Just what to do with a form W9 request

September 3rd, 2010

Taxes and all of those forms… Let’s face it, tax forms can often times be confusing. There are scores of questions folks ask when they receive or need to send out tax forms. One of the more common questions is, if you get a W9 form request, just what exactly should you do with it?

Well if you get a W9 request then in accordance to the Internal Revenue Service you absolutely need to answer it, given that person requesting it is responsible to give you a 1099 form (this is an information return). If they are not required to give you a 1099 form (information return), well that would be a whole different story.

So what happens if you don’t respond to the W9 form request?

If you never reply to the tax form W9 request you will be subject to a $50 penalty combined with future backup withholding. Backup withholding? you may perhaps ask, well if pick not to give the details needed to a required filer of an 1099 Form (information return, not to be confused with a 1040 form) they are required to withhold up to 28% which is remitted to the government.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Aussies No Matter What

September 2nd, 2010

Great Australians in history. A daunting endeavor for any scholar. Before anything else, of course, one must consider exactly what it is that makes one an Australian. Is Zalman Silber an Australian? He is actually a New Yorker, but responsible for one of Sydney’s most gratifying attractions, the Skywalk, not to mention one of Melbourne’s, too, called The Edge. The former is pretty much a glass-floored catwalk a thousand feet above ground that offers visitors not only a bird’s-eye view of Sydney but a bird’s-nerve feel, too, what with gusting winds necessitating cable tethers for visitor safety. The latter is a glass enclosure that juts out from the top of the Eureka Tower, providing stunning panoramic views every which way you look.

Both are top attractions for their cities, taking in tourist dollars by the fistful every day. Does that make Zalman Silber a great Australian? Does that make him Australian at all? After all, he’s just a businessman – but the bottom line is that he has benefited Sydney and Melbourne tremendously, providing employment and tax revenue while bolstering the cities’ international profile.

So just what makes for an Australian? Many are those who have only been born in Australia but really made their mark elsewhere. Then there are those who also denigrate their country of origin, Australia, but are still, in the final analysis, considered Australians. Even someone like Rupert Murdoch, who renounced his Australian citizenship in order to advance certain business interests of his, is still thought as Australian!

Indeed, one Leonard Casley even went so far as to secede his property from Australia and go on to declare war on Australia! It’s no joke: the Principality of Hutt River actually issues its own visa (hours of operation are ten to four) and postage. And Hutt River isn’t the only micronation on the island-continent; Australia also hosts – if that is the right word – the Province of Bumbunga, the Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina, the Grand Duchy of Avram, the Independent State of Rainbow Creek, the Empire of Atlantium, the Principality of Marlborough, the Principality of Snake Hill, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, the United Federation of Koronis (which is merely based in Australia, claiming sovereignty only over the Koronis Family of Asteroids), and the Principality of Ponderosa. In fact, most of the world’s modern-day micronations are to be found in Australia!

So what makes for a great Australian? No one really knows. No one can quite put his or her finger on what makes for an Australian in the first place – not if they really thought about it. But one thing is for sure: people in Australia, whether they think themselves Australians or not, really prize their independence above all else!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A Variety Of Bronze Statues

September 1st, 2010

Bronze sculpture is the most common form of cast metal sculptures because of a characteristic trait which is as unusual as it is desirable. Commonly used bronze alloys will expand a little just before being set so that even the finest details of a mold are filled.

Bronze sculptures are also strong while ductile, or lacking in brittleness, allowing figures to be depicted in actions such as leaps and flights. Supports for bronze statues require smaller cross-sections because of such qualities, as can be seen in equestrian statues where only two hooves are on the base.

Today’s examples are generally created of ninety percent copper and ten percent tin, while in antiquity bronze works were at times created with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminum, or silicon. Interestingly, far more stone and ceramic works have come down to us through the ages than those made of bronze, as the metal was quite precious and often melted down to produce new sculptures or weapons and armor in times of war.

Thus, very few big examples in bronze are available from ancient times, and of these most aren’t in great condition. Indeed, most works exhibited in museums, while still full of the evidence of wear and tear, have been painstakingly restored to a quality suitable for display.

Working successfully with bronze usually requires a high level of skill, and a number of distinct casting processes might need to be employed, such as lost-wax casting and the related modern-day technique of investment casting. Other methods include sand casting and centrifugal casting.

After final polishing, corrosive materials might be applied to bronze works in order to form a patina or film produced by oxidation or some other chemical method and establish some control over the color and finish. For example, reactive chemicals may be applied to produce a novel marble-like appearance.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Many Different Kinds Of Swimming Pool Resurfacing

September 1st, 2010

Ah, summer – baseball, backyard barbecues, and swimming pool resurfacing. That’s correct, swimming pool resurfacing. Once an occasional chore every other year, it’s 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.

Pool resurfacing done right means fiberglass in this day and age. Swimming pool resurfacing is an essential aspect of swimming 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 required.

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

Fiberglass swimming 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 a material that bonds extremely 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, readily applicable and requiring no sand-blasting. Approved for both commercial and residential use, do-it-yourself fiberglass resurfacing will require less maintenance than even marcite or vinyl pools. Additionally, with the right care you won’t need to worry about your swimming pool’s surface for another twenty to thirty years or more!

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

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Dallas Cowboys Merchandise A Business Of Its Own

September 1st, 2010

As popular as the team is, it is an open question whether Dallas Cowboys merchandise would have 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.

Sure the die-hard fan may prefer his Dallas Cowboys towel “straight-up” but many others who are not 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, in spite of the voyeurism involved these beauties know how to comport themselves and market themselves. Team try-outs obviously focus on athleticism and physical attractiveness but as spokesmodels for the team a good amount of social savvy and hence intelligence is necessary, too.

The only other set of ladies 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 actually 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 increase 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.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Many Uses For A Portable Ice Maker

August 31st, 2010

Ah, a portable ice maker. Finally, a sure-fire way of keeping cool when out of doors under a hot summer sun. You have a picnic, or a hiking trip, or even just a small get-together in the backyard and don’t wish to keep running back inside for ice – you want a portable ice maker.

It will not only save you trips and bother, but save you from such things as running out of ice all of a sudden. Having one of these niffty little marvels of modern engineering will prevent you from looking like a bad thoughtless host. And nothing beats a portable ice maker at the beach! Like, booyeah.

It’s just what you need when enjoying the scenery. It could even be a great conversation starter. Forget about helping to apply suntan lotion – give her the gift of perfectly shaped ice cubes and see what happens next! No, really, it works (with some individuals, but not all). In any case, the water’s salty – but fresh ice cubes? Come one, you’ll be the king of the beach.

Make sure you get one with helpful features for instance a low water light to remind you of refills. Some versions will even recycle melted water right back into ice cubes. Make sure to get the capacity you will need, too. Portable ice makers are fairly straightforward machines so you should have no trouble finding one that’s just right.

Take one to your next tailgating party. Need one for your RV? Portable ice makers are practically essential on boats. These devices are helpful in a number of situations. When in the market for one, you might find that the most essential aspect of your purchase is simply the choice of color! That’s how easy it is to buy one, because that’s how straightforward they have become these days.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Many Different Types Of Greek Vases

August 29th, 2010

Greek vases are among the most famous museum replicas anywhere, and no wonder. The pottery of ancient Greece are not only beautiful objects of art but bear witness to one of the most intellectually important civilizations of humankind. Acquiring a museum replica of Greek vases oneself can be a way of connecting to a glorious golden age and lends a “blue-blooded” kind of elegance to any setting.

After all, it may be argued that the Greek vase has set the aesthetic standard for the Western Civilization for hundreds if not thousands of years. Having one on your desk, mantle, or shelf can create the best atmosphere for oneself to be inspired! There’s something to be said about having a faithful reproduction of a museum masterpiece in your own home or office. Imagine the feeling on your next trip to the museum as you walk through a collection, identifying those which you own a personal copy of!

Museum replicas let us all to play the part of a refined collector of antiques – not “antiques” in the now commonly debased sense of someone’s grandmother’s grandmother’s quilt abandoned at a yard sale, but treasures of the ancients now owns to enjoy thanks to the painstaking skills of replica sculptors who work in the traditional methods with conventional materials.

Almost always handmade, such replicas of vases could be so faithfully reproduced as to fool even professional appraisers! Available in a wide variety of styles, these fine works are truly no less art objects in themselves, so exquisitely crafted as to warrant being their own museum pieces!

They also tend to be very affordable, as well, allowing true connoisseurs the opportunity to own more than one. Finally, they make fantastic gifts, too: thoughtful, and a little out of the ordinary, after all its not everyday you get a Greek vase as a present.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Many Uses For Data Recovery Software

August 26th, 2010

Data recovery is an essential part of our modern world, with machines facilitating the vast majority of our lives online and off. The loss of personal information and customer information would be catastrophic for any business, and so data recovery software is a popular kind of insurance for many. But, more broadly speaking, data recovery or memory itself has been a favorite subject of science fiction, with many plots revolving around the uncanny sensation that we are nothing more than our memories – which, in a perfectly digitized world, would be nothing but easily copied bits of data!

Interesting as these considerations are, for an even more explosive idea all you have to do is combine them with old-fashioned notions of clairvoyance and déjà vu. First coined by New Age spiritualist P.M.H. Atwater (née Phyllis Johnston), future memory is conceived of as the phenomenon whereby one can know the future.

With plain old prophetic foresight now repackaged in 21st Century techno-speak, science fiction writers are busy exploring the nexus between man and machine, self and other, reality and virtual reality. The gist of it all is pregnant with implication: if we are nothing more than our memories; if our memories are but bits of data; if technology can capture these bits the same way it manipulates all other data; then what does it mean to be oneself?

Philip K. Dick touched on these very questions in his short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Adapted into a kind of futuristic movie noir under the title of Blade Runner, the theme centers on just what it means to be human in a world where very humanlike androids can be made.

Another movie adapted from a Dick short is Total Recall, involving a government agent’s created memories. More recently, the Leonardo Dicaprio vehicle Deception also explored the same what-if scenarios: what if memories could be planted? Never mind data recovery; seems like technology will one day create the need for deliberate data loss! And indeed, there are any number of science fiction stories devoted to that topic, too…

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

First Date Psychology

August 25th, 2010

The all-important first date. Such getting-to-know-you can be greatly facilitated by an amusement ride, and the most exciting 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. Uh-huh, really: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to view 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 want to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaging in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Set at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is really 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 reflexively 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!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why Backpacking Tents Are Important For Your Outdoor Adventures

August 25th, 2010

We could have brought a backpacking tent along. Instead, being young guys we relished in challenging ourselves and flirting with danger. We cavalierly enjoyed our mountaintop landscape even as the sun threatened to dip, and by the time we had turned home we could scarcely go another thousand yards before we noticed that we could not see very well.

Real hikers would have just easily pitched or otherwise put together a backpacking tent but of course we didn’t have one because we are novices and never imagined we’d need to have one. This was meant to have been a casual day-hike, after all. And yet, here we were at the end of the day and barely started on our descent. What we did not count on was how incredibly fast darkness could grow in a forest.

Though light was still in the sky, it wasn’t reaching us because of the thick canopy of leaves. Even throughout high noon the ground would be mostly shaded, never mind now, right before nightfall. And in one of the most awesome experiences ever, I saw my own hand disappear right in front of me, literally in seconds, melting away into the enveloping darkness like some movie fade-out.

Except that it was happening all to me; We were still almost two thousand feet up from the trail head; and we didn’t even have a backpacking tent!

Fortunately, friends below summoned local volunteer park rangers and we were finally rescued. But not before spending six or seven hours shivering in the cold and dark! Although it had been a humid summer day, it felt more like late autumn in rural New York at night. When I started to finally shiver and shiver I thought it was going to be the end of me! So never,never,never – ever – go hiking without a tent or sleeping bag.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »