This woman has a history of violence and temper problems and has been in prison in the past for assault etc. Basically what happened was the mother was reading in the kitchen and my niece walked through the kitchen and shut the door too hard which really pissed off the mother and she came charging into the sitting room and punched my niece in the back. She fell forward so hard that she smacked her face on the ground. She knocked out 3 teeth and her glasses smashed into her eye.

The police and an ambulance were called. The mother was arrested and my niece has surgery on her eye but she has lost the eye anyway, there wasn’t anything they could do because it was punctured.

The mother is being charged (there were 3 witnesses). This happened on the 21st December and she wants to come home now (the doctors say it’s ok for her to fly).

My questions are-

When will the trial take place?

In Ireland is can be a year until an actual trial happens. Will it be that long?

Will my niece have to appear at the trial?

I’m presuming she won’t if the mother will pleads guilty (and I imagine she will since there are 3 witnesses).

Also could she sue (or my husband on her behalf since she’s 15) for damages. She had travel insurance so we have no medical bills but can she sue for pain and suffering since she’s lost the her left eye?

How would we go about doing that?

I presume we would have to travel to the US to file any lawsuit and to appear there or can we hire a solicitor to do it all on our behalf?

I’m confused about how to proceed and how much time we would have to spend over there etc.?

( we live in Ireland and none of us are US citizens)

X Files of Online Marketing

Erkan Meydanlioglu,Mr http://www.OnlineMarketingManager.org

A traditional profile of online marketers as:

1)Young people with old appearance and body because of working hard or tracking their competitives.

2)Always busy minded to think new and creative campaign ideas to increase sales and revenues.

3)Always wears black sun glasses, this is not because of spying just to hide the black lines under eyes.

4)They drive luxury cars slowly because their mind is still busy about if his campaign needs some optimization or modification.

5)Always live in good houses but they don’t have time to spend much time with their families.

6)Their conversations do not pleasant their friends if both are not colleges.Whether they believe they have sense of humor, not much people laugh to their jokes.

7)Most of them have sleeping problem(insomnia) Until their campaigns achieve the campaign target.

Raise in ecommerce behavior makes powerful online marketing more important day by day in web business.Many companies are searching to employ best online marketing managers on job sites with attractive packages but what do they do? How they make marketing online?

Internet marketing contains some different skills and an online marketing manager has to have ability of commanding on statistics and data, tracking the market trends,analysing consumer behavior,traditional marketing education and emotional intelligence addition to IT knowledge.As every of you know about required IT knowledge , I will talk about “do ’s and don’t ’s” of affiliate relations, lead and traffic generating,email marketing or search engine placement tasks because you have to perform these tasks in best way and you are supposed to bring good results to your employer.

If you want to make effective online marketing, you need to analyse very carefully about your visitors or clients. Analysing starts with detailed data provided so search a data monitoring company first and subscribe it. As they sent you statistics of your web site, analyse and find out about your user behaviors, when your site gets most hits, where they come from, what is their geographical area, how much money they pay or ready to pay to buy your goods and services, which product or service mostly sold according to their age group. Work on all data carefully and create a general profile of your web clients then make more spectacular profiles like creating regional,age range ,religional or community profiles to find about regional preferences. Probably you will not reach your campaign target if you start without deep analyses.

Market trends are always very important, if you are trying to sell some goods that is not preferred with community anymore, this means you are loosing money because of your opportunity cost. Try to find most sold or possible to sell products in your market, give your clients what they prefers most from the right price level.To do this you need to watch market or community trends.Don’t try to sell baseball gloves in Brazil!

Watch your Competitors.If you havent still realised that your Competitors never sleeps, learn now! No, they can be really awake for beating your company. What will you in this case? Do you know their discounted price level and models before demonstrating your latest model? Always watch their prices and campaigns before action.

Analyse your user’s beviour and learn about their reactions in different cases if they are only daily visiting without buying anything or waiting best price levels to buy your products? What is the reason of non purchasing? Which is the best expected price level for a particular product? Do you need a discount campaign? As you got, these points are more related with management or cost analyses so try to find out balance level of price for most sold products at your estore.

Keep your analyse at hand and start planning your campaign definitions like campaign target, budget, duration KPIs(key performance indicator).Your work is generally assumed as campaign drafts Until your employer’s approve your campaign. In large corporations, there is possibly conflictsbetween Marketing Manager and Online Marketing Managers. Your campaign policy and details must match with your corporate marketing policy, so clear this point and get approval where is authorized whether he is marketing manager or CEO.

If you cleared these points , time to start on traditional online marketing with known tools to increase your sales. Make an affiliate marketing campaign on combi basis (combi=pay per click+pay per sale or lead)with an attractive banner(Use most used banner sizes like 468×60, 120×600) or better one Text ads.We lived that quality and well designer banners took more interest from web users whatever you sell. Banners with subject on your product and price can benefit your campaign target. Of course you prefer to make your campaign on pay per lead or pay per sale alone but believe me that you will not get much interest from publishers so make it combi basis.Publishers always like to make money with clicks instead of per sale or lead. Don’t worry, this will not cost you higher on final cost. Which affiliate network is best to select? This really depends on your geographical consumer target. If you are targeting pan- European consumers like UK,France,Ireland,Nederlands or Spain, try Zanox, Tradedoubler, DoubleClick Europe, CJ Europe are main networks.If we are talking about German market, try Tradedoubler,Zanox,Affili.net, Adbutler.de or Superclix. Do you really need to work by an affiliate network? Can’t you success with your own affiliate tracking software? As you don’t want to pay %30 agency fee, you can try to reach publishers by yourself but believe me that this is really long and difficult way because you need to submit your campaign manually into more than 50 affiliate directories and it takes 4 months to approve your submission if you don’t pay for express approval on affiliate directories. Besides, publishers always will doubt about your independent commission tracking system and wont show much interest about your new campaign.On the other side, affiliate networks have strong filters to track the referral ID and activity of visitor. These filters are complex algorithms built on different methods to track the activity like IP tracking,cookie tracking or pixel tracking which can vary on your payment method and approval requirement option is a plus on a doubtful commission cases.Advertiser has option to approve or reject a commission if there is a trick during earning the commission.And finally networks able you to get detailed reports and thus will help your analysing and rewarding some of your affiliates with extra commission.These are Win and Win principles and does not have risks for advertisers! During these campaigns you will learn how much online poker or gambling sites are paying to publishers as commission and you will see that your campaign budget can not afford those commission rate if an independent affiliate campaigns outside a network.You will have longer and better relations by publishers in a network. General recommended campaign startup on a network is startup combi and soon PPS or PPL basis commission payment.So, always prefer an affiliate network.

Buy some media advertisement from major portals and printed magazines. You can buy Yahoo or MSN ads on PPI basis but main page advertising can be really expensive if you don’t have huge campaign budget, better to purchase subpage ads placement related to your client interest group. Not only CTR but ROI rate of subpage ads can be higher than main page either. If you need a printed media ads, select ones that your consumer analyses indicate.Best results come if you find best interest groups. You can not sell much life insurance on a school magazine!

Google Adwords and Yahoo Overture are main in pay per click ads but you need to find out best ads slogans to attract clients with limited characters.How you will attract people to click your text ads? Or what is the maximum price per click per your keyword? I saw some people who wrote books about best adwords texts but this is related with your creativity. I made many PPC campaigns and used impressive slogans ,sometimes people come because your ads are full with wondering feeling , sometimes your text should challenge or includes aggressive slogans.Since a per click price starts at 0.05 on Adwords, it can be even 6€ for some keywords. Yahoo Overture has totally different structure about search engine marketing that your ads display on many website’s integrated search results. Per click prices starts 0.15 and raises as 8 as your keyword. Few words about Overture campaigns are more difficult than Adwords because of campaign settings. Your keywords selection and ads slogans are written by Yahoo editors in Dublin. I never had good relations with Yahoo editors! They always write unrelated or wrong slogans for your product which mismatches your campaign target. You will get calls explaining why they have to do that and how much sorry the Overture is! Not only bad support and a mass in Dublin, bidding interface is not user friendly and auto bidding feature can cause high click costs out of your control.Despite some disadvantages, Adwords and Overture are fine tools to reach potential regional clients with local language versions and you can select a display language , thus enables you to make campaigns on different language speaking countries even you can not speak that language.Not need to mention that your estore is supposed to have multi language versions either as you want to attract foreign client.People always prefer to buy something if they can speak same language with your estore , a local support department contact details also help you to sell different regions.

Make organic SEO work! As stats indicates most visitors come from major search engines and your search engine placement depends on many different things like keyword density,number of backlinks and a well designed meta tags including title. Most visitors prefers to find websites by themselves instead of clicking sponsored inclusions.This is a psychologic side, most visitors know that paid advertising company prices are higher on a particular product because of their advertising costs but regular search results may not have this extra cost. Your search engine results can bring brilliant results if you are at the top with your keywords on major engines and this result can not be paid with money to measure.Let me tell you that SEO work is very technical and long process to see results probably 6 months or more.If you are not good at this hire a SEO company or you can improve yourself by a research about SEO. First thing you should know about SEO is determining or selecting the most relevant keywords with your content.Use only best describing your products or services instead of too general statements.People prefers to click only top results on engines so if your selected keywords are too general, your results will not be at top and will not get enough hits.So,specify as much as needed about your keywords.I know this, sucks! Write a good keyword syndicated content to catch highest keyword density if you are good at SEO content rich writing hire a professional SEO writer. Rewrite your meta tags ,keywords and most important your title. Better sometimes to follow top engine results to see how their meta tags are written, this can be a good resource for a beginner SEO. Last years there are many tools used for SEO as RSS feeds for fresh content or Google Images. As general SEO statement content is the king for major engines. On the other hand your search results may have different placement on different engines. You can listed as 10th on Google but 25 in Yahoo on same keyword search. This is because of different listing algorithm on each engine,nothing related with you or your site. As you worked on engines, you will improve yourself about different algorithms to get higher listings.

Increase your backlinks on engines by link exchange or oneway link purchases. This exchange will not only bring backlinks on engines but also some traffic either. Generated quality traffic means more sales for you company. What is quality traffic ? There are some visitors that does not purchase anything but some does and for a seller, the purchasers are important and we call these buyers as quality traffic.Best way of exchanging links is having a directory on your site with categories. There are many free or cheap software on market for directory building, most used is PHP link directory. This software comes with options for free link exchange or reciprocal link or paid listings submission. Register to Link exchange directories such as Linkmarket.net but careful about your having a good linking policy. If you swap with Irrelavant content websites, your sales or campaign will not work effectively.So accept only relevant content sites with you for having best external search stings.As you know Google is considering the PR power of a website for placement and PR depends on a specific points and your linking policy is effects your PR. Relevant content exchanges bring higher search engine placement.Second point to consider on link swap is equal or higher PR power links will benefit you. If your web site has PR5 and you swap with PR0 site, this exchange not only bring but also takes from you as engines placement.Another important aspect of leading traffic is directory submission. You definitely must submit your site to different directories. Main directories is a “must” and more specified directories to submit is a “plus”. We published an ultimate Directory List on Worldlancer.com Forum. You can do this yourself or request our manual directory submission service for you. When your submission will get approval and listed on a directory, you will have one way links through your site and this will generate free traffic as well as helping higher placement on search engines.

Email marketing works if you have your own newsletter Subscribers about your new products or announcements.But if you don’t have your own mailing group and if you buy from a media company list as targeted email marketing, you can get many spam complains even that list is legally accepted to get promotional emails, spam has strong official regulations and penalties in EU but else than a law, serious companies do not buy outside email listings to promote their goods and services. If you have your own listing, you can make good weekly or monthly newsletters ,some tricks in email marketing is the subject title, body and your aim while sending that newsletter. Many email campaigns show that most important point is subject title in a mail. Writing a respectful and true title will bring you more opening(readership) rate , don’t write foolish or false things, just keep real and respectful to receiver.Promotional emails always includes some scripts inside to measure if receiver opened the mail or if responded. Of course not need to tell about these mails must be custom mails which titles the name and sirname of receiver inside and written in a kind way. Do you think writing much on body bring more respond rate? Thats a mistake! Short and clear body will ease for higher interest through your announcement. Maybe promoting your just latest models should work better in formatted email campaigns and the last trick is prefer a plain text format instead of HTML. Most receivers are ordinary PC users and they always concern about their PC security. If you send HTML emails, your opening rate will be lower than a text email if you don’t have a trusthworhty corporate identity. Simple and pure text link emails are best to achieve highest respond rate on email marketing.

Content Surgery is something necessary about deep analyses of increasing your sales with some simple changes in your estore.User friendly interfaces, simple navigation system or some product recommendations can raise your purchasing rate per client.Your design ,colors or font size can affect this rate either but how you will find the best? Answer is very simple, just make client surveys to understand or request a feedback about your estore to improve.Feedbacks are your personalised messages and you receive back high quality information. Most users will get happy to help you.If you got many unhappy feedback on your navigation system or anything, quickly change it!A clever content surgery can bring you at least 15% more purchases and you can achieve this after listening your clients.

Until here, I tried to mention the methods of successful campaign during the usage of traditional online marketing tools but some other affords also essential such as daily campaign optimization and modification. A guru level online marketers starts the day by analyses of a running campaign ,if you feel a campaign is like your child, you have to feed your kid!

If you are leading an online marketing group and working together, then you need some team management skills either. As a team leader, you are expected to plan the campaign very detailed and make a proper task distribution around your team. On this point, I can recommend you about regional or functional task distribution. You can divide your targets on country basis and give that country marketing task to one of your team member or other option as functional task distribution around the team members like all markets but one function like email marketing, and all affilate marketing to another team member. These kinds of team leading projects is requires Project Management skills and team relations management, risk analyses, reporting,performance analyses.

Finally whatever you try to market ,always respect your clients and company. Never try to cheat your clients and stay away from tricky campaigns, you must always consider that you are managing a Brand name, once you harm your corporate image its not easy to rebuild. As I always tell, your competitors are -one click away on web!

Introducing White Cliffs Hair Studio, the best thing to come from England since … the Beatles?

His face was the picture of earnestness and sincerity as we spoke in the parking lot of the nondescript studio located just outside of Indianapolis.  “This company has given me back my life.  It has delivered me from years of feeling hopeless.”

The young man I’m speaking to is Jeremy, a 22-year-old graduate student at the University of Indiana and the company he’s speaking of isn’t a corporate headhunter or a shrink or an employer.  He’s speaking of an Indianapolis hair replacement studio that, according to Jeremy, “has given me back the confidence to enjoy my life without looking ten years older than I am.”

Jeremy is a handsome man with a baby face and a serious manner.  He has already explained that he’s “bald” but upon close inspection, there is no proof whatsoever that he has lost one single strand of hair from his head.  The sun is shining and I can see the color and natural highlights as well as the density and what appears to be hair growing – emerging – from his scalp.

“Touch it,” challenges Jeremy.  “Run your fingers through my hair.”

I’m shy to do this in a parking lot, but I do.  I explore his head with my fingertips searching for some sign that this kid is putting me on.  I feel no creases or bumps aside from the normal features of his scalp and head.  I examine his hairline.  I see hairs growing everywhere.  I look closer.

“All of the hair on top isn’t mine,” he says.   “The hair on the sides and back is mine.”  Then the talk turns serious.  “When I began losing my hair at age 17, I wanted to die.  I didn’t believe I would ever find anyone to love me and I hid in a hat for five years before I found White Cliffs on the Internet.  They had just opened here in Indianapolis.  They are a British company but now they’re here.  To me, they are the coolest thing to come from England since the Beatles.”

Jeremy tells me he is performing a poetry reading on campus this very night, an “open mic” affair.  He tells me that his restored hair allows him to focus because he isn’t worried about what other people are thinking.  “This is the best money I’ll ever spend,” he says before driving off.

Inside I’m now visiting with Paul Sandor, the owner and operator of White Cliffs’ Indianapolis hair replacement studio.  We’re looking through Jeremy’s file and I’m examining the photos Paul took of Jeremy when he first came in for a consultation.

“Can you believe it’s the same person?” Sandor asks.  “Look at that hair.”

I reply in the negative but I hadn’t even focused on the differences of the hair.  I’m looking at the eyes, the face.  I’m trying to reconcile the sad, hopeless and lifeless face of the young man in the photos to the handsome, colorful, intense and full-of-life face of the person I was just speaking to in the parking lot 30 minutes before.

Then I allow myself to take in the entire photo and I see a young, premature balding man with a scant amount of hair on the top and a recession pattern that goes back clear to the crown.

“That’s quite a transformation,” I finally say to Sandor, who is standing back smiling broadly.

“That’s what we do here,” he replies, still beaming.  “We change lives for the better.”

“What does a ‘transformation’ like this cost?” I asked, bracing myself.

He directed me to again look at the photos and to reflect on Jeremy’s current look and outlook.  I did.  “So the question, then, isn’t ‘what is the cost’” he said, “as much as it is ‘what is the value’ of the transformation.”

I wanted to press him for a straight answer but instead I heard myself saying, “Well, if I take what Jeremy told me at face value, and I examine these photos and add that to what I understand about human nature, I might conclude that the value is priceless.”

“Exactly,” he said, patting my shoulder with as much enthusiasm as if I had just recited the winning question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  “Now you understand what White Cliffs is all about”.

White Cliffs Hair Studio originated in London in 2003 and began as a single studio called Hair Loss Centre.  The premise of the founding partners was to found a company dedicated to hair loss sufferers by hair loss sufferers.

According to the company profile on their website, the two principals were both hair loss sufferers who had tried every hair loss treatment method under the sun including laser treatments, topical remedies, surgery and nonsurgical treatment methods.

After years of research and many, many thousands of dollars later, they had realized that they had become experts in their own right.  Determined to save hair loss sufferers both time and money, the partners – Andrew and Warren – decided to open Hair Loss Center in the elegant Mayfair section of London.  Think Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

From those humble beginnings sprouted White Cliffs Hair Studio, now known Internationally with studios throughout the United Kingdom including Scotland and Ireland.   Studios in India, Canada, Australia soon opened, followed by three studios in the United States in Cleveland, Indianapolis and, most recently, in Chicago.    Paul Sandor owns and operates all three US enterprises.

What made White Cliffs stand out so quickly was their multi-solution approach to solving hair loss.  “In the beginning, before I became a White Cliffs studio, I only offered nonsurgical hair replacement,” said Sandor.  “Hair loss is more complex than that.  You need more tools than that. It’s like that saying:  If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything like it is a nail.  Now we offer every solution for every type of hair loss condition.”

I was still thinking about Jeremy when Paul’s next client, Lerna, walked into the office.  Lerna is a beautiful 42-year-old African American woman who works as a public school teacher in Indianapolis.  She looks and dresses conservatively but said that this wasn’t always the case.

“Ever since I was a child, I embraced all the African traditions as far as beading and braiding my hair,” she said, laughing.  “All through my teens and twenties, I used harsh chemicals and even harsher braiding techniques.  But I was young and even though everyone warned me to take better care of my hair I didn’t listen.”

While in her mid-thirties Lerna was diagnosed with traction Alopecia, a common cause of hair loss due to extended tension exerted on the scalp hair, such as is caused by ponytails and braids.  She was shocked when she cut her hair short one year to find that underneath all of her outer hair, she had lost significant amounts of her hair in patches.

“It was nightmarish,” she said, “but little did I know that my nightmare was only beginning.  The road to finding an expert and professional who cares and really understands how to help someone like me is not an easy one.”

Lerna related a four-year quest to restore her natural appearance as well as “everything else I lost when I lost my hair; the self-esteem and the self-confidence.”

“I went to six different salons before I found White Cliffs,” she relates.  “They all put hair on my head, but it wasn’t my hair.  And that’s a big difference.  They all wanted me to shave off my remaining hair in order to give me the density I wanted and they didn’t understand why I would want to keep what is there, what is still mine.”

She had spent over $20,000 over six years without getting what she paid for.  Today, her hair looks both natural and stylish.  Unlike Jeremy, her front hairline was her own actual hair.  While the traction Alopecia had caused her hair to recede slightly, it still looked natural for a woman her age.

This time I got to see her without her hair prosthetic applied to her head.  “Patchy hair loss” described her hair condition perfectly.  She had a lot of her own hair, with large patches of thinning and missing hair.  Sandor had applied a “Volumizer hair system” to her head, a thin, weightless mesh base with hair tied to it that perfectly matched her own hair, texture and color.  The base contains openings for her own, natural hair to pull through it, perfectly blending with the tied-on hair, making her bald patches virtually disappear and giving her instant density and an instant smile.

“These people here are very sensitive,” she said.  “They care deeply about me.  I feel that.  Like Paul always says, I’m not a client and he’s not a businessman.  We’re in a partnership.  We’re equals.  That’s the sort of relationship I like to be in where nobody has the upper hand.   It feels comfortable.  Sincerity goes a long way with me.”

The White Cliffs of Dover in Britain are a sight to behold.  They are chalky, white cliffs that form an important part of the English coastline and are deeply inscribed with significant national identity, history and meaning.  For thousands of years these cliffs have formed a symbolic guard against enemy and foreign invasion of English ports.

To the British, these cliffs represent their national pride and values of strength, fortitude, courage and beauty.

White Cliffs Hair Studio claims the same values as their namesake cliffs.  An examination of their website illustrates a study of smooth elegance, style and technology.  Their marketing messages are fine-tuned into short, powerful phrases that cut right to the heart of hair loss.

In one banner a young woman is leaning carefree with her head in her hand, along with the message:  She looks great and feels great.  Hair Restoration is life restoration.  The confidences to exceed her limits and to see herself as she is … beautiful.

Another banner portrays a chemo patient posed with a physician and the words:  Maintaining a whole and healthy appearance during your recovery helps you to feel better … which helps you to heal better.

Like a menu at a fine restaurant, they outline their treatment offerings with each treatment accompanied by pages of frequently asked questions, photos, videos and testimonials.  Lightly sprinkled throughout the website are testimonials of British celebrities and accolades from organizations and websites dedicated to hair loss.

While they made their name with their nonsurgical hair systems – which they manufacture themselves in their own factory – all studios now offer laser hair therapy, hair transplant surgery, hair extensions, topical treatments, and special “Cancer wigs” – prosthetics – for those undergoing Oncology treatments who temporarily lose their hair as a result of the treatments.

The partners – in order to fund and provide free hair loss products and services to children with financial need – formed the White Cliffs Foundation.

Bill Smith, editor of HairSite.com, one of the world’s largest and longest running websites dedicated to hair loss, recommends White Cliffs and offered this perspective:

“I’ll tell you what is different about White Cliffs.  They’ve mastered the relationship with the client, which in this industry has become one of the most important factors for success.  Nowadays, the materials that go into a hair system are more or less the same anywhere you go.  In the end, success in the non-surgical hair replacement business depends on two things: artistry and customer service. In other words, the craftsmanship that goes into building an undetectable hair system and how well a salon manages client relationships.  White Cliffs is one of the very few full service salons that has managed to do both extremely well and that explains why they have become so successful.”

Sandor himself reads Smith’s quote and nods approvingly.  “He’s right.  If we assume all things are equal in terms of materials, you still need talent and caring to turn it into something beautiful because only when its done with a high level of skill does it work as far as restoring the hair but also the self-esteem and self-confidence; the restoring of life.”

“That’s the White Cliffs way,” he adds reassuringly.  “That’s ‘the better way’.”

My initial pan was to join the british Royal Air Force, but I have imperfect vision and they don’t accept people with laser eye surgery for some reason, yet I heard the American Air Force does.
I don’t mind having to move to the US, I quite like the idea but does the U.S Air Force have any ETHNICITY laws.

E.g The RAF wants British people only, a foreignor must be in ownership of British citizenship or dual citizenship AND have lived in UK for a number of years.

What are the regulations of ethnicity in the US Air Force.

Many Thanks.

The Scotland wing Thom Evans will this week have a second operation on his neck before returning home from Cardiff. The 24-year-old Evans, injured in a collision during Scotland’s Six Nations defeat against Wales, has opted for the second procedure which the team’s doctor, James Robson, said would speed up the recovery process. Evans will not play again this season.

“Thom has been heartened by the many messages of support he has received from around the world,” said Robson. “He and his mother have spoken to the surgeons and Thom has opted to undergo a ­further procedure later this week, which will enhance the surgery that has already taken place and provide further stabilisation to his neck.

“This procedure is optional and Thom could have decided to have it done at a later point, or not at all. He’s decided to go ahead now and that should help with the whole recovery process. The same surgeons who performed the initial operation will undertake this procedure. Once he has settled from this procedure the expectation is that he will be allowed to return home.”

Robson will travel to Cardiff tomorrow to see Evans and the Scotland full-back Chris Paterson, who is due to be released from hospital after suffering bruising to his kidney.

Evans’s coach at Glasgow, Sean Lineen, said Robson’s quick diagnosis when he treated the wing was crucial. “The surgeons in Cardiff did a great job but I would like to pay special tribute to Lisa Casey [the Scotland physiotherapist] and James Robson who attended to him on the pitch. They say the minutes immediately after such an accident are crucial and the work they did cannot be under-estimated and probably gave the surgeons a good chance to perform a successful operation on Thom, who is in good spirits. It could have been a lot more serious than it actually was.”

The Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery will appear before a disciplinary panel in Dublin tomorrow after being cited for allegedly kicking the France wing Alexis Palisson during the Six Nations defeat in Paris. He faces a ban of between four and 12 weeks if found guilty.

The Stade Français prop David Attoub will have his appeal against a 70‑week suspension imposed last month for eye-gouging the Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris heard in London on 2 March.

Ireland V Scotland Hospitality

http://www.corporatehospitalitygroup.com/Rugby-Hospitality/Six-Nations-Hospitality/343/Ireland-V-Scotland-Hospitality/Ireland-V-Scotland-Croke-Park-Dublin-Saturday-March-20-2010-Tickets.htm

Six Nations Hospitality

http://www.corporatehospitalitygroup.com/

Michael Jackson is dead but here are the things that remind us of this music icon.

Jackson’s Patented Anti-Gravity Boot: He invented and patented special boots that allowed the wearer to lean so far forward that it seems to defy gravity. He used this for the famous “lean” in the “Smooth Criminal” music video.

His Nose: Michael’s signature nose has undergone a couple of plastic surgery.

His Moves: he moved with fluidity, speed, and athleticism, even when he wasn’t onstage.

The Kids: Michael has always portrayed to the public how much he loves kids even after he was charged with child molestation in 2003. in his Neverland Ranch, burn victims, underprivileged kids and fans were welcomed with ice cream, and amused by a wandering Charlie Chaplin impersonator and Jackson’s menagerie of animals. They explored Jackson’s rooms full of videotaped films, marveled at his collectible mannequins of stars and superheroes, and listened to hip-hop songs in the arcade.

The Chimp: In 1985, a three-year-old chimpanzee named Bubbles was rescued from a Texas cancer research center by Michael Jackson. Bubbles went everywhere with Jackson, becoming his constant companion and best friend. He would even be dressed up in the same outfit as Jackson and toured with him on his Bad tour.

The Jackson Brothers: He and his brothers competed at amateur night at New York City’s Apollo Theater in 1967, and won.

His Music: Michael’s songs Man In The Mirror, Billie Jean, Thriller, The Way You Make Me Feel and Beat It and more would always be unforgettable.
Future Songs: Before he died, Jackson worked with the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am in Ireland. Some of their remakes of Jackson classics appeared last year on the 25th anniversary edition of Jackson’s Thriller, but there’s no word on whether their collaboration led to any new songs.

The ReFirme or Polaris-Laser Lift is one of the most popular FDA-approved nonablative procedures for maintaining a youthful appearance by skin tightening. Unlike Thermage, it uses a laser combined with radio-frequency energy and pulsed light. The last method of skin tightening involves laser skin resurfacing. The older methods include the non-fractionalised erbium or CO2 lasers. The newer safer methods include erbium with profractional technology, the Fraxel or the gold standard Active Fx fractionalised CO2 laser. Many doctors, including myself believe a combination of treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) get the best tightening results. The Refirme (used to be called the Polaris) is probably my favourite method as it is not especially painful, has a combination rejuvenation laser, does not cause later skin damage and has a lot of experience in the cosmetic market.

Why do you like the Polaris-Laser Lift over other RF devices?

The box says “this advanced system incorporates three forms of energy to improve skin texture and skin colour”, but I technically like the Polaris RF because it uses bipolar radiofrequency, which has been shown to be safer and more effective than monopolar. Unlike less controllable and less safe monopolar, bipolar RF does not travel through the body and this means each treatment can be customized through the system’s computer to control the depth and degree of the heating process; hence the technology can focus energy to a specific depth of skin for more accurate treatment. Newer tripolar devices may even prove to be better again. I also like it as the RF can cause the collagen to contract and tighten over a period of time and the combination diode laser can help to reduce other problems, such as redness and brown pigmentation blotches. The procedure is also rapid and bloodless. It is usual to have four sessions of treatment are performed separated by three weeks. It is favoured by many celebrities including Madonna and Felicity Kendall.

How does the Polaris RF system actually work?

Nobody really knows how this system works but we assume radio-frequency (RF hereinafter) passes electrical energy through the tissue and resistance produces heat within the deeper dermis. This bundle of thermal energy can be accurately controlled by computer evenly to three-dimensional volumes of collagen tissue at controllable depths. This energy causes immediate collagen denaturation of the triple-helix, which is thought to be the mechanism for immediate tissue contraction. There is also subsequent new collagen formation (neocollagenesis) over the next month, which further tightens the dermal tissue and reduces wrinkles.

What are the benefits of Polaris-Laser Lift over other procedures and surgeries?

For a start, it is totally non-invasive. This means there are no incisions and no evidence to date of later tissue damage. There is no bleeding or bruising and the risk of scarring is minimal. A level of control can be achieved with the Polaris that is difficult with other treatments. It utilizes three different forms of energy to reach multiple skin problems. This means we can see an improvement in wrinkles, sagging and colour. There may be areas of slight swelling or redness that quickly resolves over a few days. Make-up may be applied immediately. You may resume all normal activities immediately. The full effect of your treatment develops over a few months following the procedure and can be expected to last for several months or years. As with any cosmetic procedure, the results can be expected to fade gradually over time, at which time the procedure can be repeated if desired.

Is it painful?

A Polaris-Laser Lift can be performed with topical anaesthetic cream applied about an hour before your treatment. Some patients do not require anaesthetic cream due to the cooling created by the stream of cool air that hits the skin during treatment. When the machine is pulsed, patients feel brief, heat in the treatment site followed by the immediate cooling effect of the air spray. For those patients who are sensitive, the topical anaesthetic cream is recommended. 
What kind of results can I expect?

As with all RF devices, this is difficult to estimate. Some patients see results immediately. However, for most patients the results are gradual over a three to six month period as the skin tightens and more new collagen is gradually formed. Depending on the area treated, the skin laxity and your desired results, multiple treatments may be required. Skin will continue to age as it has in the past and eventually you may wish to have another anti-aging procedure. Most patients will see fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes and mouth fill in, while the deeper frown lines and grooves are softened. Facial skin and the skin along the neck can be tightened providing a mild, non-surgical browlift or facelift effect. This tightening effect can be used to firm up loose or sagging tissue in other parts of the body. This same deep Polaris tissue heating may also have benefits for treating acne, acne scarring and stretch marks. Redness and brown blotchiness also gradually improve two to three months after the treatments are complete. The worldwide safety record of this procedure has revealed very few adverse effects thus far.

How much does it cost?

The Polaris is an expensive device (over 100k Euro) and there is only one in Ireland. It is normally costs 350 Euro per treatment and a group of five costs 1250 Euro. However, in recessionary times Ailesbury has now dropped this to 200 Euro per treatment or 4 for 800 Euro.

Introducing White Cliffs Hair Studio, the best thing to come from England since … the Beatles?

His face was the picture of earnestness and sincerity as we spoke in the parking lot of the nondescript studio located just outside of Indianapolis.  “This company has given me back my life.  It has delivered me from years of feeling hopeless.”

The young man I’m speaking to is Jeremy, a 22-year-old graduate student at the University of Indiana and the company he’s speaking of isn’t a corporate headhunter or a shrink or an employer.  He’s speaking of an Indianapolis hair replacement studio that, according to Jeremy, “has given me back the confidence to enjoy my life without looking ten years older than I am.”

Jeremy is a handsome man with a baby face and a serious manner.  He has already explained that he’s “bald” but upon close inspection, there is no proof whatsoever that he has lost one single strand of hair from his head.  The sun is shining and I can see the color and natural highlights as well as the density and what appears to be hair growing – emerging – from his scalp.

“Touch it,” challenges Jeremy.  “Run your fingers through my hair.”

I’m shy to do this in a parking lot, but I do.  I explore his head with my fingertips searching for some sign that this kid is putting me on.  I feel no creases or bumps aside from the normal features of his scalp and head.  I examine his hairline.  I see hairs growing everywhere.  I look closer.

“All of the hair on top isn’t mine,” he says.   “The hair on the sides and back is mine.”  Then the talk turns serious.  “When I began losing my hair at age 17, I wanted to die.  I didn’t believe I would ever find anyone to love me and I hid in a hat for five years before I found White Cliffs on the Internet.  They had just opened here in Indianapolis.  They are a British company but now they’re here.  To me, they are the coolest thing to come from England since the Beatles.”

Jeremy tells me he is performing a poetry reading on campus this very night, an “open mic” affair.  He tells me that his restored hair allows him to focus because he isn’t worried about what other people are thinking.  “This is the best money I’ll ever spend,” he says before driving off.

Inside I’m now visiting with Paul Sandor, the owner and operator of White Cliffs’ Indianapolis hair replacement studio.  We’re looking through Jeremy’s file and I’m examining the photos Paul took of Jeremy when he first came in for a consultation.

“Can you believe it’s the same person?” Sandor asks.  “Look at that hair.”

I reply in the negative but I hadn’t even focused on the differences of the hair.  I’m looking at the eyes, the face.  I’m trying to reconcile the sad, hopeless and lifeless face of the young man in the photos to the handsome, colorful, intense and full-of-life face of the person I was just speaking to in the parking lot 30 minutes before.

Then I allow myself to take in the entire photo and I see a young, premature balding man with a scant amount of hair on the top and a recession pattern that goes back clear to the crown.

“That’s quite a transformation,” I finally say to Sandor, who is standing back smiling broadly.

“That’s what we do here,” he replies, still beaming.  “We change lives for the better.”

“What does a ‘transformation’ like this cost?” I asked, bracing myself.

He directed me to again look at the photos and to reflect on Jeremy’s current look and outlook.  I did.  “So the question, then, isn’t ‘what is the cost’” he said, “as much as it is ‘what is the value’ of the transformation.”

I wanted to press him for a straight answer but instead I heard myself saying, “Well, if I take what Jeremy told me at face value, and I examine these photos and add that to what I understand about human nature, I might conclude that the value is priceless.”

“Exactly,” he said, patting my shoulder with as much enthusiasm as if I had just recited the winning question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  “Now you understand what White Cliffs is all about”.

White Cliffs Hair Studio originated in London in 2003 and began as a single studio called Hair Loss Centre.  The premise of the founding partners was to found a company dedicated to hair loss sufferers by hair loss sufferers.

According to the company profile on their website, the two principals were both hair loss sufferers who had tried every hair loss treatment method under the sun including laser treatments, topical remedies, surgery and nonsurgical treatment methods.

After years of research and many, many thousands of dollars later, they had realized that they had become experts in their own right.  Determined to save hair loss sufferers both time and money, the partners – Andrew and Warren – decided to open Hair Loss Center in the elegant Mayfair section of London.  Think Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

From those humble beginnings sprouted White Cliffs Hair Studio, now known Internationally with studios throughout the United Kingdom including Scotland and Ireland.   Studios in India, Canada, Australia soon opened, followed by three studios in the United States in Cleveland, Indianapolis and, most recently, in Chicago.    Paul Sandor owns and operates all three US enterprises.

What made White Cliffs stand out so quickly was their multi-solution approach to solving hair loss.  “In the beginning, before I became a White Cliffs studio, I only offered nonsurgical hair replacement,” said Sandor.  “Hair loss is more complex than that.  You need more tools than that. It’s like that saying:  If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything like it is a nail.  Now we offer every solution for every type of hair loss condition.”

I was still thinking about Jeremy when Paul’s next client, Lerna, walked into the office.  Lerna is a beautiful 42-year-old African American woman who works as a public school teacher in Indianapolis.  She looks and dresses conservatively but said that this wasn’t always the case.

“Ever since I was a child, I embraced all the African traditions as far as beading and braiding my hair,” she said, laughing.  “All through my teens and twenties, I used harsh chemicals and even harsher braiding techniques.  But I was young and even though everyone warned me to take better care of my hair I didn’t listen.”

While in her mid-thirties Lerna was diagnosed with traction Alopecia, a common cause of hair loss due to extended tension exerted on the scalp hair, such as is caused by ponytails and braids.  She was shocked when she cut her hair short one year to find that underneath all of her outer hair, she had lost significant amounts of her hair in patches.

“It was nightmarish,” she said, “but little did I know that my nightmare was only beginning.  The road to finding an expert and professional who cares and really understands how to help someone like me is not an easy one.”

Lerna related a four-year quest to restore her natural appearance as well as “everything else I lost when I lost my hair; the self-esteem and the self-confidence.”

“I went to six different salons before I found White Cliffs,” she relates.  “They all put hair on my head, but it wasn’t my hair.  And that’s a big difference.  They all wanted me to shave off my remaining hair in order to give me the density I wanted and they didn’t understand why I would want to keep what is there, what is still mine.”

She had spent over $20,000 over six years without getting what she paid for.  Today, her hair looks both natural and stylish.  Unlike Jeremy, her front hairline was her own actual hair.  While the traction Alopecia had caused her hair to recede slightly, it still looked natural for a woman her age.

This time I got to see her without her hair prosthetic applied to her head.  “Patchy hair loss” described her hair condition perfectly.  She had a lot of her own hair, with large patches of thinning and missing hair.  Sandor had applied a “Volumizer hair system” to her head, a thin, weightless mesh base with hair tied to it that perfectly matched her own hair, texture and color.  The base contains openings for her own, natural hair to pull through it, perfectly blending with the tied-on hair, making her bald patches virtually disappear and giving her instant density and an instant smile.

“These people here are very sensitive,” she said.  “They care deeply about me.  I feel that.  Like Paul always says, I’m not a client and he’s not a businessman.  We’re in a partnership.  We’re equals.  That’s the sort of relationship I like to be in where nobody has the upper hand.   It feels comfortable.  Sincerity goes a long way with me.”

The White Cliffs of Dover in Britain are a sight to behold.  They are chalky, white cliffs that form an important part of the English coastline and are deeply inscribed with significant national identity, history and meaning.  For thousands of years these cliffs have formed a symbolic guard against enemy and foreign invasion of English ports.

To the British, these cliffs represent their national pride and values of strength, fortitude, courage and beauty.

White Cliffs Hair Studio claims the same values as their namesake cliffs.  An examination of their website illustrates a study of smooth elegance, style and technology.  Their marketing messages are fine-tuned into short, powerful phrases that cut right to the heart of hair loss.

In one banner a young woman is leaning carefree with her head in her hand, along with the message:  She looks great and feels great.  Hair Restoration is life restoration.  The confidences to exceed her limits and to see herself as she is … beautiful.

Another banner portrays a chemo patient posed with a physician and the words:  Maintaining a whole and healthy appearance during your recovery helps you to feel better … which helps you to heal better.

Like a menu at a fine restaurant, they outline their treatment offerings with each treatment accompanied by pages of frequently asked questions, photos, videos and testimonials.  Lightly sprinkled throughout the website are testimonials of British celebrities and accolades from organizations and websites dedicated to hair loss.

While they made their name with their nonsurgical hair systems – which they manufacture themselves in their own factory – all studios now offer laser hair therapy, hair transplant surgery, hair extensions, topical treatments, and special “Cancer wigs” – prosthetics – for those undergoing Oncology treatments who temporarily lose their hair as a result of the treatments.

The partners – in order to fund and provide free hair loss products and services to children with financial need – formed the White Cliffs Foundation.

Bill Smith, editor of HairSite.com, one of the world’s largest and longest running websites dedicated to hair loss, recommends White Cliffs and offered this perspective:

“I’ll tell you what is different about White Cliffs.  They’ve mastered the relationship with the client, which in this industry has become one of the most important factors for success.  Nowadays, the materials that go into a hair system are more or less the same anywhere you go.  In the end, success in the non-surgical hair replacement business depends on two things: artistry and customer service. In other words, the craftsmanship that goes into building an undetectable hair system and how well a salon manages client relationships.  White Cliffs is one of the very few full service salons that has managed to do both extremely well and that explains why they have become so successful.”

Sandor himself reads Smith’s quote and nods approvingly.  “He’s right.  If we assume all things are equal in terms of materials, you still need talent and caring to turn it into something beautiful because only when its done with a high level of skill does it work as far as restoring the hair but also the self-esteem and self-confidence; the restoring of life.”

“That’s the White Cliffs way,” he adds reassuringly.  “That’s ‘the better way’.”

Allergan, the manufacturer of BOTOX” or botulinum toxin, was an original dermatology/opthalmology product company. It began developmemt of Botox as an experimental drug over three decades ago in the 1970s. It’s opthalmological researchers tried it on monkeys with strabismus (eye muscle disorder known as cross-eyed or wall-eyed) with surprising curative results. Since then, they have sought and expanded its uses to include cosmetic facial applications which was granted in 2002. It is this cosmetic application that has exploded Botox unto the American and worldwide scene.

The manufacturing of Botox is an interesting story. In the beginning, it was made under the strict supervision of the U.S. Military as it was a poisonous drug. Since then it is manufactured in a secret location in the U.S. and then shipped for bottling in Ireland. Whether this story is actually true, I do not know but it certainly adds to the drug’s mystique. It certainly is the most expensive drug in the world if you break down its price structure . At 5 nanograms of volume placed in each bottle which sells for nearly $500 per bottle to providers, that makes its value over 1 trillion dollars per pound!

Botulinum Toxin or BOTOX”, is produced from anaerobic (lacking oxygen) bacterial cultures creating a toxin. The toxin is composed of seven strands named A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Each strand can block the release of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, from the nerve synapse resulting in temporary muscle paralysis. (no power to the muscle so to speak) The different serotypes have different durations of action before it wears off. Serotype A lasts around three to four months while Serotype F lasts just a few weeks. This is why you see on the Botox bottle and in its advertisements, botulinum toxin A, as this one serotype lasts the longest.

The actual Botox toxin is put into small vials of 100 units as a desiccated (dry) powder. But what does the 100 units mean? It means how many units are required to kill 100 mice. Each vial then contains one hundred mice units or 100 units for short. Initially, Allergan used 25 nanograms of the toxin to kill 100 mice. But it has been learned with improved technology and manufacturing that less is needed to do the same job and the amount per bottle is now reduced to 5 nanograms. This has great relevance since Botox is a drug that requires repeated injections over time to maintain its effects. Using repeated lower doses will reduce the likelihood that patients may develop resistance or immunity. And despite what is often touted, some few select people do have a natural immunity to Botox and others do develop some resistance to its effects over time.

As a cosmetic treatment, Botox is what I call a ‘northern’ treatment’. It is superb at controlling undesired expressions around the eyes and forehead. This northern area of the face probably accounts for the vast majority of its cosmetic use as it creates results that sometimes actual surgery can not rival. It can also be used on the southern part of the face around the mouth. But its effectiveness in this area is diminished as surgical treatments are usually more effective and Botox plays more of an ancillary role to complement other types of treatments.