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Sprechen de Deutsch? That is the extent of my knowledge of the German language; and I’m not even certain that is spelled right. And yet, in two short months I will be moving, lock, stock and barrel, to Germany – family included.

My wife is ecstatic! My kids, considerably less so but they’re young enough to make the adjustment smoothly. Truthfully, this will prove to be a better education for them than anything they could possibly learn sitting behind a desk in a classroom!

You gotta’ love my wife. She jumped right on board with the whole thing. She ran out immediately and purchased a German language handbook (for dummies), and a German pocket dictionary for us all.

We decided that meal-time conversations, breakfast, lunch and dinner, would all be in German. As I’m sure you can imagine this created a great deal of laughter and cold-food-eating.

Next thing she did was call around to different international moving companies, collecting quotes from each. A colleague advised me to research each international moving company we were considering for correct licensing, reputation on Better Business Bureau and to make sure they were capable of transporting all of our possessions, especially anything that needed special handling.

All I can say is, thank God the international moving company we chose spoke English. They helped us organize and plan our move and advised us of German laws. My company had taken care of finding us a house in Munich, so at least we didn’t have that headache. We researched the Munich International School on the net and decided to send our kids there. We have two, one of each.

The international moving company agent even gave us advice on banks and insurance companies. They informed us there are lots of banks in Munich with customer service being about the same but that the Sparkasse generally offers the greatest number of ATMs Germany-wide and their fees are reasonable. An insurance agent is called a Versicherungsmakler and you should look for one who sells Sachversicherungen, which covers house, cars etc. One of the most important documents you can bring with you is a letter from your auto insurance company (on their official letterhead) which states how many years you have been accident free. The rate you pay is based on this status and it makes a huge difference in price.

Good things to know. Who knew an international moving company could be so helpful? I had no idea but I’m so glad we chose the one we did. We’re all starting to feel excited about going now – maybe because we feel better informed and a little more prepared.

Now if only I could pronounce those German words – I’d be laughing!

International Moving 

Whether you rent an apartment or own your own home, mold can be a huge problem to have to deal with.  Insurance claims adjusters will usually deny your claim simply because the vast majority of homeowner’s insurance policies simply do not cover the cost to remove mold from the home.  Landlords presented with a mold problem in one of their units or in the home that they are renting out are sometimes quick to blame the problem on the tenant rather than admit that the problem is structural or was there before the tenant moved in.

There are a few insurance adjusters that will try to trick you into saying that mold has been around for millennia and that it is not the health threat that people are saying that it is or that the mold contamination in the home is somehow your own fault.  If the infestation is obviously not your fault, do not say anything that suggests that it might be.  If he/she claims that mold is not a problem like people say, point at the Bible.  The scriptures in Leviticus 14:39-49 clearly tell how dangerous mold was considered to be in the time of ancient Judaism and tell how the homes were considered to be “diseased” or “plagued” by mold.  It also tells just how these contaminated homes and belongings were dealt with.  The rabbi inspected these buildings and determined what was to happen to them and the basic procedure was to remove all belongings from the home and take them far away from the village and people, to shut up the house for a week, and to examine the home again.  If it was still not free of contamination, it was torn down and a new one built.

Miami Emergency Water Restoration 

Mycology is the study of fungi and their biochemical and genetic properties, and their applications to human life such as medicines, food, and the dangers that they can present such as infections.  This includes not only mushrooms, but also molds and bacteria.  Phytopathology, which is the study of plant diseases, came about from mycology and these two are very closely related because often molds and other fungi attack plants in order to survive.

It has been found that the DNA of fungi is much more like the DNA that we humans have instead of being like the DNA that is found in plants.  This is not only intriguing in the aspect that fungi look absolutely nothing like us, but also that it creates some challenges concerning research and issues that relate to the health of human beings.  It has been speculated that since we now have the DNA of mold, we can use that to determine what level of risk it may pose to human beings and other life.  We have also been able to determine that about one fourth of the human population has been genetically exposed to having a sensitivity to mold. 

People say that mold and other kinds of fungi have only recently become a problem, but actually the fact is that we do not realize that mold has been a problem since Biblical times.  It is mentioned quite blatantly in the book of Leviticus in the Talmud Torah.  Moses provides instruction within it on how to identify and treat the mold infections in the home.

Molds growing in the home are a serious problem and most people do not realize that you can become seriously ill, permanently disabled, and even dead due to these contaminations.  There are not enough mycologists and the general consensus is that mold is not being studied enough, considering the wide range of health effects that can arise from being exposed to it. 

In order to become a mycologist, one must study for years and be involved in both laboratory and field work with fungi in hospitals, industry, food, and universities.  Mycologists are often found working in industries such as infection control, management in hospitals, and in some pharmaceutical industries.
 
There are several schools that you can do to in the United States.  The Universities of Texas and Minnesota offer some excellent programs.  In Canada, the school in Toronto also has a good mycology program.  There are some schools, however, that are dropping these programs because of the lack of interest in them. 

Flooded Basement

We might not like it, but it’s something that we have to live with every day: mold is everywhere. It’s an unfortunate fact that there is no real way to get away from mold completely, as it grows everywhere and it’s in all the air around us.

What is mold? Mold is a kind of fungus that grows in countless numbers and almost countless species all over the world. They are every color you can imagine and while most of them won’t hurt human beings and their pets, some kinds are pretty toxic and can grow in your home. They’re not pleasant to look at and can cause any number of health problems, most notably if you happen to be allergic to that particular kind of mold or just mold in general.

It gets inside your home due to the humidity and high level of heat inside or because of water leaking in from outside the building via the basement or due to flood water. Sometimes it’s because a pipe bursts in your laundry room or the bathroom or the toilet overflows and the water isn’t properly cleaned up. Having carpet in the bathroom is a problem all to itself because it loves to soak up water and mold loves anything porous. The steam from the bath tub or the shower sticks to the ceiling and soaks it, as well, creating a breeding ground for these little buggers. Mold loves to eat sheet rock and paint and some of the most common areas in your home to find mold are in the bathroom and the kitchen.

Some people don’t use a hamper or a basket to toss their dirty clothes in when they take a shower or a bath and they leave the clothes in the bathroom closet directly on the floor. Wet rags and towels being thrown in there on top of them or up against the walls can cause mold to grow not only in the closet, but also on your clothes if they’re left in there long enough.

Mold is a big problem for children, pets, people with weakened immune systems, and the elderly. These are the people that are the most at risk when living in a home that’s contaminated by mold. Mold causes conditions and diseases that most people wouldn’t even begin to think of; the conditions are not confined to merely skin rashes and respiratory complications.

Any and everything that’s been found to have mold on it should be washed and thoroughly sterilized before it can be used again, if it can even be used again at all. Depending on the volume of the infestation and how strenuous your schedule is, sometimes it’s easier to just throw things away.

Water Removal Service

There are times when one may take retirement advice that is a detriment to their savings and assets. Here is a list of mistakes to avoid when planning your retirement.

Mistake #1: Not using employer-matching contributions. If your employer offers a contribution-matching program, you need to take full advantage of it. Maximize your contributions, and you have the potential to double a portion of it, thanks to your employer. Not doing this is a huge waste that many people miss.

Mistake #2: Not updating your beneficiaries. When you set up your plan initially, you designate people in your life to be beneficiaries of your plan. These people will be in charge of your assets if something happens to you, regardless of what your will or anything else states. Update this periodically, so that you know who you are leaving your assets to, and that they are still very close to you.

Mistake #3: Treating retirement plans differently than your portfolio. Some retirement advice states that you treat your retirement plans differently. Why? Positioning your assets in all of your plans is one of the best ways to maximize the potential of those investments. Include retirement planning with the rest of your portfolio.

Taking the right Contra Costa retirement advice leads to maximum earnings and returns on your investments. Consider all aspects of your retirement plan as you head towards retirement.

Although molds growing unchecked can be harmful to human health, molds that are grown in laboratories for specific purposes have been used extensively for many years in order to improve the quality of life.

Penicillin as we know it today was discovered accidentally when Alexander Fleming saw a plate of Staphylococcus aureus had become contaminated by a blue-green mold. He noted that colonies of the bacteria next to the mold were being destroyed by it; he soon after grew a pure culture of the mold and found that penicillin killed not only Staphylococcus, but many other bacteria that cause disease. He named it penicillin, published the results of his experiment in 1929, and the medical community has been using it ever since.

Molds are also used to make different kinds of cheeses, including bleu cheese. Bleu cheese in particular is rumored to have been discovered by accident and since molds are not generally associated with good food, there is good reason for this assumption. Early cheeses were aged inside caves and these places often contained the perfect conditions for mold to grow in.

Without molds, we would have neither bread nor beer and even butchers inject mold into animals before they butcher them for preservation. Aspergillus oryzae is used in Japan to convert the starch in rice into sugar in order to make the traditional alcoholic beverage of sake. Red yeast rice is also made by being cultivated with a mold called Monascus purpureus and was used as a natural food coloring before the discovery of modern chemical food coloring.

Agriculturally, molds also help to decompose different kinds of natural debris such as taking care of the leftovers from forest fires and begin building a base for new plants and trees to grow on. Decaying organic matter is also eaten by mold and thus they are the natural recyclers of the world. If it is organic in origin and needs to be gotten rid of, overtime mold can accomplish this task.

Something most people outside the medical community don’t realize is that if a medicine’s name has the ending of “mycin”, it was made using mold

Mold only becomes a problem if it begins to inhabit the same places that humans and their domesticated animals inhabit. If they remain in a checked status, they do us next to no harm and as shown here, can even provide civilization with many benefits.

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