Problem: Article: Because rough floors can lead to sores, creating a smoother floor can help your guinea pig get over bumblefoot. Wire-cage floors, plastic floors that have pieces jutting up, and other rough floors are all harmful to your guinea pig's feet. Wire-cage floors are the biggest culprit. A solid floor works best. You can look for a new cage that has an appropriate floor or try to find an insert for the cage that you have. Canvas, plastic, or even coated metal are all appropriate choices for a solid floor. You should be able to find an insert specifically designed for your guinea pig's cage. Hard, smooth floors can still chafe, so provide some deep, soft bedding to make it more comfortable for your guinea pig. Increased bacteria can lead to more infection. Therefore, cleaning the cage more often can help decrease your guinea pig's chances of getting bumblefoot, as well as help with recovery if your pet already has it. Try to clean out the cage at least once a week. You may want to move outside to really clean out the cage. Take the guinea pigs out, and bag up the old bedding. Have a disinfectant ready that's safe for small animals. You can find these disinfectants at pet stores. Alternatively, you can use a mixture of white vinegar and water (half and half). Wash thoroughly with soap and water. You can use dish soap for this purpose, but you should probably keep a dedicated bottle. You can soak any hard spots in vinegar and scrub them with a toothbrush. Disinfect. Spray the disinfectant on, being sure to get the whole cage. You can leave it on to help it do its work. Rinse it clean when it's done, making sure to remove all the disinfectant. Once a month, use very diluted bleach as a disinfectant (one part bleach twenty parts of water). Make sure to always rinse the cage thoroughly to make sure you don't leave traces of the bleach. Hard floors can lead to pressure sores, so it's important to provide deep, soft bedding for your guinea pig. One possible choice is VetBed. Sometimes, the guinea pig won't want to use the softer bedding, which is why you can just put it in part of the cage at first to see if your guinea pig likes it. Try to layer it slightly thicker than you normally do. If the bedding gets wet, it keeps the guinea pig's feet wet. In turn, their feet remain softer, which can cause the feet to crack. Cracked feet open the door for more infection. Try changing the bedding more often, especially where the guinea pig uses the restroom and under the water bowl or bottle. Once a day, check for wet spots. Scoop the wet spot out, wipe underneath it with a paper towel, and then add dry bedding back in.
Summary: Create a smooth floor. Clean the cage more often. Choose a softer bedding. Keep the floor dry.

Problem: Article: Go to https://twitter.com/ in your computer's web browser. If you're logged into Twitter, this will open your Twitter feed. If you aren't logged into Twitter, you'll need to enter your email address (or Twitter name, or phone number) and password in the upper-right side of the page and then click Log in. It's at the top of the page. Doing so opens a list of your recent Twitter notifications. You'll find this in the upper-right side of the "Notifications" page. Clicking this link will take you to the Notifications section of the Settings menu. If you don't see a Settings link here, you can get to the Notifications menu by clicking your profile picture in the top-right side of the page, clicking Settings and privacy, and clicking Notifications on the left side of the page. Check every box on this page to do so. This won't affect people who you follow, but it will prevent you from receiving annoying notifications from or about other people. It's at the bottom of the page. You'll find this on the left side of the page. It's at the top of the page. Doing so prevents Twitter from sending notifications to your email address. You will still receive security alerts and other urgent emails from Twitter, but other users' activity won't get pushed to your email address anymore. This is on the left side of the page. It's at the top of the page. Doing so will prevent Twitter from pushing notifications from your browser to your desktop. If you see Turn on (or no button) on this page, web notifications aren't enabled.
Summary: Open Twitter. Click the Notifications tab. Click the Settings link. Mute notifications from people you don't follow. Click Save changes. Click the Email notifications tab. Click Turn off. Click the Web notifications tab. Click Turn off.

Problem: Article: Bring a notebook and pen to the speech, so you can make note of areas that need improvement. Writing down a shorthand account of what the speaker said will help you to organize the points when it's time to deliver your critique. Being as detailed as possible in your notes will help the speaker understand exactly what to work on for next time. If there are no restrictions against it and you have time, record the speech using either a video camera or a tape recorder. This way, you will have the opportunity to play back the speech more than once to get an idea of what point the speaker was making, as well as how well they said it. Organize your notes so there's a section on content and a section on delivery. Include examples to back up your evaluation of each. Deconstruct the speech by part, starting with the introduction and ending with the conclusion. Give an overall evaluation of whether you felt the main points of the speech were adequately presented and reinforced, and whether you felt the speech as a whole seemed convincing and credible. Would you consider it a successful speech, or does it need to be revised? Tell the speaker what elements of the speech were interesting, which parts were confusing, and which areas need more references to back them up. If there were certain jokes or anecdotes that didn't work, let the speaker know. It's better to be honest now than to let the person tell the same bad joke twice. Tell the speaker whether you felt the speech was appropriate for the intended audience. It is in this area that speakers often need the most feedback, since it's difficult to evaluate your own body language and style. Give the speaker a gentle but honest critique of the effectiveness of his or her body language and delivery, including tone of voice, pacing, eye contact, and posture. It might be helpful to discuss the concept of emotional intelligence, or EQ, which refers to the ability to read an audience and keep people engaged by affecting their emotions. The point of making eye contact, speaking clearly and sounding natural is to make the audience feel as though you care about them and you want them to understand where you're coming from. Helping them feel included will make them more likely to stay engaged. If the speaker seemed nervous, you might suggest that he or she practice techniques that help reduce stage fright, like exercising before the speech, laughing before the speech and practicing in front of a small group of people first. The speaker you're critiquing likely put some time and effort into writing and practicing the speech. Any time you're giving a critique, it's just as important to point out what went right as it is to discuss what needs improvement. If you're working with a student or someone who needs help improving their speech-giving skills, be encouraging and complimentary so they have the confidence to keep working on their skills. Try the feedback sandwich technique: give the person a compliment on an element of their speech, tell them what needs improvement, then give them another compliment. This classic way to deliver constructive criticism makes the medicine go down more easily. For example, you could tell the person he or she started with a brilliant hook, but you were confused about how the second point related to the thesis. However, the conclusion clarified the main point. As a way to encourage the person to keep learning and improving, you might suggest he or she watch videos of speeches given by famous speakers. Point out similarities and differences between the speech you're critiquing and the famous speech.
Summary:
Take detailed notes during the speech. Discuss your assessment of the speech's content. Give feedback on the speaker's delivery. Point out the positive, too.