Thousands of people look for for an online auto loan calculator daily, according to search engines like Google. It is not surprising, of course, provided how essential cars are in most people’s daily lives. But the most important aspect of buying a car is not anything that any calculator can help with.
An auto loan calculator is part of a whole suite of widgets available on the internet that will compute pretty much anything that could be quantified, from caloric consumption to foreign currency exchange rates, but there is no programming genius possible which will be able to figure out the most important consideration of all involving car ownership. Not that calculators are hard to program; producing such software have been a standard textbook exercise for many computer programming course for years and years.
No, the most critical factor of all just is not quantifiable.
It’s you.
While an auto loan calculator can crunch the numbers, it cannot determine why you’re buying a car – or a particular kind of car, at a particular time, from a particular place, under a particular set of conditions (and so forth and so on). But this is the most essential aspect of car buying: you.
Beyond your income, personal credit rating, and present level of debt – all put together – looms the much larger, more important matter of your own motivations. Do you really need a car?
Is public transportation really non-existent? Would it really be much too much inconvenience to handle?
Will it be worthwhile for you to still be paying years and even, in all probability, decades from now for a car, an automobile with which you might not even be satisfied any longer?
Most people will not consider these things. But it is really important to realize that taking out a loan is going into debt. A calculator can only show you some numbers. You will still need to make the choice a good one.
Bring up rhinestones and folks of a certain age may well remember Elvis Presley and his outrageous outfits. But the singer had always been a little outrageous in his gyrations, and for much of his career, even early on, his outfits have tended to push the envelope of establishment tastes. Rhinestones, then, were only the latest in flamboyancy for him, though, to be sure, his tastes did progress to ever more extravagant designs.
Given such popular perceptions of him, tied as they are to his choice of dress, even when off the stage, it’s amusing to think about that once upon a time he was more square-cut than not. Rather than rhinestones and the like, the worst that could be said of his appearance was the lock of hair that fell over his forehead, out of place from the slicked back coif he wore at this time.
Then he was drafted into the Army, in 1958. Wisely, he made the decision, at least partly on a former manager’s advice, to serve his tour as a regular soldier instead of receiving preferential treatment by performing musical shows that would certainly have kept him in touch with the public.
Wiser still, producers at RCA, his record label, made sure to keep him in the popular imagination through the ingenuous marketing of previously unreleased material, ten of which turned out to be Top Forty hits, along with the recompilation of old favorites across four albums.
All while on active duty with the Army in Germany! Far from harming his career as he’d feared, Elvis became quite the Everyman for serving like anyone else. In contrast to some of his fellow musicians, Elvis was usually considered the most respectable, the most presentable, to mainstream/establishment sensibilities. Parents might still fret at his highly suggestive and deliberate pelvic gyrations, but at least that’s all they could object to about his public persona.
Coming from a country whose dishes are really distinctive and usually mysterious to western audiences, Tempura is really a surprisingly western style dish for Japanese food, though not without its unique charms. Tempura is simply any of a variety of seafoods – fish, shellfish, and cephalopods – and vegetables that have been doused in tempura batter and deep fried. Tempura batte itself is really a simple affair, comprised mostly of cold water and soft wheat flower.
Sometimes starch, eggs, baking soda or powder, oils, or spices will also be added to modify the texture, consistency, and taste of the batter. It is then typically whisked for a short period of time, perhaps only a few seconds – just enough to mix the ingredients – with a small instrument, typically chop sticks. Contrary to other, typically much more viscous batters used in deep frying, tempura batter is deliberately allowed to maintain a lumpy consistency. Between this and the consistently cold temperature of the batter, the end result is that tempura batter is normally fluffier.
Otherwise, too high a temperature or too vigorous whisking will discharge gluten from the wheat flour which will give the batter a tougher, doughier consistency that is undesirable. Special flour is also available for the making of tempura batter that won’t release gluten under these circumstances, essentially making the batter failure proof.
Right after tempura batter has been prepared, small, thin strips of vegetables and seafoods are dipped in the matter and fried for a short period. Common seafoods are shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, and a variety of fishes, which are also fried along with vegetables like peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, and different species of squashes.
Canola or vegetable oil are both sufficient for frying, but traditional preparation demands that the ingredients dipped in tempura batter be fried in either sesame seed or tea seed oil. This should impart a much more authentic flavor, and purists suggest that use of these oils results in a lighter, fluffier, crispier tempura batter after it’s been fried. Also in contrast to American cuisine, great care is taken not to overcook the battered ingredients, lest their flavor be polluted. Measures are also taken to assure that lumps of tempura batter do not remain floating in the oil after ingredients have been fried.
This is to stop the batter from becoming overfried in the oil and burning, leaving a bad taste in the oil that can in turn ruin ingredients yet to be fried. These lumps of tempura batter even have their own name, Tenkasu, and are themselves utilized as ingredients or as toppings in other dishes. Tempura is typically eaten almost immediately after frying. There are a variety of sauces which are traditionally used, where pieces are dipped using chop sticks. Other additives like sea salt and powdered green tea leaves are also common.
If wines should go with a dinner to make it complete, then wine racks must go with a wine for that exact same reasons. For a bottle of wine in the cupboard or on a shelf, while adequate, seems something of an opportunity missed, an opportunity for excellence.
Indeed, if one is such a gourmand as to care about serving fine wine with a meal, then one should not begrudge the additional expense of wine racks appropriate for one’s collection.
Individuals who serve wine will surely have much more than one or two bottles on hand, and due to the fact it is essential to do something properly, all the way, if it’s to be done at all, it is crucial to store these precious bottles in the time-honored way, as befits their status at the table.
That is where many go wrong, introducing an element of kitsch into an otherwise good faith attempt at an elegant evening. They pull a bottle out of the fridge instead of a proper wine chiller. Or they serve it warm, straight out of the cupboard – they could have used a proper rack, at least.
Besides, wine racks lend an air of elegance to nearly any setting, above and beyond what they do for the wine itself. Fine racks are available in a wide range of designs bearing any range of construction, from fluid cast iron shapes to hand crafted wooden forms.
They are important accessories for the true connoisseur. Though the word “accessories” generally refers to that which isn’t essential but only improve, a wine rack completes the experience as much as correctly serving a bottle does. A rack is to a bottle what candlelight is to the dinner: one might as well dine in the jungle naked, then, over poor roots and berries in the dark and damp!
There is no reason to be bored in New York City. That anyone can be bored in a major world-class metropolitan center like that is proof positive that boredom is nothing more than a state of mind, something entirely within the control of the individual him or herself. Even a tourist trap like Zalman Silber’s Skyride located at the Empire State Building will stimulate the mind, if for no other reason than that there will be so much going on, what with all the tourists from all around the world. Don’t care for people? Well, there is always the great outdoors in New York – that’s right, the great outdoors, in the city! From Central Park right in the heart of Manhattan Island to national wildlife areas all around the so-called Outer Boroughs, Mother Nature keeps many residences in town.
And of course, if you do like people and people-watching, the Big Apple hosts any number of clubs and cafes at which that hobby may be frequently indulged. At attractions like the aforementioned Zalman Silber one, all the peoples of the world will be available for viewing, live, in 3-D! Ultimately, there is no reason why anyone should be bored in New York. Which, again, just goes to show that boredom is nothing more – and nothing less – than a state of mind.
And why does the mind go stale like that, as it were? Why do we suddenly just lose our appetite, so to speak, our zest? To understand all this, it’s necessary to first understand the evolutionary function of the brain. Any brain, really, but the human brain, specifically.
Generally speaking, brains help a complex, higher-order organism negotiate with its environment. Thus brains are naturally interested in what’s going on. Now a lot of what’s interesting about what goes on is interesting because it is new. But when the brain doesn’t sense anything new, it is not doing what it wants to do – take in information. Hence, boredom.
Caged animals exhibit this kind of behavior. A fish needs to swim, a bird needs to fly. Dogs need to run. And so forth. But for a human being, it isn’t simply about physical activity, though actually that’s extremely important and more often than not underestimated by most people, their own needs for physically rigorous activities on a daily basis. No, what a human being needs, perhaps above all, is mental stimulation.
And so when we are not possessed by an idea, whether inspired by a new one or enchanted with an old favorite, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. Suddenly, we are confronted with ourselves, as ourselves – without the conscious thoughts we typically take to be ourselves.
We are confronted, in other words, with an existential crisis.
The serial entrepreneur is a special breed of a special breed. Take Zalman Silber, for example. Already a President’s Club member at famed New York Life Insurance Company, he stumbled upon the idea of a “ride” located at the Empire State Building. After all, what do tourists pay for if not to get a bird’s-eye view of the city from there? So why not provide them the Skyride, an attraction that is as enticingly named as it is misleadingly so, a tourist trap of an attraction as any to be found in the backwoods of a small hick town, only it’s right there in the Big Apple instead! And it’s nothing more than a half-hour movie, some of which is made up of helicopter flybys over city landmarks. Whoopee.
But it’s wildly successful, and from such success he has founded other successes. And that’s just what a serial entrepreneur is. But a new breed of serial entrepreneur has come on the scene. No Zalman Silber peddler of old-economy businesses, these young men and women are as much technicians as they are visionaries. That is to say, they harken back the age of a Thomas Edison, when businessmen actually built the things they sold. And one of the most outrageously incredible startups has been the most recent effort from serial techpreneur Seth Priebatsch (who founded his first company at age nine and has pocketed enough from other ventures to get this latest off and running), based on his idea of “the game layer.” This is…well, it’s hard to explain. Best get a cup of coffee started.
Like most of this generation, Priebatsch really enjoys videogames. It is almost certain he has tried his hand at creating some of his own, given that he also seems to have a certain amount of programming talent. But no videogame can possibly compare with the thrill of creating a business – one that is successful. And that is what propels the serial entrepreneur. The thrill of the chase.
And here’s where it all ties in to Priebatsch’s Big Idea: the game layer. It’s a kind of platform whereby just about any task can be turned into a game – and with very tangible rewards. In programming terms, it would be a little like an API, or Application Programming Interface, a set of pre-made ready-to-serve software that makes programming that much easier. A bit like a template, if you will, though greatly more open-ended and customizable.
Well, Priebatsch’s game layer is a platform upon which a business, say the local bakery, can reward you for achieving certain goals in a game. Yeah, really! The game allows players to compete for rewards at stores, gyms, museums, and so forth.
Nice idea – except that “game” doesn’t necessarily mean “videogame.” A game could be anything. Frequent flier mileage is a kind of game, according to Priebatsch’s take on things. It’s just not particularly fun.
He aims to change all that, in the process introducing a “game layer” to the world.
Starting up an internet business is the new way to riches in the 21st Century. With a minimum of start-up costs, just about anyone with enough drive and know-how can do it. And so indeed, innovative website domains are registered every day in their tens of thousands! It’s an exciting time to have The Next Big Idea, because the power of the world wide web means unprecedented scope and depth.
But while having an internet business is quite easy, truly making money will nevertheless be a struggle! It is less of a struggle, however, in most cases, since, even if you were the proverbial guy selling snowballs to eskimos, using the power of the world wide web you can now sell them to, say, the islanders of Tahiti instead. (of course, the logistics involved are probably considerable, even should demand prove profitable!)
So the first thing to comprehend about an online business is that although it can make a lot of things much easier than before, everything is still hard to achieve. With millions of websites out there, people will need to be able to find yours. This means that search engines must rank you highly – within the top seven results, essentially, above “the fold,” where viewers do not have to scroll down the page since the overwhelming majority of people simply do not. Actually, you can be on page one of Google and still barely make any business if you are not within the top seven!
It’s actually even harder than that – most people don’t bother checking past the top five, really. Usability test after usability test confirms that individuals will just click on the very first few results, typically two or three, before being captivated by something they see. So it is important to rank highly!
There is so much involved in setting up shop on the web. As with any other decision of consequence in life, please make sure to exercise due diligence and do extensive research!
Surgical masks are usually worn in several parts of Asia out of consideration for others when one has a communicable disease, as well as when one wishes to avoid catching anything oneself! But in the case of the common cold, it is unlikely that these masks can be of much help.
That is due to the fact surgical masks typically cannot filter out the viruses; the fabric is usually just not fine enough to catch the germs, which are simply too small. But more importantly, the one thing to realize about the common cold is that, out of some two hundred or so rhinoviruses there are, only a few of them that are directly responsible for the symptoms which afflict sufferers.
That’s right – most common cold viruses do not really cause the sore throats, running noses, or headaches that so bedevil the infected. Most rhinoviruses do not attack our cells. Water eyes? Itchy throat? Congested sinuses? Absolutely nothing to do with them, in all likelihood.
The overwhelming majority of the time, it’s our own bodies that produce such symptoms. Yes, our own bodies – our own immune systems, to be exact. All those symptoms come, most of the time, as a result of the immune system reacting to the virus.
The virus itself, in most cases, does absolutely nothing. Doesn’t attempt to infect cells, doesn’t destroy them or trigger any problems. But like an overzealous police department hell-bent on locking up every harmless vagrant and panhandler, our immunity system runs amok producing chemical reactions to the foregin intruder, reactions that are the direct cause of our stuffed noses, scratchy throats, and even aching ears.
Thus, having a strong and robust immune system gives rise to extremely intense reactions! Far from a sign of weakness, all that sneezing, coughing, and hurt most likely means a healthy immune system!
It ought to be noted that flu viruses do attack us, even though most rhinoviruses do not. But the symptoms are the same, and it’s a dilemma when strong immunity helps with flu viruses but hurts when it comes to most cold viruses! In any case, it’ll be all right to leave the surgical masks for surgeons.
Affiliate marketing is really a method of promotion whereby independent contractors, so to speak, are employed to help publicize a product or service. Such work is carried out on a commission-only basis, so that payment is only made on a sale. These folks are traditionally known as “affiliates;” hence the name.
Affiliate marketing can be quite lucrative, and theoretically can produce residual income, money that is earned from work already done. Think of all those songs on the radio.
Did you know that every time one of them is played, the musicians involved are paid? They might have first composed and performed the piece years, even decades, ago, but today they are still being paid for it, every single time the song comes on the air (or is used in movies, et cetera).
That is residual income, and that’s the true power of affiliate marketing. It’s a promise that animates tens of thousands of affiliate marketers each and every year, recruiting ever more affiliates – for the way to residual incomes lies in creating one’s own network of affiliates who “kick up” a percentage of their earnings to oneself.
Of course, the devil is in the details, as the old adage goes, and before signing up it’s important to carefully educate oneself. Most programs need an initial purchase of some kind, and many others require that sales be on-going in order to continue receiving affiliate income. So let’s say that Charlie has built a network of subscribers to some kind of service or other.
Each time they renew, he receives his take, his cut. But some programs will stipulate that he only actually receives his “lifetime” commission on the condition that he continues to generate new clients! Otherwise, his earnings on his established customers are held for him, and not usually in some third-party escrow, either.
Rainwater collection is arguably the most visible and thus symbolic aspect of rainwater harvesting. Down through history all over the world, drinking water for people and livestock as well as irrigation for crops has been provided by collecting rainfall. In numerous places, even these days, rainwater is really the only obtainable source of water.
Quite a few methods are utilized in rainwater collection, from simple ones for personal use to complex industrial models supplying entire facilities. Generally, rainwater is harvested from either the ground or the roof. Some roofing materials might be harmful to human health, nevertheless, but although useless for drinking they may possibly still be utilized for washing clothes, flushing toilets, and irrigating gardens.
Harvesting rainwater is really a excellent way to cut back on water usage, and it is very simple for homeowners to implement. All that’s required is some rain tanks or barrels to catch rooftop runoff and the like. Of course, more sophisticated catchment methods are available, but nothing beats old-fashioned methods for cost if not convenience!
It’s easily possible to reduce by half the amount of municipal water used by deploying a home catchment system, even if it only consists of a single tank collection rain. The rate of collection is largely related to the intensity of rainfall, as measured by annual precipitation. Get more rain, catch more rain!
Ground-based collection methods are usually found only in areas where rainwater is quite scarce and other sources are not available. These systems are also more suited to whole communities rather than individuals or individual families, though the size of the community should be small.
But no matter the approach, proper maintenance is necessary for hygenic reasons, even if the water isn’t meant for actual consumption. For example, water barrels should be covered to prevent mosquito infestation and algae growth.