Countless will call it reckless, but there’s no doubt that riding fast, almost racing, in New York City traffic is quite the thrill. It is one thing to go against another bicyclist – and they are out there, too – but quite another to go against cars and trucks and buses and motorcycles.

Obviously, one does not really go against motorized vehicles. You will find no racing strategies for that. It isn’t even a contest. But part from the thrill of riding in heavy traffic comes from the illusion of passing them by. For in heavy traffic, cars cannot go too fast, relatively speaking – relative not just to their true potential but in addition, more importantly, to their actual customary practice.

And so the bold cyclist (for it still demands quite a set of nerves) will be able to keep up with them, oftentimes, and taking advantage of lights to bypass car after car after car when cross-traffic allows it. It may not be real racing, nevertheless it sure feels like it to the cyclist! It’s about the only time any person will ever be able to pass car after car after car….

You’ll even be able to weave in and out of traffic, too, if your handling expertise are good. Situational awareness is also a must. And since it’s rush hour, drivers are arguably much more attentive: so many cars, so many witnesses….

Certainly, the streets of Manhattan are fun without cars, too, for example early on a Sunday morning or, even, late at night when even the revelers have gone home to bed. New York being New York, there will still be motorized traffic on the streets, but at these kinds of times, while you can’t exactly “race” cars, there’s still just the sheer joy in having the streets seemingly all to yourself, relatively speaking.

Unless you’ve got one of them portable Coleman Roadtrip grills, camping meals will probably mean some thing like an MRE, or Meal, Ready-to-Eat. Originally developed for the U.S. military, MREs are self-contained lightweight rations available in a wide range of flavors. They’re also produced by other nations for their militaries, with all of the familiar flavors a local would expect!

For example, MREs for South Korean troops include such regional delicacies as kimchi, while Italians enjoy beef tortellini; Swedes and Norwegians get cod stew with sour cream and potato, and Poles make do with bogracz (beef goulash). And though soldiers in the field can’t use camping grills for obvious security reasons, thanks to the marvels of modern science MREs now provide hot meals flamelessly!

Modern day MREs contain a Flameless Ration Heater, or FRH, that will increase the temperature of an eight-ounce entree by a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in no more than twelve minutes. FRHs use a simple chemical reaction to provide heat sufficient to warm up the precooked contents of an MRE.

The concept is to use the natural oxidation of a metal to generate heat. MREs now reach boiling point within seconds, steaming and bubbling! In ten minutes or so, dinner is ready. As can be imagined, they are not anywhere near the power of your least expensive Coleman Roadtrip grills, but they ain’t any person spending the night outdoors.

No, combat cuisine does not compare to camping fare, but it’s not actually that bad, and, frankly, isn’t roughing it part of the overall experience, regardless of whether in the military or living out of doors?

Of course, you could just opt to go totally authentic and hunt game and roast it over a campfire spit! But an MRE is a nice compromise between that and a Coleman grill.

Racing is not on the minds of most bicycle commuters, unless they happen to be messengers or deliverymen who, typically, ride to work! And in such cases, it would not be too surprising to find them employing what could pass for ad hoc racing strategies of the sort found in informal alleycat contests.

It may seem surprising that people who have to ride all day, every day, would also ride so fast, especially when not actually on the job but merely commuting there. Wouldn’t these kinds of individuals rather take a little break from any type of racing for a while? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to slowly ease oneself into one’s day rather than rushing, rushing, rushing all the time?

Most people would agree. But for the speedsters, it is all about the speed. For these kinds of people, it’s like how fish need to swim and birds have to fly. It’s not so much a conscious choice as an inborn need. If anything, it’s how they warm up for the day ahead.

Of course, the majority of individuals commuting by bicycle would like to get there as fast as possible, too. But for them, what’s possible is a lot more limited, in all likelihood, than for the racers who tend to make their living from bicycling all day.

Such people have a lot practice, and they’ll have accumulated so much experience. They are virtually fearless – and though fear generally lend wings to feet, fear when bicycling, particularly in an urban environment, can be an impediment to speed.

In fact, habitually slow riders tend to be those with no confidence. They’re afraid – and understandably so. But the fear slows them down – not that speed is an absolute necessity for them anyway. The point is that it isn’t a matter of some being fast so much as others being slow.

Various ships of the New York City Staten Island Ferry service offer various kinds of boat seats. Some designs enable you to lay down flat almost as comfortably as on any other hard bench, while other kinds feature seats with what is supposed to be an ergonomic curvature that makes them unsuitable for laying down on.

Most times of the day, of course, a ferry’s boat seats wouldn’t be available for such a use anyway, seeing how packed New York rush-hours can be, even for transportation to the so-called “forgotten borough” of Staten Island.

Other times, however, particularly on the weekends, seating is plentiful and numerous a commuter takes to them as to a bed, almost. You can be certain it’s a commuter, one who habitually travels on the ferry, because travelers are otherwise too busy oohing and ahhing over the sights.

After all, looking at Lady Liberty from the confines of ferry boat seats – none next to the windows face out – is nothing compared against leaning over the railing at her. And who wants to take pictures with the most well-known statue in all of the United States from behind a glass window, anyway?

No, if you have come this far, well over a mile from the harbor of downtown Manhattan Island, you will experience her the way numerous immigrants have, in passing in the open air, you’re actually heading in the opposite direction, away from the city, in common with countless soldiers spanning two world wars.

Other differences exist, too, between the various ships employed by the Staten Island ferry service. Some offer a second storey observation deck of sorts, while others can hold cars as well. However, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, vehicles have not been allowed on the ferry.

Here’s a novel thing to do in New York as a tourist: personal training. Forget the tourist traps like Zalman Silber’s Skyride; if you want true heart-thumping excitement, how about hiring one of the many attractive personal fitness trainers available for a jog, swim, stretch, or bike-ride around town? Seriously, there’s no better way to take in the sights than in the same way a native might.

Thousands – no, hundreds of thousands – of New Yorkers exercise each day, whether specifically working out or otherwise enjoying a physically rigorous leisure activity. Why not you? It will be a lot less expensive than the previously mentioned Zalman Silber affair. Instead of helicopter flyovers on film (which is all that his Skyride is – and not even “all” at that, but only “some,” to be exact), why not jog past the West Side heliport near the downtown nabe of Chelsea? Or just take a bicycle ride past the USS Intrepid a mile uptown, along the same waterfront, with its fighter jets and other military aircraft permanently parked on deck.

You want excitement? There’s no thrill more visceral than working out with an attractive able-bodied trainer when new in town! Not only will you enjoy the company of someone that’s good-looking, but you’ll also be able to stay healthy. Even if you’re not exercising at all, picking it up for the first time (or after a long while) when in a new unfamiliar environment can be really fun. In fact, it can be so exhilarating that you need to be mindful of checking your own enthusiasm so as to not get hurt, especially as a beginner!

Indeed, organizations like the 50 States Marathon Club were founded to serve people who already have, all on their own, combined fitness and traveling into one unbeatable vacation package. And for many who are retirees, exercise and travel go hand-in-hand every day! It’s a great idea with which almost anyone can participate along.

Certainly, many people have long traveled just to do certain things at, specifically, certain places. Climbing and hiking come to mind immediately; they are probably the pastimes most associated with travel. But there are many sports and otherwise physically challenging activities that can be intimately tied to a certain place. Bicyclists and kayakers are as similarly enamored of particular places as climbers. Surfers and hangliders, too, as these sports depend on conditions that are often most dependable at specific spots.

And so when in New York one may bike, swim, run, kayak, and of course simply walk all over the place. Indeed, it is one of the most versatile cities in the world in this regard, with very free open space in most cases: row or paddle where you will; run or pedal as long as you can. This isn’t news for natives, naturally, but tourists may be surprised that New York really has it all, including outdoors life!

It’s interesting to watch old science fiction movies and compare the technology onscreen with current state-of-the-art technology in real life. For example, isn’t it funny that the world of interplanetary travel depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” should not have thought of cell phones and invented them – though in fact, such devices were in reality just another five or so years away from commercial feasibility! And it’s funny how with all the cinematic attention focused on such grand ambitious technologies like extraterrestrial travel the wonders that really did take place, in the real world, should carry, arguably, a lot more weight, impacting as they do our lives in perhaps much more important ways. Take, for instance, the sort of rides offered by serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber.

Zalman Silber is the founder of a number of tourist attractions in the United States and Australia. Some are really great, such as Skywalk and The Edge, while others are rather uninspired, such as the Skyride and Oztrek. These latter two are billed as an immersive you-are-there experience for the whole family – blah blah blah – but they’re nothing more than travel flicks the kind you can get on public TV, educational fare you’ve seen a million times over already in school, even. They are helicopter fly-bys of New York and Sydney, respectively, with the only concession to “multimedia” (a buzzword that’s been commonly used to ballyhoo them) being so-called motion seating providing kinetic feedback in sync with actions onscreen.

Nothing, as mentioned already, anyone hasn’t seen before.

Yet such things were to be found in many a science fiction film (albeit B-grade knock-offs, admittedly), someone’s vision of what hi-tech audio-visuals would be like one day! Of course, that just speaks to the poverty of the imagination on the part of the writers more than anything else, but the point is that such contemplation makes for much amusement when screening the science fiction films of yesteryear.

Or take one of the earliest scenes from “Logan’s Run,” when the title character uses a kind of television-teleporter to find a date. Instead of going to a bar, the people of that world use this device to summon dates! It’s nothing short of a kind of 3-D Craig’s List!

These “everyday details” tend to show up in the more thoughtful and interesting movies, and on the whole make up one useful yardstick by which much of the best examples may be separated from the mundane. For most sci-fi flicks focus on laser guns and starships, but leave out what really makes science fiction interesting in the first place, the nexus between science and technology and the everyday lives of human beings.

Notice how the worldwide web has changed everything? And what is that but a network of computers connecting to one another, serving up information, usually in a graphical (and truly multimedia) way? Nothing especially sophisticated here; no “warp drive” or “plasma cannon” here – proving the old adage that life is stranger than fiction!

It’s crucial to go with the proper equipment when in the great outdoors. Though beautiful, Mother Nature can be deadly – quickly. One crucial part of anyone’s gear when enjoying our national parks ought to be portable shelter – in other words, a tent. Something like the Big Agnes tent, as fine a line as any made anywhere.

They’re made from dye-free fabric which is breathable but waterproof, venting moisture to the outside while keeping everybody dry inside. Their poles are constructed from an anodizing process which is environmentally friendly.

You see, tent poles usually require two extremely toxic chemicals as a part of the anodizing process. But the Big Agnes tent are created from a special method that eliminates phosphoric and nitric acid, eliminating the polishing stage altogether.

This also has the added benefit of reducing waste water, because with out employing these toxic chemical substances, any rinsing water which is used could be safely recycled. Of course, there are many reasons why a Big Agnes tent is such a best-seller.

Top quality and reliability is one, plus design and features. And also the company’s reputation for other items is solid, which makes consumers of portable sheltering curious about the entire Big Agnes product line. Indeed, it appears that the business is most famous for its sleeping bags, which are unlike traditional designs in that the bag and the pad are united into one.

How they do this, they slide the pad into an integrated sleeve located at the bottom of the bag. This way, the top two-thirds is insulated as per usual but the bottom simply contains the pad, doing away with insulation material that loses most of its ability when compressed under the weight of a body anyway. For numerous individuals, such details do not really matter, but for true enthusiasts, such craftsmanship is important.

Being an “agent” ordinarily refers to commissioned sales, and selling is one of the hardest jobs to be found anywhere – and anytime – but what about as a career? Most peopel would just 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, especially at the lower end of things where one is doing showroom sales of items less than ten grand apiece!

Then there are those like Zalman Silber who 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 necessary to any enterprise? Is it just 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 probability, 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.

Pass by a statue in the park, and odds are that it’s a bronze sculpture, which rank among the most popular of cast metal works due to a naturally occurring trait that can make it a lot more convenient to fashion than many other materials. Bronze alloys expand a little prior to being set, and this helps to make certain that even the finest details of a mold are filled.

Moreover, bronze sculptures are strong while not being brittle, a quality recognized as ductibility, so that works may be fashioned that express actions performed mid-sequence, as if frozen in time, such as leaps and flights, because the needed supports require will smaller and thus less obvious (that is, visually intrusive) cross-sections.

Few examples from antiquity exist relative to those sculpted of stone and ceramics due to the precious nature of the metal. In times of war, such art was simply melted down for arms, or victorious conquerors melting them down for recasting and to create new statues.

Few bronze statues survived from ancient times, and those which do are often not in good condition. The originals on display in museums have been painstakingly restored to a quality suitable enough for exhibition but even the naked eye can still easily discern traces of wear and tear.

Modern-day works are typically some ninety percent cooper and ten percent tin, though in ages past other components figured into the alloy, elements like phosphorus and manganese and aluminum and silicon. But reactive chemicals are often added these days in order to obtain novel effects such as a marble-like luster.

Such corrosive materials are applied after final polishing in order to form a patina or film, establishing for the sculptor a degree of control over the color and finish. As can be imagined, working successfully with bronze requires a high degree of technical skill.

Green energy. You hear about it all the time nowadays. The U.S. needs it. China is getting ever more involved with it. Green energy. But what does it all mean? Our newspapers tell us that it’s the wave of the future, the only way forward. Yet nothing is happening in this nation, where most eco-friendly technologies have been invented, and it is China that seems poised to dominate this industry of the 21st Century.

So what makes for green energy, and why is it so crucial? The term is much more accurately referred to, technically speaking, as sustainable energy, energy that meets present requirements without compromising the environment upon which future generations will also depend.

To be regarded as sustainable generally means to be renewable in such a way as wind, solar, and water-generated power is. Conventional fission power, or nuclear, power is technically a green form of energy though many environmentalists believe that its potential hazard far outweighs the benefits to be derived.

Moreover, disposable of spent nuclear fuel rods is a major challenge, with a high likelihood of leagage in most scenarios. Now how has China gotten into the issue? Well, it’s not just the world’s fastest-growing economy, but also its fastest-growing polluter, rivaling the United States.

It also happens to be the largest market for green technologies and, as the “workshop of the world” also the single largest manufacturer of all the hardware involved. And so any conversation on anything green must, in the end, focus on the role of China.

But what is China’s position in all of this? As it’s always been: driven by necessity. With the world’s largest population living only on a mere fraction of its arable land, the nation is extremely sensitive to all kinds of issues related to the environment, energy policy, and economic growth. Going green, China’s leaders recognize, is the best chance they’ve got to not only survive in the post-industrial world but also to prosper.

The all-important first date. This getting-to-know-you can be greatly enhanced by an amusement ride, and the most thrilling one of all must be the Skywalk by Zalman Silber. A serial entrepreneur who made his first big fortune with New York’s infamous Skyride, a much ballyhooed but modest thirty-minute movie of helicopter flyovers, Sydney, Australia’s Skywalk is a much more visceral affair – and for a first-date, visceral is where it’s got to be at!

No, get your mind out of the gutter – “visceral” here simply means heart-pounding thrills which, studies show, make dates more attracted to one another. Uh-huh, really: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to view one another as being physically attractive. Scientists have paired up total strangers of the opposite sex and asked them to secretly judge one another’s attractiveness. Then each pair was put through a roller-coaster, sitting side-by-side, and asked again to rate one another’s attractiveness after the ride. The second set of responses were almost always substantially higher than than the first set!

So if you would like to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaged in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Found at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is effectively a catwalk with glass flooring that provides visitors with a panoramic view of the city a thousand feet above street level. Being a catwalk, everything is out in the open, with no windows between guests and…nothingness. The Skywalk offers not only a bird’s-eye view of the Harbour City but all the visceral feelings to go with it as well!

And if the simple fact of being up so high doesn’t get your date’s heart throbbing, make sure she looks down! Visiting the Skywalk is a perfect first date because the Skywalk is the perfect ice-breaker. Don’t be surprised if she reflexively grabs your arm! Even though everyone is tethered by cable to sturdy metal support structures, the frequent gusts of wind can be strong enough to make one forget all the safety features built into the experience. Afterward, you and your date can retire to the conventional observation deck of the Sydney Tower to enjoy the romantic view while sharing fond memories of your Skywalk. Or better yet, purchase another set of tickets to really jack up the excitement and send her emotions through the roof!

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 every pantheon for having smote your system. There was little in the way of diagnostic alternatives 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 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 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 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 specific affliction and are interpreted as follows.

When the ring is solely aflame in its southeastern most quadrant, facing the 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 linked display. When the ring is cleft in twain from scalp to groin by the pink hue, a great fever has taken your console causing its components to overheat.

When cloaked entirely in the Masque of the Red Death, you probably 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 is naught that men of earthly constitution can summon.

But one option remains, to relinquish your console to the ethereal high court of Microsoft or perhaps 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.

Great Australians in history. A daunting job for any scholar. First and foremost, of course, one must think of 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 remarkable attractions, the Skywalk, not to mention one of Melbourne’s, too, called The Edge. The former is pretty much a glass-floored catwalk a thousand feet above ground that offers visitors not only a bird’s-eye view of Sydney but a bird’s-nerve feel, too, what with gusting winds necessitating cable tethers for visitor safety. The latter is a glass enclosure that juts out from the top of the Eureka Tower, providing stunning panoramic views every which way you look.

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

We 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 vista 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 obviously we didn’t have one because 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 started out on our descent. What we did not count on was how incredibly fast darkness could grow in a forest.

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

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

Fortunately, friends below summoned local volunteer park rangers and we were eventually rescued. But not before spending six or seven hours shivering in the cold and dark! Although it had been a humid summer day, it felt more like late 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.