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Soccer Betting - An Introduction

Lawmakers have been thus penned down to make tough new measures to crack down on corruption in sports related betting. Bets are placed on individual players performances, the winning team, scores in the game, etc.

Technology aids available

Today you can bet on the Internet, at casinos, through national lottery and also on cell phones. Growth of Internet betting exchanges has made sports more vulnerable to fraud and match fixing. Now betting is done with the help of GPRS technology, which is a more faster and reliable way for account holders to place their bets. Users are charged for the volume of data rather than the time spent using the service. But the police are now resorting to the use of electronic surveillance techniques to track down the alleged racket.

Advantages over other sports

Precisely betting on a football game has been an extremely popular form of winning big money for years, producing far better prize money amounts for relatively low stake money. Today a punt on the football pools or spot the ball for a quid could win you thousands upon thousands. A bet on a horse cannot produce the same odds. This is perhaps a clue to the nature of betting on a football. Complete change in the lifestyle for a stake that he can afford to loose and demand for no work in return is what allures an aspiring punter to football betting. This is the lure for many working class punters, both male and female regardless of their taste for football. Football betting is the most appropriate technique to make money for those who want to skip the hurdles and mushroom their profits without taking any pains.

Thus the lawmakers have called for various sports governing bodies to have a say in the type of bets offered to punters and to make bookmakers set up "audit-trails", something the new betting exchanges already do, to allow suspicious betting patterns to be traced. Lawmakers have also called for the governing bodies of various sports to devise common standards on who may bet on their sport, types of bets that can be placed on the concerned sport and what the other logistics for placing a bet on their sport should be.

posted by aasdas38493 @ 11:27 PM 0 comments

Surf's Up, It's a Beach Party!

Some of the best beach parties can happen in the Midwest, with temperatures below freezing. Sounds crazy? It is, but it is a memorable and fun way to celebrate a birthday, retirement or special occasion. Beach parties can happen in the summer too, near a pool or a lake in any region.

A beach party needs radical invitations, man! You can follow a surfer theme and use surfboard shapes or any beach theme motif from the party supply store. Other supplies like paper products for food and decorations can match your beach party motif.

Decorating can be fun. Buy plastic beach balls and blow them up to toss around your party, whether its inside or out. Buy an old fishing net and hang from the corner of one room. Fill it with sea creatures and marine life, or use it to put in pictures of the guest of honor. If your party is outside, truck in some sand for beach volleyball.

Use the sand and have a sandcastle competition. Give away personalized party favors to all the winners. Besides volleyball, other sand activities can be horseshoes, Frisbee and football. If there are kids at the party, bury a treasure and create a map for them to follow. Depending on their ages you can make it difficult or easy to find. Use a treasure chest and bury candy or plastic trinkets for them.

If your beach party is inside in the winter, have guests bring their swimsuits and change into them. Turn your thermostat really hot to get them in the mood. Heat and swimsuits will make everyone in a better mood and look forward to spring and summer.

Serve finger food and anything with a beach theme. Make surfer sandwiches or tidal wave macaroni salad. Use regular dishes but jazz them up with a title.

posted by aasdas38493 @ 8:12 PM 0 comments

Finding A Good Stock

One of the things people are always asking me is how can I find a good stock. The answer I give does not please them. I say, "You are not qualified to pick stock. You don't know how so don't try. Put your money in a no-load mutual fund that is going up".

The next cry is, "I don't want to buy mutual funds. What do I do?"OK, so I'll tell you. It is easy. You will have to do less than an hour of work. None of that Wall Street mythology about research which is all horse hockey. The way Wall Street does research is worthless. And don't listen to any broker. Advice from a broker is a eulogy for your money.

They want you to look at the company prospectus. This document isn't worth the paper it is printed on. It was not written for the investor; it was written to pass inspection by some Dilbert lawyer in Washington to see that it meets all the regulations. You can take a prospectus of a very good company and one of a company that has gone bankrupt and you will see they are almost identical. Throw them away.

Read the Annual Report. Another bit of smoke and mirrors. The title should tell you - Annual. Much of what is in it is a year old. Worthless. And let's hope it doesn't have a case of Enronitis.

Get a report from Morningstar. They know all about every financial statistic for a company that you can think of. You might even find out how many sugar lumps the CEO has in his coffee, but there is one thing you won't learn. If you buy this company's stock will it go up? What I am saying is that all the conventional wisdom methods of doing research are worthless. So what do you do?

On the Internet you can find a list of the best performing mutual funds. Go to www.smartmoney.com or www.yahoo/finance.com . There are other places also, but these 2 are very good. List the top 5 mutual funds (write down their symbols). Now go to www.bigcharts.com .Put in the symbol for one of the funds. A chart will come up giving you a picture of the price performance of that fund. If it is going up at a 25-degree angle or more it means the fund manager is doing a good job of picking stocks. At the top of the chart picture there is a legend for Morningstar. Click on that. The new page will show near the bottom the major holdings of this fund. Again you need to get the symbols for his top 5 stocks and look at the chart picture for each one. If that stock is going up in a nice steady price over a period of time of 6 months or longer you have found a winner. Do this with several funds until you have found some stocks you like.

You have let a professional stock picker do all the work for you and now can piggyback his expertise at no cost. Please remember that when that stock turns down you want to sell it. You may be able to ride one up, but you can never tell when it will turn into another Enron. Always be ready to sell.

posted by aasdas38493 @ 4:59 PM 0 comments

Spider-man Superhero Birthday Party

Is there a Spiderman lover in your household? Do they happen to have a birthday coming up soon? If so, a Spiderman theme party is just the perfect thing to do. Planning a Spiderman is easy to do, and any party supply store can help.

The party goers will most likely be young and male. There can be other variations, however, the majority are young boys and will like lots of Spiderman activities. To get the guests in the mood, send out Spiderman invitations. There are packages that have all the invitations, plates, napkins and cups which all coordinate in one large grouping. Buying the pieces individually is also an option. Balloons, streamers and wall decorations are also made, and your budget is the only limiting factor.

Games to play for the kids could include Spiderman themes or regular birthday games. Make time to open the presents and eat a Spiderman shaped cake. Musical chairs, pop the balloons and everyones favorite, a Spiderman piata filled with candy. Bags to send home with the guests full of goodies are made to match your party theme too.

If you have an older crowd, you could venture into spider games. Make a mystery that only Spiderman and his greatest fans can solve. If the crowd is into spiders, give them trivia questions on spiders. Name movies, songs and cartoons where spiders are characters. Use the movie Spiderman and create trivia questions, or just watch the movie for entertainment.

Prizes can be Spiderman favors that come from any party supply store. Stickers, tattoos, bubbles, whistles and plastic trinkets are all great favors and come in many styles and prices. Candy is also an option for treats, and comes in Spiderman containers or wrappers. Spiderman books or comic books as favors would also add to a well-rounded theme.

posted by aasdas38493 @ 1:44 PM 0 comments

2006 Mid-Season NBA Breakdown of the Boston Celtics

What has changed: Danny Ainge was not thrilled with the one-man team Boston was becoming and traded away Blount, Banks, Reed and Davis to Minnesota for Szczerbiak, Olowokandi and Dwayne Jones. Since then the team hasnt played much better. Szczerbiak isnt leaps and bounds better than Ricky Davis was, but he is more prone to have a breakout game than Davis did.

This team is mainly where they are because of Paul Pierce, who is having a career year. Pierce gets to the hoop more than any other scoring SG and doesnt need to dunk it to go in. The other Boston players arent score-minded at all but do find their ways. The Celtics are just 5-11 when someone other than Pierce leads the team in scoring.

The Celtics are 4th in the League in field-goal% mainly since the majority of their shots are inside the foul line. But guys like Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes arent efficient enough converting easy layups. And while Kendrick Perkins has outperformed expectations Boston is still severely undersized. They are 26th in the NBA in rebounds and Centers like LaFrentz and Olowokandi dont help.

When Dan Dickau went out for the year due to an injury, Delonte West stepped up and became the primary PG. West is a very good shooter in the mold of Derek Fisher but doesnt enough for the Point Guard position. For instance 4.4 APG from the PG spot isnt getting it down. Also, West tends to wander offensively and doesnt lead it for a good deal of time. As such the Celtics are 29th in the NBA in tunronvers.

Boston plays a ton of close games, which is good because it shows that they can compete, particularly at home. However they are awful closing out games and have lost 14 games this year by 5 or less points. When they arent losing squeakers they get blown out frequently too, so how they perform is often like flipping a coin.

Ainge has said that he is not done making transactions. Boston is 5 games back of 8-seeded Philadelphia but do not have anywhere near the firepower. Antoine Walker helped them last year since he was the score-first guy they desperately needed. Expect players like Brian Scalabrine, Ryan Gomes and Tony Allen to possibly be shipped out within the next few weeks.

Their chances arent tremendous but they are alive. Both Washington and Phili have a pair of stars compared to the one that Boston has. What Ainge will do before the trading deadline could determine their fate. Look for them to make a move at the final playoff spot when Szczerbiak blends in a little more.

posted by aasdas38493 @ 1:40 PM 0 comments