This is BIG!

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….

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dallas Cowboys merchandise are among the most popular of any sport, but especially popular among football fans, even those whose first-choice favorite may just be another team. That’s because the Cowboys are one of the most successful and storied outfits in all of football history, and it is memories of this kind that are evoked by all the miscellaneous forms of Dallas Cowboys merchandise available on the market, from clocks and towels to clocks and even license plates!

Perhaps the most popular form of Dallas Cowboys merchandise to be found on fans and collectors are team jerseys, particularly those bearing the specific roster number of their favorite player. After that, however, must surely be those products bearing pictures, photographs or illustrations, of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders! No other team in American sports fields a cheerleading squad that is a veritable franchise in itself. It was purposely created to cash in on female sexuality and boost in-game attendance, and its genius was to offer an “All-American” look and feel that played well not only nationally but around the world as well. For many foreigners, a real American girl was someone like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, fun and fit. In the United States, their popularity lead to two made-for-TV movies about the squad along with other media like annual swimsuit calendars.

Oh, yes, and as for the team itself – it was the first modern-era expansion team, and can boast of many remarkable achievements as a business entity. But of course, no one buys team merchandise on the basis of business innovations, and even the venerable cheerleaders would be just another squad were it not for the club’s stellar performances on the field. Founded in 1960, just a decade later the team grew to a serious national contender, and by the end of that decade was the undisputed “glamor team” of the entire sport, with a cheerleading squad that epitomized what an American girl should be like and winning players and coaches who embodied American can-do.

Plastic water tanks are a far cry from the armored behemoths also called tanks, but they do share a curious historical connection. Yes, that’s correct, modern plastics were invented after World War II, while tanks first made their debut in the waning years of the Great War, but there’s something of a relationship.

Although not plastic water tanks, military tanks were first so named by their British inventors in an effort to cover their research and development. It was hoped that by classifying these inventions basically as “tanks” on paper, any German spies who might have gotten a hold of the secret documents that referred to them could perhaps be mislead. As it turned out, the label stuck and tanks have been referred to as just that ever since.

In English, anyway. In German, and many other languages, they are known as only “armor,” a more appropriate term that is a recognized synonym in the English-speaking world, particularly among military circles. A far cry from today’s plastic water tanks indeed, but the thought is never far away in the minds of military history buffs.

The connection is a little more than merely etymological, in fact, as the earliest designs did look like nothing more than simple water tanks to those who had the security clearance to see them. Tanks have dominated the battlefield for over sixty years, and even today they form the core of most conventional land warfare tactics.

The appearance of attack helicopters and guided missiles have greatly decreased their striking power, as well as the asymmetrical warfare prevalent in conflicts nowadays render them ill-suited for most missions, but nothing on the horizon can match the tank in its useful combination of firepower, maneuverability, and defensive capacity. Though less used, the tank still figures eminently in assault tactics and grand strategy and should find a role for itself in the decades yet to come.

When getting into anything, it helps to do a little reconnoitering of the facts, even for a professional developer such as Isaac Toussie. And for the proper socioeconomic context in which to put such data, it helps to consult governmental authorities such as census reports.

New York’s median yearly household income is almost forty-three and a half thousand dollars, compared with the national average of just under forty-two thousand every year. The state median family income also comes out ever-so-slightly ahead of the national figure at over fifty-one thousand versus just over fifty-thousand per annum. As might be imagined, per capita differences show the same general ratio at almost twenty-three and a half thousand to over twenty-one and a half thousand, respectively.

Some more facts and figures need to be taken into consideration for a well-rounded appraisal of realty trend lines in New York, but these pertain more specifically to real estate: the median value of owner-occupied housing units is well over a hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars, almost thirty thousand dollars more than the national average of only over one hundred and nineteen thousand. Curiously, the asking price for housing units statewide compared to nationwide posted only a slight difference of about five thousand dollars, at well over ninety-four thousand dollars to only over eighty-nine thousand, respectively.

Average sales prices for homes in the Empire State have often been between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars for four bedroom units, the most expensive category of housing. However, extremely dramatic spikes and drops have been posted periodically, such that gains of up to over seven hundred thousand dollars were reached. Such surges and declines have not lasted more than a year, and because the drop-offs have only very rarely fell past previous baseline levels, they may have been viewed as simple market corrections instead of anything more ominous. Indeed, other categories of housing – that is, one, two, three, and even four-bedroom units – have held rather steadily for a decade, rising only gradually from an average of around one hundred thousand to no more than two hundred thousand almost a decade later. When considering just one and two-bedroom homes, prices have only appreciated around fifty-thousand dollars in eight years.

It can be surmised that New York’s residential real estate market is fairly stable on the whole. The recent economic woes troubling the nation have certainly made an impact, but residential realty statewide seems to have weathered it fairly well, all things considered. After all, this is the capital of the world we’re dealing with here!

That means that New York City will always be bustling with economic activity, and the state along with it in a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats fashion. Local developers such as
Isaac Toussie consider home prices of half a million not at all unusual, and should be regarded as the “entry-level” price one should expect to pay, even for somewhat dilapidated structures in some of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Rents are arguably even more incredible, with people actually leasing out their walk-in closets as rooms!

From the time of its invention, the water cooler – and subsequently,water for the office delivery – has been a long-lasting fixture in the modern day office environment. In lieu of a water fountain – which itself has its own cultural associations and connotations, even as a image of the American civil rights movement, another story for another time – many offices prefer the use of a free-standing water cooler fitted with the promptly recognizable five gallon tanks mounted to the top. In reality, this is what presents office water delivery its title, in that these five gallon jugs are virtually delivered by truck to the office, usually consistently and usually in exchange for the empty jugs left over from the former month.

The preference for office water delivery and these free-standing units is generally one of function over form. Through there are the usual logistical aggrevations of having to literally manipulate the heavy, five gallon jugs received by office water delivery, the capabilities of the unit itself more than make up for it. Whereas a water fountain generally only presents cooled water out of a single spout, water coolers generally have a number of spouts, usually two or three. Obviously there is the basic spout, which when handled with a simple lever delivers cold water, but it is not unusual to find models with spouts for room temperature water, or even extremely hot, almost boiling water – perfect for use in making tea or fast coffee.

Apart from functionality, sanitation is a common reason for preference of office water delivery over locally available tap water by means of a water fountain. The reasonably sizable, free-standing units are often laden with various water purification technologies which, in addition to the large jugs of water that are already sanitized and purified at their bottling plants, make for the purest water available. Generally office water coolers use some form of activated carbon filtering, which uses specially treated charcoal to filter larger impurities (salts, dissolved inorganic compounds, etc) coming from the water.

In recent years, it has also been popular for these units to be fitted with some form of ultraviolent light treatment, which usually eliminates what might be left over after charcoal filtering: dissolved organic compounds, bacteria, and so on.

Though extremely easy in design and purpose, the insufferable banality of the modern day office cubical labyrinth has made the ubiquitous water cooler a sort of social hub at the office. So identifiable is this fact that colloquial terms like “water cooler show” have been coined off of it, in reference to the kind of trite dialogue about well-known culture expected among employees gathering around the unit. Even the phrase “word around the water cooler” in reference to rumors or gossip has entered the cultural lexicon. Interesting that such an oddly ordinary things as office water delivery may be, in a way, accountable for such widely identifiable cultural phenomena.