In January of 2000, board game lovers Scott Alden and Derk Solko created the website www.boardgamegeek.com as a resource for boardgame news, articles, tips, session reports and ratings. The site was an overwhelming success, with 250,000 active members discussing 30,000 different games and regularly contributing to the site. Members can find online board games, games to buy, bulletin board topics of interest and reviews on new or existing games they may not be familiar with. The site is free to join and users who post content can earn "GeekGold," which is a form of virtual currency that enables them to purchase avatars, badges and other items for their community page.

One reason why gamers come to www.boardgamegeek.com is to find new a strategy board game to buy. As of December 2008, the top-ranked game was Agricola. The average playing time for this game is 2 hours with 3-4 players. Agricola players start out as a farmer with a wife and from there, they must build a life for themselves. Using cards and double-sided tokens, players will try to build a house, grow crops during different harvest seasons, feed the children, raise livestock and survive. The countless strategies that may be employed in this game are what truly make it fun. The top game of 2007 (and #2 game on the 2008 list) was Puerto Rico. This 90-minute game is best played with four players, who act as colonial Puerto Rican plantation owners who must grow indigo, corn, tobacco, coffee and sugar better than their competition.

Often, boardgamegeek.com runs special contests by sponsored game companies. For instance, in June, R&R Games offered a free copy of their new "Masters of Venice" game if users answered a series of brief questions. Also, Thoughthammer was giving away one $100 gift certificate, two $50 gift certificates, seven $25 gift certificates and Game Ink t-shirts to players who could beat their Mega Meeple online board game. If waiting every few months for another contest doesn't sound appealing to you, then consider visiting the BGG Marketplace or Trade Center to wheel and deal to buy games.

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The internet is changing how people acquire their information and knowledge. Ebooks are now the "it" thing when you want to learn something new. And there really is an ebook out there for anyone. If you are interested in bodybuilding, then you need to check out John Little's ebook "Beginning Bodybuilding." By buying an ebook you get the information you need without waiting on shipping or having to go out and physically find the book. This particular book is for those who want to get started on bodybuilding and get help with exercises, nutrition and general health habits in order to get that body they want.

So first off, where can you buy "Beginning Bodybuilding?" The ebook is available through www.amazon.com and is quite a good deal at only $9.99 and you do not have to pay shipping and handling. You also do not have to wait to get the book in the mail. It is delivered through Amazon's Whispernet directly to your Kindle. The Kindle is actually a reading/storage device that can handle over 1,500 books.

The book is pretty straightforward. John Little is an expert when it comes to fitness and nutrition. He takes his thirty odd years of experience and brings it together into a beginner's program that can help anyone pack on muscle and lose excess fat while staying healthy. But the reviews are definitely mixed. One user felt that it was the perfect system and it really helped him build the physique he wanted. Yet another user found that though the book was marketed for beginners it progressed far too quickly into intermediary and advanced techniques that would be lost on most beginners. That same user also felt that John Little did "little" except for ripping off another trainer's work and marketing it as his own.

The downside of the whole Kindle ebook experience is that you first have to buy a Kindle from Amazon and they are definitely not inexpensive. Granted you will have massive amounts of storage and if you are limited on book space in your office or home, then the Kindle may be the answer to your dreams.

There are advantages to owning "Beginning Bodybuilding" and there are some disadvantages. While the Kindle is a great idea, you may not be the type that likes to keep all of your books or information on a storage device. You also have to carry it with you to the gym. The flip side is that it is far easier to carry the Kindle than a big manuscript or guide. People who have bought the ebook and Kindle seem to give great reviews so it might be worth checking out.

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For many people the idea of jumping out of an airplane or off a building is sheer lunacy. They do not crave the excitement and the adrenaline rush. For others, though, it provides them with an extreme high and makes them appreciate life more. Still others do it each and every day for their job. Parachuting from a great height takes a lot of courage and a bit of luck. Each time you parachute you have to wonder in some part of your mind whether or not the parachute is going to open. But nevertheless it has become one of the most extreme sports the average person can participate in. It does require some training and practice but it can be rewarding. The problem is that most people who are afraid to parachute are not that familiar with the sport. In this article we will cover some of the basics. Who knows? By the time it is all said and done, you might find yourself with that itch to feel the wind rushing past and the ground miles beneath you as you parachute from a plane.

What is the history of parachuting?
This is a tricky question to answer. Technically the modern parachute was first designed and implemented by Louis-Sebastien Lenormand of France in the late 18th century. But the first initial designs of parachutes date back to the Renaissance period. The images designed were found on a manuscript dating to the 1470's but the design was much different than what you would find today. Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute that was more in scale with the jumper in his Codex Atlanticus which dates back to 1485. Years later there was an inventor by the name of Fausto Veranzio who looked at da Vinci's drawings and decided to design the parachute differently. He substituted a bulging piece of cloth in 1595. He even tested it twenty years later by jumping from the tower in Venice in 1617. Lenormand looked at the material and design that his predecessors had used. He decided that by using silk, a person would fall safely to the ground because of the strength and versatility of the fabric. He also removed the wooden frame that previous designs had included. His theory and design was tested in 1797 by Andre' Garnerin. Garnerine later improved upon the design even further by venting the parachute. The first parachute jump out of a plane was not until 1911 when Grant Morton jumped from a Wright Model B at Venice Beach, California. Since that time the parachute and parachuting, in general, have changed as technology has changed.

Is there a way to learn parachuting if I have never done so before?
If you have never gone parachuting then you have to have instruction. Usually the instruction begins on the ground. The instructor will go over all of the equipment and make sure that you know what each piece of equipment does. He or she will then go over the correct altitude at which you will deploy your parachute. The next step is usually instructing you on how to land correctly so that you do not get tangled in your parachute or break a bone when you make impact. It is very common for your first few jumps to be made in tandem with an instructor or a more advanced student. This way you get the feel for the jump without having to worry about knowing when exactly to deploy your parachute.

What is tandem parachuting?

In tandem parachuting, or skydiving, you are connected to a tandem instructor. The instructor is strapped to your back with a much larger parachute. This type of skydiving is very good for beginners because it lets them experience freefall but without having to know all of the details about when to deploy your parachute. With tandem skydiving the instructor uses a drogue parachute. As soon as both of you are free of the plane, he or she will deploy this parachute much quicker than you would a typical parachute. The reason is to slow the rate of descent down to that of a single skydiver. You will be in the air longer and get to experience the feel of freefall more than if you were just skydiving alone. But you should know that tandem skydiving does cost more because there is more equipment involved. For some this is not an issue because they like the comfort of knowing an experienced instructor is there with them at all times.

How safe is parachuting?
Well, parachuting would not be nearly exciting as it is if it were not for the danger involved. But the chances of you dying are pretty slim. It is estimated that in the United States there are 30 deaths per 100,000 jumps each year. But there are a great many accidents that do occur and injury is the result. Most of these injuries come from the parachute deploying too late or the person landing wrong and breaking a bone.

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Anyone who has surfed message boards before knows they can be highly addicting. Perhaps it's the way strangers praise or debate your well-articulated opinions. Maybe discussing your opinions, thoughts, goals and insights seems a worthwhile way to pass the time. You may have built new friendships, found new opponents to play board games against or learned something new. This marketplace of ideas can be exciting, as you learn about the many different opinions that exist in the world. For gamers, the Internet forums are the best place to learn skills, have questions answered and develop their hobbies.

The chess board game has one of the more popular message boards because this particular community is so dedicated. They play in tournaments around the world, they play board games online against opponents in other countries and they study the chess art to learn new strategies, tactics and techniques needed to win. If you're interested in connecting with other chess players online, there are a number of websites you can check. Chess Talk (www.chesstalk.com) is based out of Canada and offers a forum and a discussion of products for sale. Chess Cafe (www.chesscafe.com) has chess book reviews, endgame studies and columns about chess. Talk Chess (www.talkchess.com) has forums discussing chess software, machines, players and more. The Eliters Club (www.eliters.com) is a group for elite Yahoo chess players. The Blitz Chess Club (www.blitzchess.org) lets you play games, prize-winning tournaments, take training classes or watch other grand-masters. MSN also has chess-related groups at www.search.msn.com.

Checkers is another strategy board game that attracts large audiences to online boards. Since there are so many different possible algorithms and game plays, people are always looking to practice their skills with online board games or by reading up on strategies and theories in the forums. Yahoo Games has a number of checkers-related groups at www.dir.groups.com: Yahoo Message Boards - Checkers, Yahoo Groups - Chinese Checkers, Yahoo Groups - Draughts, the Y Checkers Club, the Turkish Draughts Drama Club and the Elite Checkers Club. MSN (www.search.msn.com) and Google Groups (www.groups.google.com) are other places to find checkers-related groups created by other avid gamers.

Sometimes people even play games on message boards. This can be a great way of getting to know others and having a bit of fun. When posting a game suggestion, title your post using the word "game" -- like "Finish the Sentence Game" or "Rhyme Time Game." Then, in the post, write clear directions and post an example to get people started. You'll be surprised at how quickly people reply! In the "Finish the Sentence Game," you'll post 3-4 words starting a sentence and the next person will finish it. The "Word Chain Game" simply posts one word and everyone replies with the first subsequent word that comes to mind. You can also play "Message Board Go Fish," where a person will ask a yes-or-no question and if the next person says yes, then he or she asks a new question. If the answer is no, he or she says "go fish." There are also many ABC games for movies, animals, what's in your pantry, musicians and more. Getting-to-know-you games may include question quizzes.

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If you hope to discover the top blogs on the web, the best way is first of all to decide which topics you're most interested in. You might want something that posts recipes or book reviews, or perhaps you're most interested in news blogs. There are several excellent web services that will help you find what you're looking for, but of course you need to know what that actually is.

Technorati is one of the sites that keep track of blogs, and it makes a list of what it considers the 100 top blogs that people visit. You can sort the list by the number of fans the blog has, or by authority. The former criterion is self-explanatory, but by "authority," the site means the number of other sites that link back to that particular blog. If the Huffington Post blog is at the top of the authority list, that means more people in the blog-o-sphere currently link to it than to blogs farther down. More people consider it an authority in some way.

On Technorati's Top 100 list, the blog topic is less important than the followers or links it has, though you can get listings by broad topic as well. A site like Wikio also ranks blogs under specific topics. So if you click on the "Top blogs – Politics" category, again you might find the Huffington Post in first place. But each blog on the list has an arrow indicating whether it's trending upward or downward in readership, indicating which blogs are doing best at covering the latest top stories. The Daily Reviewer breaks its categories down further, so you could get a listing of the top blogs currently covering general world news, or refine it to those blogs writing about breaking news.

It's also possible to use a search engine to look for more specific blog topics like personal finances or book reviews, but the results can be more hit-and-miss. You might find a website that hasn't been updated since 2007, or end up at a page that is now blank. Here you may prefer to rely on sites like BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog, which list member blogs under specific interests. As you read these, they'll recommend others, and you can compile your own list of top blogs that way. Whether you go to a larger site like Technorati or Wikio, or rely on your own reading to build up a list, there are countless excellent blogs on the internet that will address any topic.

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A tummy tuck, also referred to as an abdominoplasty, can help reduce the appearance of loose and flabby skin around your abdomen by strengthening the walls of your tummy, as well as tightening your stomach muscles. This surgery removes fat and tightens loose skin around the abdomen and is not meant to be used as a weight loss tool. Tummy tucks are for areas around the abdomen that don't respond to diet and exercise and can be an ideal solution to achieving a slimmer waistline.

A tummy tuck can be performed as either an outpatient or inpatient procedure, and can be done in many instances under general anesthesia. However, a local anesthetic and a sedative are preferred by a board certified plastic surgeon. The surgeon will begin by making a long incision from hip to hip. The muscles of the abdomen are pulled closer together, tightened and stitched to secure them into position. You will more than likely have dressings and bandages covering the surgery site when you wake up in the recovery room. A drain tube may be used to keep fluid from building up.

What should you expect after an abdominoplasty? The healing and recovery process can take weeks or even months and can be very painful. The most common symptoms to expect during this procedure include muscle soreness, muscle tenderness, fatigue, numbness in some areas, heavy scarring, bruising and redness.

It is important to take the medications that your doctor prescribes after surgery for an adequate recovery. You will probably be given prescription painkillers and antibiotics to help with the muscle soreness and any residual pain. You might have some bruising and swelling around the incision site, but it should heal within a few weeks. It may be difficult to stand or move for long periods of time, so have a comfortable area at home to spend your recovery period. Apply an ice pack to sore muscles and make sure the area is padded so that you can sleep comfortably. Expect to wear loose-fitting clothing that doesn't constrict your waistline.

The possibility of infection and adverse reactions to anesthetics is always a possibility with any surgery; also with cheek implants, nose reshaping or breast augmentation surgery, for example. Complications like blood clots can pose life-threatening risks in rare cases. There are some other complications that you should think about before undertaking this particular tummy reduction procedure, such as hematoma, belly button death, skin death, excessive scarring, ruptured stitches and excessive bleeding.

As reported by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the national average cost of tummy tucks is $4,500 in 2008, but can go as high as $6,000 to $10,000 when facility and anesthesia fees are included. The ASPS website is a great place to learn more information. You can find it at www.plasticsurgery.org.

It is recommended that you quit smoking prior to having an abdominoplasty, as patients who don't smoke tend to have fewer complications. In general, a tummy tuck is for those people who have loose skin that has not responded to exercise. If you are planning on losing a significant amount of weight or becoming pregnant, then you should wait to have this surgery.

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Online business ideas have given a lot of people control over their careers and jobs, and a lot of rewards through Internet or online opportunities. The majority of the online jobs revolve around tasks such as freelance writing, buying and selling websites, website design, sales, affiliate promotions and surveys. Therefore, some people make money from writing e-guides and e-books which they sell online afterwards, others focus on a certain kind of personal product or offer consultancy that deals with many kinds of problems, some go for web site flipping and lastly, there are also some people who make a living from moderating forums found on the Internet.

When it comes to online business ideas like building a website to sell, the people's interest in it just got higher with the worldwide financial crisis and economic recession. As thousands of people have lost their jobs, it is only natural for many to focus on home-based opportunities such as building a website to sell that will be able to save the whole family from the risks of working for corporations. The best advice that you can get is to get serious about the possible online business ideas that you've felt tempted to try. Take for instance, if you have always wanted to learn how to sell websites for gaining profit, then do so. Some modifications have appeared on the Internet as well, and the Google search engine has discarded many sites that are being considered as spammy.

With this new policy being put into practice by search engines on the Internet, what's happening now is that older sites are being preferred to the newer ones. Statistics would show us that nine out of ten sites that are being displayed on the first page of the search engines are sites that have older online activities, or those that have been around on the Internet for some time now. You can look at the history of the web page by following the record domain data. But getting discouraged isn't the point here; what is being pointed out is that things may be changing with online business like building a website to sell as well.

Despite the disadvantages that are being presented, the good thing here is that the cost for some services required for online business ideas (like web site flipping) are now going down. Creating or coming up with a website would need hosting and domain registration, which are now available for much lower fees. Moreover, blog owners are the ones who are now gaining more profit from search engines due to the highly specialized rich content found on them.

As we grow older, we tend to gain weight because our bodies don't break down food like they used to because our metabolism slows down. Everybody wonders how we can start looking like our younger selves and how to lose body fat we've gained. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to lose that unwanted body fat and feel good and look good, sometimes even better than your younger self. With a few simple and committed steps, you should be able to lose any body fat you've added over time while also regaining any lost confidence and well being.

The best way to start losing weight is to begin exercising. Don't be concerned about the idea of exercising, it can be as easy or as difficult as you'd like to make it. Walking or taking the stairs at work are simple exercises that you can do instead of going to the gym and working yourself senseless. Walking 20 minutes a day is a great way to start exercising if you're not accustomed to it and gradually increase the distance over time.

If you still aren't sure about how to lose body fat, perhaps its time to also look at what you're eating a look at a calorie controlled diet. A diet rich in good foods which do not leave you riddled with hunger all day is the type of diet you should be looking at. You can begin losing weight even without a diet by reducing small things you know aren't good for you, like replacing soda cans with bottles of water.

Next, begin to take part in outdoor activities. Joining a local sports club could be a good start, or join a local walking club, as long as its something that will not involve intense physical activity to start with. People often try to figure out how to lose body fat when the answer is pretty simple - get out and do something enjoyable. If your day involves sitting around the house all day, then your body will begin to slow down and not process food correctly because it has no need to.

There are no secrets to weight loss that people can't get their hands on - it's a simple technique of better eating combined with the introduction of some form of physical activity so the body burns fat rather than store it. It may surprise how small a change can result in a large weight loss over time. If you are willing to make the commitment, you can make a difference to your life and find weight loss no longer a worrying prospect.

The celebrities have always had the resources, but now the common man can also learn how to get flat stomachs. For as long as time, people have been trying to sculpt their bodies based on the forms of the Greek gods. One thing people try to copy from the gods is the flat stomach. Although difficult to give a complete analysis, hopefully this will give you some general ideas of what is required to reach this goal. One the right techniques are understood for exercising, only then can you begin to use them.

Firstly, you can not target specific areas for weight loss. Our bodies will lose body fat gradually from our everywhere rather than a targeted area which means doing crunches and sit-ups all the time will not do much to lose fat from around the stomach. Most people think, and wrongly so, that to get a flat stomach one needs to be doing lots of stomach exercises to reduce the fat and tone up their abs. To be honest, doing so will do more harm than good and could potentially cause physical pain over the short term and potentially long term.

To get a start on achieving that flat stomach, begin with an effective diet. To gain that flat stomach, an effective diet allows you to lose that body fat which goes a long way in helping to achieve your goal. You need to follow this diet as best you can as it has more to do with getting your flat stomach than anything else. A good diet will guide you in what foods are good for you and what aren't. If your food intake is correct, you will begin to see the results you require to achieve your goal.

If you combine a good diet and an exercise regime, you will begin to lose weight as well as develop muscle. When the weight has nearly completely come off, only then should you continue to work on the specific abdominal region to gain that six pack you're after unless you're happy to have washboard abs. The internet is a great resource to find diet programs which can be successful, but if you aren't confident with this approach you should consult a professional dietitian. Dietitians can help you understand what your current food intake is and what is needed in order to get and stay healthy.

Once again, remember to combine your diet with a good exercise regimen. Hundreds of abdominal exercises will not get you a flat stomach overnight, nor will any diet program. These types of exercises should only be concentrated on once the fat around your stomach has all but gone. Intense cardio exercise programs combined with your diet are a good way of reducing fat, especially in stubborn areas.If you're having trouble with stubborn areas, maybe an intense cardio exercise program will be required along with your diet. If you are unsure of the exercises that are needed to help lose weight, either consult an physical training instructor or find a good guide via the internet. If you follow your diet and training program, you will soon see the results which will make you feel better about yourself and more comfortable, but you'll also find friends and family asking you how to get a flat stomach.