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The greatest thing about On Off Digital World for me is how it evokes a certain time in New York. Well, the eighties, anyway. Back then a token was necessary board the subways, when pizza was a buck a slice and comic books in the same neighborhood. Back then there was no Neflix and video on demand, a time when, in fact, cable was just getting off the ground with regards to market share. It was an innocent time, in a sense — when family-owned and run stores like Montgomery Ward were it for electronics. That’s what today’s On Off Digital evokes.

The impulse to romanticize something – anything, really – is innate to the human species.
Now the typical mechanic working on AC electric motor repair, for instance, probably just deals with his or her work as-is, without undue distractions of the sort that may be recognized as “romantic.”
But in most other aspects of life a considerable number of people are wont to ascribe meaning to the randomly and, in Goethe’s famous warning, assign meaninglessness to the semantically significant.

As a result, imagine if that same mechanic, the one executing some AC electric motor repair or other, should then attribute anthropomorphic characteristics to some aspect of the work involved.
Say a sudden spark was taken to be an omen of divine displeasure, or a mysteriously crushed bearing should somehow propose unseen supernatural agencies.
We’d regard these proclamations baseless and, furthermore, absolutely ridiculous – yet for some reason we accord undue respect to very similar pronouncements produced from rather parallel circumstances.

As a result, an accurate prediction of a volcano eruption results in a successful evacuation with no lives lost, as in the case just lately on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
The people praise God in their churches but left unspoken is why the good Lord should ever trouble them with such a danger in the first place!
Isn’t this rather like our mechanic working on AC electric motor repair mistaking natural forces for divine ones?

Yet by a curious quality of our human psychology, we feel the need to give thanks – to something.
It’s not good enough to feel grateful; the term itself suggests an object of our gratitude.
Every verb must have a subject, after all: “it” rains…in European languages, there’s constantly something that does something.
Hence, our very minds are made to, as it were, imagine an agent behind every action in the world.

Are you aware when to sell your company?
It’s an amazing skill, and not one that comes automatically to even effective entrepreneurs.
This might seem surprising, since it would appear logical enough that someone capable of creating a money-making company ought to learn how to take action that is far easier when compared.
After all, selling a sucessful business is simply a matter of picking and choosing amongst all the offers, right?

Sure, and in actual fact picking and choosing seriously isn’t too hard to do, it’s real.
But timing the sale can prove tricky; obviously, you would want to sell it at its most lucrative.
Supposing that it isn’t a pressing need for cash that’s motivating your endeavor to sell your company, you’d want to time things perfectly so that you are sure to make the most money out of it – one last time!
As an example, interest rates may affect your sale, as in the situation of a potential buyer who must take out a loan to finance the purchase.

And then there are all the details included – which is to say, do you know how to sell your company?
One mistake many first-time entrepreneurs make is to keep the negative details undetectable.
While it is not required to divulge everything to just anyone, under no circumstances should any negative information be withheld, either.
Indeed, an opportunity to back out needs to be offered, even at the final moment, to reassure potential buyers.
Just don’t withhold the bad news, if any; while just enough information need be disclosed ahead of accepting an offer, so that a buyer can make an informed purchase, do not resort to springing unpleasant situations!
It’s just not worth the ill will engendered, in addition to any legal wrangles that are like to ensue.

True price comparison has ultimately come of age after all these years.
The early internet has long presented such features, but modern advancements has only made things even easier, ever more closely approximating the promise of technology.

It’s fascinating how many price comparison sites work.
They’re theoretically great companies, and take very little money to start up and maintain.
Consider one that compares the costs of DVDs, for example.
It involves merely a little computer programming.
The true work involves trying to convince various vendors to support the site.

This kind of price comparison site can only work – that is, work for the owner (by making money) – if those who sell DVDs will pay a small payment for recommendations from the comparison site to their own.
Every time a title that is listed is clicked, the web surfer is taken to the vendor’s own site.
If a purchase needs to be made, the comparison site gets a small percentage of the sale made – typically three to five cents or so on the dollar.
Very little, clearly, but it can add up if there are plenty of sales.

This is, in fact, the business model of most affiliate promoting programs online these days.
And so such a site would be quite rewarding, for one of the leading five, if not top three, things that people use the web for is to look for bargains!
Establishing an assessment site for the most popular commodities will be a great way to crank out some affiliate income.
Again, the monetary investment is minimal; the primary issue, after the computer programming involved, would be SEO, search engine optimization, art and science of getting graded highly so that laid-back surfers find you quickly!
Solve those two problems and the third element of such a business, getting vendors onboard, is easy.

The web is a good boon for tinkerers, folks who love nothing but some cool DIY project over the weekend.
A veritable treasure chest of plans can be found online for anyone able to invest the time to research things, much of which are free for the taking.
All sorts of things can be built, and the expense of the materials required is often qutie marginal.
On the way, one can’t help but get a cornucopia of skills and factoids about our world and how things work in it!
Everyone can play the Thomas Edison currently in the 21st Century, due to the DIYer’s dream that is the worldwide web.

Gun safes are generally used to secure guns, but the ammunition itself may be used to secure critical information from enemy capable in a combat zone.
A cartridge or shell could be hollowed out, with the gunpowder removed, to create a safe place for storing such essential data such as encryption codes and battle plans.
As ammunition can be found throughout a combat zone, it would be practically impossible to find such intelligence when so disguised.

Thus, as opposed to worrying about the contents of gun safes, enemy intel operatives should look to the rounds instead!
Although it’s a challenging job, and as our example demonstrates, it would be like trying to track down the proverbial needle in a haystack.
The most significant problem in disguising such information, however, is the planning involved.
Removing bullets from their catridges and uncapping them safely is not difficult or very time-consuming, to be sure, but under most imaginable circumstances where such measure would have to be resorted time is probably of the essence.

This practice appears to have started with the First World War and an ingenuous way to prevent essential information from falling into enemy hands.
Think about it the next time you see some gun safes and contemplate the ingenuity of man, how people seem to find a way around just about anything!

On the other hand, it’s not surprising considering how “necessity is the mother of invention” while “war is the father of all things” – and the human race as one has not known more than a century of peace put together in over some six thousand years of recorded history.
Ingenuity is what made us masters of the earth, and testing ourselves against others in so intense a manner as war has only honed such faculties.

When it comes to comparison shopping, the creation of the worldwide web renders things much easier.
Just log on and easily discover a variety of prices for whatever it is you’re looking to get.
It is often like this since just about the earliest days of the net but now in the 21st Century things are even more convenient.

By the same token, retailers have got significantly smarter about profiting from the medium and exploiting its attributes – and, even, its weaknesses – to assure sales, sales, and more sales.
Therefore while comparison shopping has certainly become easier in some ways, it has now also become somewhat trickier in others.

As an example, a summary of retailers for some product or other may not actually reflect what is obtainable online so much as which retailers are being promoted by the site hosting this type of list.
It is effortlessly conceivable that, far from supplying any real price comparison, the list includes just those vendors that have, say, paid to be listed!
Such a scenario would certainly make comparison shopping rather more challenging and none too convenient whatsoever – and unfortunately it has become something of a norm online now.

Then again, the deals offered are in fact good deals and it is unlikely that prices could really be dramatically reduced most of the time.
Retail consumer electronics, for instance, is notorious for its low profit margins and as a result the best deals are actually more likely to be discovered with big retailers who make money strictly through volume.
The mom-and-pop, in contrast, can only hope to lure customers with personalized service as well as other intangibles; they can never hope to participate on price alone.
Thus, it appears any given selection of prices would be reasonably accurate, despite the omission of smaller vendors.

Safes are boxes or box-like structures that could be locked in order to secure important objects towards theft or injury.
Such items usually consist of cash, jewelry, paper documents, media for example magneto-optical discs, and treasures as well as other objects of emotional value.
Available in a multitude of sizes and even a reasonable range of shapes, safes is found just about anywhere from individual homes and hotel rooms to health clubs as well as banks.
Some are as large as whole rooms or even complete floors, such as those used to house modern computer data centers.
Many designs also are present, with the least secure types normally employed by small businesses for petty cash, kept at the ready for purposes of daily finances.

Henceforth, as can be thought of, numerous specifications can be involved, such as those having to do with fire, water, or simply about any other situation.
While only certain models can offer such extended defense, almost all, including these specialty types, can be predicted to withstand some amount of burglary.
Speaking of theft, another common variation among safes concerns the type of lock employed.
None are foolproof, but each serve different purposes.
Beyond traditional key and combination locks, modern technology also offers such marvels as the time lock as well as the biometric lock requiring a fingerprint scan.

For many, a “fun” type of safe is the diversion safe, also recognized as a concealed safe, one found within an otherwise ordinary daily object such as a book.
Practically anything can serve as this sort of a safe, from candles along with soup containers to electrical wall outlets as well as coins!
However these are then placed inconspicuously themselves to further help get away from notice.
In fact, it’s most likely that we pass one as regularly as we do unknowingly!

The record of cases concerning property law is a large trove of intriguing predicaments that interest not just industry insiders like famed builder Isaac Toussie but average people with an interest in ethical problems also. For the law is designed to reflect right and wrong and property provides an array of concrete applications anywhere for such otherwise high-minded notions that may not necessarily impact as immediately or as thoroughly on day-to-day life.

Naturally, there aren’t many things as worth fighting for as land. Probably every society in human history has worked out some territory and property issues right at the core of its culture. In our more civilized day, we resolve such disputes non-violently, but the passions that can be engendered are often no less intense. And thus the rich record of real estate law cases involves some of the most bizarre, amusing, or otherwise thought-provoking scenarios imaginable.

If you come across a gold ring that no one else claims, can it be considered legally yours? Most of the time, it belongs to whoever owns the property upon which or wherein the gold ring is located.

What if you bought property on an as-is basis but later discovered that you were lied to? In Alabama, it’s often a case of buyer beware, unless the misrepresentation involves something not obvious that could affect health or safety.

Or look at the case of a man whose property is marked by a tree line for a border, only to have that tree line grow thicker and extend over the years. Well, in Minnesota if that boundary is something everyone has agreed upon on a de facto basis for fifteen years, that boundary is then the legal boundary.

Of course, each of the cases cited can and will admit of several subtleties that add up to the sort of intricacy that keeps lawyers and judges employed full-time throughout the year, but the gist of them all is as stated. Interesting, no?

For risk-free weight loss and overall health, nothing beats some form of a Mediterranean Diet, which consists of eating vegetables and lean meats, specifically seafood.
Named after the location where it has traditionally been practiced by Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, and others living along the length of the coast, the Mediterranean Diet is a nutritionist’s dream: at its core are lots of vegetables, flavored with olives and olive oil and vinegar; protein is delivered in the form of leans meats like grilled chicken or fish and shellfish, along with eggs and cheese – and that’s it.
That’s all there is to it.

It’s all very straight-forward and not too amazing, except possibly for its results.
That’s because given the way things are nowadays, one might imagine that to lose weight and be healthy must mean converting to veganism, but the Mediterranean Diet proves that balance is what’s most critical.
Mostly vegetables, with a limited amount of animal protein, all flavored by healthy oils such as that made from olives.
Easy.

Certainly, it’s not that complex.
Human beings have been on earth for countless years now, and our tastes have not switched that much.
In reality, it isn’t our diets so much as our modern sedentary lifestyles that are at fault.
Army infantrymen and Amish farmers prove this.
Given to rigorous physical action during the day almost every day, these two classes of people take in huge amounts of fat, salt, and sugar on a normal and frequent basis and are typically healthy.
But due to all the manual labor they engage in, such nutrients – for that is what fat, salt, and sugar are: nutrients – are utilized by the body rather than simply clogging it up.

Hence, in addition to a Mediterranean way of eating, we might do well to also emulate a Mediterranean lifetsyle of work, sun, and siesta!

The CPE requirements for any given profession can vary considerably.
While doctors, lawyers, and even accountants can expect a training course load that’s rather heavy when compared to others subject to required continuing education, teachers, social workers, and also personal fitness trainers (yes, personal fitness trainers) can expect a much easier time preserving their professional standing.

Yes, it’s true that teacher and social worker CPE requirements exist for a reason – and so do too those for personal fitness trainers.
But that purpose isn’t, in practice, exactly about staying on top of advancements in their individual fields.
In theory it is, but in practice one can easily adopt a very skeptical perspective on the subject.

After all, what is there about teaching kids which could change every so often?
New technology?
A course on handling cell phones and other interruptions?
Really??
Yet such courses match CPE requirements along with any on traditional matters relating to pedagogy.
However, just what new advances in learning theory can there be that will absolutely affect classroom education?

It’s true that breakthroughs are regularly made about how children learn and learn best, but almost none of them can offer any profound influence on day-to-day education.
So kids learn better with colors.
So teachers should use colored chalk.
This is worth continuing education credits?

Regarding a doctor or lawyer, one can see how continuing professional education has a very genuine and immediate effect on day-to-day duties.
A new drug, a new regulation – these will affect the way treatment and services are delivered for sure.
It is hard to imagine, nevertheless, what changes would happen as the result of finding that black kids seem to learn better with black teachers – which is, incidentally, something that has been confirmed by several studies over the years.

Realty law is engaging on account of every one of the countless subtleties involved – from state to state, on top of it all! For example, in Alabama, you cannot rescind your purchase even in cases of seller fraud – that’s right, even when it is obvious from the evidence that deliberate fraud was involved! Alabama case law takes the old byword “buyer beware” very seriously – rather literally, even, with reference to sales of used realty. In Teer v. Johnston, the court thought that although the defendant made a false pre-sale disclosure warranting something that isn’t true, the defendant also cancelled that discloure (which means everything relating to it, including its very claim to veracity) via the provision of an “as-is” clause in the actual sales contract. Meaning: buyer has no legal recourse for recovery despite the misrepresentation – despite any misrepresentation – as long as an as-is clause has not been challenged in the sales contract or the deed to the property when in Alabama!

Technicalities abound in life, and the law is no different: that as-is clause would have been no good at all had the misrepresentation involved an unobservable defect that could influence health or safety. Such details are what make housing law so engaging, and why there are lots of blogs committed to the latest cases involving realty law from throughout the country. By frequently following such websites, one does not have to be a professional developer like Isaac Toussie in order to be aware of all the feasible pitfalls that might exist where real estate transactions are involved! Indeed, something as certainly complex as a real estate deal will require much attention as a matter of course, and the intelligent consumer will confer with a variety of properly licensed and otherwise qualified professionals when coming to any decision of consequence, from brokers and agents to lawyers and appraisers.

For most folks, there isn’t anything like moving into a new house.
It’s something they only do but a small amount of periods over their lives, and even if they are just renting it.
A house just occupies that mythical place in the American imagination.
In Europe, owning a house would be a bit of a luxury, however in America owning one seems absolutely normal – so much so that not to even live in one would feel downright anti-social!

Certainly, this is exactly why even renters will likely pull out the wine bottles from off their wine racks and commemorate move-in day, toasting an occurrence that is at once normal and extraordinary.
For a house in America really should be a home, an area for settling down and taking roots, and even if one is only renting it’s at least that much closer to gratifying the American Dream.

Or so things appear: enter the great housing bubble of fin-de-siecle America.
One can simply imagine how many bottles were pulled from how many wine racks over the country in festivity of finally owning a home.
Based on some economists, excessive capital had to find an outlet, leading to easy credit lines that made a house available to just about anybody who called for it.
No money down?
No credit?
Not an issue!
Or so announced the adverts.
In newspapers, on lamp poles, over radio and television.
Even bad credit was no hindrance.
After all, the government itself was officially pushing home ownership as a societal good.

However the bill’s due.
The massive Ponzi Scheme of restructured bad debt from subprime mortgages has folded away, dragging the world economy with it.
Looks like the good times were nothing but just a big financial bacchanal supported by wine and wine racks, as it were.
For many, the American Dream remains just that, a dream, while for others, who have tasted it, it has now become a veritable nightmare of debt, falling property values, and foreclosure.

Just what parent doesn’t want educational toys for their children?
While the theory behind them range from sound to pure marketing hype, they can be an critical part of modern childhood for many families.
Actually, such toys make up a substantial subset of the multi-billion dollar toy business, so much so that just about everyone, it seems, is touting the educational advantages of their designs.

But do educational toys actually help with learning, and are they really any different than other toys available on the market?
After all, what child does not “learn,” somehow, from a toy – or any other object in the world?
Indeed, the younger the child, the more likely it is that he or she will learn from everything, whether it be a piece of paper or a metal spoon.
(Ironically, it is precisely the youngest children of all for whom the greatest number of such toys are created!)

Of course, educational toys are made to exercise and even strengthen upon motor and cognition skills, but it is arguable that most anything can provide the same purpose.
Yet many parents are under the wrongly recognized notion that something labeled “educational” must definitely be so.
Moreover, they may also be under the misimpression that such toys work their magic devoid of parental support.

On the other hand, child psychologists note that interaction with the parent is much more important; it’s considered by most of them to be the number one factor in how wise, healthy, and happy a chid grows up to be.
Too many parents employ toys and television as babysitters and then wonder later on just where, in spite of all the money spent, things went wrong.
No matter how educational the toy or activity, sharing it with the parent is the key ingredient of success, second to none!

With the price of food going up, grocery coupons have finally become one of the most well-liked reasons for people to log online and rummage through the search engines.
Indeed, many informed observers predict that food safety will become one of the most hotly contested issues around the globe as we approach the middle years of the 21st Century.

Food security is not quite the same thing as hunger.
One can be food-insecure without actually being among the hordes of growing hungry.
Food security signifies having a reliable source of good food.
By the year 2050, there will be a projected seven billion people on the planet, ever more of whom will be prosperous enough to manage a middle-class diet that consists of more and more animal protein.
Grocery coupons are marketing ploys by manufacturers to get consumers to try new products, but with ever dwindling food supplies it is not likely that such gimmicks will have to be employed in the future.

After all, we could well wind up with a feast-or-famine/winner-takes-all kind of society where anyone who’s concerned about the price of things probably can not afford it anyway!
Sounds cynical, but it may easily become the case in even a realistic worst-case scenario.

Thanks to globalization, no one is immune from a bad crop any longer.
Russian forest fires last year forced Moscow to prevent all wheat exports, driving up prices on the world market.
This year’s harvest in China is predicted to be devastating on account of a nearby drought, which will mean even higher prices.
Yes, grocery coupons will be more required than ever – and yet their availability may decrease drastically as manufacturers increase prices to reflect the much diminished supply.

What’s going to happen to us?
Everything hangs off the thinnest of threads.
All it takes is a perfect storm of concurring components and everyone will end up in dire straits.