A History of E-Books

The last few years have seen exponential growth in the popularity of e-Books. The characteristics of this product have attractive features both to the purchaser and seller. The purchaser is able to access large numbers of titles worldwide which can be immediately downloaded at any time from a variety of devices which have internet access. The seller is able on-line to market his product worldwide and benefits from a global audience which can purchase products 24/7, and which compared to traditional methods of retailing books has minimal overhead costs.

Beginnings
In 1971 Michael Hart at the University of Illinois created what was effectively the first e-Book. After typing the United States Declaration of Independence into a computer, he was told it was unacceptable to distribute it to numerous people via email as this would crash the system. Accordingly he made it available for people to download and the first e-Book was created. In the same year he launched a volunteer scheme called Project Gutenberg to create electronic copies of cultural texts which were to be placed in an archive.

In 1985 the Voyager Company was established which published books on CD-ROM's and progressed to "expanded books". Digital Book Inc. in 1993 started selling floppy disks with 50 e-Books in a Digital Book Format (.dbf). Generally speaking earlier e-Books were produced for limited audiences in technical or niche subjects.

E-Books go Mainstream
Towards the end of the 1990's there was an increase in the speed of developments. In 1998 the first dedicated e-Book readers were released, including SoftBook, Rocket e-Book and Cybook. The year also saw the first libraries in the US start providing free e-Books to the public via their websites, although at that time they could not be downloaded and usually related to professional, scholarly or technical subjects. These services expanded in 2003 when libraries started offering free downloadable fiction and non-fiction e-Books to the public.

Microsoft in 2000 released the e-Book reading software, Microsoft Reader. It utilised ClearType technology to enable the type to be viewed on smaller devices and was suitable for Windows computers and PocketPCs. In the same year Stephen King released his book 'Riding the Bullet'in digital format only, and which could only be read on a computer. During the initial 24 hours in excess of 400,000 copies were downloaded. The beginning of the decade saw the major publishing houses begin to take an interest, and in 2002 Harper Collins and Random House began offering some of their titles as digital products.

In 2005 Bookboon.com was started, enabling the download of free textbooks and travel guide e-Books. The same year Amazon expanded its interest with the purchase of software company Mobipocket, which provided e-Book reading software for portable devices. Amazon in 2007 launched a dedicated e-Book reader called Kindle, which could download e-Books and other digital media over Wi-Fi or the mobile network from the Amazon website. Over 90,000 e-Books were available, including over 100 New York Times bestsellers. BooksOnBoard.com in 2008 became the first to sell e-Books for iPhones.

April 2010 saw Apple launch the iPad, which included e-Book reading software iBooks. It also launchediBookstore, a virtual bookstore selling e-Book downloads. During the second quarter of 2010 Amazon announced that its e-Book sales surpassed those of hardcover titles, and also in 2010 Google eBookstore opened with 3 million titles. In May 2011 Amazon announced its e-Book sales now exceed all of its printed book sales.

e-Books have arrived.

Steven Bolton is the founder and owner of ebookroadshow.com, a site that provides ebooks related to improving knowledge and skills. To review the site please visit:

http://ebookroadshow.com/

Steven Bolton

Founder and owner of http://ebookroadshow.com/

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Know Your Family Health History

If your great grandchild asked you if you could make him or her better, would you? Of course you would.

See this opportunity as a way of protecting those you love. Knowing your family's genetic health history may save you suffering from, or preventing, undiagnosed yet predisposed diseases. Pay it forward a few generations by creating a Family Health History Tree.

By knowing your family's health history you will be pro-active in discovering possible health problems earlier than later. Imagine if you found out there was a history of breast cancer in your family. Just think about how you would feel if your husband had developed prostate cancer at a relatively early age. But it could have been monitored early and possibly prevented had he known that his uncle had passed away from it.

A safe place to keep your Family Health History Tree would be with your will. Amendments to the Tree could be made as various medical facts are revealed about current and past family members.
The more everyone knows about a family's genetic history, the better.Imagine being adopted and simply not knowing this lineage? Some of us are a little guarded or shy in sharing our own health history, even with family members. Here are a few ways to go about it.

At the next family function or reunion, have any older children present the concept of a Family Health History Tree as a "School Project". It's hard to turn down a possible life-saving health project such as this, especially when they want to do well in School.

Add a few pages into your child's baby-book. But first send out the info page you need filled out to every adult person in your family.

Start the gift of giving for everyone's future. Detail your own family history and give it inside a Christmas, anniversary or birthday card, as a sign of how much you love them and how easy it can be. There are even better occasions to start the trend, such as when a baby is born or at a wedding.

For example here are a few sample questions to ask to get the ball rolling:

Since we know many cancers can be passed on from generation to generation, do you know of any pre-existing conditions that could possibly be passed down such as cancer? Or schizophrenia? Or spinal muscular atrophy? Or Huntington's Disease? Or Systic Fibrosis?

Can you remember if you have had all of your adult vaccines or childhood immunizations?

Can you remember every one's history in your family as far back as records will show?

If you are the only one remaining in your family here are some places to start to generate some answers:

Funeral Home Records. These records can go back into the late 1900s, and often the Funeral Home keeps the records as they were originally kept "for public health purposes- to alert officials of diseases or trends of concern, especially in cities and populated areas".

Obituaries. From the late 1800s, the obituaries section of newspapers are a very popular section. Earlier on they even detailed the cause of death; however, today's era masks them or omits them completely.

At your next family gathering, make things fun and interesting by awarding prizes to the 'team' that comes up with the most inherited medical disease facts. Congratulations in then taking the preventative steps necessary and thinking ahead for your family's future.

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History of Hammocks

Constructed of many different types of materials, the hammock has been used for centuries for sleeping as an alternative to sleeping on the ground. This keeps them safe from poisonous bugs and snakes. Mexicans adopted the use from Native Americans. Sailors began using them on ships as a more comfortable way to sleep compared to bunk beds where they frequently were thrown to the deck during the rise and swelling of the sea. Army forces and inhabitants of jungles found that by sleeping off the ground they were not as prone to fungal diseases and bug bites.

Spanish Colonists used Hammocks

Spanish colonists adopted the use of hammocks from Native Americans who lived in the West Indies at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the late 1400's and early 1500's. They were made from the bark of the Hamack tree. They were later made from sisal fibers because of its abundance in the area. The Taino culture called the hammock "arawakan" which means "fishnet." The inhabitants of Mexico hung the woven bark hammocks between 2 trees to keep them off the ground while they slept while the Taino culture wove them from fine fibers of the sisal tree. They also constructed them of palm fronds which were easy to find in the South Pacific Islands.

The Navy used Hammocks

Christoper Columbus adopted the use of hammocks from the Mexicans who lived in the West Indies. He brought them back to Spain when he returned from the islands. In the late 1500's the Royal Navy constructed hammocks from canvas and hung them 5 or 6 feet above the deck of the ship. When the sea was rough they swayed with its movement and were safer than the bunks below deck where sailors were often thrown from their beds to the deck in the middle of the night.

U.S. Army Troops used Hammocks

The United States Armed forces and Marines slept in hammocks below the ground to keep them safe while they slept. They dug holes and trenches in the ground and hung their hammocks from stakes to keep from being bit by poisonous spiders and snakes. It also kept them safe from gunfire. The M1966 jungle hammock was constructed from waterproof material but discarded because they held water during torrential downpours, although the Vietnamese had a better idea. They used the U.S. military parachutes to construct hammocks that kept the off the ground while sleeping.

Modern Day use of the Hammock

Today hammocks are made from a variety of materials including canvas, rope and different types of netting. They are used for relaxation and for sleeping. Campers, explorers and even scientists use them as light weight beds that are easy to carry while hiking long distances in forests and jungles. They are either anchored between 2 posts that are driven into the ground or tied between 2 trees. Many people hang hammocks on their porch or gazebo in their back yards to catch a nap on a lazy summer day.

By Jamie Carruthers of Lazy Hammocks

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