Help your Child Learn Responsibility

By Lonie Lorenz

Animal Summer Camp ? Let your kids play with animals this summer as a part of the fun they can have at summer camp. Find a science camp, or a more broadly defined summer camp that includes animals as a part of their program offerings.

Connecting with animals in a natural setting can put a child at the beginning of a lifelong sense of relationship with nature. A deep respect for nature as an adult often starts with experience as a camper.

At Swift Nature Camp, near Minong, Wisconsin, a unique pond aquarium gives kids a chance to see pond life from a frog's point of view, while our Nature's Neighbors live animal collection provides opportunities for up-close study and care of several common Northwoods residents as well as a few exotic immigrants. Campers with their own small animals are encouraged to bring them to camp to share with others. The animals live in the Nature Center, where all campers can enjoy and learn about them.

Working in conjunction with the Wisconsin DNR and the U.S. Park Service, Swift Nature Camp has also developed a hands-on environmental learning program which includes field trips, such as visits to a fish hatchery and state parks; hands-on field projects, like goose banding and butterfly counts; and exciting camp presentations, including visits with live owls.

Campers are individuals, and Swift Nature Camp has created a voluntary merit program that allows each child to mix skill development and play in ways that suit his or her personality. Experience with animals can be refined into skills in areas like pet care, insects, bird watching and horseback riding.

Today's children grow up too fast and need time to play. The summer camp you are looking for should challenge your child to try new things, but not in a stressful way. Camp is not school! Interaction with animals can be a perfect way for a child to learn by the natural discovery of play. Besides all the fun and excitement of a traditional camp, the kids have the joy of discovering Nature and the world we live in.

Still looking for the Best Children's Camp Se SummerCampAdvice.com - 31490

About the Author:

Swift Nature Camp is a Summer Youth Camp in Wisconsin. Boys and girls ages 6-15 enjoy traditional summer camp activities while while learning about nature and the environment. at this Summer Science Camp

Summer Animal Camp

By Lonnie Lorenz

At Swift Nature Camp, a summer camp in Northern Wisconsin, children play outside while learning about Nature and Science. Here are some helpful hints parents can do at home

Being Observant is the most important aspect of enjoying the outdoors. How often do kids run through the woods never stopping to notice what they are passing.

Walking or hiking through the woods is a regular part of Summer Science Camp. However, with out having a purpose many times staff and campers merely walk along the trail without really noticing what is around them. They overlook the sounds, sights, textures and diversity of the ecosystem.

So when you take your kids out in nature, try these things. Simple supplies are needed, so it will take only a few minutes to collect them. Or you can plan and keep them on the side ready to go.

One you feel you have a feel for these activities invite your children's friends to come along, I'm sure they too will enjoy being away from their scheduled lives and enjoy the peace of nature,

Make a Rubbing
Supplies: Paper, crayons or charcoal
Ahead of time: It is best to have experience at this before you help others.
Assignment: Search for trees, rocks and logs that have a variety of textures. Put the paper over the surface of the tree, rock or log, hold the charcoal or crayon at an angle, and rub over the paper so that the unique pattern is transferred to the paper.
Conversation: What did you discover by doing these rubbings?

Changes Everywhere
Supplies: Clipboard and writing utensils
Ahead of time: think or research how things would be different if the land was developed
Assignment: Stop along the trail and look into the woods. Imagine that the land had sold this plot of land to a developer to build. How would that development changethings? What effect would it have on the habitat and food supplies of the animals living there? What would happen to the soil if the trees were cut down? How would the plants in the woods change? How would the threat of erosion increase?
Conversation: How have ecosystems near your home been destroyed? What changes have happened to the land?

Sounds of Nature
Supplies: Paper and pencil for each, you can get cds with sounds in the library bird field guide
Ahead of time: Find out what types of birds are native to the woods around, listen to the cd and study the sounds
Assignment: Sit in the woods a slight distance from others, and be quiet Close your eyes and listen. When you hear a sound, see if you can recall the bird calll,
Conversation: What was your favorite sound and why?

We at Swift Nature Camp hope this gave a sample of some of the projects we do out in Nature. If you child is interested in these sorts of activities have them join us next summer.

If this is your first time thinking about Summer Camp look at Summer Camp Advice a free website that helps parents find the right camp for their child. - 31490

About the Author:

Swift Nature Camp is a non-competitive, coed traditional overnight Summer Children's Camp. Boys and Girls Ages 6-15 enjoy Nature & Animals along with traditional camping activities. Summer Camp Illinois

Use Rubber Mats To Prevent Slip And Fall Accidents.

By Adriana Noton

Business owners will appreciate the convenience and safety that is offered by installing rubber mats at the entry and in other sections of their place of business to prevent trip and fall accidents.

While you may have insurance to cover such accidents, any time you have a customer enter your business place, there is the possibility of an accident. While you are not able to prevent all the accidents, you can show the courts that you have taken steps to prevent as many as possible. One of the simplest of these precautions is to have rubber mats at all entries. This can help to prevent tracking of rain or snow from being tracked inside and causing the possibility of a wet floor on which one of your customers could fall.

Another place that customers may slip or fall is in the produce section of a grocery store. Sometimes other customers can drop small items, such as grapes in this section of the store and another customer can step on the dropped item that becomes very slippery. Even though you did not drop the produce, as the owner of the business, you are held liable for the injury. You could end up paying for lost wages and medical bills.

By providing mats at the entry and using runners in sections of your business such as produce, you can lower the chance of injury and excessive costs.

In many restaurants as well as other businesses, there are areas where floors become slippery from a buildup of oils or greases. Once again, you will find that runners help to prevent an employee from falling and being injured. This can prevent a workmen's comp claim and keep your overhead lower.

You will appreciate that the runners or mats can be quickly rolled up when dirty and a clean one can be put out in its place. Meanwhile, be sure that workers work to keep floors and other surfaces clear of all spills. Make it a company policy that all floors and mats are mopped using an ammonia based detergent and hot water to remove grease and prevent a hazard.

In addition, the use of rubber mats can protect floor coverings from the dirt as well as grime that is often brought in form outside. It is much easier to clean the entry runner or mat than to clean the entire floor. Entry runners that can easily be exchanged in only a few seconds are a great way to cut overhead. Once removed, they can be cleaned by use of either a garden hose or a pressure washer and allowed to dry for reuse.

The easy clean option makes the runners an excellent choice for businesses where workers often work outside. Many are available that will trap dirt and mud before it ever enters your building so that the need for carpet cleaning is lowered.

Whether looking for ways to protect a business from liability or to protect floor coverings from outside dirt, water and mud, rubber mats are an effective way to keep your place of business free of all these dangers. The can easily be placed anywhere that hazards may exist and be removed if necessary in seconds. - 31490

About the Author:

A reliable source of high-quality rubber mats is a great investment to make. Stall mats not only help your horses' health, but they are also more convenient in terms of maintenance.

Nature Summer Camp

By Lonnie Lorenz

At Swift Nature Camp, in Northern Wisconsin, children play outside while learning about Nature and Science. Here are some helpful hints we do at Summer Camp that you can try at home,

Being Observent is the most important aspect of enjoying the outdoors. How often do kids run through the woods never stoping to notice what they are passing.

Walking or hiking through the woods is a regular part of camp. However, many times staff and campers merely walk along the trail without really noticing what is around them. They overlook the sounds, sights, textures and diversity of the ecosystem.

Please read these simple programs that can be done while walking through the woods. You may need suppliesbut it will take only a few minutes to get them.

One you feel you have a feel for these activities invite your childrens friends to come along, I'm sure they too will enjoy being away from their scheduled lives and enjoy the peace of nature,

Look Down
Supplies: Yarn and scissors
Ahead of time: Cut the yarn into 15-inch pieces, have one for every two campers.
Assignment: Move off the trail, and make a square on the ground with the yarn. Study what you find within the square. What lives there? What is the soil like? What grows there? Use a stick and dig into the ground a little. What do you see?
Conversation: What did you find in the square or circle that surprised you?

Changes
Supplies: Clipboard and writing utensils
Ahead of time: think or research how things would be different if the land was developed
Assignment: Stop along the trail and look into the woods. Imagine that the land had sold this plot of land to a developer to build. How would that development changethings? What effect would it have on the habitat and food supplies of the animals living there? What would happen to the soil if the trees were cut down? How would the plants in the woods change? How would the threat of erosion increase?
Conversation: How have ecosystems near your home been destroyed? What changes have happened to the land?

Take A Wildflower Hike
Supplies: Wildflower field guide
Ahead of time: Try to do a little reseach what might be blooming in your area.
Assignment: Stop at any wildflower, observe it, and try to figure out how it grows, how it produces seeds, and what type of soil it grows in. Use the field guide to identify the flower. If you have extra time even draw it in nature.
Conversation: How are the flowers alike? How are they different?

Swift Nature Camp hopes this information give you few a simple projects we do at our camp out in Nature. If you child is interested in these sorts of activities Please look at our website and see if we might be part of your summer plans,

If this is your first time thinking about Summer Camp look at Summer Camp Advice a free website that helps parents fing the right camp for thier child. - 31490

About the Author:

About the authors: Jeff and Lonnie Lorenz are the directors of Swift Nature Camp, a non-competitive, traditional overnight Animal Summer Camp. Boys and Girls Ages 6-15 enjoy nature & animals along with traditional camping activities. As a Summer Kids CampSwift specializes in programs for the First Time Campers as well as Adventure Teen Camp programs

The Online Poker Player Vs A Resident from The Planet of the Apes

By Thomas Kearns

Surely at one time or another everyone has witnessed a group of bourgeois canines playing anthropomorphic poker on one or the other of Cassius Coolidge's series of paintings. But the man's whimsical imagination wasn't quite as far removed from reality as one might like to think. Perhaps you believe that chips and chimps do not go well together and that it sounds like something out of a Douglas Adams book, but if you ever played online against someone who had a great-ape photo for his icon, don't be so sure it was just the excellent players irritating sense of online humor - you just may have lost a few thousand or more to an actual primate. If you thought using a stick to crack a walnut or a skull was the best an ape could do, in this early twenty-first century, when the world is on the verge of a Technological Singularity (think what an "intelligence explosion" can do to PC and online games), you, man or woman, had better think again.

Primate Programming Inc has found that great apes (who share 97% of DNA with us) are competent IT specialists and are employed by PPI. They enter a training program and upon graduation perform their services with PPI's clients while demanding very low wages. Somewhere down the line, it was discovered that these employees also can be taught to play poker showing a particular knack for no-limit Texas Hold'em.

No-limit poker appeals to these employees because of their natural bent for playful (and sometimes serious) displays of aggression. PPI tells us that is this quality that makes them outstanding bluffers. Aggressive bluffing in no-limit games allows the player to bet it all at any time. This rule of the game requires edgy, aggressive behavior and the rather rare skill to bluff.

Since online poker games are anonymous, this helps our poker playing primates. You cannot determine who is of the human persuasion versus the ape persuasion. The human types have actually lost thousands of dollars to a player who played the early rounds with betting very little money and showed lame cards on a regular basis then out of the blue bet big time, of course, everyone in the game called, and the big time better revealed aces. Our winner was undoubtedly jumping up and down and pounding his chest in glee.

Apparently, and not coincidentally, the primate poker players early employment as computer programmers led them to independently, according to PPI, create programs to aid and abet their poker game. PPI is not talking about the specific contents of these programs. These apes could have a professional online poker career, but that is not their nature. Once outside the office, they will probably neglect their training and revert to being the real primates they are, propelling themselves with their arms from branch to branch and climbing fences. In any case as long as they are paid, fed and have their girlfriends and boyfriends nearby, they will continue with their poker games. Authors of no-limit poker books should take note. They may have to come up with some rewrites.

There is ongoing investment of money and effort taking place in the research of these programmer apes. Norm McAuliffe, a Yale biology Phd and the scientist leading the discovery research team at Primate Poker Inc is now hiring profitable primate-players to play for cash in rotation shifts 24/7. Mr. McAulliffe is very much committed to his business model and plans to continue his work. - 31490

About the Author:

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online, receives rakeback, and participates in the monthly Races and Rolls Freerolls offered at Rakeback Solution.

Use Your Checks and Bring Awareness to Ducks Unlimited

By Alan Plastin

Ducks Unlimited is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving wetlands, water fowl, and habitat preservation. They currently have 775,000 members throughout the United States and Canada.

Ducks Unlimited is committed to preserving wetlands for North America's water fowl through restoration and management. If you belong to this organization, or you just want to help spread awareness of it, then you should certainly think about purchasing and carrying Ducks Unlimited personal bank checks.

On January 29, 1037, Joseph Knapp founded Ducks Unlimited due to a rising concern amongst him and some other similarly minded individuals. They were concerned about the destruction of wetland habitats and how that might impact their hunting of water fowl.

A chapter was started in Canada in 1938 and later other chapters opened in Latin America, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia.

Just in North America, 11.6 million acres of water fowl habitats has been preserved by Ducks Unlimited. Local governments, individuals, landowners, and corporations partner with the company in order to restore what has already been damaged as well as to prevent further degradation of the habitats. Each year, the organization takes in about $200 million dollars in revenue which is good since 88% of that goes towards habitat conservation.

Ducks Unlimited typically puts its emphasis on science and research. Some of the methods that they employ include acquiring wetlands for preservation, conservation easements, restoring watersheds, educating landowners, restoring grasslands, and replanting forests.

The popular Ducks Unlimited check series contains four individual checks, coordinating address labels, matching contact cards, and a leather checkbook cover embossed with the official Ducks Unlimited logo to protect your newly acquired checks.

The checks themselves contain beautiful images of water fowl in various stages of flight. These images include 2 designs of water fowl in their native wetlands, an image of water fowl flying over a snowy field, and an image of water fowl flying over a quiet farm.

The checkbook cover itself is gender-friendly and neutral. It is brown leather and since it costs less than $20 it is a good way of protecting your newly acquired checks.

Don't let the former high cost of personal bank checks deter from ordering your Ducks Unlimited checks and bringing awareness to the organization. If you purchase your bank checks online at a reputable website you can save as much as 50% off of what you might have paid in the past at your bank.

Another incentive to ordering your checks online is that you will have access to a larger selection of images and designs. You might have settled for a design in the past that you didn't want due to your bank's lack of selection but this doesn't have to be the case anymore.

When you order your checks online, just make sure that you know your routing number and checking account number. Your checks should get to you in about 5 days. - 31490

About the Author:

Before you order Ducks Unlimited Checks, go to DucksUnlimitedChecks.com to get coupons and to save up to 50% off your next purchase of Ducks Unlimited personal checks.

The Basics Of Horse Race Handicapping

By Ross Everett

One of the reasons that the popularity of sports gambling has skyrocketed in recent years is its accessibility. It's easy to bet on most major sports because everyone understands the basics, which teams are good and why they win. Horse handicapping, on the other hand, is a completely different and somewhat arcane discipline. Where there are some shared concepts, success at sports betting doesn't guarantee the same playing the ponies. Legendary sports handicapper Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder was famous for killing the books with his sports plays--and giving it all back with his inept horse bets.

Were not going to suggest that the information here even scratches the surface of what you need to know to become a serious horse handicapper. There are countless books, DVDs and other media that you should check out if this is your goal. If youre interested in simply knowing the basics so that you can enjoy a day at the track, here are some basic concepts of horse handicapping:

Do your reading: When you arrive at the horse track you should purchase a copy of the Daily Racing Form (DRF for short) and the track program. The DRF is basically the 'bible' of horse race handicapping, and offers morning line odds, horse, trainer, jockey statistics and information on each race at every major track across the country. The track program offers similar information for that individual venue, often in more 'user friendly' form.

The House Doesn't Care Who Wins: One thing that is important for the sports bettor to remember when playing the horses is that its a parimutuel situation. In other words, you're not playing against the house, you're playing against the other bettors. The track just facilitates the betting and acts as a middleman, handling the money for a fee (15 to 25 percent of the parimutuel pool). Another difference is that the track odds are determined by how much money is bet on each horse. If everyone bets on one horse"whether it is the best horse, or just has the catchiest name"it will go off as the favorite. Long odds on a horse doesn't necessarily indicate a bad horse, but just one that the wagering public isn't investing in. Sometimes this can be one and the same, but not always.

So where do odds in the newspaper or program originate? These are known as the 'morning odds' or 'morning line' and is basically an educated guess as to where the betting will go. They can be helpful as a handicapping tool, but may or may not reflect what will happen in the actual betting.

Horse handicapping basics: This is where horse racing gets complex--there are countless theories about how to handicap a horse race. Some handicappers consider the breeding lineage of the horse, while others are more concerned with past performance. Still others put more weight on the training a horse has received, or its workout performance.

Once a handicapper gets an idea what will happen in the race, he has to factor the available odds into the proposition. A favorite may be an unattractive wagering prospect due to a prohibitively high price, while a long shot may be a good wagering value based on a high potential payback. It all boils down to wagering value, which is simply a matter of doing a math. Teaching the youth of America solid math skills is crucial for no other reason than to help them gamble effectively and profitably.

Horses and Trainers: Some handicappers place a great deal of importance on the horses breeding lineage"the quality of his parents and grandparents "as an indication to his performance potential. This may be particularly important early in a horses career, but after a half dozen or so races what hes done on the track becomes more important than his pedigree. Trainers, like Bob Baffertt, can also be an important consideration much in the same way that coaching can play an important role in sports wagering.

The horse's jockey: Jockeys are free agents, meaning that they get paid on their performance. In theory, this means that they'll do their utmost to win in every given race. While there are a few exceptions, many serious horse handicappers downplay the importance of the jockey. Assuming the horse's 'mount' is competent, there are much more salient factors to consider when handicapping a race than the jockey.

Find your own style, and maintain discipline: Basically, there's not a 'right' or 'wrong' way to handicap a horse race. Figure out what works for you, and develop and refine your own methodology. As in any form of gambling, don't bet more than you can afford to lose and in particular when you're starting out there's no reason to be making big wagers. If you want to learn more, there's a number of good internet resources including the Daily Racing Form website. - 31490

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a noted writer who has written on sports gambling and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared as a guest on TV and radio talking about boxing, cricket and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a wombat.