Raft

KEY WEST, Fla. -- They arrive here almost daily now -- thin, sun-stricken, in shock from both the voyage and the realization that they have survived.Palms upturned, Sixto de la Riva Linares shows the open blisters he got from two days of rowing. "We felt like it would never end," he said. "But hope was the last thing we wanted to lose."Refugees from Cuba are rafting across the Florida Straits in record numbers. The Coast Guard has picked up or assisted 295 Cubans so far in April, including 52 Friday, and 1,401 since the first of the year.

A raft of new state laws take effect Monday, imposing new requirements from the car seat to the hearse. Children under 8 years old will be required to sit in a booster seat or child seat until they reach a certain height - the Maryland legislature repealed a provision that allowed heavier children to forego a special seat. And morticians will have to follow stricter rules when handling the dead, under legislation enacted by the General Assembly earlier this year. Other laws cut costs for patients undergoing oral chemotherapy, allow sports fans to win cash prizes in online fantasy football tournaments and give prisoners a reprieve from having to pay child support while behind bars.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. -- It's so relaxin drifting on a raft down stretches of the Colorado River, beneath the towering red walls of the Grand Canyon, that you can easily slip into that twilight zone between consciousness and sleep. Just about the time you're ready to doze off in the blazing sunshine, however, there comes this sound.Faint at first, but growing louder, is an ominous rumble that causes all your survival instincts to flash bright red."If you hear it but can't see it, watch out," river guide Paul Thevenin says calmly, nodding in the direction of the increasingly deafening din.Mr.

Hairstylist Reggie Dowdy has found himself time and time again doing emergency hair repair on women whose tresses have been damaged by weaves and extensions. They come in with bald spots, also known as alopecia, and thinning hair caused by heavy weaves pulling at their scalps. Sometimes their real hair is so unkempt underneath the weave that it becomes matted and breaks off if they try to comb it. Or they break out in rashes because of the glue some stylists use to apply weaves. Dowdy doesn't oppose weaves and extensions — the hair practice makes up 50 percent of the business at his salon, Geometrics Hair Studio in Canton.

KEY WEST, Fla. -- Jose Ramon Ortega and his family got off their raft of three tire tubes, four pieces of two-by-four, a sheet of plywood, all held together by a knotted rope, just in time to hear President Clinton say there would be no more like them.With his wife, three stepsons, a stepdaughter and his pet dog, Honey, the 52-year-old truck driver was among the last group of Cuban refugees automatically allowed into the United States.No sooner were they admitted yesterday, than Mr. Clinton closed the door that had been open to Cuban refugees like them for almost 30 years under a 1966 law.His face scorched by two days on the water, Mr. Ortega, a wiry figure in a newly acquired T-shirt emblazoned "Las Vegas -- Gambling Capital of the World," listened at the Cuban Refugee Center here to Mr. Clinton announce on television that Cubans would now be processed like other refugees.

Recently, a friend, discussing how rapidly changing technology has altered our concept of time, used a white-water rafting expedition he took this summer to illustrate the challenges facing managers in the 21st century.The world, he reasoned, is a raft, engulfed in a swirl of shifting events -- choppy, fast-moving rapids, tossing the raft to and fro, bombarding its navigators with a steady barrage of challenges that demand swift responses.With no luxury of long, studied analysis, managers will have to make their decisions on the spot, instinctively, intuitively.

WESTERNPORT - On Monday, I floated over a Fortune 500 company's effluent - a brownish-green industrial ooze gushing from underwater vents that looked like they'd been planted in the streambed by fiendish aquatic trolls of Middle Earth. But this was not Tolkien fiction. This was 21st-century pulp reality. And it occurred in broad daylight - as it has for decades, with our government's permission - in the North Branch of the Potomac River, just off the banks of this town. Here, MeadWestvaco, one of the world's largest producers of fancy, polished paper - the kind on which magazines and catalogues are published - "clarifies" and dumps its waste.

The table saws and routers were silent; the sawdust had long since settled.But outside a work shed at Mayo's Casa Rio Marina, the 18-foot-long raft -- a prototypical floating laboratory -- continues to take shape in the minds of a group of young shipwrights.Tom Rodgers of the Draketail Maritime Project drills his eight apprentices, ranging in age from 10 to 16, on Archimedes, a Greek mathematician whose theorems on the displacement of water are central to boat construction.These are just the first rudimentary steps, he says.

KEY WEST, Fla. -- From the cockpit of his Cessna 310, Lorenzo Orestes is struck by two things about the Cuban boat people he sees floating in the Florida Straits below: the flimsiness of their rafts and the number of family groups on them.Those are the key differences between the latest exodus from the Communist island and previous migrations.Ordinary, everyday Cubans, professionals, tradesmen, their wives and children, even grandparents, are risking their lives on the deep blue waters with the sharks down there.

HAVANA -- The Soviet-built, Zhuk fast-attack boat bore down on the raft with its tiny black sails bobbing in 3-foot seas six miles off Havana -- halfway to freedom.The nine people aboard were resigned to their fate. The Cuban patrol boat could put an end to their journey. A girl aboard the raft would be young enough to warrant seizing the craft, because young children have been forbidden from joining the exodus from Cuba.Orlando Mendez clung to the crude tiller. He was a distinguished-looking man in his early 50s. He checked his compass.

Are your bellies laden with Thanksgiving leftovers? Would you like to vicariously burn some calories by watching people race around the world? Great! Except tonight, it's not so much racing around the world as it is racing cars and pigeons in Belgium, and it's not so much about burning calories because it's Waffle Time! Quick, someone write me a theme song for Waffle Time. I bet you forgot that last week was a cliffhanger, right? I had a six-hour drive to my Thanksgiving dinner, so it slipped my mind, too. But this isn't [all]

West Virginia's New River Gorge area was already a destination for adrenaline junkies, but now the thrill factor has reached new heights. Two hundred feet, to be precise. That's the height at the highest point of Gravity, the mile-long zip line that is the latest attraction at the growing Adventures on the Gorge vacation complex. Participants jump from platforms high in the trees, reaching speeds of 40 mph to 60 mph as they glide along zip lines that take them whizzing through the West Virginia forest.

Restaurateur Lawrence J. Thanner Jr. gladly welcomed a visitor aboard his "boat," as he called it, pointing out the features of the craft he had just built and lashed to the pier at Dock of the Bay restaurant on Millers Island. The thing has no engine, no sail, tiller or steering wheel, not even a discernible bow or stern. "This is my boat, my first attempt at boat-building," he said. "Perhaps the next one will be a little different design. " Made of treated lumber, the 12-by-20-foot raft was built and "launched" this month as the latest chapter in Thanner's continuing battle with authorities to offer musical entertainment at Dock of the Bay, a year-round place now entering its busy season.

From wineries to windmills, the Howard County Council undertook to vote on a long list of big bills Thursday before starting the group's annual August recess. But one measure wasn't quite ripe, as it turned out. The winery legislation wound up being tabled until Sept. 7 for consideration of more amendments, but the council approved several significant measures without any disputes on the final votes. No council member voted against any of the legislation. Included were: •Approval of adding a 107-acre farm in Woodbine to the county's Agricultural Preservation program, which will mean $3 million plus interest for Mario and Serafina Manarelli over the next two decades.

I f you're an Orioles fan, it's never too early to panic. Why, panic is basically built into your DNA. It's what 12 straight losing seasons have done to you. At the slightest hint of bad news, your hands start to sweat and your brain is wired to think: Uh-oh, here we go again. Which brings us to spring training 2010. As you might have heard, things are not going real well down in Sarasota, Fla. - at least not when it comes to injuries. In fact, the trainer's room looks like your favorite bakery on Sunday morning.

Hanna M. Crafton, an outdoorswoman, writer and Celtic musician, died March 12 after being injured in an automobile accident near Laurel. The former longtime Reisterstown resident, who recently moved to Severna Park, was 20. The auto in which Ms. Crafton was a passenger was traveling near Laurel when it drifted off Route 198 and struck a tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms. Crafton was born in Baltimore and raised in Reisterstown. During her seven years at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, she made a lasting impression on teachers and students.

Alfredo Perez is glad to be in Baltimore, but the water-stained picture of him kneeling beside his little daughter is a constant reminder of why he's not happy yet.The picture was damaged when he set out on a flimsy raft from his native Cuba to escape the government of Fidel Castro. He held tightly to the photo when he was picked up by the Coast Guard and taken to the Guantanamo Bay refugee camp.Even now, eight months later, he becomes emotional when he talks about his 5-year-old Sheila, who remained behind with his wife in Cuba.

Are your bellies laden with Thanksgiving leftovers? Would you like to vicariously burn some calories by watching people race around the world? Great! Except tonight, it's not so much racing around the world as it is racing cars and pigeons in Belgium, and it's not so much about burning calories because it's Waffle Time! Quick, someone write me a theme song for Waffle Time. I bet you forgot that last week was a cliffhanger, right? I had a six-hour drive to my Thanksgiving dinner, so it slipped my mind, too. But this isn't [all]

*Camp isn't just for kids these days. At Wisconsin's Wildman Whitewater Ranch, the "Fabulous Family Four-Day Adventure Camp" entices the whole gang, from grandparents to children as young as 7, to try out white-water rafting, rock climbing, tubing or kayaking. Starting any Sunday through October - weather permitting - the adventure includes four nights' cabin lodging, two meals and five adventures per person, for $360 for adults or teens and $300 for children 7 through 12. Minimum family size for the package is three people, with tax additional.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Most people who use credit have more than one card. But just how many cards are too many? Some experts believe there is no set number to shoot for when it comes to how much plastic to have in your wallet. It's not the number of cards, but how the cards are used that's important. Others say how cards are used is indeed important, but so is having just a few cards as part of a strategy to help achieve or maintain a good credit score. In the United States, the average cardholder has seven credit cards and two debit cards, according to www.cardtrak.