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A swimmer needs to practice every day, that is why the occasional swimming pool resurfacing could be so devastating to an athlete. But while standard techniques can take whole days, now there’s a far better way to do things, one which does not even require hired help.

That’s right, do-it-yourself swimming pool resurfacing is now possible thanks to the miracles of modern technology. It’s a straightforward process that will have the pool ready for business in a few relatively short hours, a real godsend for swimmers who need to work hard daily to maintain their fitness. Not just swimmers who need the practice time will benefit, of course.

To have a pool without water in it is pretty depressing, least of which is because of the fact that swimming pools in need of renovation don’t normally look too good anyway.

Needless to say, it is possible to do your swimming pool resurfacing in the fall, after all of the barbecues and other poolside gatherings. But in any case, it’s now a fairly simple matter involving just a few hours, so why spends hundreds or even thousands to hire others?

Swimming pools have been around since ancient times. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro around five thousand years ago was covered by a tar-based sealant. Heated pools were known to the ancient Romans who could afford them. But it seemed to have been the British of the mid-nineteenth century who most popularized swimming pools, and ever since then resurfacing has been one of the main maintenance tasks.

For the individual homeowner, modern advances have made such upkeep much easier. Readily available in the form of a gel coating that could be applied to gunite, conrete, or fiberglass surfaces, modern resurfacing is now just a once-in-a-while kind of chore, with each application lasting up to thirty years or more!

Top quality museum replicas of Italian marble statues are among the most popular of best-sellers. After all, everybody knows and loves Michelangelo’s David or Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Italian works like these are among essentially the most prized examples of marble sculpture anywhere, of any time period, with an ethereal smoothness that belies their stark realism. And now fine museum replicas allow anybody to own a copy!

Being surrounded by high-quality museum replicas can put us in a good mood all day long, at least if we’re serious art lovers. There is nothing like being connected to the glorious past than through one of the highest expressions of golden civilizations gone by in the form of marble statues that lift us above the everyday.

Art puts us in touch with the human capacity for imagination, the cultural heritage of our species. Museum replications make that affordable so that one and all can appreciate the finest works at home or in the office. Indeed, they’re so affordable, even the very best examples, that it is something of a disservice to yourself to do with out them if art is essential to you!

Even if utilized merely as bookends or, worse, paper weights, they lend a classical elegance to any setting that goes far beyond such nakedly practical uses. And for such reasons, replicas make excellent gifts too, thoughtful and possibly a bit out of the ordinary.

Given the variety of art that is available in replica form, it ought to be a fairly simple matter to find the right piece that perfectly expresses your sentiments, whether of friendship and support or congratulations and well-wishes.

You’ll be able to express yourself while showing excellent taste With a carefully chosen museum-quality replica that bears in mind the recipient’s own outlook. It’s a excellent way to say something elegantly!

Searching to buy a family home? if you are just like most individuals, you very likely dream of buying your own home. There are a lot of advantages to buying your own home, advantages which includes the pride of ownership, developing your own equity rather than building someone else’s, no more having to deal with your landlord, and obviously there are the tax perks.

Nonetheless the road to owning a residence is not effortless, especially when having to work with a bank to get your mortgage loan. In today’s challenging economy the banks are being especially tough on handing out mortgages and your credit score will unquestionably be a major factor in the banks verdict. So what do you do if you have a low credit score? you repair it that is what you do. It is best to find a respected credit repair organization to help you to repair your credit score.

Don’t let the dream of home ownership pass you by as a result of your credit score.

Tourist traps. Designed to wring every last dollar out of you. It’s as if they were thought up to ruin your vacation. And sightseeing rides rank right up there.

Take Zalman Silber’s Skyride in New York’s Empire State Building. With a name like that, you’d think it was up there at the top, where it’s located. Instead, it’s only on the second floor. Moreover, express access to the top – for which you pay an additional fifty percent of the ticket price – is just a matter of skipping a few lines. It’s not as if you go straight to the top. You’ll still have to wait on lines, only perhaps one or two less.

And so what is the Skyride? A movie. A half-hour film. That’s it! Definitely a case where the sizzle sounds better than how the steak tastes.

But Zalman Silber redeems himself with his other attractions, the Skywalk and The Edge. The first amusement is aptly named for sure, essentially a catwalk a thousand feet above street level outside the top of the Sydney Tower in Sydney, Australia. It’s an exhilarating experience where, unlike traditional observation decks enclosed behind glass, visitors walk out onto a metal plank that juts out of the building, creating the breath-taking feeling of being suspended in mid-air!

As can be imagined, wind gusts are quite strong at such a height, and special “skysuits” cable-tethered to support structures are used to ensure guest safety. But the Skywalk is open in most kinds of weather, and available practically the whole year.

A similar attraction is The Edge at the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia. This time, visitors are in a fully enclosed cube that sticks out of the building near the very top, with fully transparent glass all around – even underneath one’s feet! A really cool feature of this amusement is how everything is initially opaque, and only suddenly transparent to create an exciting sense of unexpected suspension almost a thousand feet above ground!

These two are great fun and a must for any to-do list when in Sydney or Melbourne. These are the kinds of experiences that really make vacations memorable. After all, vacations are about more than simple relaxation and getting away from work. They are about experiences – ideally, new experiences, positive experiences, unique experiences. And while such attractions as the Skywalk exist elsewhere, such as over the Grand Canyon in the State of Arizona, there’s only one such thing in Sydney and one such thing in Melbourne, offering stunning vistas outdone only by a helicopter flyover.

So beware the tourist traps and spend your hard-earned dollars instead where it would go the furthest. Patronize only those rides which offer true value for the money!

The rapid growth of virtual assistant jobs reflects the prevalence of corporate management trends in this age of downsizing and cost-cutting. Especially popular with start-ups and other firms of the Knowledge Economy, virtual assistant jobs allow companies to minimize their in-house support staff as they search for increased profitability.

After all, from management’s perspective, nothing more is needed than somebody who will basically – even only – transcribe records or answer phones. Virtual assistant jobs allow the company to avoid paying for expenses beyond wages or salaries.

Businesses save a lot by not having to provide health insurance, sick days, and the like. Now take the concept another step further, and it’s easy to see that businesses don’t even need to deal with any administrative hassles at all, like performance reviews and so forth, simply by hiring what is in essence a contractor!

So what does the worker get out of it? Well, for folks that need non-traditional careers, these virtual work at home jobs are particularly attractive. Such work most frequently involves general clerical duties that may be easily fulfilled outside of an office. Some positions, however, can require advanced skills such as computer programming or internet research.

But these jobs aren’t some bad old-fashioned work-at-home scam where victims are made to assemble tchotchkes or stuff envelopes with fliers. They’re real honest-to-goodness employment opportunities made possible by an ever more interconnected world.

More and more entrepreneurs now hire real live virtual assistants to give their fledgling start-ups a respectable appearance, creating the professional impression of a full-staffed operation. If you are a student, a homemaker, retired, or just do not want to deal with a conventional lifestyle, you now have more options than ever to be, in a very real sense, your very own boss! Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, it is simpler and a lot more practical than ever before to work off-site, even in one’s own home.

Online residual cashflow is the name of the game when it comes to making money off the internet. The term “residual income” refers to being continuously paid for work that’s performed only once; for instance, a single song that is played over and over again on the radio makes money each and every time it’s broadcasted.

To get residual income on the worldwide web indicates, for most folks, creating made-for-Adsense sites that use Google’s Adsense program to sell advertising space. If you have a popular site, you’re virtually guaranteed to make lots of money – many, many times over!

To get residual income this way means a site that is interesting to the greatest number of people possible. This is key, simply because, as in the case with so-called “old media” like newspapers and television, it’s all about the number of eyeballs you can offer an advertiser. People don’t put up signs in the middle of nowhere, after all, and neither will someone pay money to promote their company on a corner of the internet no one else visits.

That’s why eyeballs are so essential. But how to get a sizable audience, then? S.E.O., or Search Engine Optimization. That’s the first step in a series. S.E.O. helps your internet site to be discovered in the first place. It is what causes your web site to rank highly. Successful S.E.O. means increased earnings and is an indispensable part of business online.

Another fantastic way to make money with the internet is by means of affiliate marketing. Like hosting a popular MFA site, affiliate marketing is commission-based, where you only make money if you make a sale. The power of the internet exponentially increases the reach and scope of any effort, but it is still a good old-fashioned numbers game, and S.E.O. can help in this area, too.

Soundproofing walls often means the use of soundproofing drywall, a unique kind of insulation product designed to damper noise. Soundproofing refers to any methods of reducing sound pressure by employing noise reduction and noise absorption.

The former term involves blocking the passage of sound, often through prolonged distances and also the use of obstacles along the path of a sound. The latter operates by transforming the sound itself, usually through the suppression of characteristics like resonance and reverberation.

Cheap soundproofing has traditionally been a misnomer, as the technologies employed are typically state-of-the-art: after all, few have the money for a nusiance that is typically considered part of the price of living in modern society. But recent advances have made it possible for some true “bang-for-the-buck” bargains, specifically with regards to windows.

The main focus of residential soundproofing plans is the windows. Unless building from scratch, the windows will be essentially the most practical point of focus, as it presents the most cost-efficient opportunities. For starters, specially developed curtains are available that use honeycomb-like air chambers to dampen sounds. Then there are double-pane windows, as well as the installation of a second, or interior, window.

But if you are due for a renovation, or are newly constructing, be sure to check out the new soundproofing technologies built-into modern sheetrock specially developed to dampen sound. These products save not only money but floorspace too, fully replacing conventional techniques involving resilient channels and mass-loaded vinyl.

Such innovative drywall meet all of the usual safety and performance standards that govern their regular cousins on the market, and are available in common sizes and thicknesses. Plus, despite their added capabilities, they are just as easy to use. Residential or commercial, soundproof drywalls usher in a new era of sound reduction and elimination.

The Mediterranean Diet is one of the most recent and popular ways of losing weight, and it’s based on one of the most ancient ways of eating anywhere in the world. So named because of its origins around the Mediterranean region, the Mediterranean Diet today is usually said to reflect the healthy culinary habits traditional to Greece in particular, where salads predominate and any meat is grilled, essentially never fried.

Like much of Greek cuisine, the Mediterranean Diet concentrates on dark leafy vegetables, fresh fruit, and high-fiber beans. Fats and protein comes from cheese, grilled meats and seafood, and of course olive oil.

Yogurt also forms a staple of this diet, as does nuts and grains. Such foods are encouraged by most doctors as immunity-boosting and cancer-fighting, cutting heart disease and diabetes risks substantially and almost immediately.

With these foods, one normally feels more satisfied and less likely to binge-eat, some studies show. An important part of this Mediterranean or Greek way of eating involves much smaller portions, which are also shared. But take care: a few classics of Greek cuisine can be highly fattening, too, such as the popular spanakopita, or spinach pie, which is loaded with butter and can contain as many calories as a bacon cheeseburger!

All in all, however, eating in a Mediterranean manner is generally recognized by study after study as having substantial benefits. Little wonder, then, that everybody from sedentary couch potatoes to competitive athletes follow this diet so enthusiastically! Of course, the greatest diet is the one that you are able to actually stick with while helping you accomplish your goals, and the Mediterranean variety is no do-it-all miracle on its own. Depending on your specific circumstances, you might also need to augment proper nutrition with adequate exercise and rest. But there’s no better-tasting first step than some grilled and sautéed Greek staple to get you moving forward!

Have you heard that unlocked cell phones have received something of a large nod from the American judiciary lately, thanks to a judgment that makes it possible the unlocking of a person’s own smartphone absolutely legal. Mobile service providers in general lock the handsets they supply their customers so that those mobile handsets will solely operate using the provider’s network. The result of it all is that mobile phones are instantly made useless whenever customers move carriers, and so a cottage industry has developed around those individuals who want to take their telephones with them to a completely new carrier. And right now the courts just provided this practice its blessings, but with one fatal caveat – while unlocking mobile handsets is allowed, the means essential to accomplish it is not!

Being an “agent” generally refers to commissioned sales, and selling is one of the toughest jobs to be found anywhere – and anytime – but what about as a career? Most peopel would really burn out, but the successful ones tend to move into more managerial sorts of positions, which explains how they are able to make an actual career out of sales. After all, it’s tough living on commission-only your whole life, particularly at the lower end of things where one is doing showroom sales of items less than ten grand apiece!

Then there are people like Zalman Silber that are able to parlay their talent for sales into serial entrepreneurship. In fact, selling is the lifeblood of any business, so in a way it’s no surprise that successful salesmen and women should be able to combine that skill with more managerial ones to create their own companies.

But what is this mysterious art of selling that’s so crucial to any enterprise? Is it only a matter of horse-feathering one’s way through a potential customer’s defenses? Do successful salesmen and women lie better than most? What’s the fine line between representing your product or service positively and doing whatever it takes to make your monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly quota?

Believe it or not, it’s basically a lot like the dating game, and it’s no secret that successful sellers – “agents,” if you prefer – also tend to be quite the Casanovas (and whatever is the equivalent term for females). After all, successful selling is nothing more than successful seduction.

Not the way a Zalman Silber would put it, in all likelihood, but it’s possible for people to be very good at something and yet not know exactly why. And the truth is that the same thing which makes one successful at sales is precisely what makes one successful at finding lovers.

It’s all about getting enough information. Think about it. If you absolutely knew that someone wasn’t interested in you – that there would be no chance in hell – would you still waste your time? Obviously not. So the key, whether at dating or selling a product or service, is to get as much information as possible. It is, in other words, a matter of intelligence (pun intended!)….

But we are not telepathic or clairvoyant, however, so the only way to find out is to observe. To really listen. And to ask the right questions – or use the right pick-up lines.

By “right pick-up lines” it isn’t meant some magical quip that will easily open the lady’s heart (and legs!) but questions – or even non-interrogative statements – that allow you to plumb her mind, her soul. The goal is to find out what she wants, and what she’s willing to settle for – to find out what her needs are, and how much she’s willing to pay.

Just like with a prospective customer.

Wine holders can make excellent wedding gifts. After all, someone is sure to give a set of wine glasses, and others are sure to give some bottles of wine! So why not lovely wine holders to showcase it all while offering a degree of protection.

Getting the right wedding gifts can be quite the chore, and playing it safe by resorting to old stand-bys is a time-efficient, cost-effective approach to fulfill social expectations tastefully and respectfully enough.

Neither is it cynical to present a newly wedded couple elegant wine holders, specifically if they’re customized to uniquely reflect the matrimonial occasion. A paralyzingly rich cornucopia of styles exist, constructed of any number of materials now. Indeed, the marketplace is full of such innovative aesthetics that it is arguable that they even help accentuate the taste of fine wine!

That’s because unlike the case with beer, one expects a certain elegance with wine. And even though hip trendy shapes have invaded the formerly neo-classical sensibilities of the wine holder world, most would probably still prefer good old-fashioned looks for one presented as commemorative a wedding gift. But there’s no shortage of such designs, which are almost certain to remain ever popular.

When looking for the right wine holder to give as a wedding present, it’s essential to keep the couple in mind at all times. Do they even drink? Of course, one might employ wine racks and holders as purely aesthetic props of a sort, but it’s always great to keep the recipients of a gift in thoughts when shopping!

Weddings can be stressful enough. A quality wine rack or holder is a safe way to calmly fulfill the social obligation of not arriving empty-handed while not presenting a thing which may prove , even embarrassing, in the case of those overly religious.

Aching muscle relief is something frequently encountered among older athletes. For largely unknown reasons, the aging process causes muscles to tighten up and causes their use to be significantly hindered, usually resulting in soreness and even outright pain. A muscle relief gel is employed by many to treat such conditions, people who refuse to be consigned to the much less active lifestyles typically recommended by their doctors.

As per the old adage about the truth being “somewhere in-between,” perhaps the best course of action would be to heed the healtcare providers’ advice to a certain degree, relieving aching muscles while not entirely giving up long-cherished hobbies – which is, modifying their pursuit in deference to age or the advancement thereof.

Of course, this kind of a course of action is difficult for athletes used to giving their all and pushing performance envelopes. But it must be learned, and practiced and mastered the same as any new skill, in order to lay the right foundation for a physically rigorous, but also safe, life. The older athlete faces enough challenges without bringing on more, for example creating issues outright by refusing to accommodate nature’s unavoidable progression.

Decline is inevitable. What is not inevitable is catastrophic break-down, and that depends in large part on the older athlete’s psychological acceptance of significantly changed circumstances. Go with the flow, working with Mother Nature, and you can usually expect a vigorous enough life still.

Listen to your body. Learn its new language, its reduced syntax. The range of physical expression diminishes, but vibrancy is still possible when properly channeled.

That is the challenge for the older athlete, pain or no pain. It is to learn anew how to work with the limits of one’s body, encouraging it to excel its capabilities even while respecting those limits. It is the challenge of any athlete at any age, but advanced ages make the challenge much more plain.

When in the market for a self study CPE course, here are three consumer tips that may save you time and money. First, make sure that the credits you would receive are even acceptable to whatever certifying body governs your professional license.

It may seem absurd, but you can find actual cases on record of people – otherwise fully qualified professionals – who have overlooked such a minor detail and gone on to take a course and earn credits that turn out not to be recognized by the board with jurisdiction over their licensure.

Secondly, inquire whether there are any pilot CPE courses, courses which are experimental in nature for which tuition is free (or drastically reduced) in exchange for, usually, some kind of student suggestions at the end. Such trial courses, however, bear actual credits.

The principal stipulation typical to such pilot programs is that students really complete the course. Occasionally, the only other obligation is that detailed suggestions be provided to help enhance the program for full-fledged deployment. Other times, all of the data that course-designers wish to know are test scores and the like, with no other feedback needed. Whatever the case, pilot programs are a win-win scenario for all concerned.

Last but not least, consider an online CPE instead of traditional correspondence through the mail. Some of these web-based courses may even consist of familiar fare for example workbooks and the like, but much more often than not every thing is on-line, immediately accessible and available at a much lower cost due to not needing to print and bind materials and pay for the postage to send them to a student.

Technology even makes such courses much better, with multimedia and interactivity frequently built into the design of the program, allowing for more interesting and pedagogically helpful presentations. Perhaps best of all, test results are almost always instantaneous!

Bronze statues are all over the place. Keeping them clean seems like quite a challenge! But apparently, bronze statues require only the most basic levels of care in order to look fairly presentable. All that’s needed is good ol’ soap and water. That is it! Dish soap and warm water. Go figure!

Hard to believe, of course, given the state of your typical bronze sculpture inside the parks or on the street. And just why are so many made of bronze in the first place? Well, it turns out that bronze has some qualities that make a sculptor’s job that much easier.

They are strong but not brittle, so that a lot more daring action poses may be used with less visually intrusive supports. They also expand just a little right before setting to ensure that a mold is likely to be completely filled, down to the slightest detail.

Interestingly, the cleaning of iron statues, a less popular but still fairly common type of sculpture, will most likely be much more involved. Rust or peeling paint might need to be removed first. Using sandpaper should suffice, and then it’s on to the soap and water! Stone statues, however, typically need no soap at all except in instances of heaving staining. White marble statues, however, must not come into contact with bleach.

Regular exposure to the chemical will almost definitely damage the marble! In fact, there’s nearly never a good reason to use bleach with statuary, besides the fact that it is harmful to the environment, killing any plant it touches.

Now all this sounds straightforward enough. So why are all of the bronze, iron, and marble statues out there so dirty? In a word, funds – or the lack thereof, rather. Local and national parks departments are among the very first to be cut back in an budget shakeup, and sadly this is an even worse recession than any previous within the past seventy-five years!

Museum replicas allow artwork lovers to indulge their fantasies with out spending a fortune. Of course, even with all the money in the world, some treasures may simply not be available for purchase, such as Greek vases of proven antiquity and aesthetic merit.

The art of ancient Greece consists of some of the most wonderful ever produced by man, and museum replicas make available to everyone a little of the joy involved in owning art.

Museum replicas are often handmade, as well, so that the verisimilitude can be strikingly inconspicuous in the case of one-to-one scale reproductions or amazingly faithful in any other proportion. This kind of a Greek vase, however, may be surprisingly affordable given the quality, so that it is possible to own a entire collection of them, just like a genuine well-heeled conoisseur.

In fact, some are so faithfully reproduced as to fool even professional appraisers! For such reasons, replica Greek vases make fantastic gifts too, thoughtful and possibly a bit out of the ordinary. And because they are replicas, they are practical, able to be utilized as genuine vases.

Imagine how charming that would be, to see real live flowers in one, as if restoring it to life after so many centuries! And needless to say, it’s simply fun to walk through a museum picking out pieces of which you own a copy. Having such lovely objects of art bear witness to the elegance of one’s own soul, too, expressing one’s highest hopes and deepest desires.

They also link us to a glorious golden age of Western Civilization, lending an elegant gravitas to any setting, an air of tradition and authority that feels at once austere and light. Such are the attractions of art as well as the potentially practical applications of museum replicas. They’re joys now available for one and all.

During those bygone halcyon times of console gaming, when a system failed, the oft reaction was to raise one’s hands toward the sky and curse the God’s of each and every pantheon for having smote your system. There was little in the way of diagnostic options leaving most to wonder vainly what affliction had stricken their beloved console, snatching it from this mortal coil. The power would be activated and nothing would occur and there’d be little choice beyond cursing nefarious fortune and her ambiguous design, frequently plunging into a void of existential woe. Nonetheless, with the most recent generation of consoles, there is at least some onboard indicator of what evils have befallen your system, most infamously the X-box 360 and the Red Ring of Death.

One can’t help but wonder if this knowledge has been of greater use to mankind, or if the question of console demise is one best left unanswered, for where tragedy once came like a breath of wind and left as little trace, it now bears a face and a name to be loathed by mortals. Four times divided, each of the ring’s quadrants on the face of the X-box 360 displays a vibrant green hue when in good health. However, when hardware failure or pestilence or an ancient curse has marked a console with its wicked taint, the four lights will glow a hellish fiery red to indicate the source of its ailment. The configurations of these cursed runes are telling of the particular affliction and are interpreted as follows.

When the ring is solely aflame in its southeastern most quadrant, facing the exact same direction as the flight of the migratory birds, the X-box 360 is then victim of hardware failure, the exact nature of which is alluded to only by the apocryphal two-digit sequence of symbols that appear upon the linked display. When the ring is cleft in twain from scalp to groin by the red hue, a excellent fever has taken your console causing its components to overheat.

When cloaked entirely in the Masque of the Red Death, you most likely just forgot to plug the AV cables in, jackass. Or some greater malevolence has seized some vital aspect to your console, for which you may seek the guidance of a soothsayer, an apothecary, or even… Microsoft. But seriously, just check to make sure it’s plugged in. Most feared, nevertheless, among we mere puppets on this earthly stage are the red lights that seize the ring in all quadrants save for that between north and east.

Glance but for only a moment to confirm your sickly apprehensions, then avert thine eyes for what stares back is the eye of the devil whose red gaze will indelibly sear the soul. General Hardware Failure, plight of men and Gods alike and bane of all things good and sacred, has corrupted your X-box. Abandon all hope, for even among sorcerer’s alchemy and mystic’s incantations there is naught that men of earthly constitution can summon.

But one option remains, to turn over your console to the ethereal high court of Microsoft or maybe a trusted third party hardware technician whose tangible connection to the divine can provide the steel of nerve, the authority of conviction, the edge of wit, the fortitude of soul required to perform the ritual exorcism that will rid your X-box of its demons. Please allow two to three weeks for repairs.

Athletic tape is used by many athletes to help support the joints most critical to performance in their sport. It is frequently used by boxers to stiffen up their wrists, while soccer players may apply them to their knees. Weight-lifters will at times use athletic tape to prevent calluses from developing on their palms.

Many forms of tape are made from cotton, with an adhesive on one side to help with binding. It was first invented by a Japanese chiropractor for therapeutic uses but is now sometimes applied in the belief that the assistance it lends will help even in the absence of injury.

The evidence on athletic tape is actually quite mixed, nevertheless, no matter its widespread popularity. Numerous professional athletes of excellent standing seem to swear by it, such as Lance Armstrong and Serena Williams. But clinical studies have had a difficult time proving substantial benefits. Could the infamous placebo effect be operating in those cases of athlete endorsement?

Making use of tape does seem like a logical thing to do. After all, how many of us have discovered on our own how good it feels to rub a pain and even grasp it tightly? Think back to the last time you accidentally bumped your wrist – hard – against something like a doorknob. Didn’t you instantly grab that wrist and, following initially massaging it a little, hold tightly for dear life?

Compression is a recognized method of protecting against or controlling swelling, and firmly binding with tape seems to conform with that understanding of how our bodies work. And perhaps therein lies its lasting appeal. It just makes so much sense! Using tape feels great, and for numerous athletes that’s enough. As long as it’s not in the way or be otherwise a hindrance, the psychological pleasure of compression is good enough for most people.

Great Australians in history. A difficult undertaking for any scholar. To begin with, of course, one must think through 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 fascinating attractions, the Skywalk, not to mention one of Melbourne’s, too, called The Edge. The former is generally 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 outstanding attractions for their cities, bringing 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’ worldwide 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 believe themselves Australians or not, really prize their independence above all else!