Blog Face-Off

Practically in most communities, water damage restoration isn’t thought of as a very pressing concern, seeing as most communities simply aren’t prone to flooding in a capacity that makes it terribly vital. Only after Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans did water damage restoration become a concern for people, or at least an issue worth recognition, even to people outside New Orleans who reasonably considered the flooding of an entire city to be a bad thing. At that time mold was also familiar but due to their circumstances, mold removal didn’t come to mind. What few Americans realize is that the flooding of New Orleans was a relatively small disaster compared to flood scenarios experienced in other parts of the world.

While Hurricane Katrina was certainly a national disaster of unbelievable proportions, whose flooding claiming at least 1,836 lives, it pales comparability to an event like the 1938 Yellow River flood in China, where the death toll is estimated to have been as high as a million people, with several million more turned refugees and forced to flee their homes and the areas affected by the flooding. The geographical effects of this flood alone lasted for nearly 10 years, the entire course of the Yellow river itself having been diverted and necessitated intention of water damage restoration far beyond those demanded by New Orleans.

Unlike the flooding following Hurricane Katrina, the 1938 flood was a man-made disaster. In 1938, China was already in its second year of war against the invading armies of Imperial Japan during the second Sino-Japanese war, and by that point Japan had arrested control of nearly the entire northern portion of the country. In order to stop the Japanese advance and to stall their seizure of the major Chinese cities Wuhan and Xi’an, the Chinese made the drastic choice to open dikes along the Yellow river, flooding the river valley and annihilating infrastructure vital to the Japanese advance.

In order to catch the Japanese by surprise, the Chinese made no effort to notify Chinese civilians living in areas that may be affected by the flooding, and as a result, hundreds of thousands were drowned in their sleep. More fatal than the actual flooding was the threat of waterborne diseases, such as Botulism, Cholera, Dysentery, Malaria, and Typhus, which likely claimed hundreds of thousands more lives than the waters themselves. The floods having submerged nearly 21,000 square miles of land demolished local crops resulting in famine and starvation among the local population not yet affected by the other effects of the flood.

In 1946 and 1947, after the end of the Second World War, the dikes were refurbished in one of China’s largest efforts in water damage restoration, gradually repairing the Yellow river to its pre-1938 course. To this day, the Chinese government still conceals most of the details regarding the disaster from the public.

Wine holders can make superb 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 previous stand-bys is really 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 are customized to uniquely reflect the matrimonial occasion. A paralyzingly rich cornucopia of designs exist, constructed of any number of materials now. Indeed, the marketplace is full of such impressive aesthetics that it’s 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 styles, which are almost certain to remain ever popular.

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

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

Have you heard that unlocked cell phones have received something of a significant nod from the American judiciary lately, thanks to a judgment that will allow the unlocking of an individual’s own smartphone completely legal. Cell service providers typically lock the phones they provide their buyers so that those telephones will exclusively function using the provider’s network. The result of it all is that cell phones are instantly made useless whenever consumers change carriers, and so a cottage industry has matured around those people who wish to take their mobile handsets with them to a brand new carrier. And now the courts just gave this practice its blessings, but with one fatal caveat – while unlocking cellphones is allowed, the means mandatory to achieve it is not!

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 hit 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 itself! And it’s nothing more than a half-hour documentary, 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 exactly 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 that made them rich. And one of the most outrageously incredible startups has been that 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 tea brewing.

Like most of this generation, Priebatsch really enjoys videogames. It is almost certain he has tried his hand at making some of his own, given that he also seems to have a certain level 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 enormously 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.

The 1099 Form is filed on behalf of independent contractors in the United States annually as required by law. Independent contractors are individuals or corporations that offer goods or services to another individual or corporation within the terms of a contract or verbal agreement.

Those individuals or organizations that make use of independent contractors need to file a 1099 Form for every contractor paid an amount of six hundred dollars or more during a single year. As may be imagined, it is possible for thousands of such contractors to be hired, and so those who make use of more than two hundred and fifty need to file all their forms electronically, which is virtually always generated by software.

In addition to a 1099 Form, the 1096 is also necessary when it comes to paper copies sent through the mail. Payees typically use the info on their 1099s to finish their own tax returns, and will most likely use the Combined Form 1099 that records all the independent contracting they have done for the year.

Generally speaking, however, taxpayers aren’t required to attach a 1099 to their own federal income tax returns except under certain circumstances. Guidelines concerning 1099 forms are to be found in IRS Publication 1220.

Use of the 1099 has become very controversial in the current financial recession as more and more employers seek to conserve money by classifying an ever larger part of their workforce as independent contractors. The benefits to the employer in savings are essentially passed onto the worker, whose take-home or net earnings will take a substantial hit relative to that of a regular employee. However the practice has becoming increasingly widespread in the American economy today because very few candidates can afford to complain or hold out for a better job offer in such recessionary times.

The W-9 Form from the States Internal Revenue Service is present to serve two certain purposes. These two reasons for its existence are embodied in its official title of Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification. The word “request” refers to the fact that it does not actually require to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service but is alternatively to be taken care of by the payor (payer, or employer) as a part of its administrative records, subject to disclosure to the agency at its request.

The “taxpayer ID number” part concerns the primary purpose of the IRS Form W9, to record information on the payee (the person or entity paid), particularly his or her or its Taxpayer Identification Number, which in the case of a person is the Social Security Number and in the case of an organization is the Employer Identification Number or Federal Tax Identification Number.

The second purpose for the IRS Form W-9 is that the payee may use it to steer clear of backup withholding taxes. With it, the payee releases the payor from the latter’s legal obligated to collect withholding taxes on certain kinds of income, payments that has got to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. By exercising the right to not have such taxes collected on his or her behalf, however, the payee is in effect opting to do so him or herself, when filing tax returns during tax season. In this way, the payee can collect the full amount of the payment due every pay period. For many people, not having an automatic tax deduction every time they are paid means money that they can save and earn interest on.

While this money, if owed, will be returned by the government throughout tax season, the government will not account for the interest that may have gathered during the year had it been saved all along, resulting in something of a loss (officially, an “opportunity cost,” to use an economists’ term) for the person involved. Thus, many people, and even – particularly – corporations, which can usually earn interest at much more favorable rates, will forego the convenience of automatic payday withholding in order to get the money “first,” in the spirit of the old proverb “better one in hand than two in the bush,” especially considering that in reality it is more like one and a half in hand than one in the bush!

A swimmer needs to practice each day, that is why the occasional swimming pool resurfacing can be so devastating to an athlete. But while conventional techniques can take entire days, now there is a 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 is a straightforward process which will have the pool ready for business in a few fairly short hours, a real godsend for swimmers who have to work hard every day 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 do not generally look too good anyway.

Naturally, 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 primary maintenance tasks.

For the individual homeowner, modern advances have made such upkeep a lot easier. Readily available in the form of a gel coating that can 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!

The recent PBS/POV documentary “Wo Ai Ni Mommy” concerns the adoption of a Chinese eight year-old by an American family. More specifically, it is a movie chronicle of a slightly handicapped older child’s integration into the social milieu of a Long Island Jewish family. Most of the documentary may be rather uncomfortable to watch, in a creeply queasy way, the cringe-worthy kind reminiscent of family get-togethers, as audiences are treated to some possibly unflattering details which collectively seem to make the case for better pre-adoption screening beforehand.

It’s not known from the ninety minutes of screentime whether such matters were involved, as the filmmakers intent appears to be a simple record of what occurs in such cross-cultural/racial/national adoptions. Nevertheless, even a psychological evaluation can only do so much, since it is difficult to guage the subtle aspects of human motivation, which also frequently happen to be those bearing the most weight.

In the documentary “Wo Ai Ni Mommy,” one such subtlety concerns the very fact of a cross-cultural/racial/national adoption. While the Sadowskys, the American family featured by this film, were asked why they happened to choose a Chinese girl as compared to any number of children in the United States, there was never truly an answer given.

It was just love at first sight, claims the mother, which begs the question of why she had happened to choose to view Chinese babies first. And even though one with an understanding of the wider context of the popularity of Chinese adoptions in turn-of-the-century America might point out that she had many pals who had also adopted girls from China, the ultimate question of just why China, of all places, remains unanswered.

A fine look into some of the nitty gritty details of older-child adoptions further complicated by language, cultural, as well as physical barriers due to mild disformity, “Wo Ai Ni Mommy” is heartwarming while wistful, raising much more questions than it intends to answer, in the process highlighting just how complex an adoption can be.

Catholic saints are people canonized by the Catholic Church, officially recognized for their piety as residents of Heaven. Nonetheless, in a technical sense, all who are in Heaven who had once been human on earth are, by definition, saints, people perfected in holiness; this is the view subscribed to by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

And while the list of Catholic saints can vary between almost a thousand and a half names to over ten thousand, depending on who’s doing the counting (inexplicably, there appears to be no comprehensive official list), it’s often understood in many quarters that numerous pious souls are obscure and outright lost to human history.

Therefore the term “Catholic saints” refers to those formally recorded and so honored while not making the claim that such a list are the only such people of piety and thus the only group in Heaven. Canonization is the process whereby an individual’s life and deeds is examined for evidence of such recognition by the Church.

It is lengthy and can take many years, and even entire centuries. Beatification is an official declaration that an individual is near sainthood. The final determination rests, nonetheless, on the provenance of two posthumous miracles of some significance.

In a certain sense, miracles are one of the most essential aspects of a saint; the veneration of saints usually rests on this point for numerous lay Catholics. Patron saints are those designated as being particularly associated with particular professions, causes, or qualities.

Saints aren’t considered to have power in their own right, but only that which has been granted by God. Yet the bodily remains and other relics of a saint is believed to be holy and may be utilized in certain ceremonies. Originally, saints were mostly martyrs, but over time other considerations became just as prominent.

During those bygone halcyon days 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 pantheon for having smote your system. There was little in the way of diagnostic options leaving most to wonder vainly what condition had stricken their beloved console, snatching it from this mortal coil. The power would be activated and nothing would happen and there’d be little choice beyond cursing nefarious fortune and her ambiguous design, frequently plunging into a void of existential woe. Nevertheless, with the most recent generation of consoles, there’s at least some onboard indication 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 death 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 with 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 connected display. When the ring is cleft in twain from scalp to groin by the red hue, a great fever has taken your console causing its components to overheat.

When cloaked entirely in the Masque of the Red Death, you possibly just forgot to plug the AV cables in, jackass. Or some higher 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’s naught that men of earthly constitution can summon.

But one option remains, to give up 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 which will rid your X-box of its demons. Please allow two to three weeks for repairs.