more expensive, overall, then having a single credit facility with a bank. But, they are a sure fire way of leading your company through our current credit drought. The key to success is to do your homework. Find the program that best fits your needs and that will provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost to your business. Some business owners tend to panic a bit when they begin to feel the credit pinch. It is only natural as raising money for your business is time consuming, time that can hardly be spared in these trying times. But, remember to think about the long term. Don’t just settle on the first source that gets approved, find the best fore you. Be diligent!

Joseph Lizio holds A MBA in Finance and is founder and owner of http://www.businessmoneytoday.com

The Japanese invented candlestick charts a few hundred years ago and they have been used extensively by traders ever since. They are basically like bar charts except they provide a lot more information. So how useful are they when used to trade the forex markets?

Well first of all I would say that it’s generally not a great idea to make trading decisions based solely on candlestick charts. Ideally you should also use other technical indicators as well in order to find high probability trading set-ups, before looking for additional confirmation from the candlestick charts. Some people do trade and make consistent profits by just trading forex candlesticks but they are definitely in the minority.

Before I discuss how you can interpret candlesticks let me first of all discuss what a candlestick actually is. In simple terms a candlestick is simply a visual display of how the price has moved during a particular time frame. It consists of a body which signifies the open and close price and two wicks which indicate the high and low point during that particular period. If it’s a green candle, the closing price was higher than the open price and if it’s red then the price moved down with the closing price ending up lower than the opening price.

This may sound fairly basic and you may well wonder how you can trade these candlesticks but there are a number of different patterns you need to learn because they can offer strong buy or sell signals.

For example, if you get several consecutive candles that all have very small bodies followed by a candle with a large body then you know that there is a strong chance of a breakout occurring either up or down depending on the colour of the bar.

Another strong candlestick pattern is the hanging man and hammer patterns. These are both strong indicators that a reversal is due to take place. They both look the same with a small body and a long hanging downside shadow. The only difference is that the hanging man is used to signify a reversal of an upwards trend and a hammer is found at the bottom of a downwards trend and indicates an upwards reversal. Used in conjunction with other indicators these are very strong signals that a reversal is imminent.

These are just a few patterns but there are many other candlestick patterns you should learn because you can gain some invaluable information from them, particularly when combined with other forms of technical analysis.

James Woolley runs a website which provides details about Forex Candlesticks Made Easy and other top selling forex products.

Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another currency.
This continuously changing number financial system was launched in the 1970s. It is now the largest liquid financial market today with daily trades totaling well over 1 trillion dollars. The New York Stock Exchange is not nearly as large as the Foreign Exchange or Forex.

Trading

Forex is a true 24-hour market, which offers a major advantage over equities trading. Forex transactions take place online anywhere in the world around the clock. The market activity starts in Sydney, Australia and moves around the globe as various financial markets open around the world. Trading is not limited to a centralized location like the Stock Exchange or Futures Markets.

Currency

Currency exchange trading involves buying and selling two different currencies simultaneously. Markets are primarily affected by international trade flows and the flow of investment currency. Prices are quoted in pairs with a “Bid”, and an “Ask” price completing the quote.

The “Bid” price is the price the Dealer will pay or the Trader will sell for the currency. The “Ask” price is the amount the Trader will pay or the Dealer will sell the currency. The quote on some currencies are dependent on the US Dollar such as the Euro, British Pound, and the Australian Dollar to name a few.

Market

The foreign exchange market never closes so there is not the backlog of orders or excitement over breaking news stories that affects the open of the stock exchanges. The market in the traditional sense does not exist since there is no central trading location. The main currency market is the “interbank market” where large institutions deal with the risks of the fluctuations of the values. The “spot market” is the market for the buying and selling of currencies at the prevailing price. The Forex ECN provides an area or marketplace for traders to buy and sell very similar to a giant department store.

Trade

Trades can happen very quickly in seconds or take months to complete. The trader must secure a profit from the purchase and sale of the currency. This has spawned a technology allowing the trader to automate a lot of the process. The traders that are consistently profitable are those that have done their homework and understand the risks involved. By entering a trade, you are gambling the price will change in your favor by an amount that will allow you to break even or make a profit. If you decide to close a trade because of an unfavorable position, you stand to lose the spread also.

Price.

The price of the trade can be as little as one hundred to several thousand dollars and can move in a direction that will either favor or hurt your position. Price graphs are used to monitor this movement. A “pip” is the smallest amount the price can change and us used to reference the movement of the value of the currency.

Remember, only a small percentage of forex traders profit consistently and they’re the ones that have learned well

95 % of the investors in the forex market are losers! Do you have the drive to join the five percenters? Learn how to become a member of that 5% club.

Once the bridal bouquet and ceremony flowers are chosen, it’s time to focus on what type of wedding reception flowers you may use. You’ll need to look at food tables, guest tables, the head table, as well as decorating accents throughout the room. However, you don’t need to use only flowers. There are a wide variety of choices of greenery that can also be put to good use.

First, you must understand where larger flower arrangements are appropriate… and where they are not. The more elaborate floral arrangements can be used on buffet tables, cake tables, on stands near the entrance and staircases, and close to the band or DJ. These types of arrangements, however, should not be used on guest tables or the head table as they are too large and will block the view of the guests.

Table centerpieces created from flowers should be kept low and small. Make sure they compliment the overall color scheme and theme of the wedding. Nor do all the table centerpieces have to be identical. A unique and interesting idea would be to use a variation in the types of flowers, yet with the same color scheme.

Small bud vases are best used on guest tables. A great combination wedding favor and table centerpiece idea would be to cluster small vases with a single flower in each. After the wedding, the guests can take home one of the bud vases as a wedding favor.

If you can not afford to use many large floral arrangements, choose 2 or 3 for the buffet tables or other key area and decorate the rest of the room using balloon bouquets, tree branches with twinkling lights or rented palm and/or ficus trees.

Edible bouquets are also very popular for table centerpieces. Spun sugar sculptures, fruit baskets and miniature tiered wedding cakes also serve a dual purpose as a table decoration and wedding favors… or as dessert at the end of the meal.

Here are a few more wedding “flower” bouquet ideas you may want to consider:

As you can see, you can incorporate many “floral” bouquet ideas into your wedding scheme without breaking the bank. Large floral arrangements are beautiful to look at, but they can also be very expensive. Consider some of the alternatives to help save money, yet still create unique flower arrangements that will delight your guests.

Rose Smith is the owner of Wedding Themes and More, a website designed to help you plan your perfect theme wedding. Read more about wedding decorating ideas and wedding flowers at http://www.wedthemes.com/

Forex trading involves making worthwhile decisions at all times. In choosing Forex trading currency pairs, it is highly advisable that new traders should focus more on one currency pair. The best pair to begin with is those that contain a small spread, so that would be EUR-USD.

In general, brokers will have to charge 2 pips when a trader will buy EUR-USD but worry no more since there are no brokers who would merely charge less than one pip.

Furthermore, one can also choose GBP-USD since it is very much similar to EUR-USD although it possesses a higher spread and bigger volatility. That being said, one should try the Forex trading currency pairs of GBP-USD after a few months of trading with EUR-USD.

However if you are happy and contented with the result of EUR-USD, just forget about the other.

On the other hand, USD-JPY and USD-CAD are totally different from the Forex trading currency pairs of EUR-USD and GBP-USD given the fact that they are highly dependent on two unlike countries, Canada and Japan that also possess a different economy and location from GB, Europe, and USA.

AUS-USD possesses a direct relation with the gold price thus when the gold price goes up, the currency is expected to go up, too. In view of this, if you simply follow the gold price as well as the economy of USA then you can surely predict the movement of AUS-USD.

Now that you are aware of the safe Forex trading currency pairs to go for, expect that your risk is low.

I personally started out with this remarkable and easy to use automated trading software named Forex-Brotherhood. And amazingly, it made my work so simpler and make my Forex trading so hassle free that now I Literally earn money on auto pilot after 1-2 months of set up. You can Check this and some other great software and it reviews – http://revenueboosterz.com/forexsoftwarereview.html

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The Foreign Exchange markets (Forex or FX) were deregulate in 1997 allowing the private investor access to markets banks, brokerage firms and other large financial institutions once had a monopoly on. The novice FX traders quickly entered the market and just as quickly they realized they were in for a long learning curve if they were ever going to make this a profitable transition and thus a market was created for Forex Course Trading. Numerous types of educational programs where produced, refined and marketed to the public. Today there are so many courses it can be a mind boggling task attempting to select the one best suited for you particular needs. I will attempt to clarify this a little bit for you and make the decision making process a little simpler.

The first point I want to make is that the majority of the course are extremely inexpensive usually running $100 to $200. I know you saying to yourself that is not inexpensive. But, when you take into consideration that one small trade of a currency can easily make up the purchase price of the course then it is VERY inexpensive. The next subject is the types of courses. There are wide assortment of curriculum available covering extremely varied topics. The major segments the courses can be broken into are the following; comprehensive or covering everything A to Z, profiting quickly through mentoring, make money starting with small amounts, and very specific to the developers own experiences and how they profited using them.

If I was a complete novice to the markets I would start with a comprehensive course that provided an education on all aspect of the markets. After all, education is the corner stone of success in what ever field you attempt to enter. Are you really going to purchaser software and start trading something you know NOTHING about? This is a real bad idea, unless of course you need the losses to reduce you capital gains made else where to decrease your tax burden.

A few of the comprehensive courses you could try would be the following. The Peter R. Bain course titled Forex Mentor which has been around seemly forever and has had thousands of satisfied customers. This course covers everything and has been refined a thousand times over. Another class you could take would be Fap Winner which offers a great education and a personalized mentoring program. Those are just two of the TOP TIER rated courses and there are a few more. Just read the reviews of the courses which are available everywhere and the home page of the course and determine which one you think will be best for you.

The next step you could take would be to enroll in a course like The Forex Brotherhood or Forex Trading Made E-Z. The Forex Brotherhood is run by Jason Alan Jankovsky a professional Forex trader who essentially allows you to copy his complete trading portfolio. In other words you are virtually assured to be profitable immediately with this course. But, then again you would have NO idea of how and why you were making money for an extended time as you are just coping his ever move. But, it is a great place to start if you want to make money fast and you don’t really need to know how. Or you are willing to take your time learning, because he will teach you, it is just not going to be too quickly. The Forex Trading Made E-Z program was developed by an ex pilot who has found a very specific way of trading currencies and making money at it, which of course he teaches you.

After reading this article it is easy to see there are many different types of courses available, only a few were mentioned above. If your out to make a fast buck and you are not concerned with why or how you are making it then there is a course for you. If you want to turn this into a career and want financial independence, then there is a course for you. If you want to buy a piece of software and turn on the automatic trader and start making money, well there really is NOT a course for you, but you will have losses you can use to offset you gains made else where to reduce your tax obligation.

We have researched, tested & reviewed 100s of Forex Courses, Software Systems and Brokerage Firms which we only list our TOP 10 to help you LEARN FOREX TRADING

For 100s of FREE FOREX TUTORIALS please visit LEARN CURRENCY TRADING Good Luck! I look forward to seeing you on the trading floor making money!

Although honesty is generally taught as the best policy, I would propose that it is the only policy to follow in 99% of cases. The other 1% could be called “white lies.” How are you to know the difference, that is, when someone is telling the whole truth as opposed to a white lie? Here are some tips that will help you spot a liar.

There was an old Hollywood movie starring Charles Bronson as a buffalo hunter and Will Sampson as an Indian Chief. They are in a cave together, hunting the same killer white buffalo, when they engage in a conversation about truth. Bronson, known to the Indians as “the shooter” because he is a skilled hunter, has his version of the truth and the Chief has his. The Chief asks – “Tell me Shooter, what is the true truth?” I ask you the same question. For me, the true truth is the whole truth, no shading. What is it for you?

As we go about our interaction with each other, the white lie is employed more than any other form of communication with those closest to us. We are more apt to shade the truth in order to avoid hurt feelings or, when we know a person really well, we tell a white lie because we know they really don’t want the true truth. They have their version of the true truth and that’s the version they want to hear.

When we deal with strangers, telling a lie is easy because we likely will never see them again but what about that stranger we may see again? You need to decide if what you are lying about is worth what you will gain as opposed to the potential consequences if your lie is discovered. It is a personal decision. You need to be realistic with yourself. It is easy to become a compulsive liar and ruin your life. Under what circumstances are you willing to risk damaging relationships, reputation, and future opportunities. Ask yourself. Do the benefits of telling the lie outweigh the risks?

For example: A teen boy tells his parents he’s going to the movies with a friend but he’s really going to a concert with his girlfriend. Logically, the parents are going to ask what the movie was about and if he enjoyed it. Now, beforehand, the teen could Google a summary of what was in the movie; along with the climax so he can be ready for the questions. Such a young man may not consider the consequences if he is caught in the lie. He does not realize that his parents will be emotionally hurt by his lie and will take a long time before ever trusting him again. His lie has destroyed the parent-child relationship for a long time to come.

Telemarketing has taught us that it’s relatively easy to lie to someone over the phone because the sense of personal connection is very small. You can’t see them; they can’t see you. As a result, you are less likely to feel guilty and, therefore, give visual clues that you may be deviating from your normal behavior. If you were closer to the person physically, you would have a greater personal connection. Consequently, you would be more likely to reveal, in some way, that you are engaging in deceptive behavior.

The same reasoning applies to being close to a person psychologically. If you try to lie to your girlfriend or boyfriend, there are numerous psychological pressures. For example, you’ll think about what happens if you get caught, feel guilty about lying to someone you care about and it will be more difficult to focus on mimicking your normal behavior. This phenomenon is often called “liars’ remorse,” and it’s usually what people are talking about when they say a liar “wants to get caught.” Those closest to us know when we are lying and when we are shading the truth a bit.

Most strangers will not have a clue if you are an accomplished liar. It takes years, by the way, to develop a liar’s mentality. An amateur liar will not look you right in the eye when lying. They may touch their head with their hand, or hold their palms up as they spin the lie. These are both giveaways. An accomplished liar does the opposite. They look you in the eye, their hands at their side. An amateur liar will use the strongest adjectives and a voice level that are above normal pitch and speed. A friend of mine says – “I can tell when someone’s lying. They talk faster than I can listen.”

Most professionals employ specific tactics to catch liars. The cops will make small talk with you to establish what your “normal” behaviors are. When they get down to the serious subject matter, they look for cracks in that normal behavior. Polygraph machines work the same way. There are mental and physical drives that can be detected by skilled interviewers, as well as machines.

There are many more subliminal messages people send when lying. Do some research and learn what they are and how to avoid them.

Jim DeSantis

Jim DeSantis is a retired investigative journalist who is now a full time blogger. Grab Jim’s Free Report “How To Spot A Liar” (click here). No email is required. Visit Jim’s blog about the Workplace (click here) for more free information.