A lot of time and attention is paid to the threats facing our kids today. While the world may seem like an increasingly dangerous place, the fact is that it is not.

In the U.S., for example, just the past fifty years has shown an enormous drop in child mortality rates (deaths under age 5), from 30 per 100,000 in 1960 to less than 8 in 2011. Worldwide, childhood deaths are dropping by the hundreds of thousands each year due to factors like improved access to immunizations.

For example, a 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Justice examined child abduction rates for 1999, and while 800,000 children were considered missing that year, only 115 of those were “stereotypical kidnappings,” the kind you hear about on the news. Of those, about 52 were killed or never seen again. [Read more…]

Cameras have come a long way over the past 50 years. New cameras mean better quality images in less time. However, there are downsides to using a JPEG (enhanced) image over a RAW (unprocessed) one. With that in mind, here are five tips for taking better photographs:

1 – Good Lighting

When it comes to taking a good quality photograph, it is important to have good lighting, or at least good potential, particularly with RAW images.

As much as can be done with RAW pictures, one cannot enhance features that are not in the picture, and without at least some good lighting not much can be done to improve the image, and it would be left unfinished to a certain extent. JPEG pictures also require good lighting, as without this the image, despite defaulting to the best potential settings for that image, will still seem dark. [Read more…]

Buying fruit from a grocery store or a farmer’s market can be a nuisance. You want to make sure that you are spending your money on fresh fruit, and if you don’t know how to tell the difference between an unripe, ripe and rotten piece of fruit, you could end up highly disappointed.

The following tips will help you choose fresh, ripe fruit:

Strawberries

Do not buy strawberries that have green or yellow patches. You should also stay clear of strawberries that look moldy. A ripe strawberry has a deep red color and slightly shiny skin. You should also try to buy strawberries that are smaller in size, as they tend to contain more flavor than bigger strawberries. [Read more…]

Many children begin pleading for a pet from a very early age. It seems that as soon as they are old enough to talk, they are asking for some type of furry, feathered of slithering friend.

As a parent, you want them to be able to experience the joy of having a pet, but at the same time, you don’t want to deal with the extra upkeep. After all, they all say they will take care of it, but chances are good, you will likely be handling all the cleaning and feeding while they just sit back and enjoy them.

Guinea Pigs

Unlike hamsters, guinea pigs are actually a little more active during the day so your child will have the opportunity to enjoy them a little more. Not to mention, since they are slightly larger, they aren’t quite so fragile. [Read more…]

Identity theft is pervasive, and statistics show that it is a growing issue. Deadlock between financial institutions and government agencies about what to do to reduce the problem has resulted in the burden of identity theft prevention falling on consumers.

In an age of smartphones, social networking, and pre-screened credit offers by the dozen, this has proved difficult.

Consumers should educate themselves about identity theft, the risks, and the surprising ways that criminals obtain their personal information so that they can reduce the risk. These ten shocking facts about identity theft should provide motivation:

1 – In 2010, 7% of households in the U.S., about 8.6 million households, had at least one member over the age of twelve who experienced some type of identity theft. – The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics

This indicates that one in ten American families were victims of identity theft over the course of one year. If one in ten families are affected by identity theft, we all know someone who has been a victim, and as the incidence of this crime increases the chances are greater that the next victim will be someone we know quite well. [Read more…]