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Would you know how to survive if you were lost or wounded in the wilderness? What if it was really cold? What if you were in the searing heat of the desert? Each survival scenario is different and requires unique skills. Let’s see what you’ve got.

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“If I could give you a pill that would make you an Olympic champion — and also kill you in a year — would you take it?” Dr. Gabe Mirkin questioned competitive runners that question in advance of a Washington, D.C., road race in 1967. Of the approximately 100 athletes who returned Mirkin’s questionnaire, more than half responded that they would take the pill.

The prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs in sports has increased in the 43 years since Mirkin, a physician and sports medicine expert, handed out his survey. The desire to win is, naturally, ever present while, at the same time, new research and technologies have expanded the number of options for cheating your way onto the podium. For example, today’s performance-enhancing drugs come in many forms other than a pill (“the cream and the clear,” a testosterone-based ointment described by accused athletes in court testimony, comes to mind), but the results they produce are still highly sought after. Professional cycling has been repeatedly rocked by revelations and allegations of drug use. Every two years as the Olympic Games start, we hear about athletes using or at least being tested for performance-enhancing drugs. Major League Baseball is still trying to repair its image from the steroid era. And the list goes on.

Some athletes get away with using drugs; others wind up suspended from their sport or even in jail, and still others die prematurely. It’s a risky and complex game within a game that plays itself out on a public stage. In this article, we’ll discuss why some athletes take drugs, what the major classes of drugs and their side effects are, and how people test for drug use.

Picture two brick ranch-style houses, side by side. There’s nothing remarkably different about their architecture or aesthetic — except for the yards. One lawn is well-tended with clean beds of vibrant plants splashed among freshly mown Kentucky bluegrass. The other looks pitifully neglected with yellow, parched grass and scraggly shrubs that hide the house’s front windows. If you had pick between these two houses solely based on the curb appeal, which would you choose? The one with the nicer landscaping, right?

Thoughtful landscaping can improve your overall satisfaction with a home while you live there, as well as the chances of luring of potential buyers when you go. In fact, landscaping is an investment that can boost the value of your home up to 11 percent [source: Garskof]. If done well, you can recover up to 200 percent of landscaping expenses when you sell your house [source: American Nursery & Landscaping Association]. But to reap those benefits in the long term, you have to spend some money initially. Depending on how drastic of a transformation you’re going for and how you go about it, a landscaping budget can grow as quickly as summertime weeds. Some experts recommend allotting between 5 and 15 percent of your house’s worth to pay for a lawn makeover [source: Archer].

What if you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend? Although it will require a small more sweat and strategizing, you can pull off a landscaping project easily on a lean budget. Here are 10 tips to revamp your yard thriftily, organized from the beginning of your landscaping endeavor to when everything’s in the ground.

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