Carmine

Ontario has the largest fresh water lakes in the world and a huge diversity of fish, making it the best place in the country for a fishing trip. However, make sure to familiarize yourself with all the regulations regarding Ontario fishing before planning your trip. Contact the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for full licensing details.

I can see how someone could easily get hooked on fishing in Ontario with its picturesque settings, particularly if you like fishing. Pack up your rod and tackle box for year round activity. There are trout, bass, walleye, muskellunge, salmon, and plenty of pan fish.

Some of the most popular ports on Lake Ontario and the Niagara River are Wilson, Olcott, and Lewiston. You can book your stay close to these fishy spots at www.affordabletravelagents.com. Heres whats biting when and where.

*Rainbow/Steelhead Trout-With a light pink strip along its side, the domestic puts up a gallant fight, known for its aerial acrobatics when hooked. 6 to 8lb is the average size. Larger fish in the teens are caught frequently year round. Consistent catches in the lower and upper portions of the Niagara as well as along the Lake Ontario shore. Spring and summer lake fishing is great for rainbows, and steelheads. Best time for river fishing is from December through March with Kwikfish lures or fresh trout eggs. Stick baits work in late spring on Lake Ontario. Real tasty!

*Brown Trout Well stocked at Wilson and Olcott. 10-15lb range sometimes larger. Browns have been caught as early as April in Lake Ontario and early June as water temperatures rise. August and September are good months too. Trolling in a large S pattern. Worms and minnows are the best live baits. Larger fish taken after dark.

*Lake Trout- This is the most likely caught fish on the Niagara, and can be caught year round. The season for Lake Trout opens January 1. The state record is 39lbs 8 ounces. You can drift minnows, or kwikfish of three way bottom rigs or you can try jigging for these tasty critters. Shore fishermen on the river can use spoons and do pretty good too.

Carl McKoy is C.E.O. of affordabletravelagents.com. He has been fishing for more than 30 years, and has caught everything from a blowtoad in his hometown Newport News, VA to bluefin tuna while deep sea fishing in Barbados. I guess you could say Carl is more of a catcher than fisher. In the McKoy household, travel and fishing is a family passion.

Over the years, I have worked at various places of employment where many of my female counterparts regularly dressed as if they were ready for a night on the town versus a day at the office. While sexy attire is great for shaking it on the dance floor, it is not appropriate in a place of business.

Many females mistakenly believe that the attention they get from dressing sexy on the job will translate into promotions and increased career opportunities. More often than not, the exact opposite occurs and dressing too sexy at work drastically hinders career advancement.

I admit that I once adhered to the "if you've got it, flaunt it" mantra when it came to work attire. During that time, I routinely found myself stuck in low paying jobs that I hated. The career opportunities presented to me were rarely challenging and I would quickly become frustrated and bored. I knew I was smart and capable of much more and could not understand why others did not see it.

It was while working in the Event Services department of the largest convention hotel in DC that I had my "Aha!" moment. During the early part of my tenure there, tight pants, low cut tops, short skirts and sexy pumps were on regular rotation in my office wardrobe. I reveled in the reactions I would receive from my male coworkers, including those in upper management. They would buy me lunches, birthday cards and presents, Christmas gifts and other trinkets. I loved the admiration and special treatment I received. What I did not love was the fact that I was passed over for one opportunity after the other even when I was clearly qualified for the positions. A manager actually laughed dismissively when I mentioned applying for a higher position within the company. I realized that while I received plenty of attention, it was not the kind I needed nor truly desired. It was clear that I was not being taken seriously.

I began comparing myself to the women in the company who commanded respect and achieved career success. The differences between me and them were so glaring that I was shocked I had not noticed earlier. These women were sharp. They oozed classiness. They dressed professionally, spoke professionally, carried themselves professionally, they were what I wanted to become. These were the women I had wrongly assumed were "jealous" of me because of all the attention I garnered. I shamefully realized that they were not jealous, they simply did not believe I was on their level and preferred not to interact with me. It took a lot of soul searching and looking in the mirror, but I realized that if I wanted to change the perception people had of me, I would have to present a more professional and classy image.

Almost immediately after altering my attire and beginning to "dress for success", I noticed a shift in the way I was treated. The responses from my managers and coworkers, both male and female, were instantaneous. Several managers pulled me aside to tell me how much my quality of work had improved. I swear to you that I did not change my working habits at all, but since my outward appearance was more professional, they perceived my work as more professional as well. In meetings, colleagues and managers would literally turn to me and ask my opinion on various matters. I was totally floored...this had never happened before. It was as if everyone suddenly discovered I had a brain.

As the treatment I received continued to improve, a funny thing happened. I began behaving in a more professional manner and expecting more of myself for my life and career. Shortly thereafter I received a raise and a promotion to the Executive Office reporting to the General Manager. I ended up leaving that company several months later in order to begin a new career with a firm that paid me an unbelievable 40% more in salary per year.

A very wise and successful woman, who just happens to be my mother, had this to say when I brought up the topic of how one should dress for work, "you should always dress for the job you want, not the one you have." My story illustrates the truth of her words. I am convinced that had I continued to dress too sexy for work, I would have remained stuck toiling away in low paying dead end jobs.

Tamara Aw is the Founder and Director of MEG Staffing.

The Risks of A Long Term Disability

Let us first define what a "fee for service professional" truly is. There are thousands of possible occupations that could use this tag, the important part for this article is that you are clearly able to distinguish between a professional who generates income based upon his or her ability to perform a service, and somebody who is going to earn a salary for the year simply by being employed. People who have occupations that result in income only when he or she performs the duties of their occupation are considered fee for service professionals. Physicians only get paid after they have seen patients and treated them, lawyers get paid for working with clients on all sorts of legal matters, realtors get paid only when they sell a home, and consultants get paid for working with their clients. The systemic problem we have is that so many professionals don't realize just how vulnerable their financial worlds are. One long term disability could wipe out all of their savings in a short period of time, and most professionals don't realize that without them going to work their is no further source of income.

Some Professionals Understand

It is not entirely fair to say that all fee for service professionals don't understand how vulnerable they are. While some occupations seem to walk around with blinders on like consultants, salesman, and attorneys, physicians and nurses all understand just how vulnerable they are. There is a reason physicians buy disability insurance more than any other occupation, they see how people become disabled every day. While a computer consultant may think that if they can think and type that they can work, and physician knows that is just not true. Disabilities are most often illness claims, not accident claims. Many professions think of becoming disabled from a car accident or other accident, reality is that most claims come from illnesses like cancer, diabetes, back problems, heart disease, and hundreds of other diseases. Every professional needs to know that a disease does not care what you do for a living, and will most likely disable everybody in the same way, regardless of what you do for a living. I don't know any computer engineers that are still able to generate new business, and perform consulting services while dealing with something like ALS, Parkinsons, or cancer.

What to Look For as a Professional

There are a decent amount of quality disability insurance policies on the market today. Most of the good policies are Non-Cancellable and Guaranteed Renewable, and I believe you should also own a pure own-occupation definition of total disability. The real key, in my honest opinion, is the residual disability benefits offered to you. You need a disability insurance policy that has a very long recovery benefit, and most of the major carriers differ greatly when it comes to the recovery benefit. While many carriers have Non-Can benefits, and a few good one's also offer a pure own-occupation definition of total disability, there are only a couple that have a recovery benefit for the entire benefit period. Most disability insurance companies have to specify their recovery benefit period in the contract. Some will offer 6 months, some will go out to 2 years, but the best have a residual disability benefit that allows for an unlimited recovery benefit.

Ask Yourself One Question

If you were totally disabled for a period of one year, and one day you were miraculously recovered back to work full time, how long would it take you to achieve your pre-disability earnings level? Many fee for service professionals, when faced with this question, realize it would be a matter of rebuilding their entire business again. Clients and patients typically cannot wait for you to recover from your disability, and end up moving on to your competition while you are disabled. It may have taken you a decade to achieve the level of earnings you had before you were disabled, and it may be another decade before you get back to that level again. Many times you end up starting over when recovering from a long term disability, or even worse you may never financially recover. This is the exact reason why fee for service professionals need to have an individual disability insurance policy that has an unlimited recovery benefit. An unlimited recovery benefit will allow this person to receive monthly disability payments every month while they set back to rebuild their business.

Scary Thing About Some Policies

The scary thing about some disability insurance policies is that they require a loss of time or duties in order to pay any residual or partial disability benefits. Make absolutely sure that the disability insurance policy you end up purchasing does not require a loss of time or duties in order to pay a recovery benefit, or residual disability benefit. If the policy requires a loss of time or duties, when you are back to work full time the disability benefit would be over. As we just reviewed, it may be years until you financially recover, so make sure to buy a disability insurance policy that will pay you until you financially recover with an unlimited recovery benefit, not just until you physically recovery.

Steve Crawford is the President of Guardian Disability Insurance Brokerage, a firm specializing in the sale of individual disability insurance to professionals across the United States. They are the largest disability insurance presence on the internet, and have been in business since 1997 selling disability insurance on-line.

When people hear words like autodialer or automated telephony, they tend to think that such products apply only to telemarketing firms or pushy fundraising organizations. This does not have to be the case. The truth is that automated telephony products have a broad range of functions and uses that can be employed by a multitude of organizations. One such product is Voicent Broadcast by Phone autodialer software, and one such use is notification of church events.

Using Broadcast by Phone to get the word out about your local church event is simple. First, download and install the software on your computer and attach a voice modem. Next, use your existing telephone to record a message which will be delivered to the people you will be calling. Alternatively, you could type a message and use Broadcast by Phone's Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology to turn the text into a verbal greeting. Third, make a list of all the names and numbers of people who are going to be called and notified. Lastly, start the autodialer or configure it to start at a scheduled time. It will call down the list automatically, playing the message you made to each person.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, however. Using TTS, you can create messages with variables that can be replaced with actual values at the time of the call. This can be used to make custom, personalized messages. For instance, let's say you want to remind everyone of what they are supposed to bring to the upcoming church bake sale. You could write a message that says something like, Hello, [name]! This message is to remind you to bring your delicious, homemade [baked good] to the First Unity Church Bake Sale this Saturday at 11am. Be sure to bring your [wife/husband]; it'll be fun for everyone! You can write the script this way, but when the message plays, the variables in italics can actually be replaced with that person's name, the dish they have agreed to bring for sale, and their spouse. The personal touch can make all the difference!

Broadcast by Phone is what is known as a smart autodialer, meaning it has the ability to interact with the respondent by understanding both verbal and keypad tone commands. Using this technology, you can allow your fellow churchgoers to confirm whether they will be attending the event in question. For example, record a notification message, and at the end give respondents the option of pushing 1 to indicate they will be there, 2 to say they cannot make it, or 3 if they aren't sure yet. It's like RSVPing, but instantaneous!

Now, of course, comes the perpetual question: cost. Unless you are lucky enough to belong to a very wealthy church in which case you probably don't need a lot of fundraising anyway you probably don't have a lot in the budget to spend on frills like autodialers. You'll be relieved to know, then, that Broadcast by Phone is a very affordable solution, mostly because it doesn't require you to be any expensive extra equipment. In fact, Voicent makes a trial edition of the software package that is available for use for free!

Now that you know the benefits of Voicent Broadcast by Phone, and the low cost at which these benefits can be made available to you, there's no reason not to try it for your church's next event!

Andrew Kern - Technology evangelist for automatic phone technologies, including Autodialer, Predictive dialer, and VoiceXML gateway

Are you one of those people who appreciate good things. Can you appreciate quality when you see it. Do you admire luxurious atmospheric settings. Carpet flooring has a way of making you feel a certain way. Many smart businesses have picked up on the idea of how you feel when you enter a place of retail or executive business and many homes today are decorated according to the carpet flooring that has been selected and the mood it gives to the room. There is such a wide variety of choice these days that it is often hard to select the proper carpet for your particular need. This article will not only give some tips on carpet flooring choices but also why many people are choosing it these days.

Carpet flooring has been around for quite awhile and yet there are many new surprises all the time not only in design but texture as well. We live in a push button world of convenience and comfort. That's why you will find carpet flooring available in a multitude of styles and heights. Depending on the room you want to cover, you will need to decide how much traffic the carpeting is going to have to endure, and how hard it is going to be to maintain that beautiful look and appearance. For instance, you may want a more plush look for some rooms and not so plush in others. Carpet flooring has come a long way not only in appearance but in endurance as well.

If you are placing carpet flooring in the living room of your home, you may want to choose a more plush type of carpeting as it will not only add a touch of elegance, but it will create a more inviting social atmosphere when entertaining. If you are looking for carpet flooring for a family room you may not want to go plush. You may want to go with a shorter knap, more endurable type of carpeting. This type of carpeting will withstand more traffic and is usually easier to clean up spills or food. It is usually a lower pile of carpeting and made more child friendly. Carpet flooring is still as popular today as in the past because there are so many different options to choose from.

Carpet flooring provides a quieter floor versus a floor that is made of hardwood or tile. Every time you walk across a tile or hardwood floor you are going to hear whomever is doing the walking. On carpet flooring you may not even know someone has walked into the room as the carpeting will cushion the noise. You can find carpet flooring in just about any home improvement or building supply store along with specialty flooring stores that sell exclusively carpet flooring supplies.

For more information on flooring try visiting http://flooring-solution.com, a website that specializes in providing helpful flooring tips, advice and resources to include Carpet Flooring and more.

Do you like animals? Would you like to work for yourself? Pet grooming could be the career for you.

A grooming business is more than just washing dogs. It can include cleaning ears, trimming nails, brushing teeth, and shaving the animals coat in stylish ways. The animal can be a dog, cat, pig or other type of animal.

With an animal grooming business, the choice is yours. You can have the clients drop their animals at our house or you can start a mobile pet grooming business. The options are limitless.

Starting a pet grooming business does not require that you become certified. Research different dog grooming schools in your area, and choose one that fits your needs. Try to find one that offers pet grooming business management classes with the actual pet grooming classes.

Once you are trained, or while you are in training, you should start to create a pet grooming business plan. Since you will incur some start up costs for your training, licenses, insurance, and equipment, having a business plan can help you obtain a loan to get started.

It is estimated that the industry will grow over 10% in the next five years. This means that your grooming business will likely grow quickly as long as you are professional at all times. This also means that you will have to complete some office work daily as well. Owning an animal grooming business is not just animal grooming.

Pricing can be difficult to determine, but a few phone calls to local grooming salons, or individuals who perform grooming, will give you and idea regarding what services you should be providing and an estimation of the fees. You will need also to decide if you business will be just a dog grooming business or if you will groom other pets too.

Because your business is client oriented, you will need to build a clientele list. The best way to do this is to get your name into your community. You can place flyers at pet stores and veterinarian offices, and animal shelters. You can create a press release for local newspapers and radio stations. You can even offer your services to the local animal shelter. If they like your work, they will refer people to you.

To keep on top of animal grooming trends you should plan to attend local dog and cat shows, and go to pet grooming industry expos, and conventions. You should subscribe to industry magazines as well, and check the internet frequently. It is a font of knowledge and there are web sites, such as PetGroomer.com that are there to help people start their animal grooming business, obtain training, and calendars of events.

Since you are working for yourself, you have to rely on your ability to keep customers happy. This means always being available for set appointments, maintaining a clean work area, and being professional at all times. Even though you work from home, or out of a van, professionalism keeps your clients coming to you and not another pet grooming business.

There are many ways to get into this industry. You can purchase a franchise, which give you the credibility of an established name. You can purchase a local pet grooming business that is currently for sale. Of course, you can start your own grooming business.

You should check with your local government for any zoning, licensure, and insurance requirements for your business. This is very important and could be the difference of your grooming business succeeding or failing. A dog grooming business is still a business no mater how much fun you have doing it.

Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Best Home Based Internet Business, Ebay Money Making Tips and Medical Billing Service.

The Chesapeake Bay, with more than two thousand miles of shoreline, is the largest estuary in the world. Despite its size, it is basically a shallow body of water. There are deep spots (some greater than 90 feet deep) but there are lots of spots where shallow-water anglers can enjoy world-class angling.

The upper Bay includes the waters from the Susquehanna Flats to the Bay Bridge. Middle Bay runs from the Bay Bridge south to the Honga River on the east and Solomons at the mouth of the Patuxent on the west. Finally, the lower Bay includes Crisfield on the east and Point Lookout at the mouth of the Potomac on the west including Tangier Sound, to the mouth of the Bay.With the recent cooler temperatures, you would think that Fall was here. It isn't. There will be plenty od hot days left on the Bay, but Fall is just around the corner, and can be a very productive time on the Chesapeake Bay rivers.

Cooling waters trigger increased feeding activity, so many anglers focus on breaking schools of stripers because it's visual, and quite productive. In early September, surface breaking schools of striped bass are common in the early morning and from midafternoon to dusk. We catch a lot of 15 inch fish at this time, but larger fish are possible. Small glass minnows, or bay anchovies are the predominant bait at this time, so small lures or flies work well, but recently we have had luck with some Swimbaits, and big Salt water Rat-L-Traps.

Try crank baits such as a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow or a similar "slim minnow" floater diver. Small spoons like Hopkins Shorties are always good. Soft plastics of all kinds are excellent choices, but a Bass Assassin with a 1/4-ounce head is a favorite of many anglers that fish the bay. When blues mix with the stripers, tie on a 4-inch wire tippet. For the fly rodder, small white poppers are always good, and a 2/0 Clouser Minnow or Deceiver with plenty of flash gets good action.

Some of the best fall spots to try along the western shore in the upper Bay include Abbey Point at the mouth of Bush River. We have always found that an outgoing tide is best here. Pooles Island, off the mouth of the Gunpowder River, has lots of underwater structure and is pretty shallow well out from shore, so be careful here. The area where the Seneca, Dundee and Gunpowder rivers come together is productive most of the year. On the eastern shore, try Worton Point at the mouth of Worton Creek.There's a lot of structure here, including old duck blinds and piers. Fairlee Creek is a hotspot on the upper eastern shore. Baitfish pour out of the mouth on an outgoing tide.

Bloody Point and the mouth of the Chester River has a big tidal rip and is another community hole type spot that produces. Anglers fishing the middle Bay should try Bay Bridge. The waters around the bridge pilings to the north and toward the eastern side are almost always productive. The western shore has spots with tidal rips, and all can hold breaking stripers. Try Hackets Point, just below the Bay Bridge, near the mouth of Whitehall Creek, and try Tolly Point at the mouth of the Severn River. In southernmost mid Bay, the Solomons area at the mouth of the Patuxent River is a top spot on the western shore.

Just south of Solomons is a series of targets used by the Navy, and a favorite spot for andglers in the fall. Along the eastern shore, Kent Narrows is a narrow cut that joins the Chester River with Eastern Bay. The shoreline nearest the Bay in the Narrows proper is usually the best spot, but it's hard to fish. The water against the shoreline is a lot deeper than the water between it and the channel, and running aground is a possibility.

Eastern Bay has schools of breaking stripers and sometimes bluefish in early fall. Just drive along and look for gulls, but if you can't find surface-feeding fish, don't worry. You can cast around the points, humps and tide rips for both stripers and seatrout. Poplar Island, at the mouth of Eastern Bay, has lots of structure with good fish habitat, but spoil dredging to restore the island to its original size may have had an adverse effect.

For many years, Tilghman Island and the mouth of the Choptank have been fall hotspots. Again, breaking fish offer the best possibilities, and the points at both the north and south ends of the Choptank are usually the best areas. Farther south, the northeast end of Tayplors Island is loaded with timber and underwater stumps. Next up is the Honga River. The mouth of the Honga is a favorite striper spot year-round, but particularly in fall at both the mouth and farther upstream. The shoreline has lots of structure here. The lower Bay's western shore, from the Potomac to the mouth of the Bay, offers great fishing from mid to late fall. It's a hotspot for stripers and blues, and in early fall, Spanish mackerel should be plentiful. As the season goes on, and these fish move out, fishing for breaking stripers and blues, and deep-jigging for seatrout gets better.

Along the eastern shore from Crisfield to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, not only are breaking stripers plentiful, but October and early November offer some good structure fishing. Most of the islands have underwater stump fields that hold striped bass. Great Fox Island, south of Crisfield, has stump fields along most of the western side and around the southern tip. Watts island, south of Great Fox Island, offers similar structure along its west side. Smith and Tangier islands, in mid Bay, both have great shoreline structure consisting of undercut banks, shallow flats and underwater stumps. In addition, both islands have channels defined by rocky jetties at their entrances. We have taken decent fish right against the rocks on both tides.

Winter is the worst time for fishing the Chesapeake. However, a few places hold fish, mostly along the western shore. On mild days, you can find stripers around power plants. In the upper Bay, try the Carroll Island Power Plant near the mouth of the Seneca River, or better yet, Baltimore Harbor. We don't reall prefer these areas, but in the winte, they are one of the few spots that offer some action at time

Spring is when the annual shad run of both hickory and white shad starts in the Susquehanna River, at the top of the Bay and draws anglers from everywhere. Deer Creek and Octoraro Creek, two tributary streams a mile or so below Conowingo Dam, have good runs of hickories, while the main river has both hickories and the larger white shad.

But the main event is the 6- or 7-week catch-and-release season for striped bass on the Susquehanna Flats. Usually beginning about March 15 and ending in early May, this season increases your chance of catching a really big striper on bass tackle. However, heavy spring rains upstream in Pennsylvania and New York can turn the flats into a muddy debris-filled mess; but when the water clears the fishing can be great, as you can tell by some of thephotos here at our site's album, of the fish caught in the bay. Once stripers complete their spawning in the upper Bay, most follow deep channels to migrate northward up the coast, and are targeted by anglers trolling deep with multi-line umbrella rigs on heavy tackle. A little farther south, the Crisfield area offers the same fishing, and some of the shallow flats around Janes Island and Fox Island offer a chance to take croakers on artificials in shallow water.

Considered a bottom fish, these tough fighters feed in the shallows much like the larger redfish. By early June, seatrout will be available at many areas from the Crisfield area to the mouth of the Bay, and, beginning around Memorial Day, spotted seatrout become the most popular species for many Virginia fishermen. These fish are widespread, but the cuts and channels of Lynnhaven Bay, right below the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, can be a good bet. Tautog are also available if waters stay cool. One popular spot is by the sunken World War II concrete Liberty Ships that forms the breakwater near Kiptopeake Campground near Cape Charles on Virginia's eastern shore. Any of the spots that produce during the fall will hold fish in summer as well, but if there is one summer pattern to remember it is to fish during the cooler morning and evening hours. For whatever reason, by summer the "sub-aquatic vegetation returns to the popular Susquehanna Flats.

Gone for almost 30 years, largely due to efforts by the state to control the grasses somewhat, the last two years has seen an enormous resurgence. By July, you can practically walk on the stuff, and it's difficult to work a boat into the area. Because of the grass, the water is clear and full of baitfish, stripers and largemouth bass. Fishing the open pockets is the key to success here. In recent years, croaker numbers have relly gone up, and they are widespread from early June through August around bottom structure.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) is really a 17-mile-long fish structure. The longest bridge-tunnel in the world, it's undoubtedly the most productive manmade structure in the Bay. Rocky riprap forms islands that support the bridge and the bridge pilings hold fish almost year-round. In all but the coldest weather, striped bass are caught here on large plugs right against the rocky shorelines of the manmade island supports. From spring through fall, a cast right against the rocks will almost always result in a striper. From November into late December (and sometimes later) bigger stripers move into the deep holes to winter-over. You can catch giant fish then, if you can deal with cold, windy weather. Where the bridge is closest to the water, striped bass line up at the shadow line waiting for baitfish to be swept into range. If you anchor up in the shadows and fish uptide, you will actually be able to see the fish take your bait.

A Bay in Peril

Commercial overfishing has hurt many of the Chesapeake's marine species. Soft-shell clams are gone, oysters are down to about one percent of historical populations, and blue crabs are disappearing.Pollution compounds the problem. More than 150 sewage treatment plants empty directly into the Bay. The Susquehanna River has a large number of non-compliant sewage plants along its 600-plus-mile course through New York and Pennsylvania, eventually reaching the Bay.

The poultry industry, on the Delmarva Peninsula, is America's largest chicken farm, and thus, adds enormous pollution from chicken waste products into Chesapeake waters. Also, the poultry industry depends on menhaden to produce food pellets for chickens,and menhaden are the sole remaining filter feeder of note in the Chesapeake. In the early 1900s it is estimated that the total volume of the Chesapeake's water was completely filtered in eight hours by filter feeders-principally oysters and menhaden. Today, the same level of filtration takes more than one year.

Since the oysters are all but gone, the only filter feeders left are menhaden, but relatively few of each year's hatch make it past Reedville, Virginia, because one company, operating a number of large menhaden trawlers, working together with spotter planes, takes almost 65 percent of the entire Atlantic coast's menhaden stocks. This does two things. First, menhaden are strictly filter feeders. They swim around in dense schools consuming vast amounts of plankton along with all sorts of detritus. You can't live without a liver, which pretty much tells you what will happen to the Chesapeake should the menhaden slaughter continue. Menhaden are also the main food fish for striped bass. With the reduction of available menhaden, stripers have turned to other food sources, notably silversides and bay anchovies which lack the oil and protein of the menhaden. As a result, we are now seeing more skinny stripers that are slowly starving.

Gamefish Status for Stripers

Many Atlantic coast anglers feel that nothing short of gamefish status will ensure a recreational striper fishery. Stripers Forever, a non-profit organization, seeks to eliminate commercial fishing for stripers through a federal bill (H.R. 1286) introduced by a congressman in New Jersey. The bill seeks to bring gamefish status to stripers in the extended economic zone, waters more than 3 miles off the coast, and affect time and area closures for commercial fishing methods such as gill netting during the striper migration. Stripers Forever is really trying to help the bay, and if you want more information on them visit www.stripersforever.com

The Chesapeake Bay is our home water, and although we primarily fish for largemouth and smallmouth bass, we must all try to do our part in saving all the species of marine life in the bay, by any and all means necessary. That means getting involved, so we can all enjoy what the bay has to offer for Centuries to come.

The new website for Steve vonBrandt is http://www.freewebs.com/stevevonbrandt

Friday, June 29, 2007 marked another day in Londons history in which a terror scare rocked the people of this city. Fortunately, nobody was hurt unlike the last bombing that struck a London public transport system nearly two years ago next week. Two car bombs were discovered and quickly defused by a Scotland Yard bomb squad. Now the hunt goes on to find the perpetrators who could have caused such mass destruction of innocent lives.

If these car bombs did explode, how do forensic criminal investigators go about evaluating this particular crime scene? In this article, we will attempt to explain how the investigators evaluate explosive situations, how they define explosives, and how they go about investigating a bomb scene.

Explosions and fires are similar chemical reactions that take place since both result from the consumption of fuel and oxygen. The only difference between the two is that an explosion reaction occurs faster than a fire reaction. Explosion reactions use up their fuel such as gasoline or gunpowder almost instantaneously partly because the materials are confined to a small space. Fire reactions, on the other hand, consume their fuel such as wood, trees, or paper more slowly than explosion reactions. If you ignited these materials in an open space, the materials simply burn. In contrast, if you tightly pack these same materials into a container, it explodes when you light it up.

Explosions pose problems for investigators. The explosive device and any surrounding structures are heavily damaged if not entirely obliterated. Unless a secondary fire occurs, investigators can usually ascertain the point of origin with no problem. Finding fragments of the device, timers, or igniters is another story.

Explosives are categorized as either high or low according to the speed of their resulting shock wave. Low explosives usually move at rates of up to 1,000 m/s, and high explosives may reach speeds up to 8,500 m/s.

Black powder and smokeless gunpowder are the most readily available and commonly used low explosives. A mixture of table sugar and potassium chlorate makes another easy explosive. Bombers do not need to be complex.

High explosives can be divided into two categories all dependent upon their sensitivity to heat, friction, or mechanical shock.

• Initiating explosives are highly sensitive to these effects. Because of their instability, home-made bombs rarely use initiating explosives. These explosives are usually found in primers and blasting caps, where they initiate other more stable noninitiating explosive reactants. Mercury fulminate and lead azide are widely used in this manner.
• Noninitiating explosives are more stable and commonly used in military and commercial applications. Examples of these explosives include dynamite, trinitrotoluene (TNT), pentaerythritrol tetranitrate (RDX), and cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (PETN). ANFO, an easily made explosive material, is a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.

Ammonium nitrate is an oxidant loaded with oxygen and can be found in fertilizers. Bombs made from this material were used in the Oklahoma City and 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

Investigating a Bomb Scene

Looking through the scene of an explosion requires the same attention to detail as does a search of a fire scene. Searching for remnants of an explosive device such as the igniter and timer may be important in determining the type of explosive used and the persons responsible for this crime. Furthermore, forensic criminal investigators focus their searches on gathering debris to test for unexploded residue, which is almost always present.

Microscopic examination of the debris may unveil black powder, gun powder, or both of which are easily recognizable by the color and conformation of their particles. After conducting a microscopic inspection of the debris, the lab technician rinses the debris with a solvent, usually acetone, and then analyzes the resulting solution, using various scientific laboratory techniques such as thin-layer (TLC) or gas chromatography (GC) and mass and infrared spectroscopy. Determining the identity of the explosive is made through a combination of these techniques.

After determining the nature of the explosive used, criminal investigators then target their investigation on the seller and buyer of that explosive.

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Male hair loss is an extremely common problem, as almost every man experiences at least some sort of hair loss before the age of 40. It is caused by an increased sensitivity to androgens, which are male hormones, and although most male hair loss problems are hereditary or genetic, there are those cases in which the hair loss is temporary, for instance when it is stress or medication that is causing the hair loss.

The Details

Male hair loss can be caused by a variety of things, depending on the person and their particular situation. In general however most hair loss is not associated with any systemic or internal disease or has to do with a lack of nutrition. Thyroid disease is a common cause of hair loss, but more than anything genetics play a major role. You will notice that if a man has a hair loss problem usually his father did as well, and his father before him.

Alopecia Areata

This is the most common male hair loss condition of all, and it is one which typically starts as a single circle of smooth baldness that continues to spread as time goes on. The most extensive form of this condition is known as alopecia totalis, in which the entire scalp will end up going bald, and this is why it is so important to determine early on what specific hair loss problem you are suffering from, so that you can deal with it properly before it is too late.

Treatment

There are various treatments available for male hair loss, and for the alopecia areata condition in particular, typically treatment involves injecting steroids into the affected patches of skin in order to stimulate hair growth in the patient. However this method of treatment is truly not practical for large areas and so if there is a significant amount of hair loss you may have to go for other treatments, such as oral steroids or ultraviolet light therapy.

Male Pattern Baldness

Male pattern baldness is another common male hair loss problem, and this is a genetic disorder as well, and so although there is nothing that you can do to actually stop the hair loss, there are ways to treat and control it.

Male hair loss can be incredibly damaging to a mans self esteem, and it can even be so serious that it can cause depression. This is why if you have a hair loss problem you need

Jen Carter is team member and writes regularily about male hair loss, DHT and other hair related conditions for Hair Loss Advance.

Wow, you are about to put your foot on the first rung of the proberbial property ladder. You are in the market for a first time home buyer home loan.

Your first time doing anything can be hard but being a first time home buyer can be extra scarey. There are people that can help you and can guide you in picking your first time home buyer home loan because there are a lot of first time home loans available.

Try talking to real estate agents in the areas you are hoping to buy in, talk to home loan companies and attorneys to get a feel of what their charges will be. Any of these professional people who wont give a first time home buyer fifteen minutes of their time are maybe not the one for you so keep looking.

A few questions to make sure you ask are

1. Who carries out the required title search?
2. Is a home inspection and survey required?
3. What types of disclosures are required?
4. Who puts together the final paperwork for signature?
5. Once your offer has been accepted, how long till closure?

These questions are very basic first time home buyer questions and further advice should be taken from an expert but they should help you toward a basic understanding.

Very rarely does home buying go completely smoothly so try not to get upset when things go a little awry. The people you have helping you know that you are a first time home buyer and will do what they can to minimise the hassle.

Next thing to do is to check out your finances. You should get and check a copy of your credit report as errors are not uncommon and could potentially undermine your chances of a first time home buyer home loan.

Do some research on the mortgage industry. Pick a few places you would consider applying for your first time home buyer home loan and compare them. You might be surprized.

Try and get pre-approved for a first time home buyer home loan. This will give you a budget and you will know how much you can spend. It also has the advantage of making you a better prospect for the seller. If the seller has identical offers but yours is the only one with a letter stating that you have the home loan then they are much more likely to take your offer.

All this before you have even started looking at a house. Now is the time to start deciding what you want in your new home. If you approach real estate with a really good idea of what you are looking for then you will not feel so overwhelmed.

This is just a basic overview of the process involved in first time home buyer home loan application. Armed with this information go and talk to people in the business and hopefully you will get the home of your dreams

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Real wood furniture is the most popular furniture in existence. It's been around for hundreds of years and probably existed when the cave people got tired of squatting on the dirt floor of their caves and looked around for a better way.

The woods that are fashioned into furniture fall into three categories:

1. Hardwoods
2. Softwoods
3. Composites

Even the term 'hardwood' or 'softwood' is deceptive. Hardwoods aren't necessarily harder, denser material. For example, balsa wood is one of the lightest, least dense woods there is, and it's considered a hardwood. Technically, lumber is classified based on how the tree reproduces. As a general rule, though, softwood trees are evergreen year round while the hardwoods create the gorgeous autumn foliage that we all love so much.

Hardwoods are considered the highest quality and are the most expensive. Their natural colors vary from the darkest woods to the lightest ones and and they can be stained or painted for even more variety. Hardwood furniture is least likely to warp or bend and is prized in all high quality homes. The five woods most commonly used in furniture production are cherry, walnut, oak, maple and mahogany.

Softwoods are less expensive than hardwoods, but they require extra care. Because they are less durable, it's much easier to scratch or dent softwood furniture. In addition, they often don't have the beautiful grains of a hardwood, and therefore don't stain as beautifully.

Pine is an example of a softwood that is commonly used for furniture. These woods are often used in construction as well so the choicest pieces are reserved for furniture. In construction, knots and splits are common. Lots of construction lumber will not accept paint and this kind of wood is used for shelves or packing crates.

The softwood used in furniture is designated as "Appearance" lumber and includes most softwood lumber that has been custom milled to a pattern or otherwise surfaced on all four sides.

Composites are the cheapest form of wood and are literally manufactured, rather than grown.

1. Plywood: multiple layers of thin wooden sheets are glued together and pressed. Plywood is strong and resists swelling, shrinking and warping. There is some furniture made directly from plywood, but generally it is only used as a support when incorporated into furniture.

2. Particle board: sawdust and small wood chips are mixed with glue or resin which is then shaped and pressure treated. When used for inexpensive furniture, particle board is usually covered with laminate or veneer. This is necessary because particle board splits easily and the laminate prevents splitting. However, the downside is that the laminate may separate from the wood because the particle board responds to temperature and pressure changes by swelling and shrinking.

3. Hardboard: is made like particle board but it's placed under higher pressure so it's stronger.

4. MDF or Medium Density Fiberboard: wood particles are bonded with resin and compressed. It is harder than particle board or hardboard, and can be cut like plywood although it isn't as strong as plywood. Some MDF is covered with melamine which is a durable plastic in a variety of colors. The exposed edges of MDF are rough and need covering with molding or some other decorative material.

Technically, furniture made from all of these wood products is "real" wood furniture, even the composites. Prices and quality range from the hardwoods down to the composites. The higher you go up the spectrum, the more you can expect to pay for your wood furniture. The good part, of course, is that with proper care hardwood furniture will last for decades or even generations. If you can afford it, always choose hardwood furniture.

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