<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Web Development &#38; Design, Ventura County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara</title>
	<atom:link href="http://venturait.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://venturait.com</link>
	<description>Web Development &#38; Design, Ventura County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 07 May 2012 15:19:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Custom Logo Design</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/custom-logo-design.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/custom-logo-design.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:01:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web-development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=41</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ventura IT provides custom logo design and branding for yourself, company, corportation, or organization.
$500 &#8211; 1 logo with 1 version to choose from with up to 3 revisions 
$1000 &#8211; 1 logo with 3 versions to choose from with unlimited revisions. 
We offer custom logo design and branding not just templated logos. You get what [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ventura IT provides custom logo design and branding for yourself, company, corportation, or organization.</p>
<p><strong>$500</strong> &#8211; 1 logo with 1 version to choose from with up to 3 revisions <span id="more-41"></span></p>
<p><strong>$1000</strong> &#8211; 1 logo with 3 versions to choose from with unlimited revisions. </p>
<p>We offer <a href="http://venturait.com/logos/">custom logo design</a> and branding not just templated logos. You get what you want with unlimited revisions on our $1000 custom logo design service.</p>
<p><img src="images/point_2.jpg" align="absmiddle" height="11" width="14" />  <a href="http://venturait.com/contact.html">Contact us with your custom logo details.</a> </p>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="567">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi1.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi2.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi3.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi4.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi5.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi6.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi7.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi8.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi9.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi10.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi11.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi12.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi13.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi14.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi15.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi16.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi17.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi18.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi19.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi20.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi21.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi22.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi23.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi24.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi25.jpg" height="156" width="147"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi26.jpg" height="156" width="147"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi27.jpg" height="145" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi28.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi29.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi30.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi31.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi32.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi33.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi34.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi35.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi36.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi37.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi38.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi39.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi40.jpg" height="156" width="145"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi41.jpg" width="147" height="156"></td>
<td><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logoi42.jpg" width="147" height="156"></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4" align="center"><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logos1.jpg" height="298" width="430"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4" align="center"><img src="http://venturait.com/custom_logo_design/images/logos2.jpg" height="299" width="430"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img src="images/point_2.jpg" align="absmiddle" height="11" width="14" />  <a href="http://venturait.com/contact.html" title="web development">Contact us for a free estimate.</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/custom-logo-design.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Web Development</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/web_development.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/web_development.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 05:52:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[web-development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/web_development.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ventura IT has over 10 years experience as a company in web development for companies ranging from fortune 50 to smaller non profits and mom &#38; pop startups.  We even provided services for big names like the State of California and Boeing.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ventura IT has over 10 years experience as a company in web development for companies ranging from fortune 50 to smaller non profits and mom &amp; pop startups.<span id="more-33"></span>  We even provided services for big names like the State of California and Boeing.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/web_development.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>andyroddickicon</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/andyroddickicon.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/andyroddickicon.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:31:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>sunil</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/andyroddickicon.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Andrew Stephen Roddick was born in Omaha, NE August 30th, 1982 to Blanche and Jerry Roddick. The Roddick&#8217;s moved to Austin, TX when Andy was 41/2 and then moved to Boca Raton, FL at the age of 10, where Andy&#8217;s junior tennis career blossomed. An all around athlete, he played varsity basketball in high school [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Andrew Stephen Roddick was born in Omaha, NE August 30th, 1982 to Blanche and Jerry Roddick. The Roddick&#8217;s moved to Austin, TX when Andy was 41/2 and then moved to Boca Raton, FL at the age of 10, where Andy&#8217;s junior tennis career blossomed. An all around athlete, he played varsity basketball in high school alongside Davis Cup teammate Mardy Fish, who trained and lived with Roddick in 1999.<span id="more-1164"></span> Andy&#8217;s Junior accomplishments include finishing as the No. 1 Junior in the U.S. in 1999-2000 and as the No. 1 Junior in the world in 2000. He won the Junior US Open and Australian Open singles titles in 2000, in addition to winning six world junior singles titles and seven world doubles titles. Andy turned pro in 2000 and a year later established the Andrew S. Roddick Foundation. In 2003, he captured the US Open title and the No. 1 ranking in the world.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/andyroddickicon.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>4bonsaiicon</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/4bonsaiicon.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/4bonsaiicon.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:31:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>sunil</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/4bonsaiicon.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/gallery/test/4bonsaiicon.gif" title="" class="shutterset_singlepic1" ><br />
	<img class="ngg-singlepic" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/gallery/cache/1__100x75_4bonsaiicon.gif" alt="4bonsaiicon" title="4bonsaiicon" /><br />
</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/4bonsaiicon.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title></title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/500month-seo.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/500month-seo.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:25:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=876</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
$500 Single Domain Monthly SEO ($515.24/month)





Domain Name







 
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick" />$500 Single Domain Monthly SEO ($515.24/month)<br />
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="JFX3KM6FXHDW2" />
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Domain Name" />Domain Name</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input class="input-text" type="text" name="os0" maxlength="60" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<input type="image" name="submit" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_subscribeCC_LG.gif" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" /> <img src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></form>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/500month-seo.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What We Do</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/what-we-do.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/what-we-do.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:30:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[except]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=850</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We provide the following services:

web development
custom web design/flash
custom programming
php/mysql programming
database design and programming
web hosting
dedicated servers
server administration
e-commerce
shell scripting
application cloning
web applications
social network creation/programming/design
classifieds applications (craigslist clones)
video streaming applications (web/intranet)
intranets
search engine optimization (marketing)
web site maintenance

 Contact us for a free estimate.
Other Web Development &#38; Other Services we provide:

web development
software design
e-commerce solutions
search engine optimization (seo)
web hosting &#38; dedicated servers
custom [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>We provide the following services:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>web development</li>
<li>custom web design/flash</li>
<li>custom programming</li>
<li>php/mysql programming</li>
<li>database design and programming</li>
<li>web hosting</li>
<li>dedicated servers</li>
<li>server administration</li>
<li>e-commerce</li>
<li>shell scripting</li>
<li>application cloning</li>
<li>web applications</li>
<li>social network creation/programming/design</li>
<li>classifieds applications (craigslist clones)</li>
<li>video streaming applications (web/intranet)</li>
<li>intranets</li>
<li>search engine optimization (marketing)</li>
<li><!-- end of #header -->web site maintenance</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="../images/point_2.jpg" alt="" width="14" height="11" align="absmiddle" /> <a title="web development" href="../contact.html">Contact us for a free estimate.</a></p>
<p><strong>Other Web Development &amp; Other Services we provide:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>web development</strong></li>
<li>software design</li>
<li>e-commerce solutions</li>
<li><strong>search engine optimization</strong> (seo)</li>
<li>web hosting &amp; dedicated servers</li>
<li>custom <strong>video streaming</strong> web sites</li>
<li>social networking web sites</li>
<li><strong>web design</strong> and web maintenance</li>
<li>Internet marketing</li>
<li>content management systems (cms)</li>
<li><strong>web hosting</strong></li>
<li>internet applications</li>
<li>graphic design</li>
<li>logo design</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Supported platforms &amp; systems:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>microsoft windows, freebsd, linux, unix, mac os, *nix</li>
<li>apache, iis</li>
<li>html (all brands)</li>
<li>php, asp, .net, jsp, python, perl, ruby on rails (all scripting languages)</li>
<li>mysql and all sql formats</li>
<li>c++, c#, c</li>
<li>delphi, coldfusion, java</li>
<li>flash, actionscript, 3d design and rendering</li>
<li>javascript, ajax</li>
<li>dreamweaver, frontpage, adobe</li>
<li>joomla, mambo</li>
<li>moveable type, wordpress</li>
<li>os commerce, vencart, x-cart, cube cart, zen cart, cre loaded, paypal</li>
<li>authorize.net, verisign, paypal pro</li>
<li>directadmin, cpanel</li>
<li>xml, rss</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="../images/point_2.jpg" alt="" width="14" height="11" align="absmiddle" /> <a title="web development" href="../contact.html">Contact us for a free estimate.</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/what-we-do.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Medical/Doctor Web Design</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/medicaldoctor-web-design.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/medicaldoctor-web-design.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:12:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[except]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=671</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[web hosting, development, IT consulting, web site management











]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>web hosting, development, IT consulting, web site management<br />
<a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-674" title="vitmedical1" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical1-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/m.pedraza.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-675" title="medical doctor web design" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/m.pedraza-300x179.png" alt="medical doctor web design" width="300" height="179" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical2.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-673" title="vitmedical2" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical2-300x279.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="279" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical3.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-672" title="vitmedical3" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical3-300x246.png" alt="" width="300" height="246" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical4.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-670" title="vitmedical4" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical4-300x187.png" alt="" width="300" height="187" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical5.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-669" title="vitmedical5" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical5-223x300.jpg" alt="" width="223" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical6.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-668" title="vitmedical6" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical6-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical7.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-667" title="vitmedical7" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical7-297x300.png" alt="" width="297" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical7.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-666" title="vitmedical7" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical7-300x272.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="272" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical8.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-665" title="vitmedical8" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical8-300x262.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="262" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical9.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-664" title="vitmedical9" src="http://venturait.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/vitmedical9-300x258.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="258" /></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/medicaldoctor-web-design.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Who Uses Unix</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/who-uses-unix.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/who-uses-unix.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:21:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[web-development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=643</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ventura IT has long realized that LAMP/Unix, FreeBSD, Linux is the best choice for web applications, web servers, and firewalls.  Below are some articles and links that we feel prove this without a doubt.  We also use Ubuntu for our desktops because of the increased security, reduced cost, and increased speed.
If you would like [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ventura IT has long realized that LAMP/Unix, FreeBSD, Linux is the best choice for web applications, web servers, and firewalls.  Below are some articles and links that we feel prove this without a doubt.  We also use Ubuntu for our desktops <span id="more-643"></span>because of the increased security, reduced cost, and increased speed.</p>
<p>If you would like to know more about how you can save money, get more speed and more security by using Unix/LAMP/php/mysql for your web applications please contact us for a free consultation.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t worry we still do some of the best .net programming in the world and think that Windows is a great product!</p>
<h2>Reasons to use open source Unix/Linix/FreeBSD</h2>
<p><strong>London Stock Exchange suffers .NET Crash</strong></p>
<p>http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_suffers_net_crash</p>
<p><strong>Why the London Stock Exchange went for Linux</strong>http://www.itpro.co.uk/615985/why-the-london-stock-exchange-went-for-linux</p>
<p><strong>Google</strong> has many tens of thousands of FreeBSD-based devices helping to run its production networks (Juniper, Force10, NetApp, etc..)</p>
<p>http://code.google.com/soc/2008/freebsd/about.html</p>
<p>FreeBSD is used as a platform for devices and products from many of the world&#8217;s largest IT companies, including: <strong>Apple, Cisco, Juniper, NetApp</strong>.  FreeBSD is also used to power some of the biggest sites on the Internet, including: <strong>Yahoo!, Yandex, Apache, Rambler, Sina, Pair Networks, Sony Japan, Netcraft, NetEase, Weathernews, TELEHOUSE America, Experts Exchange</strong>.</p>
<p>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/nutshell.html</p>
<p><strong>IBM Throws Out Microsoft Office</strong> &#8211; 360,000 IBM workers have been told to stop using Microsoft Office and switch to the Open Office-based software Symphony.</p>
<p>http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/products</p>
<p>[<strong>Google's</strong>] Servers are commodity-class x86 PCs running customized versions of Linux.</p>
<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform</p>
<p>In this presentation filmed during QCon SF 2008, Aditya Agarwal discusses <strong>Facebook’s</strong> architecture, more exactly the software stack used, presenting the advantages and disadvantages of its major components: [Linux]LAMP (PHP, MySQL), Memcache, Thrift, Scribe.</p>
<p>http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Facebook-Software-Stack</p>
<h2>Government/Public Sector Using Unix/Linux</h2>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>German Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit (BA)</strong><br />
The German government&#8217;s agency for labor has migrated 13,000 information terminals from Windows to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>French Ministry for Education</strong><br />
The ministry has migrated over 3,000 servers to Linux &#8211; nearly all of their servers &#8211; with the majority running Red Hat.</p>
<p><strong>Library of Congress, USA</strong><br />
Thousands of rare historic documents housed by the Library of Congress are being digitalized using Linux clusters and other Linux-based systems and the open source Scribe system.</p>
<p><strong>Portuguese Ministry of Justice</strong><br />
The Ministry of Justice of Portugal is implementing a plan called LISA to incorporate Free and Open Source software into their IT infrastructure as a way to be innovative while also cutting costs.</p>
<p><strong>Swedish Armed Forces</strong><br />
The Armed Forces of Sweden announced in February of 2007 that they would be migrating their servers from Windows NT to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Government of Switzerland</strong><br />
In mid-December 2005, the Swiss government announced that it would be carrying out a large-scale migration of servers to Novell&#8217;s SUSE Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Berlin, Germany</strong><br />
The city government of Berlin announced in early December, 2005 that they would be migrating most of their 58.000 Windows desktops to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>New Zealand&#8217;s Inland Revenue</strong><br />
The Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand announced in late October 2005 that they would be migrating 7,000 desktop systems to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Munich, Germany</strong><br />
Munich&#8217;s city government announced it was migrating its entire IT operations to the Linux platform in 2002. Despite a personal visit from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the German city is continuing with its plans to switch 14,000 desktops to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>The Government of Japan</strong><br />
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced in early October 2005 its plans to key government systems to Linux in order to decrease its dependency on Microsoft products.</p>
<p><strong>Junta de Extramadura, Spain</strong><br />
The Junta de Extremadura, the regional government of Extremadura, is a pioneer in the use of Linux in the public sector. They have also developed their own Linux distribution called LinEx. The have embarked on a large-scale migration of their IT infrastructure, which includes switching 14 hospitals and over 400 local health care centers to Linux. The have also installed Linux in 80,000 computers in their public schools.</p>
<p><strong>Vienna, Austria</strong><br />
Officials in Vienna&#8217;s city government announced at the beginning of 2005 that they would be migrating one third of their desktops to Linux. Other desktops, though still running Windows, would be using OpenOffice. They are also reportedly developing their own Linux distribution, called Wienux.</p>
<p><strong>Bergen, Norway</strong><br />
Norway&#8217;s second largest city announced in June, 2004 its plans to migrate its core IT infrastructure to Linux. A combination of Unix and Windows servers will be phased out and replaced with servers running Linux.</p>
<p><strong>South African Revenue Service</strong><br />
The South African Revenue serviced announced in April of 2005 that it was moving its SAP system on to Linux servers running Novell&#8217;s SUSE Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Ministry of Health, New Zealand</strong><br />
New Zealand&#8217;s Ministry of Health announced in February 2005 that they were migrating servers running Windows to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Largo, Florida, USA</strong><br />
The city of Largo, Florida was one of the first high-profile migrations to Linux in the public sector. The switch began in 2000 when David Richards, the systems administrator for the city began switching webservers to Red Hat Linux. He followed in 2001 by beginning the change to thin clients running Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Pinellas County, Florida</strong><br />
Public access to county court records database is provided by servers running Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana</strong><br />
The city of Bloomington&#8217;s emergency dispatch system runs on Linux. Police and fire crews are managed by the system.</p>
<p><strong>United States Postal Service</strong><br />
One of the earliest known Linux adoptions was the U.S. Postal Service&#8217;s switch to Linux in 1997. A Linux-based system was set up to run OCR equipment that recognizes the destination addresses on letters.</p>
<p><strong>Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts</strong><br />
It was announced in November of 2003 that PEC Solutions of Fairfax, Virginia would be taking on the task of migrating the Federal Judiciary&#8217;s entire national IT infrastructure to Linux. The system will handle case management, finance and accounting, probation and pretrial services, and case-tracking management.</p>
<p><strong>The Federal Government of Brazil</strong><br />
Linux and Open Source software will be mandatory for government agencies in Brazil according to a presidential decree being drafted in early 2005.</p>
<p><strong>Mexico City, Mexico</strong><br />
The capital of Mexico has been migrating its IT infrastructure to Linux since the election of Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2000.</p>
<p><strong>National Security Agency, USA</strong><br />
One of the pillars of the intelligence community of the United States, the NSA developed its own custom enhancements to the Linux kernel, known as Security Enhanced Linux or SE Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Department of Human Services, New Jersey, USA</strong><br />
State IT officials migrated the Child-Welfare Implementation System to Linux, greatly speeding up the time it takes case workers to access records.</p>
<p><strong>The State of Nebraska, USA</strong><br />
The State of Nebraska has migrated some of its key IT infrastructure to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>United States Census Bureau</strong><br />
The Fast Facts website is a Linux-based web application.</p>
<p><strong>United States Department of Energy</strong><br />
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory uses a Beowulf cluster powered by Linux servers. In 2002, it was the most powerful Linux-based system in the world.</p>
<p><strong>Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), USA</strong><br />
The FBI&#8217;s Dallas, Texas office uses a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python) solution to provide an Emergency Response Network. The system links federal, state and local agency and insures fast response times in the event of emergencies.</p>
<p><strong>National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA</strong><br />
NASA has been a long time user of Linux and Open Source software. Debian GNU/Linux was used to control experiments on the Space Shuttle mission STS-83 in April, 1997</p>
<p><strong>State of Mississippi, USA</strong><br />
The state&#8217;s Automated System Project, which runs on Linux servers, coordinates state, local and federal law enforcement agencies&#8217; access to information. The project, funded by the US Department of Homeland Security, serves as a model for a future nationwide system.</p>
<p><strong>Ministry of Information and Communication, South Korea</strong><br />
The ministry is funding projects within the South Korean government that use Linux and Open Source.</p>
<p><strong>The Government of Venezuela</strong><br />
President Hugo Chavez issued a decree in December 2004 that calls on the Minister for Science and Technology to draw up a national plan for transition of Venezuela&#8217;s public administration to Open Source software. The Ministry of Sports and Education, which has already made the switch, saved up to 4 billion Bolivares in 2004 on their IT costs.</p>
<p><strong>Government Open Code Collaborative, USA</strong><br />
The states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia share Open Source applications through a repository at the University of Rhode Island. GOCC hosts these applications for sharing among government entities and non-profits.</p>
<p><strong>Central Scotland Police, Scotland, UK</strong><br />
Central Scotland Police have developed a Linux-based system to facilitate the public&#8217;s access to government data as mandated in the Freedom of Information Act.</p>
<p><strong>Centrelink, Australia</strong><br />
Centrelink is the government agency that distributes social security payments in Australia. The agency&#8217;s 27,000 staff will use a Linux-based system to distribute $55 billion AU to over 6 million users.</p>
<p><strong>Ministry of Finance, Denmark</strong><br />
The Ministry uses a JBoss application server running on Red Hat Linux to exchange XML data among ministries in Denmark.</p>
<p><strong>United States Navy</strong><br />
The US Navy employs Linux clusters to run sonar systems on nuclear submarines.</p>
<p><strong>Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria</strong><br />
Education officials in Nigeria had migrated 35 high schools to Linux in 2003.</p>
<p><strong>Northern Territory, Australia</strong><br />
The government of the Northern Territory has pledged to increase the use of open source technologies. As of May 2005, $35 million AU has been spent already migrating desktops to Linux.</p>
<h2>Industry Using Unix/Linux</h2>
<p><strong>AIG Sales, South Africa</strong><br />
South African steel and pipe company AIG Sales migrated their DOS-based accounting system to one running Sage on Linux servers.</p>
<p><strong>Amadeus Development Company</strong><br />
Amadeus, a travel reservations system provider, uses Linux extensively throughout their operations.</p>
<p><strong>Axfood</strong><br />
The Scandinavian food retailer is using Red Hat Linux to power their SAP business software. The are also using the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, also provided by Red Hat.</p>
<p><strong>Banrisul</strong><br />
One of the largest banks in Brazil, all of Banrisul&#8217;s ATM machines run the Linux operating system.</p>
<p><strong>BMW</strong><br />
BMW uses Xen virtualization technology on Novell&#8217;s SUSE Linux in their data center.</p>
<p><strong>BMW Williams Formula 1</strong><br />
The Formula 1 team uses an Linux cluster built by Hewlett-Packard to carry out high-resolution aerodynamic modelling of its team&#8217;s cars.</p>
<p><strong>Continental Airlines</strong><br />
Continental Airlines has switched over to Linux to power their ticket-reissuing system.</p>
<p><strong>Country Energy, NSW, Australia</strong><br />
A Linux user since 1995, Country Energy has been steadily moving more and more systems over to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Deutsche Bahn</strong><br />
German railway system manager Deutsche Bahn began in late 2004 to migrate its servers to Linux. The migrated systems include a Lotus Notes server, a SAP system and their web servers. Other systems will follow.</p>
<p><strong>Endress+Hauser</strong><br />
In the summer of 2004, the sensors and instruments manufacturer migrated its SAP system on to a mainframe running Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Ernie Ball Inc.</strong><br />
The guitar string manufacturer abandoned Microsoft and migrated its entire IT infrastructure to Linux after a highly publicized audit by the Business Software Alliance, a Microsoft-funded licensing watchdog.</p>
<p><strong>Fiat</strong><br />
The Italian automaker uses a Linux-based system to run its European sales and support network.</p>
<p><strong>Hyundai Motor Company</strong><br />
Hyundai uses a Linux cluster built by IBM for crash simulation tests and analysis.</p>
<p><strong>LIF (Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry)</strong><br />
LIF uses Red Hat Linux to power their information portal where they provide information about medicines.</p>
<p><strong>PayPal</strong><br />
The on-line payment manager runs its web presence and middleware tier on thousands of Linux servers</p>
<p><strong>Pioneer Petroleum</strong><br />
Ontario, Canada gasoline retailer Pioneer Petroleum are migrating computers in their stations to Red Hat Linux Workstation.</p>
<p><strong>Priority Healthcare Corp.</strong><br />
The Florida-based pharmaceutical company has migrated its infrastructure to IBM eServer xSeries servers running Red Hat Linux.</p>
<p><strong>PSA Peugeot Citroën</strong><br />
The European automaker has a contract with Novell Inc. to migrate over 20,000 desktops and 2000 servers to SUSE Enterprise Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Qantas Airways</strong><br />
Qantas has migrated 80% of their datacenter servers to Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Sallie Mae Inc.</strong><br />
The student loan provider uses Linux extensively in their IT infrastructure.</p>
<p><strong>Singapore Airlines</strong><br />
Red Hat Linux powers its KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system.</p>
<p><strong>Spanair</strong><br />
The Spanish airline is using Red Hat Enterprise Linux in two of their major areas of operation.</p>
<p><strong>Starwood Hotels &amp; Resorts Worldwide</strong><br />
The owner of the Le Meridien and Sheraton hotel chains uses Linux to run their reservations system.</p>
<p><strong>Statoil</strong><br />
Norway&#8217;s largest oil company has migrated some key pieces of their IT infrastructure to Red Hat Linux.</p>
<p><strong>The Chicago Mercantile Exchange</strong><br />
In early 2005, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange began to migrate their Sparc hardware running Sun&#8217;s Solaris to commodity servers running Linux.</p>
<p><strong>Thrifty Car Rental</strong><br />
Thrifty is running a large percentage of their IT infrastructure on Ubuntu Linux</p>
<p><strong>Unilever</strong><br />
The Anglo-Dutch food conglomerate started a migration to open source and Linux in 2004.</p>
<p><strong>Union Bank of California</strong><br />
The California USA based bank has migrated its IT infrastructure to Red Hat Enterprise Linux</p>
<p><strong>Virgin America Airlines</strong><br />
Red Hat Enterprise Linux powers the airline&#8217;s web presence.</p>
<p><strong>Volvo</strong><br />
Volvo is using an IBM-built Linux cluster to process vehicle crash test data.</p>
<p><strong>Welch Foods Inc.</strong><br />
The jam, jelly and juice maker switched to Dell servers running Oracle on Linux in early 2005</p>
<h2>Arts and Entertainment Using Unix/Linux</h2>
<p><strong>Digital Domain</strong><br />
Digital Domain of Venice, California, used Linux servers to aid in the CGI (computer generated image) process for the Oscar-winning film Titanic.</p>
<p><strong>DreamWorks</strong><br />
The animation studio has used Linux in the production of several of their top movies, including Shrek, Shrek 2, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and Shark Tale.</p>
<p><strong>Film: Sin City</strong><br />
Director Robert Rodriguez pioneered the use of Dual Link, or &#8220;4:4:4&#8243; format in his film Sin City. The process used a Linux-based RaveHD DDR.</p>
<p><strong>Weta Digital</strong><br />
Weta Digital of New Zealand ran Red Hat Linux on hundreds of rackmounted servers to render images for the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings films.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/who-uses-unix.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Stem Cell Hip Osteoarthritis</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/stem-cell-hip-osteoarthritis.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/stem-cell-hip-osteoarthritis.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:02:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[web-development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=584</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a summary of findings of over one year of research into the use of adult (not embryonic) stem cells as a treatment for hip osteoarthritis.  Adult stem cells or autologous stem cells means stem cells taken from your own body and injected back into your body at the point of injury  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is a summary of findings of over one year of research into the use of adult (not embryonic) stem cells as a treatment for hip osteoarthritis.  Adult stem cells or autologous stem cells means stem cells taken from your own body and injected back into your body at the point of injury <span id="more-584"></span> or pain are being used for many conditions like knee &amp; hip osteoarthritis, bone breaks, and other soft and hard tissue problems.  The information presented relates only to hip osteoarthritis and the use of stem cells and the related success rates reported.</p>
<p>The use of stem cells for humans in treating hip osteoarthritis is relatively new.  There are four main doctors or &#8220;hospitals&#8221; that use stem cells for treatment of hip osteoarthritis.  They are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Dr. Steenblock in Southern California at the Steenblock Research Institute</li>
<li>Dr. Centeno in Colorado at Regenerative Sciences Inc.</li>
<li>Dr. Wei in Maryland at the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland</li>
<li>The XCell-Center in Dusseldorf Germany</li>
</ol>
<p>Here are the results.</p>
<h2>1. Dr. Steenblock in Southern California at the Steenblock Research Institute</h2>
<blockquote><p>As of 2008 2 hip osteoarthritis patients treated 100% with good results.</p>
<p>Quote from the Steenblock Research Institute on October 15, 2008: &#8220;We have had 2 patients with hip osteoarthritis and both got good results &#8211; one reported moderate improvement and reduction in pain and the other reported significant improvement.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h2>2. Dr. Centeno in Colorado at Regenerative Sciences Inc.</h2>
<blockquote><p>Quote from Dr. Centeno via e-mail on January 5, 2010: &#8220;I would estimate about 100 + hips.&#8221;  &#8230; &#8220;it {this data} may not get published until next year.&#8221;</p>
<p>From Dr. Centeno&#8217;s web site on January 5, 2010: &#8220;75% of hip patients reported more than 50% relief and 88% of them reported more than 75% relief&#8221;</p>
<p>Quote from Dr. Centeno&#8217;s office via e-mail on January 12, 2010: &#8220;Excel,  Stenblock, and Wei use a bone marrow derived, nucleated cell concentrate, out of  which 1 in 50,000-500,000 is a stem cell capable of orthopedic tissue repair  (mesenchymal stem cell).  Centeno uses culture expanded mesenchymal stem  cells.</p>
<p>Insertion of cells makes a big  difference.  Injection into the hip requires imaging guidance or the chance  the cells will be not be placed in the hip is significant.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Centeno et al is the only group who has published data on hip patients:</strong></p>
<p>Imaging case report here:</p>
<p>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16886034?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&#038;ordinalpos=1</p>
<p>Safety data here:</p>
<p>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19951252?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&#038;ordinalpos=1</p></blockquote>
<h2>3. Dr. Wei in Maryland at Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland</h2>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Dr. Wei has been using stem cells for treatment of hip OA for several months now, so it is still fairly new. He has done the procedure on about 10 patients with overall good results. At this point, we are seeing about an 80% success rate. By that, I mean that those patients have decreased pain, and increased mobility and range of motion.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h2>4. The XCell-Center in Dusseldorf Germany</h2>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Since the start in January 2007, <strong>more than 2000 patients</strong> have safely undergone our various stem cell treatments.&#8221;  <span style="text-decoration: underline;">XCell-Center has an unknown success rate with hip osteoarthritis.</span></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>&#8220;Stem cells and tumor risk<br />
Adult stem cells do not increase tumor risk</p>
<p>One question that is regularly asked in connection with stem cell therapy is whether stem cells increase the risk of cancer. This is a justified concern if a therapy involves embryonic stem cells because these cells actually do divide at an extremely fast rate, and they have already been shown to have cancer-causing potential in animals and humans. However, therapy with embryonic stem cells is strictly prohibited in Germany. At the XCell-Center, we only use the patient&#8217;s own stem cells for therapy.<br />
The following applies to therapy with adult stem cells:</p>
<p>Adult stem cells, which are transplanted immediately after their removal and concentration for therapeutic purposes, do not increase the risk of tumor unless the patient already has cancer.<br />
Here are the facts based on the current information status:</p>
<p>Fact 1: No indications of higher tumor formation have been found to exist over the last 40 years in the therapy of leukemia and lymphoma, which also involves the use of adult stem cells.</p>
<p>Fact 2: The behavior of adult stem cells depends to a great extent on their environment. There is no evidence to date that adult stem cells promote tumor formation in the human body.</p>
<p>There is one exception. The growth of an existing tumor can be promoted by the insertion of adult stem cells, and tissue that is damaged by irradiation can harden into cancerous tissue after the injection of adult stem cells.</p>
<p>Fact 3: Adult stem cells only tend to form cancerous stem cells if they are allowed to multiply in a culture dish over a lengthy period of time, because the probability of genetic defect clusters increases in proportion to the number of cell divisions.</p>
<p>Summary: In accordance with the latest scientific findings, the therapy performed at the XCell-Center does not cause tumors because the stem cells are not allowed to multiply for any length of time outside the body. They are transplanted back into the body immediately after purification. The XCell-Center doesn&#8217;t treat patients with tumors.&#8221;</p>
<p>http://www.xcell-center.com/news/stem-cells-and-tumor-risk.aspx</p></blockquote>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that stem cell therapy is just beginning, and data collection and reporting on results is poor, but thousands of treatments have been made around the world with overall excellent reported results and a low incidence of reported problems.  This makes stem cell therapy, especially adult/autologous stem cell therapy, something that has the seeming potential to help many people with hip osteoarthritis as well as other problems.  <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Over 100 reported cases stem cell therapy has been used to treat hip osteoarthritis in the United States with overall good results.</strong></span></p>
<p>This article is not meant to promote or support any treatment.  It is only to be used for entertainment and informational purposes, not to treat, recommend, or diagnose any medical condition.  Always seek advice from a qualify medical professional.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/stem-cell-hip-osteoarthritis.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Twelve (12) Days of Christmas</title>
		<link>http://venturait.com/twelve-12-days-of-christmas.html</link>
		<comments>http://venturait.com/twelve-12-days-of-christmas.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[web-development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://venturait.com/?p=579</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning on Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide. The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January &#8211; the day before the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning on Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide. The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January &#8211; the day before the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.<span id="more-579"></span></p>
<p>Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame and their interpretations. St. Stephen&#8217;s Day (or Boxing Day), for example, is 26 December in the Western Church and 27 December in the Eastern Church. Boxing Day, the first weekday after Christmas, is observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and was traditionally marked by the giving of Christmas boxes to service workers (such as postal workers and trades people) in the United Kingdom; 28 December is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the 12 days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Night, some only on Twelfth Night and some each of the 12 nights.</p>
<p>In England in the Middle Ages, this period was one of continuous feasting and merrymaking, which climaxed on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the Christmas season. In Tudor England, Twelfth Night itself was forever solidified in popular culture when William Shakespeare used it as setting for one of his most famous stage plays, titled Twelfth Night. Often a Lord of Misrule was chosen to lead the Christmas revels.</p>
<p>Some of these traditions were adapted from the older pagan customs, including the Roman Saturnalia and the Germanic Yuletide. Some also have an echo in modern day pantomime where traditionally authority is mocked and the principal male lead is played by a woman, while the leading older female character, or &#8216;Dame&#8217;, is played by a man.</p>
<p>The early North American colonists brought their version of the Twelve Days over from England, and adapted them to their new country, adding their own variations over the years. For example, the modern day Christmas wreath may have originated with these colonials. A homemade wreath would be fashioned from local greenery and if fruits were available, they were added. Making the wreaths was one of the traditions of Christmas Eve; they would be hung on each home&#8217;s front door beginning on Christmas Night (1st night of Christmas) through Twelfth Night or Epiphany morning. As was already the tradition in their native England, all decorations would be taken down by Epiphany morning and the remainder of the edibles would be consumed. A special cake, the king cake, was also baked then for Epiphany.</p>
<p>In Eastern Christianity (the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches) the Great Feast of Theophany (Epiphany) on 6 January is considered a higher-ranked feast than the Nativity (Christmas), and commemorates the Baptism of Jesus rather than the arrival of the Wise Men. The twelve days beginning on 25 December are observed as a fast-free period of celebration. The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church, however, observe the Nativity of Christ on 6 January, and thus do not have a twelve day period between Christmas and 5 January.</p>
<p>The Eve of the Theophany (5 January) is a day of strict fasting, on which the devout will not eat anything until the first star is seen at night. This day is known as Paramony (&#8220;preparation&#8221;), and follows the same general outline as Christmas Eve. That morning is the celebration of the Royal Hours and then the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil combined with Vespers, at the conclusion of which is celebrated the Great Blessing of Waters, in commemoration of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. There are certain parallels between the hymns chanted on Paramony and those of Good Friday, to show that, according to Orthodox theology, the steps that Jesus took into the Jordan River were the first steps on the way to the Cross. That night the All-Night Vigil is served for the Feast of the Theophany.</p>
<p><strong>Christmas in the United States</strong></p>
<p>With the onset of more U.S.-Americanized and secular traditions throughout the past two centuries (such as the U.S.-American &#8220;Santa Claus&#8221;), also the popularity of Christmas Eve itself as if it were also an actual holiday, and rise in popularity of New Year&#8217;s Eve parties as well, the traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas have been largely forgotten in the U.S. This is also heightened by the commercial practice to have after-Christmas sales begin on 26 December and run usually until New Year&#8217;s Eve. Indeed, contemporary marketing and media tend to espouse the (erroneous) belief that the Twelve Days end on Christmas and thus begin 14 December.</p>
<p>However, a small percentage of Christians of many sects have held on to their own favorite ways to celebrate and those who choose to also have their own church to guide them in a spiritual way of marking this reverent holiday. U.S. Americans who celebrate various ways include secular Christians of all backgrounds: religious Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Moravians and those of the Amish and Mennonite communities.</p>
<p>Today, some celebrants give gifts each of the Twelve Days, feast and otherwise celebrate the entire time through to Epiphany morning. Lighting a candle for each day has become a modern tradition in the U.S. and of course, singing the appropriate verses of the famous song each day is also an important and fun part of the American celebrations.</p>
<p>Some still celebrate Twelfth Night as the biggest night for parties and gift-giving and some also light a Yule Log on the first night (Christmas) and let it burn some each of the twelve nights. Some Americans also have their own traditional foods to serve each night.</p>
<p>As in olden days, Twelfth Night to Epiphany morning is then the traditional time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://venturait.com/twelve-12-days-of-christmas.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

