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A good vacuum should effectively clean the dirt off your floors, be easy to use, and if you spend your dollars wisely, last you a long time. But with prices ranging from $100 up $1,000, how to know which models offer the best value? For shopping advice and some high-rated picks I caught up with Carolyn  Forté  at the  Good Housekeeping Research Institute , where her team has tested over 40 vacuums for overall performance. Upright or Canister? When shopping for a vacuum the first consideration is likely to be  style  -- upright or canister. Both clean effectively. "It depends on the kind of house you have and what you need to vacuum," says Forté . A canister vacuum is generally more versatile. Like uprights, they handle carpets well, but are also great at cleaning bare floors, vacuuming stairs and sucking up dirt from corners. However, "if you've got one floor and lots of wall to wall carpets, then the upright is the way to go," she says....

Tick Prevention Poster   Although ticks are commonly thought of as insects, they are actually arachnids like scorpions, spiders and mites. All members of this group have four pairs of legs as adults and have no antennae.  Adult insects have three pairs of legs and one pair of antennae. Ticks are among the most efficient carriers of disease because they attach firmly when sucking blood, feed slowly and may go unnoticed for a considerable time while feeding. Ticks take several days to complete feeding. Ticks have four life stages: egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph and adult. After the egg hatches, the tiny larva (sometimes called a “seed tick”) feeds on an appropriate host. The larva then develops (molts) into the larger nymph. The nymph feeds on a host and then molts into an even larger adult. Both male and female adults find and feed on a host, then the females lay eggs sometime after feeding. Ticks wait for host animals from the tips of grasses and shrubs ...

A  recent study published in an American Psychological Association journal,   Emotion , suggests that early birds are generally happier than night owls. More than 700 respondents, ranging from ages 17 to 79, were surveyed and asked about their emotional state, health, and preferred time of day. Self-professed "morning people" reported feeling happier and healthier than night owls. Researchers hypothesize that one of the reasons could be because society caters to a morning person's schedule. It's certainly true that the working world does. Working "9-to-5" is more than an expression, but a standard shift for many Americans. It also stands to reason that those who like rising with the sun are also the most productive employees in the office. Do you want to be more like them? Then take note of the tasks these high-functioning, productive, and more awake employees have completed before lunch: 1.   They make a work to-do list the day before.  Many swea...

During a recent visit to an optician, one of my friends was told of an exercise for the eyes by a specialist doctor that he termed as 20-20-20. It is apt for all of us, who spend long hours at our desks, looking at the computer screen. I Thought I'd share it with you. 20-20-20 Step I :- After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen, turn your head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away. This changes the focal length of your eyes, a must-do for the tired eyes. Step II :- Try and blink your eyes for 20 times in succession, to moisten them. Step III :- Time permitting of course, one should walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture. Helps blood circulation for the entire body.

The  Midnight  Sun Masjid    A  remarkable story : Inuvik is an arctic town in Canada’s Northwest Territories with a population of about  3,500 people . It’s located right at the tip of North America facing the Arctic Ocean. With a polar climate and harsh living conditions, one wouldn't expect to find a town there, let alone a town with Muslims. But there is a Muslim community there and a growing one, too. So much so that the trailer that was being used as the mosque ran out of room and this community now needed a new masjid. Building a masjid in the Arctic, however, is far more complicated than it is anywhere else. The scarcity of skilled labour and material makes the cost of such a project skyrocket and this undertaking is simply impossible for a small community of a  100 people. Their situation is akin to that of the Muslims in Edmonton, who despite all odds managed to erect Canada’s first masjid in 1938...

Shab-e-Qadr » We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power: And what will explain to you what the night of power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah’s permission, on every errand: Peace!…This until the rise of morn! (97:1-5)

The best PC games released between now and 2006. by Charles Onyett AUGUST 6, 2012 This is not a best PC games of all-time list, so if you’re wondering about the omission of X-Com and Deus Ex and Baldur’s Gate II, please consider the date range. We’ve shifted the years of eligibility for IGN’s Top 25 Modern PC games to more closely line up with the current generation of consoles. Anything released from 2006 up through this article’s publish date was eligible for this list. We also limited the list so only one entry per franchise could appear. So in the case of something like Mass Effect, we simply chose the best one. This Top 25 was compiled by  Charles Onyett  and  Anthony Gallegos . An open world first-person shooter, Ubisoft Montreal’s sequel to Crytek’s original occupies a unique space. Enemy encampments can be approached from any direction and assaulted with rockets or grenades or slowly picked apart by sniper shots. Light a fire an...