Ed Brancheau asked:


With thousands of adventures worldwide, for Americans, Alaska and Canada adventure travel beats just about anything else because of the convenience and awe-inspiring views.

For Americans, there are several advantages to traveling in Alaska and Canada. For one, since Alaska is a US state, you do not need a passport when traveling there by plane or cruise. And, until at least January 8, 2007, Americans do not need a passport when heading to Alaska and Canada for adventure travel activities.

And they speak English… sort of!

One thing that I really like about Alaska and Canada adventure travel is that even in Canada, there is not a huge difference from the United States. Canadian banking systems, hospitals and hospitality are all on par with the United States.

There is one major difference though. I hate to say it, but Canadians are, simply put, nicer and more helpful than my fellow Americans.

The thing is, though, that the same can be said for Alaskans. It must be something about the clean air and water above the 49th parallel that causes this friendliness because Alaskans are also incredibly hospitable.

So, what are some of the best Alaska and Canada adventure travel destinations?

Of course, this is not an extensive list for Alaska and Canada adventure travel but a great place to start. To get more details about each of the locations / topics below, please visit our website Odyssey Adventure Travel at:

http://www.odyssey-adventure-travel.com/alaska-canada-adventure-travel.html

Hiking / Trekking in Alaska

Anchorage, Barlett Cove, Chena River State Recreation Area, Chugach National Forest, Copper River Delta, Cordova, Dalton Highway, Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Girdwood, Gustavus, Haines, Homer, Juneau, Kachemak Bay State Park, Katmai National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kennecott / McCarthy Area, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Seward, Sitka, Skagway, Unalaska Area, Valdez, Wrangell

Hiking / Trekking in Canada

Glacier National Park, Yoho National Park, Kottenay National Park, Banff National Park, Waterton National Park

Mountain Biking Tours / Cycling in Alaska

Anchorage, Chugach National Forest, Copper River Highway, Denali Highway, Fairbanks, Gustavus, Haines, Homer, Jakolof Bay, Juneau, Kennecott / McCarthy Area, Ketchikan, Kluane to Chilkat, International Bike Relay, Nome, Skagway, Valdez

Mountain Biking Tours / Cycling in Canada

Banff — Start at Banff then over Vermillion and Sinclair Passes, head south through Kootenay National Park, north through the Columbia River Valley to Golden in Yoho National Park, then on to Lake Louise and back to Banff.

Icefields — Start at Icefields to Jasper to Banff past Sunwapta Falls, Columbia Icefields and Lake Louise

Nova Scotia — Start at Nova Scotia through Halifax, Mahone Bay, Lunenburg and Windsor

Skiing / Snowboarding in Alaska

Alyeska Ski Resort

907-754-2111

Toll Free: 1-800-880-3880

Girdwood, Alaska

Sking / Snowboarding in Canada

Banff Ski Resort

Alberta, Canada

Toll free within North America:

1-87-SKI-BANFF

Outside North America:

1-403-277-7669

Reservations & Ski Packages:

1-877-542-2633

Jasper Marmot Basin

Alberta, Canada

Email: info@skijaspercanada.com

Tel: 780-852-5247

Toll Free: 1-800-473-8135

Whistler Ski Areas

Alberta, Canada

Whistler: 604.932.3434

Toll-Free within North America:

1.800.766.0449

Toll-Free within the UK:

0800-587-1743

E-mail: Guest Relations

Mont Tremblant Ski Resort

Quebec, Canada

1-888-738-1777

(Overseas: 1-514-876-7273)

White Water Rafting in Alaska

Anchorage, Copper River Delta, Denali National Park, Kenai River, Kennecott / McCarthy Area, Kongakut River, Stikine River, Talkeetna River, Tatshenshini River, Valdez

White Water Rafting in Canada

Jacques-Cartier River, Quebec, Kicking Horse River, Rouge River, Chilco / Chilcotin River

Of course, there are hundreds of great places in Alaska and Canada for adventure travel. And I am always adding to this list so be sure to check back often.

Of course, there are hundreds of great places in Alaska and Canada for adventure travel. And I am always adding to this list so be sure to check back often.

shmookles asked:

Ghost Hunters TV show featured the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel in St. Petersburg, FL on 10/2/2008

Tom Carter asked:

Learning Kung Fu at Shaolin Temple

by Tom Carter

“Let’s see your Tiger-Crane style match my Eagle’s Claw!”

Ah, the immortal words of dueling Shaolin warriors. Though dialog like this is mainly the stuff of low-budget Hong Kong movies, there is in fact a place where such challenges are still uttered. Not to the death, of course, but between students at Shaolin Si, China’s most famous Kung Fu temple.

Located atop the western peak of the sacred Song Shan Mountain in northern Henan province, 800 year-old Shaolin Si has been destroyed and rebuilt time and again, weathering attacks by emperors, warlords, cultural revolutions, and now its most reoccurring invaders – the modern tour group.

In fact, not until the advent of the 1970s Kung Fu movie craze and the popular 1982 film “Shaolin Temple,” did annual tourism perform a CGI-like leap from 200,000 to 2 million, prompting the Chinese government to list the temple as a protected heritage site.

But while the venerable temple gates see an almost endless stream of tourists wishing to get a glimpse of a real-life Shaolin monk and take in a demonstration performance, a more permanent residence of Kung Fu enthusiasts exists in the outlying hillsides.

These are the sons and daughters of Shaolin, young students who have given up secular life for a strict regimen and forsaken conventional curriculum for physical conditioning. At Shaolin Si, the sword is truly mightier than the pen.

Crouching Tigers

Kung Fu (Gungfu in Mandarin) was originally a Chan Buddhist practice with the dual purpose of purifying the soul and building strength through Zen spiritual doctrine and martial arts.

Shaolin priests complimented their monastic ways by harnessing their life force with meditation and releasing this energy, or Qi, through practical offense and defense maneuvers, something traditionalists complain has been diluted over the centuries for the thrill of competition and the vanity of exhibition.

Opening up the temple to outsiders began in the mid-16th century, whence military officers of the Ming Dynasty court attended Shaolin to study the monks’ unique fighting techniques. Resultingly, today’s Kung Fu schools have become big business.

The oldest and perhaps most visible school, the Wushu Institute at Tagou, is at the front entrance of Shaolin Si itself. One mountain may have no space for two tigers, says the old Chinese proverb, but the privately-run Tagou boasts over ten thousand! The courtyard is at any given moment a killer-bee swarm of students of all ages deftly demonstrating the fluid movement of forms, gravity-defying aerial assaults, an arsenal of weapons techniques and the brute force of striking and grappling.

As it does not seem likely that the People’s Republic will have future need to employ martial monks to defend the country from Wokou raiders as it did in the old days, Kung Fu students of the new millennium will eventually end up common businessmen (with a hell of a roundhouse), some will become police officers, and the bottom percentile relegated to rent-a-cop.

But in all their fearless eyes is that youthfully high hope; the desire to become the next Jet Li, China’s “national treasure” who attended a Kung Fu training school from age 8 and went on to become a five-time Wushu champion and silver screen sensation.

But is real life at a Kung Fu school as glamorous as its on-screen personification?

Wudang Clan

A few kilometers away from Shaolin Si against the placid waters of Song Shan reservoir, the 11 year-old Shuiku Martial Arts School, with only 200 students, may be dwarfed in both size and reputation by its estimable red-suited rival, but the daily drill is virtually the same.

Whilst the rest of the working world operates on a 9-5 schedule, life at Shaolin Shuiku is literally backwards, from 5am to 9pm. In the blue light of dawn, barking instructors rouse their respective teams for a run in the brisk morning mountain air as Chinese patriot songs echo into the surrounding mountain range.

Stretching, sprinting, fist pushups and other exertive exercises to forge their young bodies into steel take place beneath the rising sun, the packed-earth schoolyard a veritable army of green-uniformed students lined up in formation. A quick cafeteria breakfast is followed by two hours of requisite textbook classes including Chinese, Math and perfunctory English.

Before lunch and then into the evening is the fun stuff – basics, forms, applications and weapons – components of the external (Shaolin) and Wudang, or internal, styles of Kung Fu training. Most can be rudimentarily learned in a matter of years, but take a lifetime to perfect.

Forms, which are actual fighting techniques with the appearance of a choreographed dance, are the most elegant. The animal styles, for example, involve strength, speed and psychology; the Tiger for external force and a strong attack, the softer Crane style for patience and concentration, and so on down the animal kingdom.

For the less graceful student, competitive Sanda sparring more resembles street fighting than poise, whereby the biggest and bravest don protective gear and launch into each other with fists of fury under the corrective eye of their shifu.

Led not by a wizened Master Po, a cruel Pei Mei or any such mythical elder with long white eyebrows, today’s Shaolin shifu (master) are young, burly and surly, some fresh out of Kung Fu school and quick to take a bamboo cane to the backsides of their junior trainees.

Young Grashoppa

In the dark chill of night, the spent students finally retire to their dorm rooms for a semi-normal albeit brief adolescent life – reading comics, watching movies, or, most precious, sleep. The boys share up to ten bunks per room, which look, and smell, accordingly.

Conversely, there are only 7 girls at Shuiku, though none admit feeling uncomfortable around the pubescent testosterone of so many “brothers.” With narrow eyes and long, silky black hair, Feng Jing Jing of Shanxi has been a Shaolin student for one year and plans at least another four.

Despite her quiet demeanor, the 17 year-old novice shares a tempered conceit with the rest of her male and female classmates, disdaining an ordinary teenage life of classrooms and tests. “Kung Fu is much easier than English,” Feng Jing Jing asserts while slashing a broadsword in the air with lethal precision.

And what of the parents who are paying for these classes? For them, Kung Fu is an alternative investment into their child’s future. And the earlier they begin, the larger the payoff – they hope.

Cao Xu, 7, who likes doing cartwheels instead of walking, doesn’t seem to mind being away from his mother and father back in Shanghai. Nevertheless, their adult ambitions have obviously been instilled in this little grasshopper’s mind: “I want to be a hero…and earn lots of money!”

White Lotus

Demonstrated by its box-office strength in the western world, the Shaolin lifestyle isn’t only popular with Chinese. 20 year-old Felix Klemisch studied martial arts in his native Germany for four years before hopping on a China-bound plane to pursue his affinity for Kung Fu.

And towering over every other student and trainer at Shuiku is the 190cm Stephan Beck, the school’s foreign veteran with a combined 9 months between two Shaolin schools (he quit the first school after making him stare into the sun for ten minutes a day “to build up [his] Qi”). Also 20 and from Germany, Stephan defies height, gravity and conventions, often training alone while the Chinese students are in group formation.

The two young Europeans confide that communication is a bigger obstacle than the physical ones, and were practically forced to learn rudimentary Chinese to understand their trainers. “We had no choice,” says blonde Felix in heavily accented English. “It was either grasp basic Mandarin or get left behind.”

Neither is sure of what they want to do when they go home and admit the possibility of drifting their way back to Shaolin. In the meantime, shaved-headed Stephan is looking forward to getting away from Song Shan for an upcoming respite in Beijing.

So which will he do first, a climb on the Great Wall? Shopping at Silk Market? “Find a Chinese girlfriend,” he decrees with Shaolin bombast. “I’ve been on top of this mountain too long!”

Shari Hearn asked:


I must be the luckiest person alive. In the past three days I found out I won 1.5 Million Euros in the UK lottery, One Million Euros in the Winx International Lottery, 1.5 Million Euros in the 2007 E-Mail Lottery, and 500,000 Pounds in an e-mail lottery held by the Coca Cola Company. Wow! What did I do to receive all these riches?

The sad truth is there are actually people who fall for these schemes. For the promise of a quick buck (or million Euros as the case may be) people will turn over their bank account numbers, wire money in the hopes of getting more back, or give other information that could lead to identity theft.

These lottery and sweepstakes schemes have gone on long before the internet, with one of the oldest being the phony sweepstakes which required an entrance fee to claim your prize, which amounted to more than the “prize” was worth. Another variation of that scheme was requiring the potential “winner” to call a certain number to find out if he or she was a winner. The phone call cost the potential “winner” a certain amount per minute with an unusually-long wait time on hold. The real winner was the scamming company which made money off the phone calls.

Today’s thieves have a wide choice of scam-delivery mechanisms, including in person, the mail, phone and internet. However, the same holds true no matter how the scam is delivered: if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

How Can You Recognize the Lottery or Sweepstakes Scam?

There are certainly legitimate lotteries and sweepstakes offers. Who hasn’t bought a state or multi-state lottery ticket from their local lottery retailer? Or, who hasn’t seen one of those sweepstakes offered by a recognized company advertising in the coupon section of the Sunday newspaper? You fill out the entry form or reasonable facsimile (usually a 3″x5″ card) with your name and address and send it off.

Therein is your biggest clue as to whether you’re the victim of a scam. In a legitimate lottery or sweepstakes you have bought the ticket or entered your name and address. In a scam lottery or sweepstakes you are notified you’ve won when you haven’t even entered or bought a ticket.

In addition, it’s illegal to use the mail or telephone to play lotteries across borders, whether national or state lines. Any lottery offer involving the purchase of lottery tickets for other state or country lotteries could end up with you being charged with illegal activities.

One ploy used by foreign scammers involving lotteries or sweepstakes is offering you an “advance” on your winnings. The scam artist will send you a check for part of your “winnings.” All you have to do is wire them payment for “taxes” or other official purposes. By the time you find out their check has bounced the money you wired is in their hands. And, because it was wired it’s harder to trace.

Lottery scammers don’t always use e-mail or the phone. Sometimes they do their dirty work in person. A typical scam would go something like this: You are approached in person by someone who claims he or she just won the lottery but isn’t eligible to claim it. They offer to split the money with you if you claim the prize. Sounds good, right? Except that before you claim the prize from the lottery retailer you are required to withdraw some money from your account and give it to the ticket holder as a good-faith gesture. By the time you find out you’re holding a non-winning lottery ticket, the thief is long-gone with your good-faith money.

In order to protect yourself from these scams, it’s important to remember the following:

Lotteries

•It’s illegal to use the mail or telephone to play lotteries across borders.

•If you ever receive a phone call, letter or e-mail announcing you just won a lottery, it’s a scam.

Sweepstakes

•It’s illegal for a company to require you to pay to win or claim a sweepstakes prize.

•It’s illegal for a company to suggest that buying something will improve your chances of winning.

•Companies cannot ask for money from you for taxes they say you owe on a sweepstakes winning.

•Be cautious when entering sweepstakes from displays you see in malls – often times these are people just wanting your name and address for a future sweepstakes scam.

•Only enter sweepstakes from recognizable companies, and never pay a fee to enter.

Avoiding being the victim of a scam takes a healthy dose of skepticism. If you are ever unsure about the legitimacy of an offer made to you, you can call the National Fraud Information Center’s Hotline at 1-800-876-7060.

expertvillage asked:

Get rid of man boobs by lowering the body fat percentage and avoiding the flat bend press exercise. Eliminate man boobs withtips from a fitness specialist in this free video on toning and building muscle. Expert: Bob Mathews Contact: power1k.com Bio: Bob Mathews is the owner of Perfect Body System and has been in Phoenix, Arizona for the last 15 years. He’s trained with Barry Goldwater and other devoted clients over the years. Filmmaker: Dustin Daniels

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