I recently purchased the White River Fly Shop & Hobbs Creek fly fishing outfit from Bass Pro Shops for $149 and some shipping. I was on the fence about whether to purchase it because of the price point. If you were able to spend $50 more you are typically able to find a high quality fly fishing outfit. However, if you have $50 less, you end up in the price range where you have a higher chance to purchase lower quality gear.

Rod Construction

The rod construction actually surprised me. Like I said before, the price point made me think about an average rod and reel, something that would get me through a fishing season or two. The rod arrived with a great epoxy finish, and well wrapped snake guides. The stripping guide is just far enough away from the reel for easy stripping, which made it easy to get a feel for the outfit.

Reel Construction

The reel, while built from plastic outer parts, has actually stood up quite well to a few 5+ lb Florida largemouth. The drag holds up, and has a side dial to tune it to the same lb test as your leader.

Casting

The line that came with the outfit did require a bit of use before it was completely pliable, but once it had been broken in, it performed incredibly well. The rod construction mated with the included fly line made it cast smooth, providing just enough flex on the rod tip to alert you when you need to continue your cast.

How many visitors to Paris could fail to notice the Sacre Coeur, a whitewashed skeleton on the Montmartre hill in northern Paris? At the highest point in the city, this bleached basilica punctuates the skyline on the horizon.

But why does this church appear so white? Has it been painted with specialist paint? Is there an army of workers perennially scrubbing it to keep it clean?

The answer is truly scientific. The church is made of travertine stone, quarried in Chateau-Landon, France. The stone lets out a chemical called calcite which means that the building stays white even when exposed to the elements.

Perhaps the architect, Paul Abadie, had a view about the problems of pollution in modern cities. Whatever his motive, the use of travertine stone has withstood the test of time. Travertine stone was used by the Romans two millennia earlier to build the Colosseum, the largest building in the world built mainly from this material. Subsequently, it has also been used at the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.

The foundation stone of the Sacre Coeur was laid in 1875 and the funding for this and the remaining stones came from donations from pilgrims. Stones could be “bought”, in the shape of simply a brick, for example, or, more extravagantly, an entire column.

The materials are put together to comprise an unusual Romano-Byzantine structure with distinctive horseshoe arches. To the front, there is a divergence from the use of the characteristic white stone in the use of bronze as the material for equestrian statues of French national saints Louis IX and Joan of Arc.

Consecrated in 1919, the Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, sends a message of Catholic purity to the city of Paris.

Before the invention of white board came about, there were the chalk boards. These were popular among teachers and students, however, many people were also allergic to chalk and its dust that would fly off when erased. No one knows who invented it, but by the 1960s, early versions of the began to appear, and by the late 1980s, reports of allergies towards chalk began to appear. This was when white board were started to be considered as a teaching tool instead.

While no one knows who invented the white board, many believed that it was from China. While that cannot be known for sure, the first company to mass produce them as porcelain on steel that could be written on and wiped off white board was by Claridge Products. They had melamine in them, and were rather costly. Cleaning was also difficult as the images that were erased could still be seen on the board, and would wear out easily. Then, Britain’s Magiboards produced enamel on steel write on/wipe off magnetic boards that were much more durable and smoother, although imprints from the marker would appear over time, and scotches left marks. On the other hand, in the US, Michael Boone popularized the Boone Board dry erase board. They did not suffer the similar problems the previous ones have. There were just many improved versions from various companies, but one of the most important innovations was reducing of the surface’s glossiness which caused glare and became a big distraction to students. Only in the late 2000s, high quality paint coats were used for the surface that made it easy to write on.

As of now, white boards have found to have more advantages over chalk boards. Not only that no dust is produced, teachers often use them as their overhead projector screen as well where they are able to write upon to highlight points. There is even a bigger variety of colors so teachers can emphasize their points more clearly. With that, white boards have become an important learning tool of today.

You little hermie crabs come in a variety of beautiful and vibrant colors, particularly the marine species, which vary in color from bright yellow, blue to scarlet and are chosen for reef tanks largely for their appearance as well as for their foraging habits. However, it is only natural that hermit crab shells turning white would set off alarm bells in most owners’ heads, although fortunately much of the time this is not too serious and can be dealt with quite easily.

As you are all probably aware, you hermies are born without a shell of their own and consequently spend a lot of time sourcing and moving into discarded shells from other creatures, such as sea snails, which they can call their own. Now snail shells naturally a contain a high level of calcium bircarbonate and any drop in these levels will cause them to look faded and eventually to turn white. The discoloration of the hermie shell can also be caused by over exposure to salt, which acts like bleach. This is a natural occurrence for snail shells that have been immersed for long periods in the ocean or even laying on the shore and being washed over by waves and is no cause for concern since your little hermie is likely to hop from shell to shell on numerous occasions and may well opt for a more colorful home next time around.

When your hermie’s shell start to turn white in a reef tank is a different matter and points to your crab definitely being deficient in calcium and possibly magnesium. Since hermies are omnivorous, like us humans, they need a well balanced diet of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables in order to function efficiently. A deficit of calcium can cause them to fade and it is important that an owner supplements their hermie’s diet with food that is rich in calcium such as cuttlebone and sea biscuits. Cuttlebone can easily be found in the bird section of any decent pet store and can be grated and added to food plus you can purchase commercially prepared hermie food which contains all of the necessary supplements, including calcium and magnesium.

When a crab molts it normally eats its exoskeleton which is rich in nutrients but occasionally part of it is discarded and left on the surface. It tends to look pale and faded and many a new owner has confused this discarded skin with their hermie’s shells starting to become white and have feared the worse – that their beloved hermie has in fact died. In actual fact he is probably snuggled up into the snail shell, recovering from his molt.

So, hopefully you’ve stopped worrying so much about the color of your hermie’s shell. After all he is a choosy little creature and will often fight to the death in his quest for the perfect house, regardless of color. Hermit crab shells turning white is not such a big deal and can be controlled by supplementing his diet with calcium rich foods so relax and have some fun with your new found friends.

Before, hemorrhoids were not a common thing to have so that those who suffer from it are stigmatized. However, today, nearly everyone has experienced the discomfort and pain of having hemorrhoids (also called piles) at one time or another. This is mainly due to improper diet that is sadly deficient in fiber, and lack of regular exercise, which causes improper and irregular bowel movements.

Herbal Treatments Are the Answer
There are those who suffer from hemorrhoids who refuse to go to the doctor or seek medical assistance. This may be because they are embarrassed about having hemorrhoids, or because they lack the money which they will need for the necessary treatments. The only problem is that they suffer in silence and wait for weeks or even months until the hemorrhoids heal by itself, which is a very unpleasant and difficult experience.

However, you can treat hemorrhoids yourself with certain herbs that have been tried and tested by so many people. They are very effective and are safe to use with very little or no side effects. You will only need to do some research in order to do the necessary herbal preparations that can treat hemorrhoids.

How to Make Your Own Herbal Treatment for Hemorrhoids
There are so many herbs that you can use in treating hemorrhoids:

White Oak
A good example is the extract of the white oak bark. White oak (scientific name Quercus alba) is a common hardwood in the US. It is known to be one of the most long-lived oaks, with some lasting for 600 years or so. Although it is called white oak, you won’t usually find a tree with white bark. In fact, the more common bark color is ashen gray. The bark extract of the white oak is known to increase peristalsis, which helps you to pass your bowels more easily.

In order to use white oak, you just need to boil a teaspoon of the bark in one cup of water. Drink the mixture everyday for one month, or until your hemorrhoids are completely healed.

Crack Willow
Another herbal treatment that you can try involves the use of crack willow. Crack willow (scientific name Salix fragilis) is a deciduous tree that grows up to a height of 20 meters. It is commonly found in western Asia and Europe.

To prepare the crack willow herbal treatment, you just need to mix 8 tablespoons of crack willow bark with 6 tablespoons of red oak bark, 3 tablespoons of horsetail, 4 tablespoons of sage and 4 tablespoons of pilewort. Mix all the herbs well and store it in a cool dry place for future use. Before you go to bed, add half a teaspoon of the herb mixture into 2 cups of boiling water.

Cover the concoction and wait for a few minutes until it reaches room temperature. Strain the mixture and use it as a rectal enema. You can use this whenever you are constipated or having painful bowel movements, which usually leads to the growth of hemorrhoids.

Many wine drinkers think there is a problem when they see tartrate crystals in the bottom of their wine glass. But there is absolutely nothing to worry about, apart from visually. The potassium tartrate crystals or ‘wine diamonds’, as they are sometimes called, are formed naturally during the course of the winemaking process and are small, clear or white.

There are many naturally occurring grape acids, the main one being tartaric, others include malic, lactic, acetic and citric acid. If grapes are harvested early with a fairly high acidity content then there will be a greater possibility of tartrates settling out later on. It occurs predominantly with white wines grown in cooler climates or higher altitudes that would be less ripe than those grown in warmer locations.

As grapes ripen, their natural sugar content rises while at the same time their acids fall, so it is very important to pick them at the optimum of both the sugar content and acid level. Sometimes this is not as easy to do due to poor weather which slows down ripening, keeping the acid levels high. It is usually from these grapes, when made into wine, that tartrate crystals are likely to form.

After fermentation finishes and the wines have been racked, there is little or no natural sugar in the wine. It is at this stage that the wine tastes its worst, that is very astringent with acids to the fore and no balancing sweetness. What is needed now is to try to reduce the acid level without additives, so by chilling the wine down, usually by cold stabilisation, the tartrate crystals will form and settle out sinking to the bottom of the vessel. The wine is then racked again before the wine warms up.

Although most of the tartrate crystals will be removed, some will not have been. They will have dissolved back into the wine, and therefore be ready to settle out in your glass after you have had your bottle in the fridge, or cool cellar, prior to opening it.

Why are ‘Wine Diamonds’ or tartrate crystals a sign of quality?

Acids are very much a winemakers friend, as long as they are not excessive, as a high acid wine is going to keep very much better, and longer, than one with a lower acid level which will tend to be lacklustre and flabby.

With more and more great white wines being produced at high altitude, it is these acids that are giving them a seal of quality. Of course the wine has to have good natural sugars to create that vital sugar/acid balance that all winemakers strive to achieve with their wines. But without enough tartaric acid the wine would have no structure or backbone at all.

The crystals themselves are totally harmless, it is just a matter of aesthetics, so next time you come across what looks like sugar granules in the bottom of your wine glass, don’t worry, just think ‘quality’.

The Riesling grape variety is quite unique in that it preserves its identity wherever it is grown, unlike many other varieties. Not only is it grown in Germany, from where it originated, but also in neighbouring Alsace and Austria, Italy, California, cooler parts of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile.

Most wine drinkers would give the Riesling a wide berth in the supermarket aisles when searching out a white wine, aiming for the highly over rated Chardonnay or the safer Sauvignon Blanc. But, very few people would consider a Riesling dry wine to be of interest, and there are several reasons why it is considered by some professionals, to be the queen of wines.

Unfortunately, most wine drinkers have come across those dreadful sweeter Rieslings produced in Germany, in the 1970’s and later, for a very unsuspected mainly British market. These wnes were produced for consumers who only wanted one thing from a wine, low cost. The word ‘quality’ was not really big in the vocabulary then, so quantity certainly outstripped quality. Many drinkers indulged on those insipid, sickly sweet, uncharacterful wines – but how things have changed for the better.

Nowadays, wine drinkers have become much more perceptive about what type of wine and style they drink. This in turn has meant that winemakers have put quality to the forefront of production in order to make what the supermarkets demand on behalf of their more knowledgeable public. So, not only do we have a wine drinking public who are most interested in their choice of wines, we also have winemakers who have raised their game to produce wonderful, interesting wines to match. This is good for both parties, and is why the Riesling variety is getting more of a look in.

So why do I think that a well made dry Riesling is the best white wine?

1. Firstly, if the growing year is good with lots of sun, plenty of natural sugars will be produced to create that desired amount of natural sweetness to balance the higher acid content of this variety. (Note: Natural sweetness is very different to artificial sweetness).
2. Riesling produces a good acidity level which is vital for its ageing potential, (low acid wines don’t age well). Therefore as the wine ages it will soften and display all of its hidden characteristics. This is absolutely vital for any wine that is to be laid down for many years.
3. It is full of lovely delicate citrus flavours and aromas with tasting note examples like:
   • “with tropical fruit and lychee characteristic”
   • “grassy lemon, lime and some underlying sweet melon”
   • “peach, apricot and green apple fruit aromas”
4. A slight petillance or spritz (carbon dioxide bubbles) makes the wine crisp and refreshing acting like a sorbet to cleanse the palate before the rest of the flavours are detected. This slight fizz tends to happen more in wines made in stainless steel tanks where the hygiene is excellent. The CO2 bubbles are the captured remains of the fermentation – a sign of good winemaking.
5. After detecting the spritz, the taste buds will now find a few more complex flavours such as rich honey and oily aromas giving the wine a long steely finish. These flavours will change slightly with time, and that is why this is such an interesting, versatile variety.

Are there any good sweeter Rieslings nowadays?

Absolutely. There are numerous attractive sweet wines like the Auslese and Eiswein styles which are affected by botrytis, or ‘noble rot’. This rot is considered ‘noble’ as it encourages a high concentration of sweetness from the fungus affected ripe grape, which is highly desirable.

The long history of Riesling has meant that it has been used in stock grafting with over 40 crosses being made in the last 100 years. This has enabled its strong characteristics to be passed on to the subsequent stock. A typical example is:

• Riesling x Sylvaner = Muller Thurgau
• Riesling x Trollinger = Kerner

Matching Riesling with food: It is excellent with a cheese fondu, fennel baked with Parmesan, globe artichokes or a beef Stroganof. Alternately, enjoy it on its own as an aperitif.

The acclaimed wine writer and Master of Wine, Jancis Robinson, says,

“Riesling is so clearly one of the world’s great vines, arguably that which produces the finest white wines of all”

from her book ‘Vines, Grapes and Wines’.

So, is Riesling the best white wine? Well, if grown and ripened well – it sure is a contender!

So white chocolate isn’t actually chocolate as it mainly consists of milk. rather than cocoa solids. Often it contains palm oil or other ‘fillers’ and lots of sweeteners. Cocoa butter gives white chocolate its creamy texture and colour.

So who first produced this white bar? It seems that it was Nestle. The company began producing the new bars commercially in Switzerland in 1936. The story goes that it was originally made in order to use up the excess milk powder that had been made during the First World War. At the end of the war, it was no longer in demand, so making the new white bars was one way of using up the surplus. This also uses up the cocoa butter that is extracted from the cacao bean when cocoa powder is produced. Cocoa butter is not only used in making white chocolate, but it can also be found in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The cost of cocoa butter increased dramatically between 2005 and 2015, which led to many chocolate manufacturers using less of it and adding fillers such as vegetable oil to their chocolate.

Manufacturers of these white bars of our favorite confectionary are experimenting with new flavours. These include flavouring it with turmeric and pomegranate, mango, chilli and lime, rosemary and sea salt, and even Thai curry shrimp. Now white chocolate can be made with non-dairy milk as well as goat’s milk. You can also get a superior chocolate which has lemon oil and lemon salt in it. One German manufacturer puts kale and mustard in his, as well as combining it with broccoli and Sicilian almonds. Other producers add roasted blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. This kind of white confectionary lends itself to enhancement. You can even buy bars that are flavoured with black sesame seeds, vanilla, and matcha, but this is grey rather than white in colour. Other combinations include za’atar (a spice blend from the Middle East) candied orange and pistachios.

If your chocolate bar is very bright white, it has been bleached, (cocoa butter is yellow, not white) and most likely deodorized. Read the label before you buy. You are recommended to buy bars of the stuff which contain just cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder or milk solids and perhaps vanilla and lecithin.

Obviously, it is best to buy your bar from a speciality or craft chocolate shop, or a specialty grocers emporium.

Perhaps we should all try these new flavoured bars and give our jaded palates a treat!

If the goal of your white paper is to spread a message, then you want to get that message in as many places as possible. Why then limit your white paper’s distribution to your website? Or make it available in only a PDF format?

Regardless of whether or not you want to call a white paper an eBook, the millions of Amazon Kindles, B&N Nooks, Sony Readers and Kobo eReaders-not to mention the literally millions of iPad, iPhone, Android, PC and Mac devices with eReading software-are a “reading friendly” market for your white paper content. (We’ll call devices and software together “eReaders” for this article.).

What makes eReaders so ideal for reading? Here are four important features that benefit white paper authors:

1. Your readers can share passages with Twitter followers and Facebook fans.
2. Your readers can highlight and save passages for repeated reference.
3. You can follow which passages your audience finds most interesting (great market research!).
4. Your readers can annotate passages by adding notes.

(Besides, have you tried reading a PDF on a Smartphone?)

Several non-traditional publishers have already discovered the benefits of publishing internal documents as eReader compatible eBooks.

Hubspot and MarketingSherpa, two B2B marketing services firms, make their thought papers available for purchase in Amazon’s Kindle store. It’s the same content available on their website but by offering it for sale on the world’s largest ecommerce site they are reaching a completely different audience-someone that most likely would not have otherwise found their website.

Not appropriate for sale? You can still create an eReader eBook file so your audience can load it on their eReader. MailChimp.com does just this for their free email marketing guides by giving prospects and customers three files: PDF, Mobi (Kindle) and ePub (Nook, iBookstore, etc.).

Here is how to convert your white paper to eReader format:

1. Use Word and follow best practices in formatting your document. Use style sheets, avoid extra lines and don’t use spaces for tabs. Read the Smashwords style guide for more guidance.
2. Download a copy of Calibre, a free (donations welcome) eBook library manager. This tool will help you convert your document to Mobi and ePub file formats.
3. Save your Word document as a filtered HTML file. If your white paper has images you’ll need to combine the HTML document and image folder into a zip file before importing into Calibre.
4. Invest in a book cover that looks professional. It is true what they say about judging books by the cover. Shoppers usually do.
5. Spend time compiling your metadata, aka “information about information”. This is your title, description, keywords, categories and other elements that classify and help you sell your eBook–this is SEO for books. Google’s keyword tool is helpful in this regard.
6. If you plan to sell your white paper eBook, now is the time to set up your account. Visit Amazon’s self-publishing portal Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or Barnes & Noble’s Pubit to do that.

That’s it, you are done. You can check them by downloading one of the free software eReaders from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or load them on your eReader to see how they look.

By the way, still wondering if someone will buy an eBook containing information that is otherwise freely available? Last July Ars Technica sold 3,000 copies of their Kindle eBook Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica Review in 24 hours. That is a net revenue of $10,500 for something they were giving away for free on their website.

There is no question that offering your white paper in three file formats is extra work. But that extra work can make a difference in generating interest and exposure for your message. Who knows, you might even make some money.

I’ve been mellowing on this one for a couple of weeks now, as the ending kind of threw me for a loop, but now I think I’m ready. White Album 2; as the name suggests, this is technically a sequel, but not really. The only connection this makes with White Album is the mentioning of the main character as a famous artist, and the singing of the song. Other than that, they are completely independent.

Haruki is our main guy; he maintains excellent grades and can always be seen helping out others, especially the student council, though he is no longer a part of it. He is also the back-up guitarist for the light music club, which is one the verge of disbanding now that the only members are him and the primary guitarist, Iizuka. Haruki usually practices his… less than optimal guitar playing after the club is done, when he has the room to himself. Every now and again, he gets a treat from the room next door, a mysterious, talented piano player plays in harmony with his guitar, putting him at ease.

Though he doesn’t know who this person is, he find a sense of relief whenever they play together. One day, a third joins them; from the roof, a beautiful voice starts singing along with their playing. Haruki goes to the roof to find Setsuna; a beautiful girl at his school who he had met a while earlier. Eventually, Haruki finds out that the mystery student next door is Touma, a lazy classmate of his. After some convincing, the two agree to join the light music club and play with Haruki.

Then, our love triangle begins! Well actually, we find out the love of this triangle starts long, long before this, but still. Basically, we have two girls that are both obviously in love with Haruki. Of course, Haruki is in love with one of them, but isn’t so forward about it, thus causing mistakes. Ahhh, high school drama.

The anime takes us on a rollercoaster journey of fun and sadness; of course, along the way we get to hear some incredible music. Though, I do feel like the three would of been better of just staying friends. Of course, that doesn’t make for a good story and when you spend that much time with others, these things tend to happen.

I will say, one relationship in particular forms fairly early. Once it is formed, it becomes immediately apparent that it was a mistake. However, none are willing to admit it. Iisuka, Haruki’s friend, I feel plays the voice of what should be done, down the stretch. He wants Haruki to take the safe root, to not her the girl he is with. Unfortunately, that’s not the way things end up.

Overall, I would say this was a pretty good music / romance / slice of life show. I enjoyed it. Also, it’s not every day that one of these anime shows has a relationship that gets to the point where the two become intimate, that was a surprise. Harden your hearts for the ending, though. It will leave you screaming at the scream as the main character does all sorts of weird, stupid stuff.

But… I guess that’s what makes love great.