Sleep Soundly: Discovering the Various Types of Mattresses Available in the UK

What Is Your Investment Style?

Knowing what your risk tolerance and investment style are will help you choose investments more wisely. While there are many different types of investments that one can make, there are really only three specific investment styles – and those three styles tie in with your risk tolerance. The three investment styles are conservative, moderate, and aggressive. 

Naturally, if you find that you have a low tolerance for risk, your investment style will most likely be conservative or moderate at best. If you have a high tolerance for risk, you will most likely be a moderate or aggressive investor. At the same time, your financial goals will also determine what style of investing you use.  If you are saving for retirement in your early twenties, you should use a conservative or moderate style of investing – but if you are trying to get together the funds to buy a home in the next year or two, you would want to use an aggressive style.  

Conservative investors want to maintain their initial investment. In other words, if they invest $5000 they want to be sure that they will get their initial $5000 back.

This type of investor usually invests in common stocks and bonds and short term money market accounts.

An interest earning savings account is very common for conservative investors. A moderate investor usually invests much like a conservative investor, but will use a portion of their investment funds for higher risk investments. Many moderate investors invest 50% of their investment funds in safe or conservative investments, and invest the remainder in riskier investments.

An aggressive investor is willing to take risks that other investors won’t take. They invest higher amounts of money in riskier ventures in the hopes of achieving larger returns – either over time or in a short amount of time. Aggressive investors often have all or most of their investment funds tied up in the stock market. 

Again, determining what style of investing you will use will be determined by your financial goals and your risk tolerance. No matter what type of investing you do, however, you should carefully research that investment. Never invest without having all of the facts!

Repercussions of the Ashley Madison Hack Still Mounting

Up until July, 2015, the dating site Ashley Madison was known for it’s sleazy tagline, late night commercials, and oddly direct and explicit marketing towards married men.  But other than that, few people had much to say about the site: it existed since the early 2000’s as something of an immoral outlier in the internet dating scene, but most people just assumed that no one they knew used the site, or that the whole thing was some kind of sick joke.  Nowadays, Ashley Madison users and the general public alike have come to realize that the site was all too serious, as victims of the high profile “Ashley Madison hack” are beginning to feel repercussions from their involvement with the dating service.  Here’s what happened.

Ashley Madison Hack: a Brief Timeline

If you haven’t been following the news surrounding the Ashley Madison hack, here’s a quick look at the timeline of what’s transpired so far to get you up to speed.  On July 15th, 2015, a group of hackers called “Impact Team” announced that they had stolen Ashley Madison’s consumer data, and would release all of the information unless some demands were met.  Namely, “Impact Team,” had some big issues with the fact that Ashley Madison charged users who hoped to leave the service a $19 dollar fee to delete their data, and then apparently didn’t erase user information as promised.  “Impact Team” called for a total shutdown of Ashley Madison and sister site EstablishedMen.com.

When Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison’s parent company, did not take any measures to shut down either site, “Impact Team” followed through with their promise.  On July 22nd, the first user data was published.  By August 18th, all of the user data for customers of the site was made public.  Today, you can search through a number of online services to see if you or someone you know had their information released, and all of the customer information of everyone on the site is essentially now public knowledge.

The Repercussions of the Ashley Madison Hack

From a personal perspective, the individuals whose information was released through the Ashley Madison hack are facing a whole lot of scrutiny.  The site’s tagline is “Life is short.  Have an affair.” so it’s somewhat hard to argue that anyone with an account didn’t intend to participate in some extramarital activity.  Some user profiles were created with other people’s email addresses, so there are some entirely innocent victims in all of this.  But for the most part, most users who have had their information leaked had to know that their membership on the site wasn’t the most moral of choices.

Now, with the information being released, the lives of Ashley Madison members will be changed forever.  In some cases, families are getting pulled apart, as wives reasonably confront their spouses and demand a divorce.  In other cases, individuals are losing their jobs, as employers with morality clauses in their contracts point to the leaked information and demand resignations.  Just about no one who had their information leaked is going to come out unscathed, and the repercussions of the hack are still developing. 

Release of Private Information

Early search sites allowed anyone who was curious to plug-in an email and see if there was an attached Ashley Madison account.  But now, search indexes are releasing and cataloguing a lot more information, and you can easily and quickly pull up a whole ton of private information on anyone affected by the hack.  Some search sites are even publishing the home addresses of Ashley Madison members, ostensibly to get innocent people off of the hook whose emails may have been entered as a prank or incorrectly.  But what these search engines really amount to is a massive invasion of privacy, as so much private information being in the public domain has a big effect on victims,

Advertisers have already started taking advantage of this information to spam Ashley Madison members with junk mail and product offers.  Some search sites are even reaching out directly to those whose information is discovered, advertising the services of private investigators and other directed products as obscure as STD tests and as grim as divorce attorneys.  And this is probably just the beginning: with so much information being public, it’s only a matter of time before more people exploit it.

Is Your Data Ever Safe Online?

The short answer to this question is no.  No matter what kinds of sites you frequent online, your data is never entirely safe once it has been entered, especially when it is associated with a user profile.  Every website out there can be hacked; Ashley Madison is the most recent, but there are plenty of other example of hackers finding their ways into private personal data repositories.

Which begs another question: what exactly were Ashley Madison members thinking when they entered so much personal information on the site?  If you want to keep yourself safe, it’s a good practice to enter as little info as possible online, especially to a site as dubious as Ashley Madison.  And if you do enter your personal information freely around the internet, don’t be too surprised if that information is someday made public. 

What Have N95 Masks Become?

N95 masks have become one of the essential daily accessories for everyone over the past couple of years. How do they work? How do you use them correctly?

While commonly used in various hazardous and working conditions for years, n95 masks have become a part of everybody’s daily vocabulary since 2020.

So, what are the uses for N95 masks today? What is it that makes them so effective? Or can yield them ineffective to wearers? Where are the best places to buy the best face masks now?

What Are N95 Masks?

Never before in human history have, we seen so many masks in use. Or names for face coverings. Even the term ‘N95 masks’ is often used much more loosely than it should.

N95 masks are a particular form of face mask. To be an authentic N95 mask needs to be officially certified by NIOSH. The FDA, CDC, and the US Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may also have specific guidelines for wearing masks in various settings. The CDC publishes approved and authorized N95 mask products and suppliers on its website.

Authentic N95 masks will be stamped with their NIOSH approval number. They may also be identified by specific characteristics, which you can learn more about here.

What is most unique about N95 masks is that they are rigorously tested to filter out at least 95% of airborne particles down to .3 microns in size.

This means they are highly effective at removing contaminants and toxins in the air while providing breathability for the wearer.

What Are N95 Masks Used For?

N95 masks were first invented and developed for miners working in hazardous environments with lethal carcinogens in the air.

Today, N95 masks are still the standard as dust masks for these types of hazardous working environments. As a result, you will see them commonly used in work and construction environments.

As a form of PPE, n95 face masks are also frequently considered ideal protection amid disaster zones. Such as wildfires. Or in the wake of floods and hurricanes when toxic mold is likely to be present.

In recent years it has become customary to see people wearing KN95 and N95 masks daily. Well, before COVID came along, this was thanks to increase pollution. Not just due to urban air pollution in dense cities, but thanks to poor air quality due to giant dust clouds or algae-like Red Tide affecting coastal areas.

Of course, the most apparent use of N95 masks today is to protect against viruses and meet the growing number of mask mandates out there.

Ultimately, if you want to avoid breathing in anything that can harm your body and health, or infect others, then N95 masks should be on your shopping list.

N95 Masks & COVID

N95 masks are now a part of the everyday new ordinary post-COVID world.

Although some took to them immediately, with new research, scientific data, and public admissions, it is only now that many have learned using N95 masks is really the standard everyone should be using.

Cloth and alternative face coverings, including traditional surgical masks, don’t do the job of preventing the transmission of COVID. This is because the particles the virus travels in are just too small to be blocked by inferior face-covering types. Or they do not provide an adequate seal to prevent virus particles from passing around the mask as N95 masks do. 

 Today, N95 masks are increasingly being mandated or regulated for what feels like just about everything. If you want to take transport, fly on a plane, enter certain buildings, eat out, shop or work in many places, you have to have one. Or employers must provide a fresh supply of them each shift.

How N95 Masks Work?

There are two main differences and critical parts to how N95 masks work.

1. N95 Masks: Fit & Seal

According to the FDA, N95 masks are specifically designed to form a seal around the mouth and nose. This differentiates them from other face coverings, allowing contaminated air to pass around or even be more forcefully inhaled around the mask. Each approved N95 mask also provides wearing and fitting instructions on the CDC website.

2. N95 Masks: Filtration

n 95 mask are filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs). They are tested and proven to eliminate harmful airborne particles down to .3 microns in size. A built-in valve making breathing of fresh air easy, while still remaining protected. They are made of specific electrostatic polypropylene fiber. This removes harmful particles from the air you are living in.

How To Use N95 Masks

One of the most critical parts of the effective use of face masks of any type is how you handle and wear them. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to destroy the protective capabilities of your N95 shows by contaminating them with the way you store, handle and put them on.

Be sure your hands are sanitized before touching your N95 masks to put them on or take them off. Ensure that it fits well, with a seal around your mouth and nose. Be careful not to touch your mask while wearing it.

Refer to your specific N95 masks product guide and donning instructions for best practices.

How To Clean N95 Masks

It is also vital to know that N95 masks are only designed as single use for a single wearer.

You should not be sharing face masks. N95 masks are priced and designed to be disposable after each use. They may be worn for up to eight hours at a time. Though a new one should be used each day, shift change, or even when changing between environments.

New tests have been conducted to help businesses and healthcare facilities keep up with the need for fresh N95 masks to evaluate mask cleaning and sanitization methods. There have been some promising trials of UV light, steaming and air drying, and mask rotation. Though, do not wash your mask in soap and water. Even the best protocols severely deplete the filtration capabilities and effectiveness of your masks.

Where To Buy N95 Masks

To ensure you are buying authentic N95 masks, it is wise to shop directly with approved suppliers. Bielcor N95 masks have been officially certified by NIOSH and are featured on the CDC’s website. Shop our affordable N95 masks online for fast delivery.