Dengue (pronounced DENgee) fever is a painful, debilitating mosquito-borne disease caused by any one of fourclosely related dengue viruses. These viruses are related to the viruses that cause West Nile infection and yellow fever.

Each year, an estimated 100 million cases of dengue fever occur worldwide. Most of these are in tropical areas of the world, with the greatest risk occurring in

• the Indian subcontinent
• Southeast Asia
• Southern China
• Taiwan
• the Pacific Islands
• the Caribbean (except Cuba and the Cayman Islands)
• Mexico
• Africa
• Central and South America (except Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina)

Most cases in the United States occur in people who contracted the infection while traveling abroad. But the risk is increasing for people living along the Texas-Mexico border and in other parts of the southern United States. In 2009, an outbreak of dengue fever was identified in Key West, Fla.

Dengue fever is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus. The mosquito becomes infected when it bites a person with dengue virus in their blood. It can’t be spread directly from one person to another person.

Symptoms of Dengue Fever

Symptoms, which usually begin four to six days after infection and last for up to 10 days, may include

• a sudden, high fever
• severe headaches
• pain behind the eyes
• severe joint and muscle pain
• nausea
• vomiting
• skin rash, which appears three to four days after the onset of fever
• mild bleeding (such a nose bleed, bleeding gums, or easy bruising)

Sometimes symptoms are mild and can be mistaken for those of the flu or another viral infection. Younger children and people who have never had the infection before tend to have milder cases than older children and adults. However, serious problems can also develop. These include dengue hemorrhagic fever, a rare complication characterized by high fever, damage to lymph and blood vessels, bleeding from the nose and gums, enlargement of the liver, and failure of the circulatory system. The symptoms may progress to massive bleeding, shock, and death. This is called dengue shock syndrome (DSS).

People with weakened immune systems, as well as those with a second or subsequent dengue infection, are believed to be at greater risk for developing dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Diagnosing Dengue Fever

Doctors can diagnose dengue infection with a blood test to check for the virus itself or antibodies to it. If you become sick after traveling to a tropical area, let your doctor know. This will allow your doctor to evaluate the possibility that your symptoms were caused by a dengue infection.

Treatment for Dengue Fever

There is no specific medicine to treat dengue infection. If you think you may have dengue fever, you should use pain relievers with acetaminophen and avoid medicines with aspirin, which could worsen bleeding. You should also rest, drink plenty of fluids, and see your doctor. If you start to feel worse in the first 24 hours after your fever goes down, you should get to a hospital immediately to be checked for complications.

Preventing Dengue Fever

There is no vaccine to prevent dengue fever. The best way to prevent the disease is to prevent bites by infected mosquitoes, particularly if you are living in or traveling to a tropical area. This involves protecting yourself and making efforts to keep the mosquito population down.

To protect yourself:

• Stay away from heavily populated residential areas, if possible.
• Use mosquito repellents, even indoors.
• When outdoors, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into socks.
• When indoors, use air conditioning if available.
• Make sure window and door screens are secure and free of holes. If sleeping areas are not screened or air conditioned, use mosquito nets.
• If you have symptoms of dengue, speak to your doctor.

To reduce the mosquito population, get rid of places where mosquitoes can breed. These include old tires, cans, or flower pots that collect rain. Regularly change the water in outdoor bird baths and pets’ water dishes.

If someone in your home gets dengue fever, be especially vigilant about efforts to protect yourself and other family members from mosquitoes. Mosquitoes that bite the infected family member could spread the infection to others in your home.

Sony said late Monday night that it would launch two new Android 3.0-based tablets this fall, one in a clamshell form factor housing dual screens, and the other certified to run PlayStation games.

The two tablets – both known as the “Sony Tablet,” and using the “S1″ and “S2″ codenames – will be designed with entertainment and communication in mind, respectively. The tablets were launched at an event in Tokyo Monday night.

Although the S1 is a more traditional tablet, featuring a large, 9.4-inch screen, the S2 is the more unusual entry. The S2 boasts a pair of 5.5-inch displays, which can either be used as halves of a larger screen (think a multimonitor setup) or for playing video on one screen while showing the controls on the other, including a soft keyboard.

The S1 will be the first “PlayStation Certified” tablet, according to a live blog of the event by The Wall Street Journal. Sony executives also showed off what what appeared to be a virtual PSP Go keyboard at the launch, apparently on the S2. But it wasn’t clear at press time whether the S2 will be able to run PlayStation games as well.

The S1, meanwhile, appears to offset the weight of the 9.4-inch display, placing it at an angle, with the weight at the rear.

“‘Sony Tablet’ delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We’re aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including ‘Sony Tablet’ with content and network,” said Kunimasa Suzuki, corporate executive, senior vice president, and deputy president of Sony’s consumer products & services group, in a statement.

Sony representatives in the U.S. could not be reached after business hours in the United States for additional details, such as price and the specifications of the tablet.

Sony confirmed that both will use Android 3.0, however. In addition, Sony said that both tablets are WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible. Users can not only browse the internet or check e-mail but also smoothly access digital content including videos, games and books through Sony’s premium network services and more, on-the-go at any time, Sony said. Both tablets will also use the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, executives said, according to the Journal.

The services will include Qriocity, Sony’s cloud music subscription service it launched last September, and a victim of the ongoing PlayStation Network outage Sony didn’t offer any updates about the outage at the launch. Sony Tablet customers will also be able to download Reader e-books and use the platform as a digital e-book reader, Sony said. Finally, users will be able to connect the Sony Tablets as digital remote controls, controlling them via a infrared remote control built into the S1.

Righteous defenders of the weak, Paladins use heavy shields and divine blessings to stand as a bulwark against their foes. The Paladin’s large shield not only offers protection, but affords many opportunities to launch devastating counters in close combat.

Strengths

A Paladin excels in using a shield to turn aside incoming assaults and launch powerful counterattacks. This martial skill, and the divine blessings of their patron gods, allows Paladins to extend their protection to nearby allies.

Weaknesses

Heavy arms and armor do not allow for quick movement, so Paladins have a hard time dealing with opponents at range, or with those who weave powerful magic, against which metal plates offer no protection.

Paladin History

When the chieftain of Clan Mathos united the scattered northmen to fight the Blood Storm Wars, he entrusted the safety of the land and people to his daughter, Amardis. But Telara’s landscape and weather patterns shifted dramatically during the wars, as planar energy confused the world’s ecology. Crops withered, game grew scarce, and famine gripped Clan Mathos, until southern merchants brought an enticing proposition.

If the traders were allowed to mine sourcestone from caverns on clan land, the northmen would have all the food they required. Weak to the well-fed merchants’ temptations, the people cried out for Amardis to accept the offer.

But the young leader felt ill-at-ease about the bargain, so she entered the caves to commune with Thedeor. She finished praying and opened her eyes, and before her lay her father’s shield, newly affixed with a pulsing piece of sourcestone.

A voice spoke to Amardis: “Take it, daughter, and reveal the truth.”

The next morning, as people gathered around the strangers’ carts, Amardis came forward, girded for battle. Without warning, she sent the caravan master sprawling with a backhand blow from the holy shield. Gold coins stamped with the glowing mark of Laethys tumbled from his robe, and the clansmen realized they had nearly turned over their holy caverns to agents of the Golden Maw.

Amardis led the charge as Clan Mathos took up arms to drive out the cultists, intercepting blows meant for others and drawing the enemy away from weaker clan members. People would later report that a glowing aura surrounded her, crackling as she downed the dragon’s agents with devastating blows from her sword and shield.

All seemed lost when one of the caravan’s Cyclops guards dealt Amardis a devastating blow to the chest with his serrated blade. In a haze of pain, she struggled back to her feet, pressing her hand to the wound. Golden light seeped from her hand and closed the gash, and this miracle caught the Cyclops off guard. Amardis cleft his hideous head from his shoulders, breaking the Golden Maw offensive in a single stroke.

The Mathosians drove the remaining cultists into the mountains. Though they claimed the food and other goods from the caravans, Amardis insisted they melt down the gold to forge an altar to Thedeor. This monument would one day stand in the heart of Caer Mathos, the home of many Mathosian paladins for centuries to come.

Acer’s inventive Iconia laptop falls into that exclusive category we sometimes call executive laptops. These are typically high-priced, highly designed systems that look great on a CEO’s desk or in the first-class airline lounge. But they’re also usually underpowered, overpriced, and too reliant on gimmicks that offer little in the way of actual utility.

The high-concept feature that sets the Iconia apart is actually two: two 14-inch touch screens. Instead of a screen and a keyboard, the Iconia ditches the keyboard for a second screen, which can be used either as an extended desktop or for a virtual keyboard. (We’ve seen a similar concept before, but with dual 7-inch screens, in the Toshiba Libetto W100.)

In practice, it works better than you might expect. Onscreen typing is still nowhere near as intuitive as the real thing, but a few generations of iPhones and iPads have trained us to tap-type without too much trouble, at least for short writing tasks. The experience is much closer to typing on an iPad than typing on one of the many Windows tablets we’ve tried over the years–and that’s a good thing.

There were still frustrations with the Iconia, however. The onscreen keyboard had a hint of a lag, although it would probably only affect the fastest of touch typists. The onscreen touch pad is too small, and lacks the kind of touch gestures a purely software touch pad could easily offer. And, most annoyingly, the CPU is one of Intel’s last-generation Core i5 processors. By moving up to the current generation of CPUs, the Iconia could have faster performance, longer battery life, and better graphics.

One final positive note: unlike other so-called executive laptops we’ve seen, such as Dell’s Adamo XPS, the Iconia is arguably reasonably priced, at $1,199–not a budget system by any means, but less than we’d expect to pay for two 14-inch touch screens.

The Acer Iconia packs its dual screens into an unassuming package. The thick, heavy chassis has a light bronze lid with black accents, and is not nearly as sleek as this week’s other high-end laptop, the Samsung Series 9. Boxy to a fault, we can only imagine the engineering required to fit the two 14-inch displays in safely. The Iconia feels sturdy enough, but it’s also too heavy and bulky to easily tote around.

Apple MacBook Pro Laptop Parts

Apple MacBook Pro is a laptop that has grown to be more popular than any other laptops over the country. With the reliable apple laptop parts, it is really the equipment that everyone must have. Apple MacBook Pro is 13 inches. It has a large battery life that gives the users more time to finish what they are doing. It is very important for professionals to have this kind of feature because even if there is no power supply in their place, they can still work. It also has an SD card slot and FireWire. It also offers good display and fast processing of data.

The Apple MacBook Pro has a classic design combined with the essential work of art that makes it sleek and handy for everyone. Pictures, movies and music sound and look great with this new innovation. It has a good sound system that users can enjoy. Excellent viewing is achieved with the Apple MacBook Pro. The Chiclet-style keyboard which was first done by Sony really does look good in the Apple MacBook Pro.

Typing sessions are easy with less noise from each key stroke. It is easy to type without pressing the keys harder because it is really smooth. The keys are also easy to spot since they are being lit. The backlight is also adjustable in different sorts of environment for better use. The touch pads have no clicker buttons. Instead they have the clicker button which is found under the touch pad. It allows the entire touch pad to click so there is ease of use for the people using the Apple MacBook Pro.

Apple MacBook Pro has a LAN and mini DisplayPort. Headphone jack is also being promoted by the Apple MacBook Pro just like the function of any other digital computers. The handy battery gauge is one of the most attractive parts of the Apple MacBook Pro. It is found on the side which has eight LEDs that shows the charging level of the battery.

Apple laptop parts are innovative and creative. They are bringing the latest innovation to satisfy the needs of the techie people. Apple MacBook Pro is one of the laptops that are highly advisable to use. It promotes user friendliness and compatibility with its user. Indeed, apple laptops are sought by many people across the globe.

2008 Rockledge Vineyards Merlot The Rocks Napa Valley

Before we give you a crash course on the demise of one of the world’s greatest varieties in Napa Valley — a region that’s better-suited to the grape than most of Bordeaux’s Right Bank, let’s go right to the arithmetic. The grapes that went into this one were farmed to less than 3 tons per acre. The price was over $3500/ton, the same as top shelf Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon. In the particularly propitious 2008 vintage, the Merlot came in at perfect physiological maturity. The vinification was meticulous, nursing out all that soft lushness before the wine spent a year and a half in 50% NEW French cooperage.

Sound like a $40 bottle of wine? It should be — but not in this market. At $15.99/bottle on cases, this is one to buy and drink, buy and lay down — but mostly, buy and wonder what’s happened to Merlot in Napa Valley.

The Sideways Demise

We still remember the 1980s when the sale of Cabernet was largely problematic. Back then, Cabernet was often picked lean and green in attempt to mimic Bordeaux. Too many wines reeked of bell pepper. Consumers were having none of it.

Enter Merlot. The early maturing Bordeaux variety offered ripe, sweet fruit flavors without the bell pepper. Clos du Bois was the poster child brand, and those first wines were really pretty good. Duckhorn followed, made from cooler climate spots like Oak Knoll and Carneros where Merlot ripened more consistently than Cabernet. Clos du Bois’ started small, but sales quickly skyrocketed in the hundreds of thousands of cases per year. Duckhorn became the call brand of choice of the lawyers, bankers and brokers at Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris. Then everyone jumped on board.

And that was precisely the problem. What drove Duckhorn and Michael Havens’s wines was the careful selection of vineyards, the limiting of yields — spending Cabernet money for top shelf Merlot. What drove the bandwagon? Dollar signs and plenty of quick cash.

Suddenly, Merlot was being planted everywhere from Napa to Sonoma, Lodi to Santa Barbara. Everyone was a buyer. How could you have a brand without a Merlot? By the time the dust settled, each of your local liquor stores had a half dozen stacks of Merlot. All were insipid.

Then came the coup de grace. Merlot was already reeling when a Hollywood movie decided to take one more pot shot. And when Miles Raymond exclaimed, “No! If anyone orders Merlot I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any f’in Merlot” — he pretty much hammered the nail in Merlot’s Napa Valley coffin.

When anyone compiles a list of the top ten sexiest women of all time, Marilyn Monroe must be atop the list. If Marilyn Monroe isn’t in the top five, stop reading the list because whoever wrote it is obviously delusional. Born, Norma Jeane Mortenson, she spent most of her childhood in foster homes. She started with minor film roles, but eventually worked her way into leading Hollywood roles and is now looked upon as a pop and culture icon. Now, nearly fifty years after her death, impersonators are still wearing Monroe’s iconic white dress. Still a wildly popular and trendy costume, it’s always a fantastic choice. You can turn heads when you show up at your Halloween party in the instantly recognizable Marilyn Monroe Costume and find out for yourself, that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Since the beginning of time, every girl has dreamed of being a princess. And no matter what generation, princesses are still the most popular fantasy occupation for every little girl. So it’s no wonder that Disney has made an absolute bundle, cashing in on the American adolescent dream. When a family goes to Disney World, you can bet your bottom dollar that the little girls will talk their way into leaving with a tiara or a princess wand. If you were to stop and think of a princess; a Disney princess would no doubt be at the top of that list. So for Halloween, it will almost go without saying, that a Disney Princess Costume will be the most popular costume atop the little girl’s wish list. So visit Trendy Costumes and let your precious little one, pick her favorite princess and make her dreams come true.

Terminator 4 T600 Overhead Latex Adult Mask

When you think of popular choices for Halloween costumes, the usual ghouls and ghosts probably come to mind. But do you ever think about the Terminator? Probably not – unless you’re a fan of the series. In this case, you can get a Terminator 4 T600 Overhead latex adult mask to create the look of the Terminator on Halloween. With a good costume, you can really step into the persona of the Terminator for Halloween, and a mask can enable you do to this better than makeup ever would, thanks to the flexibility and convincing attributes of a mask.
With the Terminator 4 T600 Overhead latex adult mask, you’ll be able to get some of the features of the Terminator outfit that you can’t get using makeup – or at least need very expensive and creative makeup to achieve. For example, the color of the Terminator head and face are a very unique bronze, metallic color, and there is no hair, so you would need to somehow create this kind of metal sheen to pull that look off with makeup. Also, the Terminator’s eyes are complete glowing red, and that kind of glow might be attainable with contact lenses, but they would be more expensive and might have to be obtained from a unique costume outlet. This is where the mask comes in; with the mask, you don’t have to worry about makeup and contacts. All you have to do is actually slip it over your head and you have the complete look of the Terminator from the fourth movie instantly. Some costumes are pretty easy to pull off without a mask and can be done using only makeup. However, in the case of the Terminator, this really isn’t true. You’d need to actually hire someone to do the makeup for you, most likely – for example, a professional makeup artist. It is much more practical and sensible to just get a good, comfortable latex mask that you can slip on and off very easily. This will allow for comfort, which is a big consideration for many people on Halloween especially with rising summer and fall temperatures. So you’ll achieve a convincing look while still being able to breathe and have good airflow fairly easily with your mask, and most people trying to find Terminator costumes will definitely be on the lookout for comfortable options, so it is something to think about.

Ultimately a Terminator 4 T600 Overhead latex adult mask will enable you to pull off the Terminator 4 look very convincingly. You might just send several people running in the other direction because of your scary look! Of course you won’t have to worry about comfort with this mask either, since it is designed specifically with breathable and comfortable options in mind. You will really look as though you have the Terminator’s head when you put this mask on, and that’s a creepy thing, especially on Halloween. After all, who wouldn’t remember having a giant robotic assassin hunting them down? The Terminator is a creative and unique Halloween costume idea that should definitely be taken advantage of if you have any interest in the movies. Even if you don’t you can pull off this idea pretty convincingly with a mask, though the costume part might be a bit tougher, though Terminator costumes are sold all over the place and can be found online or at local Halloween stores. It also isn’t too expensive so if you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on your Halloween outfit, you can easily do so with this Terminator 4 mask while still looking the part very believably.