Healthy Travel

Whether you're traveling via airplane, or car .. it's important to take some time to plan ahead ... and avoid the drive-through.
Dietitian Cami Brost says "it's a good idea to have some healthy snacks along: trial mix, dried fruit, crackers, cereal."
If you know you'll be baking big meals or treats with family and friends while your on vacation, remember to fill up on healthy foods first.
Brost says "don't bake when you're hungry. You'll taste more if you start out hungry."
Another thing to remember on vacation ... while you may not be at your regular gym, there are still ways to fit in exercise.
"If you're in a hotel with a fitness center, it;s good to take advantage of it if you're they for say, a week, if you like to be in a gym, " Brost says.
Another way to keep moving while you're on vacation this winter ... head outside.
Brost says 'go out and play with your children, grandchildren if they're around. You can play in the snow, go sledding or ice skating."
If you keep treats and activity in moderation while you're on vacation ... you'll be traveling lighter this winter.
By Chistine Wallace

Autism – Now a Worldwide Epidemic!

Recent studies have shown that there is currently a worldwide autism epidemic. In fact, more than 1.5 million people are affected in the United States alone, with one in every 150 children diagnosed. Here are some additional autism statistics:
Families with one autistic child have a 2 to 8 percent chance of having another autistic child
Boys are three or four times more likely to be diagnosed with an ASD
In terms of developmental disabilities, autism is the third most common (only mental retardation and cerebral palsy rank ahead of it)
Mental retardation is present in 75-80% of individuals with autism
Autism occurs more often than childhood cancer or cystic fibrosis
Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability. In the U.S., autism increased by 172% during the 1990s.
When autism is detected and treated early, costs associated with the disorder can be reduced by 66%.
It's true that early detection and early treatment are the two key factors in improving prognosis -- but too often parents get bogged down in denial or confusion about this still mysterious disorder, and are unable or unwilling to take the necessary steps.

Microsoft advances cited in report

Research 2.0, in its May technology research report, found that Microsoft has made "significant advances" with .Net and Windows Vista-driven technology improvements.
.Net, Research 2.0 said, has advantages compared to platforms such as the open source LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack.
"Perhaps the most striking value of .Net is the efficiency it affords over other platforms. It's the ability to get to the job at hand vs. building scaffolding to get started," the report stated.
Microsoft's Silverlight technology, for running multimedia applications in a browser, will fuel market gains versus Adobe Flash and AJAX, Research 2.0 said.
The report also covers the latest SOA findings. Research 2.0 predicts users will keep experimenting with SOA during the next few years but that will peak in 2010 or 2011. SOA will be embraced as mainstream technology by 2015. SOA packaged applications are predicted to dominate application market revenue flows within a decade, disrupting application providers Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com.
The services industry is leading SOA adoption progress; portal- and infrastructure-based approaches to SOA developments are being explored.
The Research 2.0 report, which was funded by the Research 2.0 itself, can be downloaded here. The company issues the report to entice investors and businesses to buy the company's other reports, a representative for Research 2.0 said.
Posted by Paul Krill on June 12, 2007 09:20 AM