Interest in rock climbing reaching new heights ? Loudoun Times-Mirror

Rock climbing is no longer the best kept secret of the sports world. During the past few years, this high-intensity sport has seen a significant surge in popularity?and not just among avid sports enthusiasts and adventurers.

Local rock climbing facilities report that more women, children, and older adults are taking up the sport.

In fact, rock climbing has gotten so much attention that it?s in consideration to become an official Olympic sport. The final decision by the International Olympic Committee will be announced in 2013 in Buenos Aries. If included, climbers will compete in the 2020 Olympic games.

?There has definitely been an increase in interest and a change in demographics in recent years,? said Lillian Chao-Quinlan, president of Sportrock Climbing Centers. ?We have a 60 percent 40 percent split of men to women who come in to climb, which is a big change from several years ago. There?s been a huge increase in the number of women rock climbing.?

According to the 2010 Outdoor Recreation Participation Report by The Outdoor Foundation, a nonprofit group, approximately 6.1 million Americans or 2.7 percent of the population 6 years or older participated in some type of rock climbing, whether it be bouldering, sport climbing, indoor climbing, traditional climbing or mountaineering.

The study said in 2009 climbing attracted the fifth highest number of new participants, ranking behind whitewater and sea kayaking, non-traditional or off-road triathlons.

Sportrock and the Claude Moore Recreation Center ? both in Sterling ? offer rock climbing courses for beginners to experts. Before climbing, participants get hooked up to a rope, which is used for belaying ? a climbing term describing the rope and pulley system that secures climbers as they ascend. Both Sterling facilities offer courses that are rope-belayed and others that use automatic belays.

?We have five runs, which are different courses, two of which have automatic belays,? said Mitchell Frid, assistant manager of Claude Moore. ?The two hardest runs that we have are rope-belayed. We pride ourselves on having courses for novices, especially for smaller kids. We can help them a bit with rope-belaying.?

Sportrock has approximately 20,000-square-feet of climbing walls, and each wall has levels of varying difficulty. The walls are changed every six to eight weeks to keep climbers interested and challenged.

?It?s like a new chess game each time you come in,? said Chao-Quinlan. ?Rock climbing is not just a physical activity, but it also engages you mentally. You have to figure out the problem of the wall so that you don?t get stuck.?

Many local gyms also offer rock climbing walls for its members, including Lifetime Fitness.

And while rock climbing is a great workout, many people like the social appeal as well. Sportrock draws a big crowd of young professionals, and Claude Moore is a favorite spot for families. Rock climbing has become a trendy activity for bachelor and bachelorette parties as well as children?s birthday parties.

?During the summer and weekends, the rock climbing wall is a very popular feature, especially among kids aged 6-12,? said Frid. ?They really enjoy it.?

At Claude Moore children must be at least 6 years old to climb on the walls.

Another draw to rock climbing is its inexpensive price. Claude Moore rock climbing costs range from $3.75 to $8.25 depending on age and Loudoun County residents? status. Most participants at Sportrock get a membership, which ranges from $65 to $85 per month depending on term length. But Sportrock also allows non-members to pay a walk-up fee of $18 to climb for a single day.

Chao-Quinlan reiterates that rock climbing is a sport that people of all skill levels can enjoy.

?It?s become a lot more popular because it?s more accessible,? said Chao-Quinlan. ?There is no stereotype you have to be to try rock climbing. It?s a fun activity and it?s a great sport.?

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Tags: claude, claude-moore, climbing, loudoun-county, recreation, social, sportrock, summer

Source: http://zyj88888.com/interest-in-rock-climbing-reaching-new-heights-loudoun-times-mirror/

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How To Prepare Your Home For Selling | Marathon Fl ... - Real Estate

If you own property, it likely represents a healthy portion of your net worth. So when you do decide to sell any of the property you have, you want to make sure you?re getting the most out of it. Selling property is a lot less stressful and much more profitable for you, when you?re adequately prepared. Get yourself prepared by reading the excellent advice in the below article.

Some home owners don?t list their homes for sale in winter as they expect that it won?t sell. You need to decide whether this applies to you, or whether you will hang onto the house until spring. By holding your home through most of the year, you will have to pay most of the taxes on the property. Water bills are also costly, so holding your house for too long will raise those bills as well.

Make sure your home is ready to sell before early spring. Most buyers have the desire to be moved in and settled, between the beginning and middle of summer.

Real Estate

Make a page for your real estate properties or agencies, using Twitter or Facebook. You may tweet or post new information on any local properties, future promotions, real estate purchasing or home improvement tips.

Have the property well-lit before you invite potential buyers to view it. You want the rooms of your house to appear large and welcoming, not small and dim. Plus by making use of the lighting, you are showing the buyer that you have nothing to hide. This may boost your number of offers.

Open up all of your curtains when you show your home. Potential buyers will love to see the brightness of your home because of the sunlight through the windows. Pull back all curtains, drapes, and lift your blinds. In nice weather, open the windows. Fresh air can help your home seem more appealing to buyers.

Make sure you do everything you can to work with potential buyers so that you can make both parties happy. You might not get the price you expected for your home. Ask your agent to help you set a reasonable price.

When you sell your house, try asking for feedback after your open house. Buyers that come to look at your house, can either write this down for you or you can ask them directly. Give thought to any negative comments and make any necessary changes to decrease the amount of time the house sits on the market.

Present a welcoming atmosphere from the outside so potential buyers can immediately feel the warmth of the property. It can make a significant difference in the quantity of potential buyers that are attracted to your home and will come to an open house, or request a private tour.

Once the interior is ready, go outside and look at your house. Your aim should be to increase its curb appeal. Your home?s exterior, including the lawn and landscaping, will provide the initial impression to potential buyers who are seeing the home for the first time. Clean up any problem areas now before it?s too late.

Keep in mind that if you have pets, it is likely that your home has some pet-related odors that will be evident to those prospective buyers who walk through your home. You may not notice the pet odors in your home, but some potential buyers may. In order to appeal to the most prospective buyers you can, keep your home as free as possible of odors.

Real Estate

Real estate markets can be pretty daunting, especially for those people who only need to engage them rarely. Approaching a real estate sale in the wrong way can cost a person thousands. By reading this article, you will learn the basics and avoid the risks.

Try adding a bonus to the sale advertisement to draw additional interest. Many sellers are offering items such as appliances for no extra charge, to help boost interest in their property. This strategy will make your home seem more attractive to potential buyers and make your house seem that much more enticing. Focus on what buyers want out there. If you can add something of value to the overall package, you should have no trouble selling. This will greatly influence your success rate.

For help Selling your Real Estate in Marathon Fl contact Rick Servais at http://www.realestatemarathonfl.com

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Source: http://www.realestatemarathonfl.com/blog/marathon-fl-real-estate/how-to-prepare-your-home-for-selling/

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Romney, Obama trade jabs as Dem convention looms

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Republican Mitt Romney cast President Barack Obama as a failed coach of a struggling team as he sought to capitalize on momentum coming out of his party's convention. Obama dismissed the GOP gathering as an event suited to the era of black-and-white TV and promised to outline "a better path forward" at the upcoming Democratic convention where he'll be nominated for a second term.

The two rivals campaigned Saturday across several battleground states expected to decide the outcome of the closely fought presidential contest. Obama was in Iowa and Colorado, part of a three-day tour that will take him to his convention opening Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C.

Romney spoke at rallies in Ohio and Florida before flying to his vacation home in New Hampshire for some time off. He and his wife, Ann, attended church services Sunday morning at the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Campaign officials said Romney would spend much of the Democrats' convention week preparing for the presidential debates.

At rallies in Cincinnati and Jacksonville, Fla., Romney channeled many voters' interest in the first weekend of the college football season.

"I don't like the way the way the game is going under this president," Romney said, pointing to the high jobless rate and approximately 23 million people who are unemployed or working part-time. "If there's a coach whose record is 0 and 23 million, you get rid of him and get someone new."

The former Massachusetts governor reiterated his pledge to create 12 million new jobs and make the U.S. energy independent in eight years but did not offer specifics on how he would achieve those goals.

Obama seized on the dearth of policy details outlined by Romney and other Republicans at their convention in Tampa, Fla.

"There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were," Obama said in Urbandale, Iowa, warning a Romney administration would offer "retreads of the same old policies that have been sticking it to the middle class for years."

David Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign adviser, said the president would present a clear agenda for strengthening middle class economic security during his acceptance speech in Charlotte.

"You don't hear those kinds of things from the Republican Party," Axelrod said on Fox News Sunday. "Their platform was locked up in the same vault as Mitt Romney's tax returns. They simply don't want to talk about their ideas, because their ideas are not ideas about the future."

Democrats have criticized Romney for making no mention in his convention speech of the war in Afghanistan or of the thousands of troops fighting there. Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom on Sunday defended that decision, saying the Republican candidate addressed the Afghan war in a speech last week to the American Legion.

"But Gov. Romney's convention speech was an opportunity for him to introduce himself to millions of voters who were seeing him for the first time," Fehrnstrom said on CNN's "State of the Union." ''In that speech, he accomplished what he set (out) to do, which is to talk about his better vision for America, with more jobs and increasing wages. He talked about the failures of the Obama presidency over the last four years."

Obama was campaigning Sunday in Colorado, where he planned to speak to college students in Boulder.

The president is pushing voters in states like Iowa and Colorado to take advantage of early voting rules. Early voting in Iowa opens on Sept. 27, weeks before the November 6 general election.

Obama's schedule for Monday includes an appearance in Toledo, Ohio ? yet another battleground state ? before a trip to Louisiana to inspect damage from Hurricane Isaac.

Romney visited Louisiana on Friday.

Viewership was down markedly for the GOP convention this year. According to The Nielsen Co., some 30 million viewers tuned in Thursday night when Romney gave his acceptance speech, compared to some 40 million who watched Arizona Sen. John McCain accept the Republican nomination in 2008.

Democrats were eager to recapture the spotlight at their own gathering. But the convention's location served as an unwelcome reminder to the Democrats of an economy so weak that it threatens Obama's chances for re-election.

The president carried North Carolina in 2008, but the state's unemployment rate is pegged at 9.6 percent, higher than the nation's 8.3 percent and tied with next-door South Carolina for fifth from the bottom.

The Democrats' convention at the Time Warner Cable arena will feature evening speeches Tuesday by first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker.

The president will be nominated for a new term on Wednesday, when former President Bill Clinton also will speak.

Obama's prime-time acceptance speech, to be delivered at the outdoor Bank of America Stadium, caps the convention on Thursday night. Aides predict a capacity crowd will hear the speech at the site, which can hold nearly 74,000. Vice President Joe Biden delivers his own acceptance speech the same evening.

Democrats are taking their turn in the convention spotlight just days after the Republicans met in Tampa to nominate Romney for the White House and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be vice president.

___

Kasie Hunt reported from Jacksonville, Fla.

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Follow Kasie Hunt on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kasie

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-obama-trade-jabs-dem-convention-looms-083514335--election.html

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North Korea and Iran Are Teaming Up

North Korea and Iran are now beat friends, and they're going to help each other with a wide variety of science and technology projects because they have "common enemies."?

RELATED: Egyptian PSA: That Foreigner May Be a Spy

According to state media, the two countries have signed an agreement that will see them "cooperate in research, student exchanges and joint laboratories, and in the fields of information technology, engineering, biotechnology, renewable energy, the environment, sustainable development of agriculture and food technology."?

RELATED: Nothing Pleases Kim Jong-Un Like Awkward Dancing

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted saying the two countries have "common enemies, because the arrogant powers do not accept independent states," by Iranian state media when announcing the new partnership. There were rumors Kim Jong-Un would be in Iran this weekend, but he ended up not attending.

RELATED: Quiz: Bush's Iraq or Obama's Libya?

Who could their common enemies be? Well, neither country has been playing nice with the U.S. lately. There's been posturing and pressuring and cyber attacks. Both Iran and North Korea have nuclear programs the U.S. isn't happy about. Maybe with the new partnership, the next North Korean missile test won't break apart into a million little pieces.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-iran-teaming-174428932.html

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No water, no power means days of misery for Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Isaac crawled into the nation's midsection early Friday, leaving a soggy mess in Louisiana. Neighborhoods were underwater, and many homes that stayed dry didn't have lights, air conditioning or clean water.

It will be a few days before the soupy brown water recedes and people forced out of flooded neighborhoods can return home.

And the damage may not be done. Officials were pumping water from a reservoir to ease the pressure behind an Isaac-stressed dam in Mississippi on the Louisiana border. In Arkansas, power lines were downed and trees knocked over as Isaac moved north into the state.

The earthen dam on Lake Tangipahoa could unleash a 17-foot flood crest downstream in Louisiana if it were to give way, which prompted evacuations in small towns and rural areas Thursday. Officials plan to punch a hole in the dam to release excess water in a controlled fashion but were waiting for daylight Friday to decide exactly where and when, said Donnie Hodges with the Pike County, Miss., Office of Civil Defense.

New Orleans, spared any major damage, lifted its curfew and returned to its usual liveliness, although it was dampened by heavy humidity.

"I have a battery-operated fan. This is the only thing keeping me going," said Rhyn Pate, a food services worker who sat under the eaves of a porch with other renters, making the best of the circumstances. "And a fly swatter to keep the bugs off me ? and the most important thing, insect repellent."

The heat was getting to Marguerite Boudreaux, 85, in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans.

"I have a daughter who is an invalid and then my husband is 90 years old, so he's slowing down a lot," she said, red in the face as she stood in the doorway of her house, damp and musky from the lack of air conditioning.

Isaac dumped as much as 16 inches of rain in some areas, and about 500 people had to be rescued by boat or high-water vehicles.

At least four deaths were reported in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The latest two victims, a man and a woman, were discovered late Thursday in a home in the hard-hit town of Braithwaite, south of New Orleans. Authorities said deputies went to search for the couple after someone reported they had apparently not escaped the flooding. Their names were not immediately released.

On Grand Isle, a barrier island on the Gulf, the town pumped away water. Sections of the only road to town had washed out.

On a street turned river in Reserve, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, two young men ferried their neighbors to the highway in a johnboat, using boards as paddles.

Lucien Chopin, 29, was last to leave his house, waiting until his wife and three kids, ages 7, 5 and 1 were safely away.

He was finally joining them late Thursday, hoping they would find a shelter.

His van was underwater and water flowed waist-high in the house he'd rented for eight months.

"It's like, everything is down the drain. I lost everything. I've gotta start all over."

Chopin was upset that pumps meant to keep the area dry either failed or were shut off.

"We knew it was coming, but they didn't tell us we had to evacuate. We had no idea it was gonna be like this," he said, a refrain echoed by many.

Cisco Gonzales, a heating and air conditioning business owner, said he got his boat and truck and headed for higher ground when he heard the water was rising quickly, from 0 to 6 feet of water in five minutes.

"I've never seen so much water in my life," said Gonzales, who built a home in Braithwaite, southeast of the city, after his previous home was damaged by Katrina in 2005.

He rode out the storm at a ferry landing and when the weather calmed, he went out and rescued about a dozen people.

"I got back to my house to assess the situation, and it's a mess," he said. "That's all I can say."

Isaac hit on the seventh anniversary of Katrina, a hurricane that devastated New Orleans.

The two storms had little in common. Katrina came ashore as a Category 3 storm, while Isaac was a Category 1 at its peak. Katrina barreled into the state and quickly moved through. Isaac lingered across the landscape at less than 10 mph and wobbled constantly. Because of its sluggishness, Isaac dumped copious amounts of rain. Many people said more water inundated their homes during this storm than during Katrina.

Both storms, however, caused the Mississippi River to flow backward. And both prompted criticism of government officials.

In the case of Isaac, officials' calls for evacuations so long after the storm made landfall caused some consternation.

Jefferson Parish Council President Chris Roberts said forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami needed a new way of measuring the danger that goes beyond wind speed.

"The risk that a public official has is, people say, 'Aw, it's a Category 1 storm, and you guys are out there calling for mandatory evacuations,'" Roberts said.

Eric Blake, a specialist at the hurricane center, said that although Isaac's cone shifted west as it zigzagged toward the Gulf Coast, forecasters accurately predicted its path, intensity and rainfall. He did say the storm came ashore somewhat slower than anticipated.

Blake cautioned against using Katrina as a benchmark for flooding during other storms.

"Every hurricane is different," Blake said. "If you're trying to use the last hurricane to gauge your storm surge risk, it's very dangerous."

Crews intentionally breached a levee that was strained by Isaac's floodwaters in southeast Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish, which is outside the federal levee system. Aerial images showed the water gushing out.

In Louisiana alone, the storm cut power to 901,000 homes and businesses, or about 47 percent of the state. That was down to 39 percent, or about 821,000, by Thursday evening, the Public Service Commission said.

Entergy Corp., Louisiana's largest power company, said Isaac knocked out power to nearly 770,000 of its customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Only three storms have left more customers without power: Hurricanes Katrina (1.1 million), Gustav (964,000) and Rita (800,000), the company said in a news release.

More than 15,000 utility workers began restoring power to customers in Louisiana and Mississippi, but officials said it would be at least two days before power was fully restored.

In Mississippi, several coastal communities struggled with all the extra water, including Pascagoula, where a large portion of the city flooded and water blocked downtown intersections.

High water also prevented more than 800 people from returning to their homes in Bay St. Louis, a small town that lost most of its business district to Katrina's storm surge.

Robbie Daniel, 55, an industrial engineer, and his wife, Kathi, a retired school teacher, live in a house on the Tchoutacabouffa River in Biloxi, and hadn't left home since Tuesday. Their house is on stilts and was surrounded by chest deep water.

Kathi saw online Thursday that casinos could be opening so they hopped in a kayak, paddled to their car on higher ground and drove to Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport.

"Tired of sitting there watching rain," Kathi said.

____

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Brian Schwaner and Stacey Plaisance in New Orleans; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La.; Kevin McGill in Houma, La.; Vicki Smith in LaPlace, La.; Holbrook Mohr in Waveland and Pass Christian, Miss.; and Jeff Amy in Pascagoula and Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-water-no-power-means-days-misery-la-072436522.html

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WineFoodBeer: Coming in for the weekend. Moody Gardens has a great golf course. http://t.co/3IQmZL6K

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