The Info Examiner

February 14th, the holiday of Love! Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. Who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. Here are a few possiblites of the source of this wonderful day…

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. During this time around 270 A.D., emperor Claudius ll prohibited marriages for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and ordered by Claudius to be put to death. This St. Valentine could be postumously recognized for his commitment to the formal bonds of love.

Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius; fell in love with the daughter of his jailer who visited him during confinement. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine” an expression that is still used today. This may have been the first Valentine’s Day.

And another plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros(passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion. Thus the love of Valentine’s day may have originally been a devotion to one’s god, rather than one’s human partner.

It could be that we celebrate Valentines Day on the 14th because this is the day that a St. Valentine died. However, some believe that the celebration of Valentines Day was an attempt by the Church to civilize the celebration of the pagan Lupercalia festival. The Festival was held on the 15th of February. Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D., and the Lupercalia festival was outlawed.

The oldest known written valentine note still in existence is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The greeting, written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London. And this tradition continues strongly today: According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) The first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap”, similar to the one’s schoolchildren accross the country make every year.

And Who is this Cupid?

Another valentine icon you may be wondering about is Cupid (Latin cupido, “desire”). In Roman mythology Cupid is the son of Venus, goddess of love. His counterpart in Greek mythology is Eros, god of love. Cupid is often said to be a mischievous boy who goes around wounding both gods and humans with his arrows, causing them to fall in love. The Romans believed white roses grew where the tears of Venus fell, as she mourned the loss of her beloved Adonis. Her son Cupid, while being stung by a bee, shot arrows in the rose garden; the sting of the arrows became thorns. Venus pricked her foot on a thorn, and the droplets of blood dyed the roses red.

Sending Roses on Valentine’s Day

Why should you send roses to your loved one this Valentine’s Holiday? The rose is the symbol of love, of magic, of hope, and of passion, perfect to let your loved one know how you feel about him or her! The rose represents ultimate beauty and perfection. It is the messenger of Romance!

A dozen red roses remains the classic Valentine’s Day favorite (though chocolate may secretly be the more cherished gift). However, many women report that they adore roses in other colors just as much. There are hundreds of colors to choose from. The choices are endless and it’s easier than ever to select a rose that is as unique as your sweetheart.

However you celebrate this Valentine’s day, we hope we’ve been able to shed a little light on it’s possible origins!

Eric is a friend to the rose growers at http://www.rosefarm.com, where one can send roses and flowers fresh cut from the farm, along with fancy gift baskets and other fun goodies.

Could it possibly be that the gaming legend known as Nintendo could be bought out? Rumors ran rampant in previous years with other companies, including Microsoft, considering a possible buyout of the famous company. However, none has received as much coverage as the most recent announcement from CNET that Cisco could possibly take over the gaming giant.

Apparently, Cisco is looking to enter the gaming and entertainment world and enter it with a bang. There have been talks of Nintendo biting the dust since the Revolution is expected to sell poorly, but strong Nintendo DS sales, especially in Japan, have told the opposite story of Despite that, it still appears as if Cisco is still prodding and considering the possibility of taking over Nintendo.

In terms of acquisition, is Nintendo a stretch? As CNET points out, not really. Microsoft, who have been an increasingly dominate competitor in the video game industry, have proved that gaming and broadband are a perfect fit. In that regard, it would make since that Cicro would want to own their own consoles to compete in the growing market, while at the same time providing additional traffic to their growing network.

Although talks and considerations are still very early and nothing is concrete, it does appear as if the possibility is there. Could it finally be the end of the era of Nintendo? Who knows.

For more news, check out our Xbox 360 site or our PS3 site.

Obviously, it is beneficial for anyone, in a vegetative state lor not to have a Living Will. But, people need to know that many of the Living Wills utilized today have major problems associated with them.

Living Wills Have To Be Clear

Much of the problem stems from misinterpretation of typical Living Wills by medical staff. These forms are often one size fits all and often legally driven and therefore do not flow medically. Also, they are often recommended to patients with end stage conditions who have already agreed to only comfort care or hospice interventions. As such, when medical staff see Living Wills they automatically associate it with a reduced level of care. This is what makes a standard Living Will dangerous and it may comprimise your care and safety.

Most people who create Living Wills are unaware of this problem and wish to receive care, unless they are terminal despite reasonable medical interventions, or in a persistent vegetative state.

Living Wills Call For Group Discussion

In most cases at least, Living Wills should be read and interpreted by at least two persons. They can recheck the document and the patient’s history and decide whether to intervene.

Attorneys often help create the problem when writing Living Wills for clients. They should not be doing Living Wills unless there is some sort of interaction with the help of an experienced physician.

Ivon T. Hughes of The Hughes Trustco Group is a licensed Insurance Broker. Author of The Life Insurance Handbook. - Get a FREE Copy TODAY!
Email: info@trustco.ca Web: www.hughestrustco.com

“Moneyball” is a book that came out recently about Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s.

It takes a close look at Beane’s successful stewardship of the team, noting that the A’s have had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, yet they’ve racked up an astonishing number of victories, putting them in the playoffs several times.

Beane and his staff are basically, numbers crunchers, quant nerds, if you will. They track every major league ballplayer according to certain performance categories.

But their snapshot of a hitter isn’t based only on batting average, stolen bases, home runs, and fielding percentages. They look at on-base percentage, runs scored, and other measures.

This makes a player who draws a lot of walks, in addition to hitting for average, more valuable than a guy who only hits for average. It also rewards those who get on base any way they can, through errors and fielder’s choices.

Beane’s breakthrough is in highlighting less sexy, yet very significant statistics, which he claims are more reliable indicators of a player’s value than other factors. Thus, he’s been able to buy, at a discount, players for his cash-poor team, that are undervalued, under-appreciated, but who can make an important contribution to the A’s, nonetheless.

This wisdom, knowing what statistics count, is incredibly important in sales, customer service, and other business areas. The real question is this one: are we measuring the right things, valuing our players appropriately, and putting our emphasis behind the best possible winning strategy or game plan?

Typically, we use measures and statistics that are traditionally used, that have been handed down to us. Seldom do we even take a hard look at whether they’re serving us or disserving us. And even less do we throw them out and field an entirely new set of metrics.

My father, for instance, was the top salesman wherever he worked because he knew how to leverage his assets. He handpicked his own prospecting lists, which was the marketing side of his job, and then he called them to set appointments.

But what set him apart from his peers was his canny ability to know, through rational analysis, and after the briefest contact, who NOT to pursue.

He had a great ear for B.S. and for sincere interest, he knew the difference, and he never second-guessed his instincts.

So, overall, he saw fewer people, followed-up less, but he closed a higher percentage of deals, that yielded more commissions for him and more profit for the house.

A traditional numbers-crunching manager, and he had a few, would look at his activity logs and scratch his head. It wouldn’t add up.

His approach to Dad would be to urge him to see more people; it was only logical, but wrong. Dad was seeing the best ones, ignoring the rest, but his NOT-DOING was the highest form of action.

Where is the statistic that quantifies DISQUALIFYING prospects?

We don’t ask our reps, who did you choose NOT to see, today, and not to call back, and not to leave messages with, and not to take notes about, and not to dream of closing?

In baseball, Beane and Company examine the number of pitches hitters take without swinging; how deeply they take pitchers into the count. He measures NOT-DOING, which in this case is not swinging the bat, knowing when hitters take pitchers deeper into counts:

(1) They see better pitches to hit with a 3-1 count than with a 1-1, or 2-2 count;

(2) They wear out the pitchers, forcing opponents to rely on their less capable bullpen hurlers; and

(3) These advantages mean Beane’s crew will score more runs and fatigue the other team by keeping them on the field longer, doing defense.

Dad didn’t exhaust himself. He let his peers do that, and as long as they were under performing, he looked great, and he could claim higher and higher commissions as his rightful due.

He played “Moneyball.”

Are you?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of http://www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

If you want to consolidate your debt–and you own your own home–you’re in luck! If you’re willing to use your house as collateral, you have a lot of low-cost options for debt consolidation. Here are three loans to consider:

Second mortgage

A second mortgage is, essentially, another mortgage on a home that already carries a mortgage loan. The second mortgage takes a backseat to the first one, so it’s a bit riskier for lenders. Because of this additional risk, second mortgages usually carry shorter terms and higher interest rates. However, you can use the money you borrow from a second mortgage to consolidate your debt into one payment. And even though the interest rate is typically higher than your first mortgage, it’s usually still lower than the average credit card or personal loan rate.

Try using one of ABC Loan Guide’s
Recommended Second Mortgage Loan Companies.

Home Equity Loan

A home equity loan borrows a lump sum of money from the equity in your house–the value of your home minus the amount you currently owe on it. For example, if your house is valued at $250,000, and you currently owe $200,000 on your mortgage, you have $50,000 in equity that you can borrow. That means you can get a lump sum totaling $50,000, which you can then use to pay off other debts. In general, home equity loan rates tend to be low, and in many cases they are tax deductible.

Home Equity Line-of-Credit

A Home Equity Line Of Credit–also known as HELOC–is a type of revolving loan. Like a Home Equity Loan, you are borrowing from the equity in your home. However, unlike a Home Equity Loan, you don’t get a lump sum of cash. Instead, as a line of credit, you can draw on it any time for any amount (up to your limited maximum). HELOCs, in general, tend to have lower interest rates than Home Equity Loans.

Although borrowing a second mortgage or using the equity in your home can be a simple and low-cost way to consolidate your debt, it’s important to remember that, in all these cases, your home is the collateral for the loan. So before you borrow against your home, be certain you will be able to make your monthly payments.

View our recommended online Debt Consolidation Services online. Also, view our recommended lenders for a low rate Home Equity Line of Credit.