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Today poker is available to everybody. There are nowadays such a variety of wonderful online poker internet sites that this gambling game has gone from a dying game rarely seen outside Las Vegas to one of the most loved games in the world. Why has this come about so quickly? Convenience, thrills, and the alternative of playing either pretend money or for massive money pots drove the rapid growth of these internet sites from the day the original internet sites was established in 1998. Of course it didn’t take long before poker internet sites were being launched at an astonishing pace to get their piece of the action. The popularity of online poker led to competitions such as the World Poker Tour being televised in ‘02. Increasing in participation by over 500% over the next year, the World Series of Poker was shown on TV along with Chris Moneymaker the now famous player. The public was fascinated as Chris made it look simple to go from rags to riches in a single round. Moneymaker was enjoying the lifestyle most people wanted and was playing poker for a living. By 2004, Internet poker had earned an astounding one billion dollars.

So now, people from every country in the world log into poker internet sites to bet for real money and spectacular pots, but some like to enjoy a couple of hands without any risk. With the tremendous selection on the net, it doesn’t make any difference whether you are just starting or are a professional. Yet if you would rather just be a spectator on one of the hundreds of internet sites, you can easily spot the greatest stars in poker playing regularly on television. Though today with the opportunity of gambling without actual money implies that you have essentially eradicated risk altogether. You could even find that you love it.

Internet poker has protected the game from extinction in a very short length of time. And so, now that cyberspace has made getting in on the action so very easy, you can be sure the industry is going to go from strength to strength.

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Hurricane Katrina has, for all intents and purposes, destroyed one of the most wonderful of all our American cities, New Orleans. It has been five days since Katrina hit and the Federal Government has no idea what to do about it. Our wonderfully absent President George Bush said yesterday “we had no idea this would happen” (or some such rubbish). Yet there have been published studies and news reports over the years that predicted exactly this kind of a catastrophic disaster.

One of the most ridiculous recent reports from the news media came on Monday as the storm barreled across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama: “New Orleans dodged a bullet,” the reports said, basing their stories on nothing more than wishful thinking and the fact that the storm moved slightly east just before it hit the Gulf Coast.

To add insult to injury, we now know that the levees that broke on Tuesday turned out to be the newest ones. We also know that the Army Corps of Engineers were removed from the loop by the Bush Administration and the money needed to rebuild and protect New Orleans’ infrastructure was consistently cut from Federal budgets as “just too much pork.” Could it be because Louisiana is a Democratic state with a Democratic Governor? When the crisis reached the Federal Government, Alabama and Mississippi, Republican strongholds, were helped first.
It’s truly an outrage that this country cares nothing for its poorer citizens. And that is our Dirty Little Secret. What do you think keeps companies like Wal-Mart and the fast-food chains in business? The poor.

Believe me, if Martha Stewart or a bunch of Bush family cronies were trapped on the roof of one of their New Orleans mansions they would have been rescued immediately. The fact that New Orleans is 70% African-American and votes Democratic ought to tell you something about how this abhorrent Republican Administration cares about all its citizens. But last Friday when this storm began to pick up strength and head for New Orleans everyone in the government knew what would happen. The news media spent a lot of time telling the country what could happen if a Category 5 hurricane hit. They did this last year during the hurricane season and FEMA has known about it for a long time. So the powers that be have had lots of time to plan for the big one but no one did anything. They are already making excuses and patting themselves on the back for a job well done. They didn’t do anything for four damn days! And where are the Democrats? As usual they are AWOL, as they have been ever since Bush took over five years ago.

And where are the Democrats when Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has the nerve to say “Maybe New Orleans shouldn’t be rebuilt.” AWOL, as usual.

The Pentagon is upset because reporters who are on the scene have more sympathy for the victims than they do for the government. It’s not surprising … they are actually there, unlike the politicians and the rest of this pathetic excuse for a representative government. I heard Bush had Air Force One buzz the scene yesterday so he could get a look at the devastation. A real President would find a way to shoulder some of the burden the people he represents are experiencing by landing the fucking plane somewhere and helping with the relief effort.

This terrible tragedy has the chance of becoming a watershed moment in our country’s political history. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer and this disaster shows the true extent of the gulf between the two. Finally we are able to see how the government reacts when there is no enemy to fight but nature itself and a bunch of poor black people who couldn’t afford to put gas in their cars so they could leave (if they had cars), are the victims. It’s hard to make political points or spin the story in a situation as horrifying as this, but the Government hacks are already trying.

Maybe if we had not sent all the Louisiana National Guard troops to fight in Iraq, things would be different. Maybe if the state and Federal Government had listened to the predictions of what would happen when a Category 5 hurricane hit New Orleans, things would be different. Maybe if the smug, self-satisfied, Administration toadies who rant and rave about the “sanctity of life” actually believed it, things would be different.

Maybes don’t mean much now but it’s pretty obvious a change has got to come in how this country treats its poorest citizens.

Finally our Dirty Little Secret has been revealed in front of the whole nation and it’s now become the big, fat, elephant in the room.

Too bad it’s too little, too late, for thousands of people caught in this horrendous, but very possibly preventable, disaster.

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About the Author

As an award-winning writer/reporter for the Taconic Press, Robert Lachman helped elect the first new mayor in Millbrook NY in 15 years, exposed illegal town judges in Dutchess County NY who had not filed their oaths of office with the County Clerk’s office and, as the Millbrook reporter, was instrumental in helping the citizens of Millbrook get a new high school. He has written theater, film and DVD reviews for the Taconic Press’ Weekend Magazine

Confused about VOIP? Join the crowd. It’s not as difficult as it sounds and we are going to make VOIP simple for the average person.

VOIP simply means Voice Over Internet Protocol. Now you don’t need to know anything about the protocol so basically it is using the Internet to make phone calls.

All you need is a high speed internet connection to make a VOIP call. There are many companies that offer VOIP service and offer the telephone with it. Many will even set it up for you. Even local cable companies are offering to set you up. Once it is set up, you don’t need to worry about anything. You can simply make telephone calls just like normal. Now you will be making calls through an internet company and not your phone company.

Why should I use VOIP and are there any disadvantages?

Advantages

The main reason most will want to use it is to lower their phone bills. You will normally pay a flat fee and you will get long distance to the US and Canada with it at no extra charge.

You can keep you phone number that you have now.

No matter where you move you can take your phone number with you even if you move to a different area code. My daughter moved to Bermuda and she kept her home phone number.

When you move and your phone moves with you there are no extra setup charges as there is with your local phone

If you are travelling you can set it up to use your laptop or wireless connection, as long as it is high speed. Most hotels these days accomodate this.

No longer will you have to pay for extra features. With VOIP service providers these usually come as standard. Features such as:

1. Caller ID

2. Call Waiting

3. Call Transfer

4. Repeat Dialling

5. Return Call

6. Three-Way Dialling

Advanced call filtering features. These features allow you to decide how calls to a specific number are handled by using caller ID information. They allow you to:

1. Forward the call to a particular number

2. Send the call directly to voicemail

3. Give the caller a busy signal

4. Play a “not-in-service” message

Disadvantages

Sometimes the quality is not as good as phone lines. It’s close and will continue to get better. I suspect that within a year you will not be able to tell the difference.

Set up can be very challenging. If you are not a techie, there is always someone you can hire to do it for you. With the financial savings you will get from it, it’s worth it to pay someone if you are at all squimish about it.

It does not work well with fax machines and alarm systems. It works and in short time this will also improve.

If your internet access goes down then your phone will also go down. For most with high speed access this rarely happens.

If the power goes off the phone will not work. For most of us, this is also a rare occurrance. You can get backup batteries to resolve this issue if you are in a rural area and it happens often.

Currently the government does not apply taxes to the service. If that changes VOIP may not be price effective anymore.

VOIP is the future and more and more people are coming online with it every day. This may also effect a lowering of the cost in time.

That is it in a nutshell. It’s not nearly as scary as you thought.

Jean Sutherland is a technical writer for the popular website http://www.voip-place.com/ where everything VOIP is discussed. She is also the owner of the successful website The Company Newsletter at http://www.thecompanynewsletter.com where you will find loads of free software, articles on marketing and common computer questions.

The greater the number of leads that are open to you, the larger the number of selling opportunities you have. Turning prospects into sales is up to you. There’s no magic formula for this. You must ensure that you spend available time on the inquiries that are serious and to do this in a way that will increase your chances of turning every lead into a sale. To help you do this, here are a couple of suggestions to make your task less problematic. When individuals ask for more information on the internet, a substantial number are not really in the market for insurance. They are simply surfing and looking for an incredible price. Some inquiries from the net really are generated by junk e-mail or automatic requests. In general these queries end up as a lot of work and not a lot of money. It is easy to see why the best quality leads are of paramount importance.

Individuals who are asking for new insurance or want alterations to their existing insurance policy are by and large the best leads. These people are ready to commit without much effort. So then, what might be the best way to recognize the leads who are prepared to purchase? When you get any prospects it’s a good idea to file all of them according to various criteria, e.g. the date they require a new insurance policy on. It is also a good idea to start with those queries with the most estimated profit too. Selling insurance is much easier to do when the buyer has recently submitted their request for a quotation. Persuading the customer to buy isn’t usually essential in these cases. In fact, successful sales representatives who purchase automobile insurance leads say they only reply with a quote to the customer, and that’s it. So do not allow your hot leads to cool off before contacting them.

The importance of dealing with the lead properly should never be overlooked. Attach a quotation, give them any extra information they may have requested and do it in a timely fashion. In case the customer has requested information concerning deductible options, take care to include them in their quotation. As you can see, changing insurance prospects into profits is actually all about working efficiently and in a manner that profits both you and the lead the most.