gofer articles

Taxes and all of those forms… Why don’t we face it, tax forms can more often than not be difficult to understand. There are a wide range of questions folks ask when they get or need to send out tax forms. One of the more general questions is, if you receive a W9 form request, exactly what should you do with it?

Well if you receive a W9 request then in accordance to the Internal Revenue Service you need to reply to it, provided that person looking for 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 is a entirely different story.

So what will happen if you don’t reply to the tax form W9 request?

If you do not reply to the tax form W9 request you will be subject to a fifty dollar penalty and furthermore future backup withholding. Backup withholding? you may ask, well if choose not to give the info 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 twenty eight percent which is remitted to the government.

Ah, a portable ice maker. At last, 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 do not want to keep running back inside for ice – you need a portable ice maker.

It will not only save you trips and hassle, 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 landscapes. It could even be a excellent 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). After all, 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 functions for instance a low water light to remind you of refills. Some models will even reuse melted water right back into ice cubes. Make sure to get the capacity you 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 necessary on boats. These devices are useful in a number of situations. When in the market for one, you may find that the most important aspect of your purchase is simply the choice of color! That’s how simple it is to buy one, because that’s how straightforward they have become these days.

We really should 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 was about 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 quickly pitched or otherwise put together a backpacking tent but of course we didn’t have one since we are novices and in no way imagined we’d need to have one. This was supposed to have been a casual day-hike, after all. And yet, here we were at the end of the day and barely began 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 during high noon the ground would be mostly shaded, never mind now, right before nightfall. And in one of the most incredible 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 practically two thousand feet up from the trail head; and also we did not even have a backpacking tent!

Thankfully, 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! Though it had been a humid summer day, it felt more like late fall 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.

Data recovery is an important part of our modern day world, with computers facilitating the vast majority of our lives on the internet and off. The loss of personal information and customer data would be catastrophic for any organization, 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!

Exciting 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 but our memories; if our memories are but bits of data; if technology can catch 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 film noir under the title of Blade Runner, the theme concentrates 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 federal agent’s manufactured memories. More recently, the Leonardo Dicaprio vehicle Deception also explored the same what-if scenarios: what if thoughts could be planted? Never mind data recovery; seems like technologies will one day create the need for deliberate information loss! And indeed, there are any number of science fiction stories devoted to that topic, too…

Who in the world types terms like “high risk business loans bad credit” in to the search engines? It seems one of the most well-known keyword phrases experienced daily by them, as measured by volume reported, but who are the people that write – and therefore think – this way? So ungrammatical, so casual, so carelessly…entrepreneurs?

It appears as if almost every small business is in dire necessity of Small business loans or if not, then gives a distinct silent cry for a loan. Obviously if anyone falls inside a financial pit, there’s almost no escape nor is there any energy to fight back, sequencing fatal results for the company. Shame on those clumsy enough to have not learned anything about sustaining their business, I fault personal and emotional interference.

And just what does it say about business people that they’re given over to such conceptual mash-ups such as “high risk business loans bad credit” anyway? Talk about stream-of-consciousness writing! Joyce would be proud, in all likelihood. Yet that’s precisely the mindset of a success story. While there are numerous highly intelligent and highly literate successes in business, there are vastly more who succeed despite, it might seem, themselves – that is to say, you needn’t be an intellectual in order to make big money. You just need to find out how to make a lot of money and go about doing it.

If that means getting literate, being an intellectual, then so be it. But one really has nothing regarding the other. That’s why we get people Googling high risk business loans bad credit on a daily basis. These are obviously businessmen and women who are looking for money and yet are high risks themselves! Additionally, consider that they realize that they are precarious propositions and yet half-expect, at least, to find someone ready to lend them money. What audacity without a doubt – the same tough thick-skinned nerve that’s in the DNA of most any entrepreneur, only exponentially elevated!

It’s a great thing, such cheek, such gall, such moxie, such temerity. It’s this kind of gumption that got you to be an entrepreneur in the first place, after all. But some of your peers have it in abundance – and that’s truly an understatement! So they’re going around scouring the web for all signs of a business loan for those with a bad credit score, fully expecting that where there’s a need there’s a businessman or woman who has figured out a way to meet it!

And indeed, such intuition is proven right: there is really a way for those with bad credit histories to obtain money for their businesses. Furthermore, they can pay back the funds slowly and gradually, practically taking their sweet time to do so! This is no loan, however, but cold hard cash that’s advanced against anticipated credit card sales. You would only pay back a certain previously agreed upon percentage of the monthly receipts – that’s it!

With media attention typically centered on foreclosed homeowners, this article will take a brief look to consider the effects 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 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 intriguing to see how things can turn out for businessmen and women caught up in the same economic tsunami, 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 scenario 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 scenarios 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 respect that the ordeals 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.

It is tough buying educational toys because, well, how would you really measure whether something is educational, especially when it involves very young children even toddlers? Actually, many child psychologists believe that just about anything is “educational” for a child, especially at really young ages when almost by definition anything they come into contact with teaches them something about the world, about which they know almost nothing!

When you do not know a lot to begin with, everything is educational, isn’t it? And so the world is full of educational toys as a result, as any object may be played with and, in the very playing with, help to develop the motor skills and cognitive abilities which toymakers claim their products foster in a child.

And yet clearly there are toys that do seem to somehow offer a lot more than entertainment value, for instance programmable robot kits. So perhaps a better way to think about educational toys is to not regard them as being completely educational or not, in which case it’s arguable that a plaything could be made of almost anything and that play itself is an inherently educational activity.

The misunderstandings, as ever (according to most semanticists, anyway), concerns semantics, or meaning. If we mean by the term not merely something that can be played with such that skillsets of some kind are fostered, but instead those toys which are clearly more capable of fostering a skillset, particularly one that is not readily developed otherwise, then shopping becomes substantially easier!

Thus, it will turn out that puzzles like a Rubik’s Cube are extremely educational while alphabet blocks are significantly less so. And as parents, we want to encourage our kids to not only explore but push their intellectual envelope, so while good old-fashioned dolls and the like might stimulate the imagination, much more ingenious toys can also stimulate such higher-order faculties as pattern recognition and problem solving.

New York City is a great place to live if you have the funds to live in a great neighborhood. However, while rents are very high, industry experts like Isaac Toussie say that it is still possible to find fair honest deals where you get a lot of space in return, among other things. Many factors go into any consideration, such as convenience and access, look and feel, and noise levels. Here is a survey of some nabes that offer a good balance of all these factors in relation to typical prices.

For the most part, we will consider only Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods, as these are the ones that best fit our criteria for all-around value. The other boroughs are either too expensive or too run-down, as in the case of Manhattan and the Bronx, respectively, or just too remote and isolated, as with the case of Staten Island. Of course, the Bronx does have nice neighborhoods, too, but these are going to be expensive, and you’ll have to avoid the rest of your borough if you want to see something civilized. Industry observers like Isaac Toussie note that while Manhattan also has its pockets of urban blight, anything decent is going to be astronomically priced. Staten Island is just another world altogether and you might as well not bother living in New York City, then!

So Queens and Brooklyn it is. Brooklyn is by far the more storied of the two, with more offerings of high-brow culture if that’s important to you. Queens offers culinary adventurers the best possibilities outside Manhattan, with the most authentic tastes at any price. Queens also tends to be much more diverse, whereas Brooklyn practically invented the ethnic enclave. Finally, Queens schools are better on average, whereas Brooklyn’s, while good, trails far behind in general comparison.

So what are these great “nabes” and where are they? Well, in Brooklyn you will want Williamsburg and Greenpoint for the bohemian scene. Good, genuine middle-class areas include Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, and Midwood. Canarsie would have once made the cut but has been on its way down. Borough Park seems like an “in-between” situation and can still swing either way. Your basically upper middle-class places are Dyker Heights, Marine Park, Brighton Beach, and Sheepshead Bay.

In Queens the toniest nabes are Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. Almost as good are Flushing (and East Flushing) and Bayside. Astoria is known for its night life. Sunnyside, Woodside, Ridgewood, and Elmhurst (but avoid East Elmhurst) are more working-class but still often quite civilized to live in. Middle Village, Queens Village, Maspeth, and Juniper Valley are demographically between the working and (true) middle classes.

Outside these areas, you’ll probably want to avoid. We’ll cover those in another article. But suffice it to say, even the areas mentioned here can be undesirable on their “border areas,” where they abut the urban blight of the next neighborhood over, as implied in the case of Elmhurst and East Elmhurst mentioned earlier. So exercise all due diligence and thoroughly research a neighborhood with some personal experience!

In the popular culture, horse racing tips have traditionally been akin to great Florida real estate deals or fantastic bridge sales in Brooklyn. But the internet has allowed for the proliferation of computerized horse racing systems, not simple programs that ran your input through a set of magical algorithms but dedicated servers that could be contacted in real-time for near instantaneous updates right from the track.

Best of all, modern racing systems like these allow you to bet anytime, anywhere – even at work (or church!), as long as an internet connection is available. Evidently working on somewhat similar models that has been successfully utilized by the hobbyist day trader, you can now bet and seriously handicap your game thanks to the power of 21st Century “cloud computing.”

Precise details are understandably vague, as no one likes to divulge trade secrets, but what is claimed are numerous benefits: real year-long staking records, consistent profits, and better than three-fourths strike rates. This kind of near-miraculous outcomes come from a close analysis of numerous factors, for instance the ages of the runners, the classes involved, and also the overall number of competitors in the field. The main difference, besides any improved methodologies, seems to be an ongoing maintenance that ever fine-tunes performance and results.

Also unlike the old handicapping programs of old models, it is no longer a basic matter of paying for software once. Such a powerful service can only be feasible under a subscription model, as ongoing improvements need to be made. Essentially, it’s like hiring a money manager for one’s portfolio of stocks and bonds and other holdings – only we’re talking horse racing here! Finally, in the spirit of our times, try-before-you-buy trials are available. It’s now possible to easily see for yourself whether the horse racing system actually works!

Within today’s boisterous world of frequent distraction, very few people stop to consider the means through which they translate all of this audible stimuli: the ears; and fewer still take the proper steps to protect their ears when they ought to, even using so simple as ear protection plugs. Of course ear plugs sound like a silly, not entirely needed precaution in most conditions – and in a lot of cases, they aren’t necessary – but understanding the importance of your ears is key to protecting them.

Ears are obviously used for hearing and interpreting sound. Sound – which are waves of pressure traveling through a medium, whether it be air, water, or something else – is first “heard” when it is trapped by the external ear (which is the obvious part on either side of our head, and what we first think when we think of “ears”). These pressure waves, or sound, are then filtered through the outer parts of the ear until they interact with the ear drum and interior ear (those parts of the organ found inside of your skull), where they stimulate hair cells, delivering nervous signals to the brain. These signals are then construed as sound. Yes protecting supplies come in numerous forms.

Due to the physically miniscule and delicate nature of the ear, it is very susceptible to physically trauma, which can even be inflicted by the aggressive vibrations caused by excessive noise levels. Imagine a speaker system or a subwoofer: the way the speaker cones vibrate as they emit sound is very similar to the way the small bones and tissues of the inner ear vibrate as they are stimulated by sound. And same as a subwoofer or speaker can break under the stress of these vibrations at high volume, so too can the parts of the human ear. Sounds experienced at places like construction zones or rock concerts are very easily able to damage the ear over long intervals of exposure. By simply blocking such sounds from entering the ear, ear plugs can prevent this.

Other than protecting your actual capacity to hear, the protection provided by ear plugs also preserves another vital function of the ears that is much less clear: one’s sense of balance. In fact, balance is one of the two main reasons that mammals generally have two ears (the other is that two ears permit us to locate the source of sounds by localizing them, related to the way two working eyeballs permit depth perception). Deep inside the inner ear are the organs responsible for determining one’s orientation to gravity, and a sense of steadiness.

Tiny fluid filled sacks send nerve signals to the brain that interprets these signals to build a sense of physical orientation against the background environment. Since the fluid inside these sacks is subject to the identical laws of gravity as the rest of the body, the brain can interpret their orientation the same way you may if you observed a soda bottle half filled. Regardless of the angle you look at it, you can decide a sense of up and down by seeing in which direction gravity pulls the leftover fluid inside the bottle.

State tax forms are needed to file state taxes – but exactly where is our tax money going? Taxes are utilized to support the government, but in a democracy the government is supposed to be “for the people,” as a popular rumor has it. All the state tax forms filed year in, year out seem to have no effect on our local governments, which across the country are more likely than not operating at a deficit. How is this possible with all of the money pouring into government coffers?

Most folks simply file their state tax forms and leave it at that, too busy with their lives and some even hoping not to attract any government attention. But a growing number of our fellow citizens and residents are greatly concerned over where “their money” is going. Nearly everybody agrees with paying for firefighters, sanitation workers, and other civil servants, but even then there can be a lot of controversy over the details.

Take educators for example. Again, nearly everyone agrees that teachers are needed. But how to compensate them with our tax dollars, exactly? Currently, many folks across the country are up in arms over teacher perks and salaries.

It’s felt that teachers have things much too comfortable, and there are individuals who would like to make the profession of teaching a job like any other, which in the United States means “hire and fire at will.”

These folks want to, they say, hold teachers more “accountable” for student performance, which is usually proposed to be measured by standardised test scores. But the other side of the argument believes that teaching isn’t just a job like any other, that the training of minds and the inspiration of hearts isn’t something which can be neatly measured on a quarterly or yearly basis like some corporate earnings report.

Bronze sculpture is the most numerous form of cast metal sculptures as a result of a characteristic trait that is as unusual as it’s 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 need smaller cross-sections as a result of such qualities, as may be seen in equestrian statues where only two hooves are on the base.

Today’s examples are generally made of ninety percent copper and ten percent tin, while in antiquity bronze works were occasionally made 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 frequently melted down to produce new sculptures or weapons and armor in times of war.

Thus, really few large examples in bronze are available from ancient times, and of these most are not 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 made by oxidation or some other chemical method and establish some control over the color and finish. For instance, reactive chemicals might be applied to produce a novel marble-like appearance.

“Multimedia” and “virtual reality” used to be big buzzwords throughout the second half of the ’90s, before the “dot bomb” when internet start-ups were popping up like mad and the stock market couldn’t get enough of them, throwing money at almost every one in a confident shotgun style.

And now those days are long gone, having moved onto the next big bubble (which was, by the way, subprime mortgages, something that’s still a worry the world over), but virtual reality and multimedia have only become better and better – though full sci-fic implementation is still quite some way off. That’s because a lot is involved in full sensory reproduction, though for many, the “rated-G” audiences of families on a vacation package, say, something like the New York Skyride by serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber would be just fine (it is, briefly, an IMAX-like helicopter fly-over of famous city landmarks synchronized to motion seating). But in research and development laboratories around the world, all the biggest names in consumer electronics are busy figuring out how to apply declassified military technology in a relevant way to ever more immersive videogaming and other kinds of entertainment.

Two trends appear ready to finally come to fruition: 3D and kinetics. First, three-dimensional technology is one of the most heavily investigated fields in home electronics, and it seems poised for a prime-time debut in the form of amazingly advanced television screens that require no 3D glasses to view 3D imagery. Secondly, the multiple billion-dollar videogaming industry has been critical in developing kinetic controls, whereby user commands are conveyed not through a physical interface but through the user’s own body movements. These two advances are being marketed right now by some of the biggest names in the business, famous labels such as Nintendo and Microsoft, companies that have a proven record of success in most of the things they do. A far cry from the likes of Zalman Silber!

Besides entertainment, the most obvious other uses for these technologies would be in real estate as well as education. Teaching subjects like chemistry and physics are sure to be revolutionized by the implementation of intuitive user controls and interactive 3D graphics that do not need a special interface. Wholesale property investment already makes broad use of virtual reality by providing 360-degree views and video walk-throughs of real estate to prospective buyers from around the world. Using virtual tours over the internet, potential buyers can determine from the comfort of their own homes whether an actual site visit is warranted, though property is also often bought just on the basis of the virtual tour!

Wine holders hold wine. They store and organize wine, and could be made of any number of various materials in any number of different sizes. Also recognized as wine racks, large ones can be found in a professional wine cellar while a lot smaller designs might be wall-mounted in the kitchen to conveniently display an amateur collection.

These latter kinds will sometimes incorporate wine glasses for a combination rack that holds both drink and implement. Speaking of which, the truest wine holder of all is probably one’s own mouth! But for innovative aesthetics, nothing beats the man-made varieties. Those constructed from metal are particularly imaginative.

The material itself provides for the greatest amount of imagination, allowing as it does fluid sinuous designs hard or even impossible to achieve with any wood or stone. Many are highly whimsical, such as a widespread favorite where thin metal spirals hold wine bottles upside-down in a haphazard manner suggestive of intoxication!

People who take their wines, and thus their display, seriously enough to consider such devices (as opposed to just putting them on a shelf in the fridge or pantry) will often favor wood because of the role it plays in formulating the flavor of many wines.

After all, wines are matured in wooden caskets for just that all-important reason, and several winemakers are even so careful as to factor in the species of wood used for their bottle corks! Thus the bestselling styles are still wooden, even in the most modern of decors where chrome or stainless steel predominate.

Storing wine is a serious affair if you care about taste. Ambient lighting and even the very angle at which bottles may be tilted during storage are said to help produce the flavor of a wine. Keeping your wine in a manner that both highlights the beauty of their bottling while protecting or aiding the creation of their flavors can be difficult, depending on how exacting your expectations.

Camping supplies are a necessity even when merely hiking. This is because there’s always the possibility of mishap which will cause you to stay the night in the forest (mountain or desert or wherever else you might be trekking through).

Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature; the weather can change in a sudden flash in many places upon the earth. Indeed, our planet is really a living one, and the very ground upon which we walk can betray us. A rockslide, or worse, can present insurmountable obstacles in our way, necessitating some fieldcraft to maneuver around.

Thus it’s usually a good idea to take along camping supplies, just in case. You don’t need to bring everything, but some things are absolutely essential. At a minimum you will most likely require some kind of shelter, so a tent or sleeping bag must be the first thing on your list. Food and water is next, and it’s a good idea to bring at least one day’s worth, though three days’ is the standard recommended minimum.

Emergency supplies for instance first-aid kits and flare signals should also be packed. Of course, much depends on your choice of venue, the time of year, and your own familiarity with the area as well as your general expertise in the field, but having the right equipment around should disaster or, even, just a fairly minor setback, strike won’t cost you too much in terms of weight.

Essential camping gear should be no more than thirty pounds or so, very easily portable and convenient. Don’t skimp on common sense! Most serious hikers, campers, and outdoors types know that the possibility of danger is often present, however minimized. If you’re just a casual camper or hiker, then you truly will need to do things by the book and think a few steps ahead!