ClearEdits for Microsoft Word Helps You Write More Concisely
Posted: June 8, 2012 at 3:17 am
By Erez Zukerman June 8, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft Word has a built-in spelling checker with a touch of grammar smarts, but it will never highlight a big word and ask whether you can swap it for a small one, or note that a verb is weak and deserves replacing. For that kind of advice, you must turn to a dedicated product such as ClearEdits, an $80 add-in for Microsoft Word.
In pricing, ClearEdits is somewhere in the middle of the writing-advice pack: Its more expensive than Serenity Softwares Editor ($55; $75 with Word add-in), but much cheaper thanSentence Aerobics($139) andStyleWriter($190 for the Professional version). Its more tightly integrated with Word than either Editor or StyleWriteralthough both of those offerings play well with Word, they run outside the main Word window. ClearEdits, like competitor Sentence Aerobics, runs right inside Word. In fact, ClearEdits is even more tightly bound into Word than Sentence Aerobics: Instead of using its own custom pane, it simply adds comments and color-coded formatting to your document, much as a human editor would.
Of course, with a program such as this, price and interface dont matter as much as sound usage advice. In this department, ClearEdits plays it safe, forgoing ambitious pattern recognition and mainly highlighting single words or idioms and asking polite questions about them. The advice is concise and pleasantly worded: Unnecessary word? Cut if used only for emphasis; leave if reflexive pronoun is needed for meaning. Thats what I got for the word itself, which neither StyleWriter nor Sentence Aerobics flagged for consideration.
ClearEdits can also search for language patterns that it calls Vector Edits, such as the -ed suffix, which can indicate passive voice, a participle that needs to be made into a verb, or an adjective that can be simplified. This feature still leaves the user to do most of the work, because you will have to figure out which of the myriad options applies in each case, and whether the item is something that you should change. Also, since every Vector Edits category has so many matches, ClearEdits documentation suggests using Vector Edits one at a timewhich means youll need to recheck your text several times. On the plus side, because ClearEdits output consists of just highlighted words with native Word comments, it is easier to work with than either Sentence Aerobics (which is festooned with colors) or StyleWriter (which requires constant switching back to Word for making changes).
ClearEdits also offers some basic statistics about your document, such as the longest and shortest paragraphs and sentences, the average number of words in a sentence, and so on. Like StyleWriter, it employs its own usage metrics, ClearScores, which offer at-a-glance analysis of your text. While StyleWriter shows its metrics in the status bar, ClearEdits keeps the scores in a separate window, which is not as convenient to use.
The usage advice I received from StyleWriter tended to be more useful, since StyleWriter highlights particularly long sentences, checks for active voice, and more. ClearEdits advice is basic though sound, and did not contain awkward mistakes like those in the output from Sentence Aerobics.
In a perfect world, one application would combine StyleWriters or Editors lexical richness and ClearEdits perfectly integrated interface. Until such a program comes along, you will have to decide whats more important for you: ease of use, or comprehensive advice.
Note: The Download button takes you to the vendors site, where you must register to download the latest version of the software.
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ClearEdits for Microsoft Word Helps You Write More Concisely
LEGO Excercise Trainer:Series 5 Minifigure – Video
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excercise video for portuguese class – Video
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Cosmic Excercise Hard Chart Preview – Video
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Columbia Asia opens new hospital in Vietnam
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MALAYSIA-based international healthcare provider Columbia Asia has opened a new hospital in Binh Duong, Vietnam, which is the group's 22nd hospital in the region.
The services provider said Columbia Hospital in Binh Duong is its third facility in Vietnam after the one in Gia Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City.
The group also has an international clinic in District One, Ho Chi Minh City.
"Binh Duong has an increasing population and so we are here to meet the demand for quality healthcare now and in the future," Columbia Hospital-Binh Duong general director Dr Thai Tuong Tuong said in a statement.
The company, which is 30 per cent owned by the Employee Provident Fund and 70 per cent by a US-based International Columbia USA LLC, is developing two more hospitals, in Petaling Jaya and Klang.
Its operations in Vietnam are through 100 per cent foreign direct investment.
Columbia Asia Sdn Bhd (Southeast Asia) chief executive officer Kelvin Tan said Columbia Hospital-Binh Duong follows the Columbia Asia business model that focuses on medical excellence and caring patient services.
"This community hospital is built smaller than the standard private hospital, allowing it to provide private healthcare at affordable rates while helping to ease patient flow and operate more efficiently," he said.
The hospital has a capacity of 100 beds, with a total of 34 medical consultants. It is equipped with three operating rooms, a 10-cot nursery, four delivery suites and seven emergency bays. On top of that, it offers ambulatory, dialysis, endoscopy and physiotherapy services.
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Free outdoor yoga in Vail Village Saturday
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VAIL With a long hot summer predicted for Colorado, The Vitality Center at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa is once again offering free yoga on the Solaris lawn in the heart of Vail every Saturday at 9 a.m. Summertime Community Yoga, returning after a successful first run last summer, offers a Vinyasa Flow style practice geared towards all levels of practitioner.
The Vitality Center officially kicked off their outdoor yoga series this year at the Teva Mountain Games and it proved to be a hit as more than 120 people showed up to practice yoga over the weekend.
Summertime Community Yoga is simply a fun way to bring the community together for healthy activity, said Yoga Director Julia Clarke. We've also found that people who are interested in yoga but a little nervous about attending a class have the unusual opportunity to quietly observe a yoga class and join us when they feel comfortable.
The 75-minute classes will be led by rotating teachers from The Vitality Center's yoga studio, which offers 25 yoga classes a week including Vinyasa Flow, Mediation, Restorative Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. Classes are rain or shine, and participants should bring their own yoga mats, water and sunscreen.
For information contact The Vitality Center at 970-476-7721.
Summertime Community Yoga is hosted by The Vitality Center, a program created by the staff at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa, which offers individual diagnostics and guided intensive regimens, tailored group retreat programs and workshop opportunities year-round. For more information visit http://www.vailvitalitycenter.com.
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Yoga Props Workout Ideas
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Yoga Mat Lateral Plank Hops - Get down into a pushup plank position then walk the feet in a bit and bend the knees making sure to keep the back flat like a tabletop. Jump the feet off the mat to the right then over the mat to the left then over the mat to the right and keep going. This is an excellent fat burning cardio workout and improves shoulder and core stability.
Yoga Mat Lateral Leap w/Balance - Stand on one end of your mat with feet pointing towards the long end of the mat. Bend the knees slightly and leap to the other side landing on outer foot with knee bent and hovering the opposite heel off the floor to balance for 1-2 seconds then leap to the other side and balance for 1-2 seconds. This is great for cardio and balance plus works your core and entire lower body.
Yoga Block Single Leg Reach - Place a yoga block a few feet in front of one foot then bend the opposite leg to raise the opposite foot behind you and balance on the supporting leg (keeping the knee soft helps). Slowly bend from the hip of the supporting leg and reach forward to touch the block. This works your core, glutes, hamstrings, inner and outer thighs and lower back.
Yoga Strap Bodyweight Row - Place a resistance band door attachment on your door and loop your yoga strap around it and stand facing the door holding the yoga strap with arms extended and palms down. Bend the elbows and squeeze shoulder blades to row your body towards the door then release back. This is the poor man's suspension trainer and works the arms and upper back. It can also work the legs if you add a squat before the row.
You can perform 10-12 reps of each exercise and do them in a circuit 3 times for a quick fat burning full body cardio and strength workout. You can also pair the exercises and go back and forth 3-4 times the move on to the next pair. Check out the slideshow to see the exercises.
Burn fat and tone up with Breathless Body: The Ultimate Calorie Burn and Breathless Body 2: The Edge, challenging full body fatloss workouts that requires very little time, space, and equipment.
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Yoga fests continue to grow, as Boulder's Hanuman Festival kicks off second year
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Colorado yoga festivals
Colorado is a hotspot for some of the nation's most popular yoga festivals. Here are a few of the offerings.
Hanuman Festival -- hanumanfestival.com, today through Sunday, in Boulder on the lawn next to Boulder High School and parallel to Boulder Creak.
Yoga Rocks the Park -- yogarocksthepark.com, kicked off June 1 and runs 9:30 a.m. every Saturday morning in June and July on the Boulder Public Library lawn.
Wanderlust -- wanderlustfestival.com, July 5-8, at the Copper Mountain Resort.
Telluride Yoga Fest -- tellurideyogafestival.com, July 12-15, Telluride.
Mountain Pose Festival -- villageatcopper.com/mountain-pose-yoga-festival, Aug. 22-26, Copper Mountain.
She was drawn to the excitement, the celebration and the heightened energy that was almost palpable when a group of like-minded people got together to party with live music.
Now in her late 30s, Rodwin still digs that energy. But her life is different. She is married. She doesn't drink. She's a vegetarian, and she is all about her health.
She's still a festival girl at heart -- only now, she rocks a different kind of party: about health, community, service and self-connection, centered around yoga and that live music that she enjoys so much.
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Hi-tech shirt 'nudges' you into the right yoga positions
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electricfoxy.com
By Melissa Dahl
When your triangle pose is not quite triangular enough, you might be used to the guiding hand of a yoga instructor to help gently move you into place. Buthow would you feel about getting an electronic "nudge," or buzz, when you're out of alignment?
A new concept for a high-tech shirt intended for use during yoga (and other activities based on precise movements, like Pilates, baseball or golf) is equipped with sensors that can tell when your movements are out of whack; it'll send you buzzing, electo-hints until you correct yourself. It's currently in development from a company called Electricfoxy. Here's how the company's site describes the product:
Haptic feedback embedded in the hips of the garment give you subtle "taps" on the side that needs adjusting. Continue to modify your move until you perform it correctly. Correct movement ensures better performance, faster improvement, and helps keep you from injury.
The "wearable technology garment," as Electrofoxy insists on calling it, syncs with a mobile app that will save and track your progress on getting your movements right. For precision-based activities like baseball or golf, the smart shirt might be a handy tool to create a better swing of the club or bat. But for yoga, while it's true that the ability to practice your yoga poses at home while still nailing the precision part of it would be helpful, there's also something that also feels a little ... offabout the whole thing, said some yoga instructors we spoke to.
At first glance, Seattle yoga instructor Ellen Boyle's reaction was a big "NO!" Boyle, who teaches at Seattle Yoga Arts in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, worries that the device would disrupt the fluid connection yoga helps to forge between your physical body and your internal, spiritual self. If you're always waiting for that little buzz, that's a different type of "awareness" than what yoga is meant to teach.
"And it kinda freaks me out a bit," Boyle admits. "It would make me anxious to be constantly anticipating the 'nudge' in my practice rather than relying on my own sense feeling."
Laurice Nemetz, co-president of the Yoga Teachers Association, a non-profit educational organization, worries that students might risk injury by trying to push themselves into the correct position, whether or not their body is actually capable of doing so.And for others, "in a society with body-image issues, this app might feed into those obsessive issues, instead of helping them," Nemetz says. Still, she says she'd be curious to give the app a try.
"This app may prove useful for physical therapy rehab and be an interesting tool, but I hesitate with something that would replace human-to-human feedback," Nemetz says. "Health is far more important to me and my clients' movement than the attitude that implies. The work of yoga, Pilates, etc., is both science and art."
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Hi-tech shirt 'nudges' you into the right yoga positions
Back to Life, Back to Reality: Seattle Sounders Hammer Cal FC 5-0 in Open Cup
Posted: June 7, 2012 at 12:18 pm
The Gift of Stoppage Time author thinks it may be time to give Cal FC coach and FOX Soccer Analyst Eric Wynalda his shot at the big-time.
The most entertaining moment of Seattles 5-0 thrashing of amateur club Cal FC in Open Cup action Tuesday night in Seattle was Sigi Schmids post-game comment that his team wasnt used to facing teams who use a sweeper. Eric Wynalda of all people, bringing back the sweeper! And why not? Unfortunately it would have been an even LONGER night had his team played flat in the back.
But tactics aside, Seattle looked fitter, stronger, more organized and plain better. The Sounders are a good club and it was refreshing to hear Sigi also say in his post-game comments that his club takes any tournament they enter very seriously. There is a reason they are the defending three-time champion of the Open Cup. Maybe you and some others dont think its a big deal? Its still a trophy. And soccer at the highest levels is about collecting trophies. There are other clubs in MLS who DO NOT take the Open Cup seriously. In fact, there are clubs in MLS that I dont think take ANYTHING seriously they are so bad. Youve got to win something at some point. And the good thing about Seattle is that even though MLS CUP has eluded them, they are heavily favored every year now to win the Open Cup and that is nothing to scoff at.
Credit to Cal FC for keeping things close through the halftime whistle, but I could tell even from very early in the game that Cal FC would be chasing the game for 90 minutes. Seattle looked organized, strong, serious and confident. And once the first goal went in, the floodgates opened and they did, really, what all MLS teams should do to amateur teamsthey beat them handily.
And again, this is no disrespect to Cal FCa week earlier Cal FC sent the Portland Timbers home from the tournament in from of the Timbers HOME CROWD! What a great run by Cal FC and hopefully some of their players are given the proper opportunity at the pro level to show themselves. And credit to their coach, US Soccer Hall of Famer Eric Wynalda who engineered their great run with limited practices and resources.
Should Wynalda finally get the MLS coaching gig that he maybe deserves? Absolutely! Do you think anybody in MLS will actually take a risk on him? NO.
Why? Because hes not in the club (coaching club)and we all know it. But I dare anybody to hire him (Toronto, would it really hurt to hire him at this point?) because he will win games and he does KNOW the game and he will be the first to admit that if he is NOT getting results FIRE ME!
How is Bruce Arena not under the gun in LA? Can anybody be given more resources yet not achieve anything close to the proper results this season? Why not Wynalda? Nobody will try it. But I guarantee that whoever does will see results. Hes not half the joker that some of the coaches out there are.
Mark Vincent Lincir is the author of THE GIFT OF STOPPAGE TIME
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Back to Life, Back to Reality: Seattle Sounders Hammer Cal FC 5-0 in Open Cup