Raam currency

RAAM, or Raam is a bearer bond and local currency issued by Stichting Maharishi Global Financing Research (SMDFR), a charitable foundation based in MERU, Holland. It is also the "global development currency" of the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP). It was designed to be a flexible currency for national governments to use in the development of agricultural projects with the goal of eliminating poverty in third world countries. The Raam was launched on October 26, 2001 and is the concept of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique and the Global Country of World Peace.

Usage and purpose

According to Benjamin Feldman, the Minister of Finance for the Global Country of World Peace: "There are 1.5 billion people living in extreme poverty and currencies like the US dollar are not available to most of them. The Raam can be used to build new houses, roads, schools and health clinics". Feldman states that the idea is to start 3,000 farms in undeveloped areas, have the farmworkers paid in the new currency, and then have that currency converted to hard currency when the farms began exporting to world markets. According to Maharishi Global Financing, agreements were made in 2004 with a farmers' association in South America and with traditional leaders in Africa to start using the Raam for agricultural development projects. CATO Institute currency expert James Dorn expressed doubt about the viability of the plan, suggesting that other economic approaches would be a better way to establish the network of collective farms envisioned by the Raam project. As of March, 2004, there was no information available about the Raam development projects, what projects had actually been started, or whether there were any results from the first 2½ years of the project.
The Raam differs from other complimentary currencies because its focus is on the export of products―in this case organic agricultural products from third world growers to consumers in developed countries―rather than improving local circulation to benefit the lives of local people. Other developmental currencies instead focus on local and regional self-development.

Denominations and terms

The Raam is a bearer bond that earns a total of 3% interest after five years (.06% simple interest annually).
It is issued in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 Raams, with one Raam equal to 10 Euros in Europe, and one Raam equal to 10 dollars in the U.S. Raam notes are printed by Joh. Enschedé.

Circulation

The Raam is currently used alongside Euros in accordance with Dutch law in more than 100 shops in the Netherlands. Shops associated with department store chains in 30 villages and cities have begun accepting the currency as payment for goods and services. The Raam is convertible in Holland at the Fortis Bank in Roermond, Holland. As of 2003, the Dutch Central Bank estimated that there were approximately 100,000 Raam notes in circulation.
The Raam is also in use in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa.The Maharishi Vedic City Raam is identical to the Dutch one except for a small yellow stamp "Maharishi Vedic City". In 2002, Maharishi Vedic City Mayor Bob Wynne estimated that there was $40,000 worth of Raam in circulation.
The Raam is accepted at Maharishi University of Management and a few businesses in nearby Fairfield. However, local banks, Jefferson County officials and other local businesses do not accept the currency. The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requiring that property taxes be paid in dollars, to preclude homeowners from attempting to pay in Raam. The First National Bank of Fairfield initially agreed to accept the Raam and exchange it for dollars, but stopped after a few weeks because of discomfort in monitoring the alternative currency on a daily basis, and potentially being stuck with worthless Raam.
It is unclear as to how the Raam will circulate in the other countries, since 1 Raam is worth 10 Euro, and there are no smaller denominations

Source: wikipedia

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New Hair Loss Prevention Robot Approved By FDA

In an attempt to fight balding, The Food and Drug Administration has approved a machine called the Artas System for commercial use that intends to bring one's follicles back to life.

The System combines several features including an interactive, image-guided robotic arm, special imaging technologies, small dermal punches and a computer interface.

After the System is positioned over the patient's scalp, Artas is capable of identifying and harvesting follicular units. The follicular units are stored until they are implanted into the patient's recipient area using manual techniques.

The production company says the system can improve extraction rates to 750 to 1,000 units per hour. This is much quicker and less invasive than traditional harvesting techniques.

However there is a catch; only males with brown or black hair are candidates.

There are many causes for hair loss in men. However, in the overwhelming majority of males with hair loss, the cause is hereditary androgenetic alopecia, more commonly known as "male pattern baldness." The tendency for male pattern hair loss is genetically inherited from either side of the family.

According to the manufacter's website:

"The presence of the hormone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), in a genetically susceptible man, is necessary for this problem to occur and begins to develop after puberty. Hair on the scalp that is genetically susceptible (the hairline, crown and top of the scalp), starts to shrink in its shaft diameter and potential length, until it eventually disappears in a process known as hair miniaturization. The hair on the back and sides of the scalp is usually genetically 'permanent' hair, which is destined to remain for that man's lifetime."


What can be done for a man losing his hair that wants to keep it around? First, hair restoration surgery offers a permanent solution to lost scalp hair. Modern techniques of surgical hair transplantation can restore lost hair and replace the hairline with your own natural growing hair, which needs no more care than the ordinary washing, styling, and trimming you have always done.

Hair transplantation involves removing permanent hair-bearing skin from the back and/or sides of the scalp. There are two main techniques by which hair follicles can be harvested from the donor area: follicular unit extraction (FUE) and strip harvesting. FUE involves using a small dermal punch (e.g. 1mm in diameter or smaller) to individually dissect out follicular units directly from the scalp. Strip harvesting is carried out by excising a strip of scalp from the donor area and dissecting out the follicular units under a microscope.

These small follicular unit grafts are then meticulously implanted into the bald or thinning area of the scalp (recipient area) so as not to injure any follicles already existing in the area and at the same angle as the other hairs present. The creation of small follicular unit grafts has enabled hair restoration surgeons to create natural appearing hairlines and results.

Second, medical treatments are now offered in the form of a pill (finasteride) and a topical liquid (minoxidil). They require a life-long treatment however to maintain their effect.

Then there is the good old fashioned wig. Hairpieces are a non-surgical means to restore hair by covering bald areas of the scalp. There is a large variety of means for attaching these such as glues, "weaves," and clips.

Source: medicalnewstoday.com

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Beware of danger when playing PC games online!!

The Internet is a place where the user can find a lot of information, entertainment or work, but on the other side, the same user can “catch” viruses, spyware or malware. Many people don´t understand why somebody creates these harmful programs (see the notes below about these programs). However, the answer is easy – similarly in the common life we can meet a lot of people with wicked goals. And gaining money through special programs is an appropriate goal of many Internet thieves. There are various methods how to do it. On the Internet the user may visit some Web pages which contain viruses or spyware or malware. It can very often happen to the pages with games because games are considered to be typically connected with gamblers and for this reason it can be a source of money.

But the harmful code may not be only on the Web pages, games themselves can include it. It means that the player, when downloading some game and installing it on the local computer, also installs the harmful code without any suspicion. It can be very dangerous – one small example. Imagine the user installed the game that involves a so-called keylogger. The key logger is a small program that records stealthily all keys which the user presses. Many antivirus programs consider this software as a virus (usually as a Trojan-horse – see A worm, a virus or a Trojan horse?). So, the key logger writes all pressed keys to the txt file and sends it to the thief´s e-mail. Suppose, after that the user visited his online betting on the www.tipsport.cz, where he had to write the text “www.abcd.cz” following by username “honba” and password “dfjni123″. The key logger put this string of characters in the txt file “www.abcd.czdfjni123″. The thief received the file, found this text and was very fast able to connect to the honba-account and transferred all the money from Honba´s Internet account to his (thief´s) own account. It was easy, wasn´t it? Of course, the probability of this coincidence is not very high, but who knows.

Notes:

Malware means malicious software – authors of malware create programs for harming other software. Malware includes PS viruses, trojan-horses, spyware and adware.
Spyware is a program that uses the Internet for sending data from the computer without awareness of a user of the computer. It differs from the backdoor by a content of sending data, i.e. it sends only statistic data (e.g. overview of visiting pages, installed programs) and can be used for advertising. The spyware is typically widespread in shareware programs and the authors of the shareware know about it and conciliate it because they want to earn money.
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software that automatically downloads advertisements to a computer. The goal of the adware is to generate revenue for its author. Adware, by itself, is harmless; but some adware may come with integrated spyware such as keyloggers.

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