LifeTips.Us

胆固醇功过谈

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在美国及很多国家，心脏病已取代癌症，成为第一号杀手。胆固醇过高会发生心脏病，几乎家喻户晓。大家都尽量避免高胆固醇食物，鸡蛋、海鲜少碰为妙，动物油脂更弃之如敝屣。

很多人都听说过：胆固醇有好有坏，坏胆固醇才是心脏病的元凶。――是怎么一回事？
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美国老人的医疗福利

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1. MediCare是为65岁以上的老人的,有条件才可申请的: you are eligible for Medicare if you or your spouse worked for at least 10 years in Medicare-covered employment and you are 65 years or older and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. If you aren’t yet 65, you might also qualify for coverage if you have a disability or with End-Stage Renal disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant)

2. 为低收入人士设的是MediCaid

3. 现在光有绿卡不能申请MediCaid了: Effective July 1, 2006, Public Law No. 109-171 Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 Section 6036, as amended by Public Law No. 109-432 Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, requires individuals to provide satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship or nationality when initially applying for Medicaid or upon a recipient’s first Medicaid re-determination

不知道私家保险的情况。政府保险有两种 - Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicare 是联邦保险，须65+，>=40 SS Credits.
Medicaid 是联邦和州共同拨款，各州运营，针对低收入和一些特殊人群。具体政策要看你在的州。很多州不提供给入美5年内的移民。加州没有5年限制，所以我给父母都办理了Medi-Cal （Califronia version of Medicaid)

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Gas saving tips

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Finally St. Louis gas price is exceeding $3 a gallon. Today marks the first day my gas bill exceeded $40 ($3.179 * 13.105 gallons = $41.66).

I am not complaining, as I know people around the world are paying a much higher price for gas, or paying a higher percentage of their disposal income for gas. But I still want to do something to contain the gas cost, before sending my pay check directly to the Exxon-Mobile and the likes.

1) In the past, I tried to fill up gas at the proper time: there are two gas stations near my home, whenever I saw one gas station raised the price (the other has not), I will rush to the other one (usually it’s the Shell).

2) Also, I used the gas rebate credit cards, they are Citi Dividend (5% rebate in the past, this has been changed lately); Chase Freedom (3% rebate); and AAA MBNA card (5% rebate subject to the up limit of 2% of the monthly balance).

3) Last week, I tried another approach. I paid pretty dollars for car maitenance: engine tune up (replace spark plug and wires); fuel injection cleaning; replace engine gasket. Hopefully my investment will pay off over time (from saving in gas).

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Green Card DIY

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I don’t mean to steal immigration lawyers’ business

A few years ago my employer sponsored my GC app including attorney services. But that did not extend to the AP and EAD (optional for me). I heard from a friend that he paid $1,000 lawyer fee for the EAD renewal. So I filled the forms and filed for myself.

Last month (mid Feb) as soon as I saw the PD became current, I filed I-485, I-131 (AP) and I-765 (EAD) for my wife (H-4). And we received the all the receipts shortly.

I think for simple cases (like my wife), we can do it ourselves, as long as we know what we are doing. This maybe more effcient than using the company lawyers, because of the time wasted on “back and forth”. On the other hand, I am sure most Chinese immigration lawyers here are professional and effcient.  

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Caffeine in coffee, espresso and coke

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Which one has the most caffeine? A tall (12 fl oz, or 355 ml) brewed coffee, a tall latte with one shot of espresso (both at Starbucks), and a can (12 fl oz) classic Coca Cola?

Your instant answer maybe the latte (espresso), but the correct answer is the brewed coffee. According to Starbucks www.starbucks.com/retail/HWE-014-NutriBro-2.pdf”>Nutrition By the Cup (PDF), 12 fl oz coffee has 240 mg caffeine, one shot espresso (1 fl oz) has 75 mg caffeine. As to Coke, I saw it says “caffeine content: 34mg per 12 fl oz”.

I don’t know what is the appropriate amount of caffeine a person could consume daily. My guess is one small cup a day should be ok for most people. I think it also depends on person’s health condition (weight, height, habbit of drinking). But just like many other things in life, moderation is the key. A cup of regular coffee will get one refreshed in the morning (it has caffeine equivalent to 7 cups of Coke). But when the initial effect of coffee goes away in a few hours, he/she will resort to another coffee. And so on. I think we can be more easily get caffeinated that way. 
 

(picture souce: will work for food.)

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Wind shield wiper, clean lavatory in China

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Wind shield stopped working in ice storm
It happened to me last Thurdsay, in ice storm The wiper quit working after working for a while. I did not panic but decided to take it into shop.

It turned out that the snow/ice freezed the connection joint of wiper (a.k.a, the “root” of wiper). The mechanic can feel the motor was very hot (poor guy, it tried so hard to rotate but got stuck by the ice). After clean up, I was ready to roll again.

Find clean rest-room in China
Find your nearest KFC or McDonald. Besides cleaness, it’s free which is not true in the public restroom (bathroom, powder room, lavatory…) China

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办家家、造房子的问题（三）

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这一节有点先后倒置了，不过想到哪里写到哪里，大家就请不要苛求了，哈哈。其实应该先确定一个问题：买房子还是造房子。买房子是现成的，别人已经住了若干年，内外的状态一目了然，有什么潜在问题也比较容易发现。要是原房主隐瞒结构缺陷或者曾经浸水之类的事情，各地法律有规定的，可以索赔，也可以取消 deal，一切损失由原房主赔偿。不过买现成房子的问题也是大大的，地点、式样、大小都比较受限，容易MM要不是对原房子不尽满意，也不会这么大动干戈重新装修了。
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Overcoming Procrastination

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Author : Steve Pavlina, CEO, Dexterity Software

Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute,
can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Missed
opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt
are just some of the symptoms. This article will explore the root causes of
procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.
Replace “Have To” With “Want To”

First, thinking that you absolutely have to do something is a major reason for
procrastination. When you tell yourself that you have to do something, you’re
implying that you’re being forced to do it, so you’ll automatically feel a
sense of resentment and rebellion. Procrastination kicks in as a defense
mechanism to keep you away from this pain. If the task you are putting off has
a real deadline, then when the deadline gets very close, the sense of pain
associated with the task becomes overridden by the much greater sense of pain
if you don’t get started immediately.

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ATM/Check card国内取钱 FAQ

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BOA 国内建行ATM免手续费取款 FAQ

Q: Use your ATM card or Check Card/visa debit card within our Global ATM
Alliance in the countries shown with no fees.
用BOA的卡在它联盟银行取人民币，是按照官方“外汇买入价”100%换算从帐户上扣
美元
哪里可以适用？

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最新曝光的家庭致癌物

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来自家庭日用品的致癌物，如药品、蔬菜中的农药、化妆品、家用塑料制品和橡胶制品等；来自食品中的致癌物，如腊肉、咸菜、油炸食品等已经逐渐引起人们的重视，但还有一些鲜为人知的致癌物并没有引起人们的注意。
自来水、白纸

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美国法律如何界定对未成年人体罚

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记者亚微/作父母的都知道，孩子不听话就需要管教，但是管教到什么程度，才不会对孩子造成身体或心理上的伤害呢？美国法律在这方面又是如何界定的呢？*体罚孩子过头招致法律麻烦*

中国有一句俗话说：棍棒底下出孝子。很多中国人认为，打是疼，骂是爱，孩子不打不成才，要让孩子有出息，就必须严加管教，如果孩子调皮捣蛋、行为叛逆，家长可以对孩子施以家法，包括体罚在内。

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亲身经历：到BBB投诉航空公司的服务

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作者： agostic @ mitbbs

BBB.com接受投诉的业务是很多方面的。如果你遭受了不公待遇，可以考虑到BBB的网上
填一份投诉信，BBB会随时告诉你处理事情的进展情况，最后给你一个正式的交待。

下面是我投诉America West Airline （US Airways)的整个过程。虽然US Airways 提
前给我了结果，但因为我没有及时通知BBB，BBB还是跟US Airways 打了交道，获得了
US Airways 给我的处理结果，并把结果复印了一份，用信件给我寄来，整个过程将近1
个月时间。

1、事因：

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创业学习笔记和问题：美国公司的类型

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作者: 沉石.

创办公司之前首先要确定公司的类型。需要考虑以下几个因素：1) 法律责任；2) 税收问题；3) 管理代价；4) 灵活性；5) 未来需求。

美国公司主要类型有：

Sole Proprietorship — 最简单的公司形式(个人企业)

General Partnership — 可以通过合作者之间的口头协议成立(普通合伙企业)

Limited Partnership — 合作者分成General Partner和Limited Partner，后者只有有限的管理权和责任。

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美国出庭见闻

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由于工作性质不时出庭于ＦＡＭＩＬＹ　＆　ＪＵＶＥＮＩＬＥ　ＣＯＵＲＴ．有时是汇报家庭的ＰＲＯＧＲＥＳＳ．有时是提出建议，例如：孩子需要增加和生父母的接触时间，孩子有被虐待的嫌疑建议立即从寄养家庭带走．总的来说你不时要ＣＯＮＦＲＯＮＴ养父母或者生父母，这使得ＳＯＣＩＡＬ　ＷＯＲＫＥＲ这种工作非常ＳＴＲＥＳＳＦＵＬ．

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无毒一身轻—21天改变体质

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来源：医学著作《无毒一身轻—21天改变体质》

人生许多的不幸和悲哀多数都是源自于无知与疏忽，无知就是你该知道的不知道，疏忽就是你该注意而没有注意，这就非常非常不值得。疏忽所造成的伤害远远大过无知，这两个都必需要花时间。有一个东西，是全世界没有象祖国大陆蔓延那么多的，而且你看看现在年轻人身体为什么越来越差，你看看他们肚子饿，在各大机场，甚至在贵宾室，还有在工地，我看到他们忙得没有时间吃饭。还有科学家，为什么身体越来越差，去年二月台湾发生了一件很大的新闻，很优秀的三个大学教授，很年轻的，都四十多岁，最年轻的才41岁，两个礼拜死了三个优秀的大学教授，你有空去看看。为什么他们身体这么差？你看他们平时很忙啊，口渴的时候没时间喝水，你知道他们喝什么吗？就是喝可乐汽水，你看现在小孩子是不是都这样，年轻人是不是都这样。肚子饿了，没有时间吃饭，吃什么？吃方便面。祖国大陆是全世界方便面销量最大的地区，而且年轻人吃方便面的数字比例，（对不起，那个统计数字我没有带过来），是我去年看到的统计数字，真是惊人啊！吃方便面量非常大。方便面是先用油去炸过，它是高油脂的食物，它是高热量的食物，尤其它是高磷的食物，它的磷之高几乎无以伦比，它是没有纤维的，是多盐的，是多味精调料的，完全符合癌症食品的要求。如果你家的孩子爱吃方便面，请你叫他去做一个实验，如果你养一只小老鼠，让它吃方便面，连续吃21天，它就死掉了，你看多毒。我知道我讲完你还是要吃的，因为有时候没有时间。那怎么办呢？所以我建议你，一个月最多吃一包，吃之前先吃五斤的蔬菜，解毒。

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