7 Things You Must Do The Summer Before College

The summer before college will be both exciting and stressful.  Many high school graduates will get jobs to help pay for some of their college expenses, while also trying to find time to prepare for college and hang out with friends.

In the midst of your hectic schedule, here are 7 things that you must do the summer before college.

• 1.  Have Fun! You’ve just accomplished something big…you’ve graduated from high school and have been accepted into college, so you deserve to celebrate and enjoy yourself.  Make sure you take time out of your busy schedule to have fun and hang out with your high school classmates, especially those who have chosen different colleges than you.
• 2.  Read Your Mail! The college you’ll be attending will likely be sending you a lot of “first-time student” information, like forms for special academic programs or activities, roommate preferences forms, housing paper work, medical and insurance documents, etc.  You should complete these forms and return them ASAP.  You want to try your best to avoid any problems come move-in day.
• 3.  Sign-up for Pre-Orientation. A lot of colleges offer pre-orientations.  You should sign up for these sessions if you don’t live too far away from the college you plan on attending.  These sessions are a great way to meet other new freshman.  Be sure to sign-up early if you plan on attending because space if often limited.
• 4.  Confirm Your Financial Aid. At some point during the summer, you should contact the Financial Aid department at your school to confirm exactly what scholarships, work study programs, and other financial aid you’ll be receiving.  You likely received a letter in the mail with all of this information, but it definitely won’t hurt to confirm everything with the school before your move-in date. Also, now might be a good time for you to talk with your parents about your financial situation (if you haven’t done so already)…how much will they be contributing towards your college education?  how much will you be responsible for?  how much money do they expect you to spend on trips home and other college-related activities like movies, haircuts, etc.?
• 5.  Call Your Roommate ASAP. You should call your roommate as soon as you receive his or her name and contact information.  Yet another reason why you need to pay attention to and read your mail.  After the two of you get acquainted, then you can decide who’s going to bring what so that you don’t have duplicates.  You’ll probably only need one television, one television stand, one microwave, and one refrigerator.  So the both of you should decide who’s going to bring which of those items.
• 6.  Pack Your Stuff. Check out my dorm checklist for a complete listing of things you’ll need to take with you to campus.  Also, check out these videos to discover things you must have in your dorm room.
• 7.  Ship Your Stuff. Depending on what mode of transportation you use to get to college, you’ll need to determine how you’re going to get all of your stuff to your dorm room.  Some colleges make special arrangements with FedEx, UPS, or other transportation carriers.  Take some time to figure out if shipping some of your belongings ahead of time makes sense for you.

If you follow the 7 steps above, you’ll be more than ready to start your new college life!  Good luck.

http://www.thecollegehelper.com/7-things-you-must-do-the-summer-before-college

USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Healthy Plate

A colorful four-part plate, with a side dish of dairy, will replace the 19-year-old food pyramid as the icon of the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

Read article:
USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Healthy Plate

5 Ways To Avoid Gaining Weight In College

The only way to keep off those unwanted pounds is to EXERCISE! Not only will exercise help build muscle, burn calories, and strengthen your heart, but it also helps your mind to generate positive thoughts. And exercise will help distract you from eating excessive junk food....

Read full article:
5 Ways To Avoid Gaining Weight In College | TheCollegeHelper.com

Texas Gets Tough on Murderers

It's a bit surprising to see Texas let this guy off with such a light sentence, but it strengthened the system 13 yrs later.
Watch:
http://fxn.ws/kbDDwI

Facebook Flaw leaked millions of user account access tokens

By Bob Sullivan

Advertisers and other third parties had the potential to gain unauthorized access to many Facebook user accounts and profile information because of a software flaw, Symantec Corp. said Tuesday night.

Hundreds of thousands of third party applications leaked user account access tokens to advertisers and others during the past several years, Symantec said.  In April alone, when the flaw was found, about 100,000 applications were enabling the leakage, according to the company.

Facebook was advised of the flaw and fixed it, according to Symantec, but some of the leaked access codes -- called tokens -- might still be stored on log files or in applications, and could be exploited.

"Concerned Facebook users can change their Facebook passwords to invalidate leaked access tokens," Symantec wrote in a blog post describing the situation. "We estimate that over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties."

The tokens act like "spare keys," allowing third-party applications to perform certain functions on behalf of users without requiring them to log in each time. When third-party apps are installed, users selectively grant them permission to access profile data. In certain situations, a token can be passed by Facebook to these third-party applications "potentially on purpose and unfortunately very commonly by accident" in the referrer field of Web-based data requests. That data, in turn, can be shared with other third parties.

In other words, the spare key gets around.

That would enable third parties to gain unauthorized access to profiles, photographs, and chats, and also enable a malicious attacker to post messages and mine personal information, Symantec said.

Facebook acknowledged the flaw, but told the Wall Street Journal that it had not been exploited by anyone.

"We've conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user's private information being shared with unauthorized third parties," the firm said, according to the Journal.  No explanation of the investigation was shared.

The incident is not the first time Facebook has been accused of leaking critical data to third parties.  Last fall, the Wall Street Journal found that many popular apps were transmitting Facebook user ID information to third parties, regardless of user privacy settings.

The token leakage incident is just the latest reminder that Facebook holds a treasure trove of information about half a billion people, leaving the firm atop a mountain of private data.  The safety and security of so much information stored in one place is inherently suspect. 

"The repercussions of this access token leakage are seen far and wide," wrote Nishant Doshi, who discovered the flaw with Candid Wueest, in his blog post about the incident.

Time to Cut Foreign Aid to Muslim, Arab Nations?

Time to Cut Foreign Aid to Muslim, Arab Nations?
We give out $34.5 billion in foreign aid, yet that money isn't buying us friendship. Most countries are only voting with us 25-40% of the time. 
How about we cut funding by $1 million for every vote against us.
Watch video:
http://fxn.ws/iOmyhZ

The 10 Most Prescribed Drugs & other "sickcare" stats

If you can’t afford prevention; how in the world will you be able to afford disease!?!
You can pay now or pay later!

Are you investing in your wellness or subsidizing your disease/illness?

It is cheaper to prevent disease than it is to treat it; that’s for sure!

Check out the stats below…………empowering others to make healthier choices….stay in the “good fight” folks!

People need this (and are literally “dying” to know)!



The 10 Most Prescribed Drugs

Most-Prescribed Drug List Differs From List of Drugs With Biggest Market Share

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
April 20, 2011 -- The 10 most prescribed drugs in the U.S. aren't the drugs on which we spend the most, according to a report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

The institute is the public face of IMS, a pharmaceutical market intelligence firm. Its latest report provides a wealth of data on U.S. prescription drug use.

Continuing a major trend, IMS finds that 78% of the nearly 4 billion U.S. prescriptions written in 2010 were for generic drugs (both unbranded and those still sold under a brand name). In order of number of prescriptions written in 2010, the 10 most-prescribed drugs in the U.S. are:

·        Hydrocodone (combined with acetaminophen) -- 131.2 million prescriptions

·         Generic Zocor (simvastatin), a cholesterol-lowering statin drug -- 94.1 million prescriptions

·         Lisinopril (brand names include Prinivil and Zestril), a blood pressure drug -- 87.4 million prescriptions

·         Generic Synthroid (levothyroxine sodium), synthetic thyroid hormone -- 70.5 million prescriptions

·         Generic Norvasc (amlodipine besylate), an angina/blood pressure drug -- 57.2 million prescriptions

·         Generic Prilosec (omeprazole), an antacid drug -- 53.4 million prescriptions (does not include over-the-counter sales)

·        Azithromycin (brand names include Z-Pak and Zithromax), an antibiotic -- 52.6 million prescriptions

·         Amoxicillin (various brand names), an antibiotic -- 52.3 million prescriptions

·         Generic Glucophage (metformin), a diabetes drug -- 48.3 million prescriptions

·        Hydrochlorothiazide (various brand names), a water pill used to lower blood pressure -- 47.8 million prescriptions.

 

The 10 Best-Selling Drugs

It shouldn't be a surprise that these generic drugs are not the ones bringing in the big bucks for pharmaceutical companies. The drugs on which we spend the most money are those that are still new enough to be protected against generic competition.

The IMS reports that Americans spent $307 billion on prescription drugs in 2010. The 10 drugs on which we spent the most were:

·         Lipitor, a cholesterol-lowering statin drug -- $7.2 billion

·         Nexium, an antacid drug -- $6.3 billion

·         Plavix, a blood thinner -- $6.1 billion

·         Advair Diskus, an asthma inhaler -- $4.7 billion

·         Abilify, an antipsychotic drug -- $4.6 billion

·         Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug -- $4.4 billion

·         Singulair, an oral asthma drug -- $4.1 billion

·         Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering statin drug -- $3.8 billion

·         Actos, a diabetes drug -- $3.5 billion

·         Epogen, an injectable anemia drug -- $3.3 billion

 

U.S. Prescription Drug Use: 2010 Factoids

Who's paying for all these drugs? Commercial insurance helped pay for 63% of prescriptions, down from 66% five years ago. Federal government spending through Medicare Part D covered 22% of prescriptions.

For Americans covered by insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, the average co-payment for a prescription was $10.73 -- down a bit from 2009 due to increased use of generic drugs. The average co-payment for branded drugs for which generic alternatives were available jumped 6% to $22.73.

Other facts from the 2010 IMS report:

·         Doctor visits were down 4.2% since 2009.

·         Patients filled more than half of their prescriptions -- 54% -- at chain drugstores, possibly because of discounts on generic drugs.

·         Brands that lost their protection from generic competition led to $12.6 billion less spending in 2010 than in 2009.

·         The price increase for drugs without generic competition led to $16.6 billion more spending in 2010 than in 2009.

·         Drug companies offered $4.5 billion in rebates to assist patients with the high cost of brand name drugs for which there was no generic alternative.

·         SOURCE:
·         IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics: "The Use of Medicines in the United States: Review of 2010," April 2011.
·         © 2011 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20110420/the-10-most-prescribed-drugs?ecd=wnl_day_042311



This information is a big part of why folks start on JUICE PLUS+®. They the realize COST of "sickcare" is far much more JUICE PLUS+® As Kerry Daigle says "Keep Punchin'" 

Www.cyclingwithjuiceplus.com