WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU RUN AGROUND DON’T PANIC — doing the wrong thing can put you on harder.

Now that you’re on the bottom, take a minute to evaluate the situation. Check the bilge to be sure that you haven’t holed the boat and aren’t taking on water. What is the nature of the bottom? If it’s soft sand or grass, chances are good that the boat is undamaged, and that if you need to motor or kedge off you won’t grind a hole in the boat.Your objective is to get safely into deeper water.

Motoring off — If you have a motor or engine your first inclination will be to start it up and try to back out. This may work, but be careful. In sandy or muddy bottoms you are likely to suck sand up into the cooling system and render the motor useless. A powerful engine in shallow water can actually push sand from the stern to under the keel, making the situation worse. If you’re on rocks and you reverse hard, you may drag the hull along the rocks and damage or even hole the boat.

Set out an anchor. One of the first things to do is to set out an anchor to keep your boat from being pushed even farther onto the shoal. If you have a dingy you can use it to carry out an anchor. If you don’t have a dingy, and if conditions are calm, maybe someone wearing buoyant flotation gear can swim an anchor out. Be aware that this is not an easy task and a person can become totally exhausted very quickly. If your boat is a small one, your anchor is also probably small enough and light enough for you to be able to throw it far enough for it to work, but be careful if you do this. You don’t want to go overboard with it. Keep as much tension on the anchor line as you can. This alone may help free you up, especially if you have a rising tide, or if passing boats create enough of a wake to raise you up momentarily.

What is the state of the tide? If you’ve gone aground on a rising tide, you may just be able to wait a couple of hours until it rises enough to refloat the boat. If you’ve gone aground on a falling tide, however, you need to get into deeper water fast, or you may be stuck where you are for an entire tide change. If this happens, and if the boat is likely to end up lying on its side, close up hatches and companionways to keep it from flooding. If you’d be better off lying on one side than on the other, try to kedge off an anchor from what you want to be the low side. You may also be able to control which side ends up high by shifting crew and gear weight. Where is the deeper water? It may seem obvious that deeper water lies behind you, but it might be even deeper beside you. Of course it’s not directly in front of you — if it were, you wouldn’t have run aground in the first place. To find where the deeper water is, you have some options. If you have a lead line you can lower it off the boat from all sides to get a measurement of the depth. You can make a lead line by taking a light line and attaching a weight to the end. You could also very quickly put a boat hook or an oar in the water.

How do you get there? If you have a centerboard, raise it. This will decrease the draft, possibly enough to free the boat. Can you sail off? If you were sailing down wind when you ran aground, harden up and try to go to windward. If you were sailing close hauled, tack immediately and move crew weight to leeward. If sailing off on a reach or downwind would put you into deeper water, ease the sails and fall off toward the deeper water. Move crew weight around to heel the boat in the direction which is most likely to help it to slide off - this alone may reduce the boat’s draft enough to free her up. If this doesn’t work, drop sails, as the wind on the sails will continue to push you harder onto the shallow water. Furl them out of the way. On deck they will become a slippery liability.

Kedging off — Once you’ve set an anchor in deeper water, you may be able to winch it in and pull the boat off that way. Again, moving crew weight around may help immeasurably. It may help to rock the boat by shifting crew weight back and forth as you winch in on the anchor.

Use a halyard — If you know that heeling the boat in one direction will help, hand a halyard to someone in a dingy who can then carefully motor off the boat’s beam and pull it over farther. If you don’t have a dingy, a crew member can grab a halyard and swing out over the beam of the boat to try to increase heel.

Get off and push - This technique is obviously only safe and effective in very shallow water, and thus will only work with a very shallow draft boat, such as a day sailor or a multihull. Before getting in the water, be sure to put shoes on. Make sure that the boat won’t sail off without you, and that you have a way to get back onto the boat.

Accept tow? As a last resort, if all other options have failed. This may require a VHF call to a towing company. Be careful — a big powerful powerboat may be able to pull with more force than the boat’s equipment can handle–the boat’s hull can be damaged. The boat must have a cleat strong enough to take the strain of a tow, which may be considerable. If there is no cleat strong enough, consider tying off to the base of the mast. If the mast is stepped through the deck it will take the strain, if it’s stepped on deck it may not. The line used as tow line also must be strong enough to take the strain of towing — if it breaks under the strain of the pull of a tow boat, it will become a lethal weapon.

When you may not want to refloat the boat — if you have a hole in the bottom you may be better off right where you are, at least until you’ve been able to carry out enough of an emergency repair to keep the boat from sinking.

Linda Cullum is from Cape Cod, MA, with a second home in Vermont. She is the author of Learn to Sail! with Multimedia! an Interactive Sailing training CDROM which teaches all aspects of Sailing incliding Knots, Piloting, Rules of the Road, Weather with digital video from Sail Magazine, narration, animation and quizzes.Visit her site at http://learntosail.net Happy Sailing_/)

Do stores that sell video games, always, and I mean ALWAYS, check for ID on questionable titles? I have it on pretty good authority they do not.

“I always check for ID, but my boss does not. He wants a sale,” says one assistant manager for a top gaming franchise. When I asked someone who worked for a competing store, he too agreed that they can be pretty lax in checking for ID. “If it gets busy and we have a long line, I don’t check for ID. I don’t think I checked ID once during the holiday season. If a kid wants a game bad enough he is going to buy it or steal it. I’d rather have him buy it.”

While not everyone agrees that games should have a rating feature, parents certainly have the right to make sure their kids are buying games that are indicitive of their values. A few years ago Mortal Combat was as close to real violence as we could get with video games, but now technology and a driving market force have changed the way we game. There are titles where you can do virtually anything: gamble, kill a person, solicit prostitution, have sex, and more.

So is it the responsibility of the gaming stores to make sure your kids are buying games that are deemed appropriate? Perhaps. That system, however, is not fail-proof. “If a kid knows that one sales-clerk always checks ID they will just wait until another salesclerk is on duty,” says a hard-core gamer I know. “There will always be someone willing to bend the rules.”

Bottom line parents, it’s up to you to keep your kids safe. Go shopping with your kids or ask them to show you the game once they have bought it. The game ratings range from EC (anyone 3+) to Adult Only, and most ratings are labeled in a very easy to see place on the box. If in doubt look it up online to determine what others are saying about it. If the game goes against what you are trying to teach your kids talk to them about it and help them find a more appropriate title. Or play the game with them and talk to them about ‘real life vs fantasy’ (if it’s a game thats only slightly questionable). Don’t rely on the gaming industry to do all of the work for you. It’s a business, and because 40% of gamers are under 18*, this is a demographic that some stores are willing to cater to, even when they shouldn’t.

April Whidden is a freelance writer from Portland, OR
Pieces of April at aprilwhidden.com
April also currently writes a video game blog at http://www.xanga.com/aprilstorme.

Bright white teeth and fresh breath does not necessarily mean you have a healthy mouth! General health is directly related to gum health. Gum disease has been linked to several medical conditions such as stroke, diabetes, heart attack and worsening lung disease. Healthy gums can reduce a person’s biological age by up to 6.4 years. Why? Because studies show that the presence of periodontal diseases, most common in people with tooth loss, actually affects longevity. The best of these studies, done at Emory University in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control, indicates that people with gingivitis and periodontal disease have a mortality rate that is 23% to 46% higher than those who don’t. Keeping your gums clean and healthy may help reduce the risk of many illnesses, including heart disease.

Gum Disease

Gum disease or periodontal disease, a chronic inflammation and infection of the gums and surrounding tissue, is the major cause of about 70 percent of adult tooth loss, affecting three out of four persons at some point in their life. Red swollen and bleeding gums characterize gum disease in the initial stages and progresses to infections, chronic inflammation and bone loss in later stages. Eventually bacteria are allowed to flow freely through your gums and into your blood stream that activates and stresses the immune system.

Heart Attack

Research shows that people with gum disease are 25% more likely to have a heart attack. Bacteria originating from the gums to the veins and arteries cause plaque build up and arterial inflammation that can provoke jeopardous clotting. A 12-year study conducted by Harvard University researchers and 41,000 healthy men free of cardiovascular disease showed that those with periodontal disease had more clot related strokes.

Diabetes

Periodontal disease severely affects the control of blood sugars. The spread of bacteria through out the body through the blood stream stresses and confuses the body when trying to adjust sugars to the invasion. Antibiotic treatment has help diabetics control blood sugars while treating the infections caused by gum disease.

Lung Infections

Breathing in oral bacteria caused by gum disease can cause lung infections. Bacteria that grow in the oral cavities can be breathed into the lungs to cause respiratory disease such as pneumonia.

About the Author

Yvonne Takhtalian, C.N.H.P, H.I. spent the past 10 years developing and improving Vita-Myr Natural Products helping thousands like you heal gum disease and gingivitis. She just released a new line of 100% Natural Vita-Myr Soaps to compliment her Vita-Myr Mouthwash & Toothpaste. Find out more about effective natural relief of gum disease at http://www.vitamyr.com/ or email questions/comments to Yvonne at mailto:vitamyr@mindspring.com Copyright © 2004 Vita-Myr® International Inc All rights reserved. Natural Products For Healthy Living ®

With internet usage reaching almost every country, and economic class, and with its permeation throughout the western world, applications designed to harness its potential in ever more practical ways are constantly arising. One such application is Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), which continues to challenge its own limitations. There are a few leading players who are jostling for supremacy, including Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, and Vonage.

Recently, there have been many converts to Skype, including this reviewer. There are several factors that have influenced my own personal move, but my primary motivations were innovation, quality, and marketability. VoIP has always been an application that is easily marketable, and Skype has added innovative features that are quality-rich:

• SkypeOut, where you can use your computer to call ordinary phone numbers all over the world. The global SkypeOut rate is currently 1.7 Euro Cent (about 2 US cents or 1.1 pence) per minute to more than 20 countries.

• SkypeIn, which is a virtual phone number your friends can call. This is in beta testing at the time of writing this review, but the 12-month subscription is available for 30 and 3 months for 10.

• Skype Voicemail, which lets you redirect calls to your voicemail, is available at 5 for 3 months or 15 for the year.

However, the most widespread application of Skype is PC-to-PC calls. Any user can make free calls over the Internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It is a simple wizard-based process to download and use the application, and works via your broadband connection with operating systems based on Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, and Pocket PCs. All you need is a PC microphone and speakers or a basic USB headset, and what you get is a real-time, telephone-quality voice conversation with any PC end-user in the world. I found the downloading to be extremely simple and straightforward and imagine that anyone, no matter your computer fluency will find it easy as well.

In addition to its ease of setup, the features of Skype are really impressive. There is a facility to search the Skype database, so that you are able to build a list of contacts. We have used Skype for Windows 1.4 for a PC-to-PC conversation between Los Angeles and Mumbai (India), and there was no recorded break in the half-hour call. The clarity was definitely on par with a normal telephone, perhaps even better, with no noticeable time lag. On subsequent calls between these destinations and other US cities including Chicago, the quality continues to amaze us, and the fact that Skype works in most environments, irrespective of firewalls or NAT, widens its reach.

So, what’s the downside? A comparative analysis will help clarify the situation. For a start, Skype does not offer as many calling features as other service providers like Vonage. Then, there have been question marks about the technical/customer support offered by Skype. Another point where Skype loses out is the quality of the SkypeOut package, where the calls made to landlines are of inconsistent quality. One hopes that Skype can add video chat to its repertoire in the near future, which will place Skype on an equal standing with other free VoIP providers like Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, which already have video capabilities. Skype is undoubtedly ahead of both MSN and Yahoo in terms of voice quality and the real-time conversation experience. On the other side of the spectrum, Vonage offers feature-rich services and better customer service, although all this comes at a price.

My Overall Assessment: Vonage is a better option than Skype for traditional telephone users because Skype is totally computer-dependent and caters to consumers who are “living out of their computers.”

The future has a lot to offer, and undoubtedly Skype will move forward in its evolutionary process, and hopefully improve SkypeOut and emerge successfully out of beta testing for SkypeIn. However, for the moment, Skype is arguably the best option for free PC-to-PC calls. Skype says that the “current focus is to make the best voice-application on the planet”judging from user feedback around the world, Skype has already gone a long distance towards that objective.

Hamesh Brown enjoys writing about VoIP. See http://www.voipreviewsonline.com/2005/10/skype_review_1.html for another Skype review.

Motorcycle accessories like helmet, are a matter of personal choice. In that case, aesthetic side often succeeds over anything else. At any rate, this has contributed why safety is overlooked.

To shun misconceptions in choosing motorcycle helmets, here are some of the factors that you have to consider:

Shape

This is the most important factor that you have to understand before purchasing a helmet. Riders come in varying head shapes. These shapes include round, oval, egg, reverse egg and earth. Helmets are also particularly made to cater to these varying head shapes. Thus, the choice is given to the purchasers. They must select the most appropriate helmet shape that will greatly support their head.

Visibility

Be sure that your helmet gives you appropriate peripheral vision. This is simply to avoid accidents and other untoward incidents.

Liners

Liners vary depending on the design, material and shape of the helmet. Liners must give comfort and protection to the rider. Thus, it must be compatible with the rider’s needs.

Liners that give pressure points must be avoided. Pressure points are usually located against the temples, forehead and cheeks. Helmet liner ’skull cap’ is preferable. Moreover, it is better if you personally try the helmet before purchasing it. This is to ensure that it will not be burdensome in the future.

Color

Color is important in the sense that it affects conspicuity. Bright colors are preferable over solid and dull ones. The purpose is to make the rider visible even during nighttime. This is to avoid collisions and the like.

Before you purchase a helmet, make sure that you are knowledgeable of all the factors involve. You do not purchase simply because it is hot or at the moment hype.

Also, before purchasing, wear it first for an extended period to be sure of the fit and feel. Wear ear plugs to be acquainted with the surrounding sounds.

Some of the leading motorcycle helmet manufacturers are Arai, Bell, Icon, AGV, Nolan, Thor, Erex. The helmets they are releasing are mostly tested and approved by Snell and DOT. Choosing is using your mind and your senses…

Please visit Street Motorcycle Accesories site at www.streetmotorcycleaccessories.com/ for comments and inquiries regarding this article.

Forum marketing or Social Marketing can truly be another great hidden source to add to you’re over all Internet marketing. It is a place were people with similar interest gather to discuss all types of topics for that subject.

How affective is it for your Internet Marketing and generating website traffic?

Forum Marketing can help in many different ways when it comes to marketing your website, here is how:

First you want to find a discussion board or forum that is targeted to your website theme. Think of it like this would you market your website about jewelry to a forum about cooking? The answer is no.

Participating in forums can help you and your website build an expert status online by posting answers to questions others have in a specific topic.

Never posted in forums before?

First thing you should do before just jumping in and posting wildly, take a look around and see what other are posting about, view the set up and feel the mood of the forum.

Once you have a good understanding of the forum then you can start participating in this targeted marketing platform.

Note: There is a sign up process for most good forums. Process is simple and only takes a few minutes. Forums normally use sign in to help better monitor the forum and protect it from spamming.

Keep in mind that most forums do not allow advertising in their post and the regular participants of these forums can smell an ad from a mile away. This way of using the forums will not make you any friends so keep your content exactly that content. Add value to the forum by providing your own unique quality copy.

Forums allow a signature line were you can place a small description about your business along with a link to your website. Here is where your link popularity can climb and climb steadily as new post creates new fresh content that the search engines love.

Search engines pick up and index forum posts high so be sure to include important keyword rich topics and content in every forum posts so they will attract targeted traffic for your website through your popular keywords.

Consider Forum Marketing as part of you Internet marketing strategies, it can have many benefits for your website and business that you may not have thought about.