This is BIG!

The all-important first date. This getting-to-know-you can be greatly facilitated by an amusement ride, and the most thrilling one of all must be the Skywalk by Zalman Silber. A serial entrepreneur who made his first big fortune with New York’s infamous Skyride, a much ballyhooed but modest thirty-minute movie of helicopter flyovers, Sydney, Australia’s Skywalk is a much more visceral affair – and for a first-date, visceral is where it’s got to be at!

No, get your mind out of the gutter – “visceral” here simply means heart-pounding thrills which, studies show, make dates more attracted to one another. Yes, really: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to perceive one another as being physically attractive. Scientists have paired up total strangers of the opposite sex and asked them to secretly rate one another’s attractiveness. Then each pair was put through a roller-coaster, sitting side-by-side, and asked again to rate one another’s attractiveness after the ride. The second set of responses were almost always substantially higher than than the first set!

So if you wish to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaged in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Situated at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is essentially a catwalk with glass flooring that provides visitors with a panoramic view of the city a thousand feet above street level. Being a catwalk, everything is out in the open, with no windows between guests and…nothingness. The Skywalk offers not only a bird’s-eye view of the Harbour City but all the visceral feelings to go with it as well!

And if the simple fact of being up so high doesn’t get your date’s heart throbbing, make sure she looks down! Visiting the Skywalk is a perfect first date because the Skywalk is the perfect ice-breaker. Don’t be surprised if she instinctively grabs your arm! Even though everyone is tethered by cable to sturdy metal support structures, the frequent gusts of wind can be strong enough to make one forget all the safety features built into the experience. Afterward, you and your date can retire to the conventional observation deck of the Sydney Tower to enjoy the romantic view while sharing fond memories of your Skywalk. Or better yet, purchase another set of tickets to really jack up the excitement and send her emotions through the roof!

Welcome to another edition of Isaac Toussie’s real estate insights. Today Isaac Toussie will be talking about an upstate town that once rivaled New York for industry and commerce. Taken from from the native term “Uppu-qui-ipis-in” which means “reed-covered hut by the water,” Poughkeepsie today has expanded beyond huts into a permanent settlement of some forty-three thousand souls. Poughkeepsie is really the name of both a town and a city, both municipalities right next to one another because the city actually used to be the western part of the town (and, incidentally, was an independent village in its own right before that). But for legal purposes, and such services as fire and police, the two communities are often viewed as one, with a total population in excess of seventy-five thousand people. The town is actually home to much more people than the city, which counts only some thirty-thousand-plus inhabitants.

Thus, it’s expected that their respective real estate markets will be quite different. A closer examination of the latest demographical figures shows that the town is much more affluent than the city, with a median income of over fifty-five thousand dollars a year as opposed to well under thirty-thousand for the city. Indeed, the Town of Poughkeepsie is able to provide for its own emergency services, which are staffed by fully paid civil servants, and not volunteers as is the case with many a suburban community.

As for the City of Poughkeepsie, it’s been severely battered by the economic malaise afflicting the rest of the state and the country as a whole. Average listing price in the two-week period between January 20, 2010 and February 3, 2010 fell almost thirty thousand dollars, to two hundred and fifty-one thousand dollars, though almost five thousand of that has been “recovered” as of February 10. However, the actual median selling price, based on two hundred and thirty-four homes sold, is almost thirty-three thousand dollars short of the median listing price, at barely two hundred and twenty thousand. Average price per square foot in the city is one hundred and thirty-two dollars.

Poughkeepsie was once the “Queen City of the Hudson,” but has suffered economic difficulties for the past twenty-plus years and was just beginning to recover in fits and starts when the recent recessionary woes struck. This has obvious implications for local realty, both residential and commercial. The Town of Poughkeepsie, however, seems rather more vibrant in comparison. International Business Machines, Incorporated, was once the most notable employer around, and while the company still maintains a campus in town, most of its production has been moved elsewhere. Vassar College in the City of Poughkeepsie is arguably the most notable employer now.

Should you purchase any Poughkeepsie property? Well, there’s no way it’s reclaiming its glory days, so the local real estate market is never going to be a hot one. But if your goals are more modest, and especially if you live in the city yourself, of course, Poughkeepsie property can be a solid investment.

Now even with all that said, however, we must end on this note, that of the legal disclaimer: Neither the author nor the publisher shall be deemed liable for the contents of this article, which constitute mere opinion only and should never in any way be misconstrued as professional advice of any kind whatsoever! Always consult the relevant professionals, properly licensed and/or otherwise qualified, when making business decisions of any financial consequence.

Ah, summer – baseball, backyard barbecues, and swimming pool resurfacing. That’s correct, swimming pool resurfacing. Once an occasional chore every other year, it is now practically a once-every-other-decade spring or even summer pastime (for those who like to wait until the very last minute) – all thanks to the new do-it-yourself fiberglass pool resurfacing in a can made possible by modern chemistry.

Swimming pool resurfacing done right means fiberglass in this day and age. Swimming pool resurfacing is an important aspect of pool ownership, just the sort of restoration that is made periodically to counter the effects of corrosion. Whether constructed of gunite, concrete, plaster, or wood (especially wood), swimming pools will deteriorate over time to the point that a complete resurfacing isn’t only advisable but necessary.

Thankfully, as previously mentioned, modern technology has made it possible for the finest kind of resurfacing, fiberglass resurfacing, to be performed entirely by oneself safely and fairly quickly. Best of all, it’s as permanent as any job handled by licensed contractors but much less expensive.

Fiberglass pool surfaces have a proven track record of more than three decades now as a durable coating that happens to also provide other benefits, such as decrease operating coasts. Fiberglass is really a material that bonds really well with existing surfaces, giving pools a nice sheen that makes them appear to be brand new.

This wondrous item is now available in basic cans like paint, easily applicable and requiring no sand-blasting. Permitted for both commercial and residential use, do-it-yourself fiberglass resurfacing will need less maintenance than even marcite or vinyl pools. Furthermore, with proper care you won’t have to worry about your swimming pool’s surface for another twenty to thirty years or more!

Less prone to staining. Gorgeous shiny protective shell. All easily applied and ready for duty within one day. That’s swimming pool resurfacing in the 21st Century. Now that’s progress!

As popular as the team is, it’s an open question whether Dallas Cowboys merchandise would’ve been as popular as they are without the equally popular Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. These ladies aren’t just any ol’ football cheerleading squad members, but make up a veritable franchise in themselves.

No less than two made-for-TV movies have appeared about them, not to mention any number of Dallas Cowboys merchandise bearing their likeness somewhere on the product! For when you think of Texas football, you think the Cowboys – and when you think Cowboys, you think of their cheerleaders.

For sure the die-hard fan might prefer his Dallas Cowboys clock “straight-up” but several others who aren’t so hard-core would most likely welcome a shot of the cheerleaders illustrating their fan merchandise! No other collection of young ladies so epitomize the American woman: young, fun, and fit; spirited; glamorous; intelligent.

Yes, despite the voyeurism involved these beauties know how to comport themselves and market themselves. Team try-outs obviously concentrate on athleticism and physical beauty but as spokesmodels for the team a good amount of social savvy and hence intelligence is needed, too.

The only other set of girls that have left such a deep impression on popular culture worldwide would have to be Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Bunnies. Interestingly, the Cowboys’ cheerleading squad really started out mixed, with both males and females, as was high school and collegiate football tradition.

And indeed, it was local high school students that in fact made up the squad back in the 1960s. In 1969, however a deliberate attempt was made to raise in-game attendance by offering only female cheerleaders whose routines were unlike those prevalent at school games. By 1972, all cheerleaders were over the age of eighteen as their moves became increasingly much more like sexy dance routines.

A few of the most popular of museum replicas are those famous Italian marble statues everyone knows: David, Augustus Caesar, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. These are a few of the most prized examples of marble sculpture anywhere, with a fine smoothness and absolute realism.

No wonder everyone wants a copy! They truly lend an air of elegance and also authority – gravitas – to a setting. They are veritable objets d’art in themselves, though can also stylishly serve as bookends and even paperweights!

No, those aren’t ignominious fates for such masterpieces of Italian marble. After all, there’s no shame in being practical in addition to being amazing, and if anything making use of miniature versions of beloved marble statues in novel ways can only further cement their reputations. For what is the purpose of art if not to lift us above the everyday? And what better way to do that than to suffuse the everyday with art, in the manner of a deus ex machina!

Having replicas of museum works of art in your home or office can put you in a good mood all day long if you truly appreciate art. You will go through your day surrounded by a few of the most inspirational works ever produced by humankind, landmarks of human achievement and creativity. Who knows, they may possibly even “rub off” on you and inspire creations of your own!

Ultimately, the point in owning such things is how they put us in touch with the cultural heritage of our species. We are reminded of where we came from and what we can achieve. What they teach us is that the human capacity for imagination is boundless; they put us in a spiritual realm where we can all take pride in the legacy of the ancients. Sounds too good to be true? Get your own and see!

By no means go hiking without a camping tent – I discovered that the almost-hard way. I say “almost” because considering that I’m not only alive to tell the tale but suffered no injuries, either, it probably wasn’t as tough as it could have been had I not been so lucky.

I and my friends did not have a camping tent among us since it was just supposed to have been an easy day-hike over (and up) easy terrain. A thousand-foot mountain affords nice enough landscapes, to be sure, such that the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen, but it isn’t considered a big deal by any who hike or climb real mountains.

So, of course, we didn’t bring a camping tent. And sure enough we get lost, and with only an additional two hours of daylight left most of us decide to backtrack downhill – except for myself and another companion. And although we do eventually summit, as novices we make the mistake of mistiming our descent, such that it is already twilight by the time we choose to head back.

You see, being so inexperienced we mistook the fact that there was still light in the sky for having enough time to get back down. But of course we were at the summit, where we had a great view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And though the sun was low on the horizon it appeared wonderfully bright all around. Golds mixed with blues turned pink and white – it was a swirl of colors matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not recognize that not only does the sun set in seconds, but that in a forest the canopy of foliage will make even mid-afternoon seem much, much later to the human eye….

Get out of the rat race and onto the fast track through affiliate marketing online. Thanks to the power of the internet, offering unprecedented scope and reach, you can find now a few new ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. Best of all, unlike old-fashioned medical billing or envelope stuffing schemes, these modern day methods in fact work! Affiliate marketing is the roadmap to 6 and 7 figures – if you know what you are doing and you’re doing something valuable.

Now let’s pause right there for a moment, because lost in all the hooplah over making money online is that fact that you are only going to be rewarded for adding something of value to the internet. Yes, internet marketing equals residual cashflow, but that only takes place when you’re really providing something that contributes positively to someone’s life!

For example, teach enough people something they want to know and enough of those people will help make you rich – not by paying you any money themselves, but by clicking on any number of advertisements you can host on your attractively designed, easy-to-navigate information-rich website.

Each click can be anywhere from a few pennies to a couple of dollars for you from the business that’s selected your site as the venue to promote their item or service – and, as previously mentioned, with enough individuals browsing your website odds are that enough of them will click on an ad, translating to hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month!

However the trick is to provide a thing of value and market it right. Without proper advertising, no one will actually hear of your fantastic website, even if it contains the answer to life, the universe, and everything. But all of the advertising in the world isn’t going to help folks want to come back or even stay on your site if there is nothing there of value to them.

Stocking and supplying medical office supplies has usually been one of the duties of a hospital dispensary, which is mainly dedicated to dispensing medication according to doctors’ prescriptions. Nowadays, the term “dispensary” refers to a handful of different institutions around the world – or, even, within the country.

For instance, in California a dispensary is a specially designated store licensed to sell not medical office supplies but medical marijuana (which is also the case in the Canadian province of British Columbia), while in the states of Idaho and South Carolina a dispensary used to refer to the governmental agency that served as the only legal source of alcohol.

Also no source of medical office supplies is the Kenyan dispensary, a small outpatient health facility normally managed by a registered nurse. These nurses report to clinical officers at a health centre, which is also where patients are referred to for treatment in cases much more complicated than a typical ailment like cold or malaria. Modeled on the British system, this sort of medical dispensary is no simple storehouse of supplies but what Americans would call a community clinic.

This kind of clinic or dispensary got its start in London, England back in the 1700s, and is credited with aquainting doctors with the problems of the poor because unlike the case with hospitals or a private practice, this dispensary service actually brought doctors into their patients’ homes. Their social consciences shocked, thus were the first dispensaries set up – free healthcare for the poor.

Indeed, young aspiring physicians of the day had been very eager to serve as honorary physicians to the dispensaries, though such an appointment was usually voluntary (with no more than a small honorarium at best) and not as prestigious as a hospital posting. It was nothing short of a healthcare revolution: for the first time since the Hippocratic Oath, altruistic motivations had been the norm.

Head pain? Squinting? It may perhaps be signs of failing vision. So what do you do next? You set off to see an eye physician (of course) and it might be that you will need spectacles or contact lenses. Now there is always the option of laser surgery but this write-up will not talk about that.

Go for the glass? Eye glasses have been around for many years – think Benjamin Franklin, an iconic wearer of eye glasses. Eyeglasses are either manufactured from plastic or glass. The frames for them also come in a variety of materials. And, if you are nervous about not finding the proper frames, don’t stress they at present have frameless types. And if you are one of those individuals who can’t even contemplate putting their finger in their eye and cringe at the idea of it, eye glasses may be your best plan.

However contact lenses have some advantages over eyeglasses. One benefit, the rain, I imagine you know what happens. Two, fog, glasses tend to fog up. Three, slipping down your nose when you perspire, etc.

Whichever you pick, the most important issue is the fact that you see clearly.

With media attention in the main centered on foreclosed homeowners, this article will take a brief look to consider the consequences on homebuilders such as Isaac Toussie.

Embittered homeowners who have been foreclosed upon have taken to trashing the property before getting kicked out, with anecdotal estimates by real estate agents putting the number of such vandalized properties at up to one half of all such units. But given all the media coverage of foreclosed homeowners, it’s time to take a look now at how the same crisis is affecting homebuilders like Isaac Toussie. After all, many of the small-time businessmen had to take out loans in order to finance their housing developments. Of course, there are no such developers out on the street, and their cases, unfortunate in themselves, are not anywhere near comparable to that of homeowners who have nowhere to go at all. But it’s interesting to see how things can turn out for businessmen and women caught up in the same economic disaster, and how responses can differ – or not.

For example, many small homebuilders have had to dip into personal savings just to keep their companies afloat, a familiar situation to many homeowners. Buyers were disappearing with cash deposits of several thousand left on the table, proof that local residential property markets had turned ice-cold. Even more unfortunately, many homebuilders have proceeded since then to file for bankruptcy protection, with vast sums owed not only to their lenders but also their subcontractors and workers. But still worse yet, these small-time builders have often financed their businesses with so-called recourse debt which allows banks to seize homes, cars, and other personal assets in case of default – again, quite a familiar scenario comparable to that faced by many homeowners.

Such problems have increased and are now considered commonplace across the country. Many a builder has been left with unsold units and land, falling behind on interest payments and facing foreclosures. And in a very bad sign of the extent of the destruction involved, even very large homebuilders are in trouble, with legendary builders such as Levitt & Sons, founders of Levittown, New York on Long Island, famous for epitomizing postwar suburbia, forced into bankruptcy like some small unlucky start-up.

It’s gotten so bad that once solid partnerships and friendships have frayed as an every-man-for-himself mentality creeps into the proceedings. Contractors and subcontractors have had to take out liens on the property they build in order to protect themselves. And it is in this manner that the problems of homeowners and homebuilders differ: the latter have almost no hope of any governmental assistance whatsoever, despite being affected by the same subprime mortgage industry shenanigans that’s made owning a home so suddenly onerous.

Legal Disclaimer: Be advised that such information as has been presented so far only constitutes mere opinion and should under no circumstances be misconstrued for professional advice of any kind whatsoever! Always consult those properly licensed and/or otherwise qualified when it comes to making business decisions of any financial importance.