A tax holiday is a temporary reduction or elimination of a tax. Governments usually create tax holidays as incentives for business investment. The taxes that are most commonly reduced by national and local governments are sales taxes. In developing countries, governments sometimes reduce or eliminate corporate taxes for the purpose of attracting Foreign Direct Investment or stimulating growth in selected industries.
Tax holiday is given in respect of particular activities, and sometimes also only in particular areas with a view to develop that area of business.
- 1 Sales tax holidays in the United States
- 2 See also
- 3 References
- 4 External links
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[edit] Sales tax holidays in the United States
A statewide sales tax holiday was first enacted by the New York Legislature in 1996 and enabled the first tax-free week in January of 1997. Local governments in New York were given the option of whether or not to participate. [1] Since then, the initiative has been adopted by thirteen states. It commonly takes place as a form of tax-free weekend lasting Friday through Sunday, usually during a major shopping period for necessities, such as just before school starts. During that period, sales tax is not collected on selected items, such as clothing and school supplies. The items subject to the sales tax exemption may also be restricted by price (for example, clothing up to $100), but consumers are free to buy unlimited quantity of items.
As with other sales taxes, visiting residents of non-participating states who purchase tax-free goods (holiday or not) may still have to pay “use tax” on their goods that they take home.
| State (Or Capital) |
Items Included |
Period |
Days |
| Alabama |
clothing, computers, school supplies, books |
1st weekend in August |
3 |
| Connecticut |
clothing |
3rd week in August |
7 |
| District of Columbia |
clothing, school supplies |
August and November |
9 |
| Georgia |
clothing, school supplies, computers |
1st weekend of August |
4 |
| Iowa |
clothing |
1st weekend of August |
2 |
| Massachusetts[2] |
school supplies, computers, sports equipment, health & beauty aid |
2nd weekend of August |
2 |
| Missouri |
clothing, school supplies, computers |
1st weekend in August |
- |
| New Mexico |
clothing, school supplies, computers |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
| North Carolina |
clothing, school supplies, computers, sport equipment |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
| Oklahoma |
clothing |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
| South Carolina |
clothing, school supplies, computers |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
| Tennessee |
clothing, school supplies, computers |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
| Texas[3] |
Cd’s, DVD Movies,cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, clothing, diapers, backpacks , school supplies |
3rd weekend of August |
3 |
| Virginia |
clothing, school supplies |
1st weekend of August |
3 |
Seven states in the U.S. (Alaska, Hawaii, Delaware, Texas, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon) do not impose general sales taxes at all (but may still tax gas, cigarettes, alcohol, meals, etc). See Sales taxes in the United States for details.
Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed (also called “canola”), rye, corn, linseed and soy.
The term was first used by paranormal researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching. While patterns involving complex geometries have been observed, the term circle has stuck as a generic term crop patterns.
Many circles are known to be man-made, such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg. [6][9] Bower and Chorley were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 1992 for their crop circle hoaxing.
Various hypotheses have been offered to explain the formation of crop circles of unknown origin, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal. The main naturalistic explanation is that all crop circles are man-made, primarily as a hoax. Another naturalistic explanation is that they are caused by ball lightning. Paranormal explanations suggest that, while some crop circles are man-made, others are the product of alien spacecraft or supernatural processes such as communication from Gaia or from extraterrestials in a Galactic Federation.
History
The earliest recorded image resembling a crop circle is depicted in a 17th-century English woodcut called the “Mowing-Devil”. The image depicts the devil with a scythe mowing (cutting) a circular design in a field of oats. The pamphlet containing the image states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was demanding for his work, insisted that he would rather have “the devil himself” perform the task. That night, the crop appeared as if it were on fire, then in the morning a circular pattern had mysteriously appeared.
1678 pamphlet on the “Mowing-Devil”
A more recent historical report of crop circles was republished (from Nature, volume 22, pp. 290-291, 29 July 1880) in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Meteorology.It describes the 1880 investigations by amateur scientist John Rand Capron:
“The storms about this part of Western Surrey have been lately local and violent, and the effects produced in some instances curious. Visiting a neighbour’s farm on Wednesday evening (21st), we found a field of standing wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance, circular spots….I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind or rain, or both combined, which had caused them, beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action,…”
In 1966, one of the most famous accounts of UFO traces happened in the small town of Tully, Queensland, Australia. A sugarcane farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet (12 m) up from a swamp and then fly away, and when he went to investigate the location where he thought the saucer had landed, he found the reeds intricately weaved in a clockwise fashion on top of the water.The woven reeds could hold the weight of 10 men.
There are also many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles in Ufology literature that predate the modern crop circle phenomena, though some cases involve crops which were cut or burnt, rather than flattened.
Crop circles rose in prominence in 1975 as circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. The phenomenon of crop circles became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire and corresponding phenomena were reported from locations as diverse as Penrith in Australia and Minnesota in the United States. To date, approximately 12,000 crop circles have been discovered in sites across the world, from locations such as the former Soviet Union, the UK and Japan, as well as the U.S. and Canada. Skeptics note a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.However, proponents point to the simple profusion of these events prior to and continuing after the decline in media coverage as rendering the amateur crank phenomenon unlikely.
Although farmers have expressed concern at the damage caused to their crops, local response to the appearance of crop circles can often be enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the tourist potential of circles. Past responses have included bus or helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, t-shirts and book sales. Potential markets include curious tourists, scientists, crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking a spiritual experience by praying to and communing with spirits.Notably also, the crop generally continues to ripen in a ‘genuine’ circle, being laid flat rather than broken. Some researchers have found that the corn appears to have bent at the nodes of the stalks, showing that can only be replicated in the lab using a microwave oven. In rarer cases, this has occurred near the top of the stems, not the bottom, all but ruling out human involvement .
In 1996, a circle appeared near Stonehenge, and the farmer set up a booth and charged a fee. He collected £30,000 in four weeks. The value of the crop had it been harvested was probably about £150.
Crop circle designs
Wheat pattern about 150 feet (46 m) in diameter with crop laid down in counterclockwise circles discovered on May 14, 2007, by Monroe County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Bryan Graves while flying. First aerial photographs on Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
Early examples of crop circles were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes. After some years, more complex geometric patterns emerged. In addition to circle designs based on sacred geometry, some of the later formations, those occurring after 2000, are based on other principles, including fractals. Many crop circles now have fine intricate detail, regular symmetry and careful composition, and elements of three-dimensionality have been introduced.
Crop circle maker John Lundberg, in an interview with Mark Pilkington, spoke about this change in crop circle designs: “I am rather envious of circlemakers in other countries. Expectations about the size and complexity of formations that appear in the UK are now very high, whereas the rather shabby looking Russian formation made the national news. Even Vasily Belchenko, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, was on site gushing about its origin: ‘There is no doubt that it was not man made… an unknown object definitely landed there.’ If the same formation appeared in the UK it would undoubtedly be virtually ignored by researchers and the media alike.”
2009 season
Often crop circle seasons begin with a few simple patterns. The 2009 season began with complex and numerous formations.[20] The 2009 season also unusually began with six large formations in rapeseed. “The crop is tougher and more brittle than corn or barley.”During May, June and July crop circles in the UK have pointed to the date July 7th 2009 hinting at solar activity.
Creators of crop circles
A 780 ft. crop circle in the form of a double (six-sided) triskelion composed of 409 circles. Location: Milk Hill, 2001.
In 1991, two men from Southampton, England, announced that they had conceived the idea as a prank at a pub near Winchester, Hampshire, during an evening in 1976. Inspired by the 1966 Tully Saucer Nests, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools: using a four-foot-long plank attached to a rope, they easily created circles eight feet in diameter. The two men were able to make a 40-foot (12 m) circle in 15 minutes.
The pair became frustrated when their work did not receive significant publicity, so in 1981, they created a circle in Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre just outside Winchester, Hampshire-an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by. Their designs were at first simple circles. When newspapers claimed that the circles could easily be explained by natural phenomena, Bower and Chorley made more complex patterns. A simple wire with a loop, hanging down from a cap-the loop positioned over one eye-could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the creation of straight lines. Later designs of crop circles became increasingly complicated.
Bower’s wife had become suspicious of him, noticing high levels of mileage in their car. Eventually, fearing that his wife suspected him of adultery, Bower confessed to her, and subsequently, he and Chorley informed a British national newspaper. Chorley died in 1996, and Doug Bower has made crop circles as recently as 2004. Bower has said that, had it not been for his wife’s suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing that it was a hoax.
Circlemakers.org, a group of crop circle makers founded by John Lundberg, have demonstrated that making what self-appointed cereologist experts state are “unfakeable” crop circles is possible. On more than one occasion, such cereologists have claimed that a crop circle was “genuine” when in fact the people making the circle had previously been filmed making the circle.
A crop circle in Switzerland
Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley,who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on “expert” sources such as the Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods to create a crop circle are now well documented on the Internet.
On the night of July 11-12, 1992, a crop-circle making competition, for a prize of several thousand UK pounds (partly funded by the Arthur Koestler Foundation), was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three helicopter engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope.
Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to be legally charged with creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in agriculture, created a 36-meter diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 km) southwest of Budapest, on June 8, 1992. On September 3, they appeared on a Hungarian TV show and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made. As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the youngsters for 630,000 HUF (approximately $3000 USD) in damages. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the 36-meter diameter circle, amounting to about 6,000 HUF (approximately $30 USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors that flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media’s promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students’ legal fees.
Not everybody accepts that circles are man-made, believing instead that many designs are too perfect and that they lack signs of human interaction. They also point out that it is highly unlikely that an international wave of highly covert amateur pranksters could have developed prior to the 1991 publicity gained by Bower and Chorley, and that this is far more likely to be a ‘reverse prank’, where credit is taken for an existing phenomenon and an explanation offered in order to garner media attention. The fact that crop circles were widely attested internationally by the late 1980s is thought to have caused the British men to devise a stunt. Among these critics was British-born astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who, prior to his death, argued that some circles displayed a level of complexity and accuracy that would be difficult to recreate on paper, let alone in a field after dark.[19] In response, circle-creating groups and proponents of the man-made hypothesis state that it is possible to create a complex design by marking radii and angles with rope, and to enter and to move about a field using landscape features and tractor trails in order to avoid leaving other marks.
Scientific analysis
In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned five aeronautics and astronautics students from MIT to create crop circles of their own. Discovery’s production team consulted with crop-circle researcher Nancy Talbott, who provided them with three attributes that she believed set “real” crop circles apart from known man-made circles, such as those created by Doug Bower and Dave Chorley.These criteria were:
1. Elongated apical plant stem nodes
2. Expulsion cavities in the plant stems
3. The presence of 10-50 micrometre diameter magnetized iron spheres in the soils, distributed linearly
Over the course of a single night, the team was able to create a stereotypical “man-made” circle that they then attempted to enhance using the three criteria. The team used lengths of rope to plot their design and trampled the wheat down in a spiral pattern using lengths of wooden board attached to loops of rope. To meet criterion 2, they constructed a portable microwave emitter, using it to superheat the moisture inside the corn stalks until it burst out as steam. To meet criterion 3, they built a device-dubbed the Flammenwerfer (”flamethrower”)-that sprayed iron particles through a heated ring. However, the device proved to be too time-consuming to use, and they were forced to finish the task by using a pyrotechnic charge to distribute the iron around the circle. The circle was later analyzed by graduate students from MIT, who declared it to be “on a par with any of the documented cases”. Their conclusion was later questioned by Talbott, who noted that the team had only been able to recreate two of the three criteria. Talbott also expressed concerns that the iron particles were not distributed laterally. Furthermore, she felt that the team’s use of night-vision headsets and other technologically advanced items would be out of reach for the average hoaxer.[28] This would have been even more so in the ’70s and ’80s when night-vision equipment was rare outside official use.
The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery Channel documentary Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.
Paranormal and alternative explanations
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[32] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system.Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses have also been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities.
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing. New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to their becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by experts as being indistinct or clear hoaxes.
Analysis
The main criticism of non-human creation of crop circles is that evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is scant. Crop circles are sometimes explicable as the result of human pranksters. There have also been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be “the real thing”, only to be confronted soon after with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud (see above). Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles are created.
The main criticism of human creation of crop circles is that Bower and Chorley could not have covertly travelled internationally and executed all if indeed any known circles prior to their claims in 1991, and that still-secret cells of hoaxers are very unlikely to have spontaneously and successfully joined the game. It is more likely that their “hoax” consisted merely of claiming to have begun the practice years earlier. All subsequent human circle creators derive from the 1991 publicity, and devote their efforts to maintaining the hoax, i.e. to proving the implausible proposition that Bower and Chorley created a world-wide plethora of crop circles in total secrecy. In hoaxer terms, this represents a classic success, an “I’m Brian” scenario.
In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan discussed alien-based theories of crop circle formation. Sagan concluded that no empirical evidence existed to link UFOs with crop circles. Specifically, that there were no credible cases of UFOs being observed creating a circle, yet there were many cases when it was known that human agents, such as Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, were responsible.Circle creators Doug Bower and Dave Chorley concur.
In 1999, researcher Colin Andrews received funding from Laurence Rockefeller to conduct a two- year investigation into crop-circle hoaxing. Andrews put together a team that studied crop circles that had been commissioned by various media outlets and infiltrated several groups known to be creating man-made circles. Using these man-made circles as a base, Andrews went on to study data from circles found in England in 1999 and 2000. Andrews concluded that 80% of all circles studied showed “unassailable” signs of having been man-made, including post holes used to demarcate circle layouts or evidence of human tracks underlying the circle sites, but could not account for the remaining 20%, for which he was unable to find signs of human interaction.Andrews’s figures have been disputed by CSICOP, who argue that Andrews’s criteria for distinguishing between man-made circles and non-man-made circles were insufficient, as no official standard exists for determining the nature of a crop circle.Furthermore, these circles were in England, where the hoax is most operative.
In 2002, Freddy Silva published Secrets in the Fields (2002).He paraphrases Gerald Hawkins’ summary: “If crop circles are made by hoaxers, then they should stop doing it, because they are breaking the law and damaging the food supply. If they are made by UFO aliens, they shouldn’t give us back the dates of our trips to Mars and the names of the men from the Titanic era – famous, clever, but now forgotten. If some are transcendental, the power behind it should realize that our culture is not now willing to accept transcendental happenings. But if they are indeed transcendental, then society will have to make a big adjustment in the years ahead.” (p. 299)
Critics have cited what they refer to as the “shyness factor”. This alludes to the fact that no crop-circle makers have been caught in the act. This assertion is not true however, and there are cases of circle makers being apprehended, including one high-profile case in 1998 when a circle was made for the media and the makers interrupted when seen in the act. In most cases, it appears that the creation of crop circles is a nocturnal activity. Usually nothing is reported, and during one attempt to observe the creation of a crop circle, numerous individuals witnessed nothing out of the ordinary, yet were astounded to see a crop circle in the field only a short distance away from the one they had been watching the next morning.Crop circles known to have formed during daylight have not revealed the presence of hoaxers.[citation needed]
Similar phenomena
* Lawn Cross of Eisenberg an der Raab
* Unusual ground markings
* Nazca lines
* Fairy rings: An unrelated phenomenon where fungal circles are formed by a spreading mycelium. Older, larger fungal circles are not recognized when they have broken into arcs or patches. In Scandinavia and in Britain, the phenomenon of mushrooms or puffballs forming circles in a patch of meadow or pasture was referred to in folklore as “älvringar”, “heksering”, “pixie circles” or “elf circles” and was attributed by countryfolk to mystical forces. This phenomenon is commonplace and is recognized[41] as the natural growth of fungus colonies.
* Crop marks: Variances in subsoil conditions can cause differences in the growth pattern of a crop that can appear from an aerial survey to be similar to crop circles. In 2009, investigation of such crop marks near Stonehenge led to the discovery of 6,000 year old tombs and other prehistoric subterranean structures.
The UK-based artists Circlemakers.org have been asked to create numerous crop circles since the mid 1990s for movies, TV shows, music videos, adverts and PR stunts.[citation needed] Clients to date have included Royal Bank of Scotland, Scope, Xbox, Disney, NBC, UKTV, Red Bull, Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, Shredded Wheat, AMD, Hello Kitty, Pepsi, Weetabix, BBC, The Sun, Mitsubishi, O2, Big Brother, National Geographic, NBC-TV, Orange Mobile, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.
New Age author Dan Joy in 1991 humorously suggested that crop circles are an advertising campaign displaying the logos of galaxy-wide corporations, preparing Earth for its forthcoming admission to the Galactic Federation of Planets
Looks at the risk factors in male suicide and what each of us can do to help.
Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. The number of men ending their own lives has fallen, but too many men still commit suicide.
Who’s at risk?
People who already have a mental health issues are at a greater risk, along with those experiencing depression.
The teenage years can be difficult at the best of times. Emotional and physical development brings the turmoil associated with body changes and a desire for independence.
Problems with alcohol and drugs, the law and school are common at this point in life and are associated with a higher risk.
At the other end of the spectrum, getting older brings bereavement for many people. Loved ones and friends pass on, ill health and loss of independence are more common.
Tragically, in the UK, this usually culminates in social isolation as older people are forgotten about and ignored.
Risk factors
We all feel down from time to time, but most of us don’t think things are so bad life isn’t worth continuing. However, some things do put a person at greater risk of suicide.
Having tried once, someone is far more likely to try again – and to be successful. One in ten teenagers who takes an overdose will kill themselves within a few years.
Living alone and feeling isolated, whether because of divorce, unemployment or bereavement, often makes people question if life is worth living.
A painful chronic illness that prevents someone getting on with their life, or mental health issues such as severe depression, alcoholism or drug misuse, for example, should flag up the possibility that a person is more likely to consider suicide as a solution to their problems.
Being able to tick one or more of these risk factors doesn’t mean, however, that someone is definitely going to kill him or herself. Likewise, crossing them out doesn’t mean everything’s all right. It’s important to be aware, and be prepared.
Offering support
There are people who would argue that if somebody is intent on killing themselves then there’s little any of us can do to prevent it. To a degree this may be true, but it doesn’t mean we should sit back and let them get on with it.
Get the person to talk about the way they’re feeling, why they want to die, and just listen to them. There’s no need to dive in with miraculous solutions to their problems. A person considering suicide needs support, understanding and to know there’s professional help available for them.
It’s important that the person offering support knows they’re not alone in this, too. It can be a frightening and stressful experience to go through.
“NO one knows what we look like,” said Biz Stone, a 35-year-old college dropout who’s dressed like a high-school student, in a shapeless black T-shirt, jeans and high tops, and is one of the three co-founders of Twitter. “So no one treats us like celebrities.”
Evan Williams, 37, also a Twitter founder, seemed astounded by the venture’s success. Referring to his sister, who works as a waitress, he said: “A customer asked, ‘Can you explain this Twitter thing?’ If she said, ‘My brother is the C.E.O.,’ no one would believe her.”
Mr. Stone weighed in. “They’d say, ‘Why do they need a C.E.O. at Twitter? To tell people, Oops, your tweet went over 140 characters?’ “
Twitter is the public’s latest fascination. Mr. Stone and Mr. Williams made Time magazine’s new list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
But Twitter has come under fire. The company doesn’t make much money. People complain that the service is trivial and solipsistic. Asked about the criticism, Mr. Stone smiled and said, “That’s like people saying, ‘Why would I ever carry a phone around when I have one in my kitchen?’ “
Seated with friends on a recent Thursday night at Millennium, a vegan restaurant in San Francisco, Mr. Stone and Mr. Williams are hardly nonchalant about Twitter’s popularity. In February 2009, the site, which is free, expanded at a rate of 1,382 percent; since Oprah joined on April 17, traffic to Twitter has jumped 43 percent.
“Sometimes we think this is an elaborate edition of ‘Punked,’ ” Mr. Stone said, “where someone is going to pop out of the closet and say, ‘Ha, ha, we nailed you guys.’ It’s like we’re on a rocket ship that we were just painting and suddenly it took off and we’re holding on to the ship with our fingernails.”
Mr. Williams nodded. “Every day, one of us says something like: ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you. The moon called and they want us to own them.’ “
Mr. Williams ordered an appetizer of sesame-cornmeal-crusted oyster mushrooms for those around the table, who included his wife, Sara, and Kevin Rose, the co-founder of Digg.com, and the talk turned to childhood inventions. Mr. Stone recalled trying to make an oxygen tank, using two empty Coke bottles and a plastic tube, that would allow him to breathe underwater. Mr. Evans admitted to even loftier super-human aspirations: he wanted to fly and tried to make wings. Out of what? Plywood. Mr. Stone rolled his eyes. “Oh,” he said facetiously. “That’s the light wood.”
Mr. Stone and Mr. Rose tweeted throughout the evening (”having a good vegan dinner with @ev and @biz and @others,” Mr. Rose wrote at Millennium). Afterward the group went to Bourbon & Branch, where they sat in a circle in an upstairs alcove, their faces lighted by the screens of their iPhones. “At bourbon and branch with an interesting bunch,” Mr. Stone tweeted.
Mr. Williams looked at him and said, “You write boring tweets.”
Mr. Stone did not appear upset. “I don’t know what to say,” he replied.
The impact, when it comes, will be widespread and inflict massive suffering on other countries and territories as well, such as Bangladesh, China and Tibet. Greenpeace estimates that Himalayan glaciers, called the ‘third pole’ by some on account of the massive reserves they hold, are the primary source of water for one-sixth of the world’s population. If they cease to exist, agriculture – the backbone of South Asian economies – could take a hit from which it may never recover. The result: acute food shortages, loss of livelihood and, ultimately, internal or transnational conflict.
The ranks of ‘climate refugees’ will grow exponentially and further burden the already dilapidated infrastructure of towns and cities across the region. This is not some doomsday scenario concocted by the radical fringe of the environmental movement. Science supports this view. If the current rate of global warming is not arrested forthwith, drought and famine of unprecedented proportions will be seen within the lifetime of the generation now in its infancy. Water wars will indeed take place if climate change continues apace. People will die in the fight over resources.
It is estimated that Himalayan glaciers are receding by 30 to 50 metres a year. In another 50 years they could be gone altogether. If current trends persist, there will be an over-abundance of water at first and possibly an increased incidence of flooding. And then, when higher temperatures ensure that glaciers can no longer be sustained, extreme drought will set in. The Indus, the lifeline of Pakistan, could see dramatically reduced flows and agricultural holdings across the country will become less productive.
The strangling of the Indus will in turn result in greater sea intrusion – already a major problem in Sindh – and the loss of even more arable land. Mass migration is inevitable in this scenario and squabbling over dwindling resources may lead to serious conflict amongst peoples and nations. Pakistan’s contribution to global warming is almost negligible, yet it will be among the countries hardest hit by climate change. It is up to the developed countries and emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil to arrest the slide before it is too late.
SOurce:dawn
Where in the world do people feel most content with their lives?
According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data, happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.
In Depth: See All 10 of the World’s Happiest Places
Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands rated at the top of the list, ranking first, second and third, respectively. Outside Europe, New Zealand and Canada landed at Nos. 8 and 6, respectively. The United States did not crack the top 10. Switzerland placed seventh and Belgium placed tenth.
The report looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Did people feel like their lives were dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?
To answer that question, the OECD used data from a Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries around the world last year. The poll asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.
Some sample questions: Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesterday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday? In each country, a representative sample of no more than 1,000 people, age 15 or older, were surveyed. The poll was scored numerically on a scale of 1-100. The average score was 62.4.
Why did the northern European countries come out looking so good? Overall economic health played a powerful role, says Simon Chapple, senior economist from the Social Policy Division of the OECD, which put together the report.
While the global economic crisis has taken a toll on every nation, the countries that scored at the top still boast some of the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Denmark, which got the highest score, is not only a wealthy country, it’s also highly productive, with a 2009 GDP per capita of $68,000, according to the International Monetary Fund. The United States’ GDP per capita, by contrast, is $47,335. Though the U.S. got an above-average score of 74, it did not break the top 10.
Wealth alone does not bring the greatest degree of happiness. Norway has the highest GDP per capita on the list – $98,822 – yet it ranked ninth, not first. On the other hand, New Zealand’s happiness level is 76.7 out of 100 on the OECD list, but its 2009 GDP per capita is just $30,556.
According to a 2005 editorial, published in the British Medical Journal and written by Dr. Tony Delamothe, research done in Mexico, Ghana, Sweden, the U.S. and the U.K. shows that individuals typically get richer during their lifetimes, but not happier. It is family, social and community networks that bring joy to one’s life, according to Delamothe.
The OECD data shows that another important factor is work-life balance. While Scandinavian countries boast a high GDP per capita, the average workweek in that part of the world is no more than 37 hours. In China, which got a low score of just 14.8, the workweek is 47 hours and the GDP per capita is just $3,600.
Low unemployment also contributes to happiness. “One thing we know for sure,” says the OECD’s Chapple, “not having a job makes one substantially less satisfied.” Denmark’s unemployment rate is just 2 percent, according the C.I.A.’s World Factbook. Norway’s is just 2.6 percent. The Netherlands: just 4.5 percent. Many economists concur that a 4 percent unemployment rate reflects a stable economy. The U.S. unemployment rate is currently 9 percent.
Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971 issue, but the film was not a commercial success.The film has since become a cult classic.Brock Yates, organizer of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (better known as the Cannonball Run) cites Two-Lane Blacktop as one source of inspiration for the creation of the race, and commented on it in his Car and Driver column announcing the first Cannonball.
Two-Lane Blacktop is notable as a time capsule film of U.S. Route 66 during the pre-Interstate Highway era, and for its stark footage and minimal dialogue. As such it has become popular with fans of Route 66. Two-Lane Blacktop has been compared to similar road movies with an existentialist message from the era, such as Vanishing Point, Easy Rider, and Electra Glide in Blue.
Plot
The premise involves two drag racers (played by Taylor and Wilson) who live on the road in their 1955 Chevy 150 (One-Fifty) and drift from town to town, making their only income challenging local residents to races. The movie follows them driving east on Route 66 from Needles, California. They pick up a hitchhiker in Flagstaff, Arizona (played by Bird). In New Mexico, they encounter another drag racing drifter (played by Oates, driving an “Orbit Orange” 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge) and challenge him to a cross-country race to Washington, D.C.”for pinks,” or legal ownership of the loser’s car. Characters are never identified by name in the movie; instead they are named “The Driver,” “The Mechanic,” “GTO,” and “The Girl”. The movie follows the group east through small towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. No character makes it to Washington D.C. within the scope of the film.
After sleeping with both the Driver and the Mechanic during the winding course of the journey, The Girl disappoints both the Driver and the Mechanic when she abruptly leaves with the GTO while they are competing at a local racetrack in Arkansas. The Driver pursues them intently, finding them at a diner where the Girl has just rejected the GTO’s idea to visit Chicago. The Driver proposes going to Columbus, Ohio to pick up some parts, but the Girl immediately rejects him. She hops on the back of a long-haired stranger’s motorcycle, dropping her bag in the parking lot. The three men abruptly depart from the diner in their respective cars. The driver of the GTO, who has told a different story about himself to each of the many hitchhikers he picked up, stops for two soldiers. He tells his passengers that he has won the car while driving a home-built ‘55 Chevy, emphasizing the circular theme of the film. The film ends during a drag race at an airstrip in East Tennessee. As the Driver speeds down the runway, first the sound drops out, then the film seems to slow until the actual frames of the film seem to catch in the projector’s gate, burning the film itself.
Production
Will Corry’s script was bought by producer Michael Laughlin and he asked Hellman to direct it. The filmmaker liked the basic idea but agreed to make the film only if another screenwriter was hired to rewrite the script. Laughlin agreed and they hired Rudy Wurlitzer.[1] Hellman and Wurlitzer worked closely on the script. Hellman saw a picture of James Taylor on a billboard on the Sunset Strip and asked the musician to come and do a screen test. Dennis Wilson was the last actor cast.[1]
This film was considered a low budget film at the time of its production. It only cost an estimated US$850 000 to complete. A Rolling Stone article written on location a full year before the film’s release proclaimed the film an “instant classic” about “road racers and their women, cross-country adventure, the Great God Speed.”[3] Coupled with Esquire magazine’s equally enthusiastic response, Universal Pictures was initially excited to promote the film. However, Lew Wasserman, then head of the studio, saw the film and hated it.He refused to promote it and when it opened in New York City on the July Fourth weekend, there was not one single newspaper ad promoting it.[1] In its initial release, it was expected to make the rounds through the then thriving Drive-in theater market, where low budget and B-movies found a thriving audience. Instead, the film was not successful at the box office.
Soundtrack
Unlike other Existential road movies of the time (such as “Easy Rider”, and “Vanishing Point”), Two-Lane Blacktop does not rely heavily on music, nor was a soundtrack album released. The music featured in the film covers many genres, including Rock, Folk, Blues, Country, Bluegrass, and R&B. Interestingly enough, the two stars of the film, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, did not contribute any music.
However, there are some notable tracks featured in the film, including “Moonlight Drive” by The Doors, the traditional folk tune “Stealin’” performed by Arlo Guthrie, and the original version of “Me and Bobby McGee” performed by the song’s author Kris Kristofferson.
DVD
Anchor Bay Entertainment released a limited edition of the movie on October 24, 2000, with only 15 000 copies made. The disc was housed in a metal tin and extras included a 48-page booklet featuring behind-the-scenes photographs and liner notes about director Monte Hellman, a 5″ X 7″ theatrical poster replica, and a die-struck miniature car key chain. Anchor Bay released a regular edition on October 19, 1999, without the poster and key chain.
At a July 2007 screening of the film, Hellman revealed that the Criterion Collection was releasing a two-disc special edition DVD that featured a new documentary made by Hellman that included an interview with Kristofferson about how “Me and Bobby McGee” has become so closely associated with the film.[4] This DVD set was released on December 11, 2007.
Trivia
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)
* Two of the ‘55 Chevys used in the filming of Two-Lane Blacktop were later used in the filming of American Graffiti. In the early 2000s, Chevy High Performance magazine ran an article about the 1955 Chevrolets used in the film, where a third car exists (this is the car seen at the gas station) – the builder of the car (Richard Ruth) confirmed that the third car (once located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) does exist. Current owner Walt Bailey searched for years to find it when it turned up in Canada. Walt had Richard help restore the car to its movie condition. The ‘55 sports a tunnel-rammed 454, a four speed and an Olds rear end. The fiberglass tilt front end, doors, and decklid are all movie correct.
* The camera car from Two-Lane Blacktop was also used in a later movie (Smokey and the Bandit) but it was only heard and not seen. The director of Smokey and the Bandit felt that the Trans-Am used in the movie didn’t have the sound he wanted, so he had the sound of the ‘55 Chevy’s engine dubbed over the sound of the Trans Am’s engine.
* In 2003 Plain Recordings released a Two-Lane Blacktop tribute album entitled You Can Never Go Fast Enough featuring Will Oldham, Calexico, Mark Eitzel, Giant Sand, Leadbelly, Sonic Youth, Cat Power and others.
* Rob Zombie wrote a song called “Two-Lane Blacktop,” available on his 2003 Past, Present & Future collection. The song loosely covers the plot of the movie. It also appears in the video game Need for Speed Underground as one of many soundtracks.
* Filmed from August to October 1970. Dennis Wilson was forced to miss several concert appearances including the Big Sur Folk Festival at the Monterey Fairgrounds due to his commitment to the film.
* Despite starring in the film, Taylor has admitted that he has never viewed the finished product.
“Crossroads” (Parts 1 and 2) are the nineteenth and twentieth episodes of the third season and season finale from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. Neither episode begins with a survivor count.
Plot (including cut scenes)
Part I
President Roslin and Athena share the same vision of chasing Hera Agathon through the ancient opera house on Kobol, where they also encounter Caprica Six. At Joe’s Bar, Colonel Tigh and Samuel Anders share a different form of vision, ethereal music that only the two of them are able to hear.
Just before Baltar’s trial is set to begin, Cassidy refuses Roslin’s request that Baltar be tried for conspiring with the Cylons, unwilling to act on Roslin’s visions as evidence. Meanwhile, Baltar is visited in the brig by a woman who asks him to bless her child. He refuses, but she reaffirms her belief in him nonetheless.
Although the fleet is nearing the Ionian Nebula, and has not encountered the Cylons for weeks, Adama is unconvinced that the fleet has truly outrun them. His suspicions are confirmed when Racetrack’s trailing Raptor narrowly dodges an attack by a massive Cylon fleet. When Tigh questions Caprica Six, she informs him that the Cylons had found a way to track the fleet’s Refinery Ship. The interrogation turns to blows when Six takes her imaginary Baltar’s suggestion to bring up Tigh’s wife. Shaken, Tigh has Six shackled.
At the beginning of the trial, Cassidy’s opening arguments rest on Baltar having been a failed leader and the devastating loss of 5,197 people on New Caprica. Defense attorney Romo Lampkin opens by condemning Baltar in the harshest terms, finally obtaining an unruly shout from a member of the gallery. Lampkin uses the outburst to turn his arguments abruptly into the notion that Baltar is being railroaded to execution and that the trial is being held as a formality over top of the carnal desire to punish Baltar beyond any blame he deserved. Lampkin also takes advantage Roslin’s arrival at the courtroom to suggest that she would have pursued confrontation with the Cylons, and gotten more people killed than Baltar had by unconditional surrender.
The trial moves further into Baltar’s favor when Colonel Tigh takes the witness stand and admits to masterminding a suicide bombing plot which killed dozens of colonial members of the New Caprica Police force. Tigh adds that another purpose of the attack was to assassinate Baltar, and shows no remorse for any of the results. After Cassidy opens up the subject by suggesting that Ellen is another victim of Baltar, Lampkin pushes him into eventually confessing to killing Ellen. Romo Lampkin also coaxes Tigh into admitting he has been drinking, and Tigh further degrades his own position when he again hears the ethereal music and angrily yells for it to be turned off. He is effectively barred as a witness after repeatedly admitting that he would do or say anything to see Baltar executed.
When Roslin herself takes the witness stand, she confirms for Lee Adama that Baltar helped save her life during her bout with cancer a year beforehand, and later also confirms, over the objections of Adama, that she had resumed taking medication because her cancer had returned. As the chamalla has hallucenogenic side effects, Roslin’s credibility is seriously damaged.
During a recess in the trial, Romo Lampkin asks Lee Adama to consider that his role in the trial may get him expelled from the “aristocracy” of the Adama family in the fleet. Soon afterwards, Lee argues with his father, Admiral Adama over the principle of trying Baltar. Admiral Adama confirms that the trial is a formality and that he already feels Baltar is guilty. He also condemns Lee for the damage done to Saul, though Lee had no knowledge of Ellen Tigh’s death, much less that Saul murdered her. In disgust, Lee resigns his commission, and Adama almost happily accepts it. Later, in their quarters, Lee’s wife Dualla takes his role in the trial as the final straw to break their troubled marriage, packs her things and leaves over his pleas that she stay.
On Colonial One, Roslin is badgered with questions from reporters about the resurgence of her cancer. Tory Foster, suffering from constantly hearing the music in the same way as Colonel Tigh, angrily tells the reporters to stop prying into Roslin’s personal affairs. On Galactica’s bridge, Felix Gaeta and Helo review a plan to use the refinery ship as a decoy to lure the Cylons off course, and brood over a gathering storm.
Part II
As Anders and Tory continue to hear the strange music and begin making love, Chief Tyrol is awakened by the music. Both he and Colonel Tigh begin their own searches for its source, but neither can find it. On the hangar deck, Anders realizes that Tyrol is humming the strange music, and the two agree that it sounds like something from childhood.
After receiving an injection for her cancer treatments in sickbay, Roslin has another vision of the opera house on Kobol. Also in sickbay, Sharon enters the same vision while holding Hera in her arms and both women wake up screaming. Sharon confirms having shared the experience and likens it to the Cylon ability of “projection.” They proceed to question Caprica Six in her cell aboard Galactica, and immediately discover that she too had participated in the vision. Caprica talks of feeling compelled to protect Hera.
The trial resumes and Gaeta takes the witness stand. He perjures himself by saying that Baltar willingly signed the death order to have Roslin, Zarek, and others executed. Rather than attempting to prove this during cross-examination, however, Lampkin acts on Lee Adama’s suggestion and moves for mistrial, based on predjudicial statements Admiral Adama had made to Lee concerning Baltar’s guilt and the predetermined course of the trial. Lee then takes the witness stand, but refuses to testify against his father, instead returning to Lampkin’s original line of argument that Baltar, for all his failings, could not be faulted for the tragedy on New Caprica.
By a vote of 3 to 2, the tribunal overseeing Baltar’s trial finds him not guilty and the courtroom erupts in furor. His service having been completed, Lampkin abandons Baltar. Reflecting on the trial, Baltar wonders how he will survive. On the bridge, Admiral Adama adds to Roslin’s dissatisfaction by informing her that he had in fact found Baltar “not guilty”.
When the fleet makes the final jump into the Ionian Nebula, Roslin feels faint and a few seconds later all of the ships suffer a power outage and drift. The Galactica crew struggles to restore power. Moving through the darkness and trying to hide his face, Baltar is suddenly surrounded by three people, including the woman who had asked him to bless her child. They take him to what they tell him is “[his] new life.”
Caprica Six returns again to the opera house. The vision progresses further this time and Caprica Six sees herself, Baltar and Hera looking up at the glowing, robed apparitions of the Final Five Cylons looking down on them from a balcony above. Compelled by their own shared auditory hallucination, Tory, Colonel Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders converge on a secluded room on Galactica, where they all hum the melody together and come to the distressing conclusion that they are all Cylons. When power is restored, DRADIS identifies four Cylon basestars bearing down on the fleet and Admiral Adama orders general quarters. All of the newly discovered Cylons return to their posts but are wary of what they might do. As the other pilots scramble to their ships, Lee returns to his locker to grab his flight gear, despite having been removed from flight status.
As Lee launches in his Viper, the song that Tigh, Tory, Anders, and Tyrol have been hearing is played clearly as music for the scene: it is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”. After launch, Apollo separates from the other alert Vipers to chase a blip on his DRADIS. In the nebula, he sees Starbuck in a Mark II Viper like the one she had been flying when he saw her crash. She pensively says “Hi Lee. Don’t freak out, it’s really me. It’s going to be OK. I’ve been to Earth, I know where it is, and I’m going to take us there.” The episode ends with a massive zoom out from the two Vipers, past the Colonial fleet and closing basestars and out of the galaxy, then a zoom back that ends with a view of Earth, specifically North America, from space.
Notes
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2007)
* The song and lyrics that Tory, Tigh, Tyrol and Anders hear is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”, as adapted by veteran series composer Bear McCreary. The vocals for this version are performed by McCreary’s brother Brendan McCreary, aka Bt4, with former Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek playing various guitars and sitars.[1] There is no explanation given in the show as to why this particular song is heard, nor where it comes from. According to a conversation McCreary had with Ronald D. Moore, the version heard in the episode is meant to have been recorded by a Colonial artist rather than by Bob Dylan himself.
* During this episode several of the lines of the song ‘All Along the Watchtower’ appear in the dialogue. An example of this is when Tyrol says the words, “There must be some kind of way out of here.”
* Ronald D. Moore has confirmed that Tigh, Tyrol, Tory and Anders really are Cylons, albeit “fundamentally different” ones.[2]
* The line “Butterfingers!”, which Baltar shouts to Gaeta, was improvised by actor James Callis.
* In Ronald Moore’s “Frak Party Q&A” pod-cast, Moore is asked why the final shot of Earth showed North America in particular. Moore’s comment was that Battlestar Galactica is an American show, and jokes that if another continent were shown, for example Africa, some viewers probably wouldn’t recognize it as Earth.[3]
* From Ronald Moore’s Episode Podcast he stated that Sci-Fi offered to purchase the rights to the Jimi Hendrix version of “All Along the Watchtower”, but he turned it down saying that he couldn’t justify the Battlestar Universe having that version of the song.
Awards
Mary McDonnell and Jamie Bamber submitted this episode for consideration in the categories of “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” and “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series” on their respective behalves for the 2007 Emmy Awards. Similarly, Mark Sheppard also submitted this episode for consideration of his work in the category of “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series”.,
Siena College is an independent Catholic Liberal Arts College located in Colonie, New York. Siena is a four-year, coeducational, independent college in the Franciscan tradition, founded by the Franciscan Friars in 1937. It presently has 3,000 full-time students and offers undergraduate degrees in business, liberal arts, and sciences.
Location
While clearly in the town of Colonie, it is unclear as to which hamlet the college falls within. While the college has a Loudonville, NY ZIP code, there are those who feel Siena actually lies in the hamlet of Newtonville. The college’s mailing address is:
515 Loudon Road Loudonville, NY 12211-1462
Notable alumni
Notable Siena alumni include:
* Charles R. Boutin
* Matt Brady
* Jack Cashill
* Tim Christman
* George Deukmejian
* Michael C. Finnegan
* Harry Flynn
* Roberto González Nieves
* Billy Harrell
* Kathleen M. Jimino
* William J. Kennedy
* Steven Lamy
* Jack Quinn (politician)
* Gerald B. H. Solomon
* Charlie Taaffe
* Ron Vawter
* and the fictional Olivia Benson, a character on the TV drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The common perception is that part-time jobs have less to offer than full-time positions.
That may be true in terms of hours in the work week, but many part-time jobs pay just as well as a traditional 40-hour week ones and a number of positions come with health insurance coverage, paid vacation days and employee discounts.
Here is our list of some of the best part-time jobs:
1. Tax Preparer
Thousands of people need help every year to file their returns. Part-time tax preparers are often accountants who know their way around deductions and forms, and who want extra income. Though the job typically peaks in the spring, many clients choose to retain their tax professional as a year-round personal accountant and adviser.
Salary: Set your own fee. H&R Block typically charges anywhere from $100 to $200 for their services, so you can probably charge up to $80 and still offer a bargain.
2. Substitute Teacher
Many states offer substitute teaching positions without requiring a teaching degree. Often, anyone with a bachelor’s degree is eligible, provided they pass a background check and interview. The length of employment varies and you should be flexible for days when you get a frantic last-minute call at 6 a.m., but it’s a good way to put your education to use while aiding in the education of others.
Salary: Varies depending on the state. In Oregon, for example, substitutes get about $150 a day.
3. Private Tutor
Jeremiah LeBrash started tutoring in college as a way to make some extra income. He’s now making enough money for it to be his full-time job. “I started out teaching SAT prep for Kaplan, but I was only making $20 an hour,” he says. “I realized I could do it on my own, give my students one-on-one attention, and charge twice as much.” LeBrash now charges $80 an hour for test preparation and $60 for general math and science help.
Salary: Companies like Kaplan and The Princeton Review pay tutors anywhere from $20 to $60 an hour, depending on the test they teach and the size of the class. Private tutors, like LeBrash, can set their own fee.
4. Part-Time Receptionist
Answering telephones and receiving packages may not be the most glamorous job, but according to career counselor Judith Gerberg, it’s a great opportunity to network. Gerberg, president of the Career Counselors Consortium, knew a laid off radio DJ who ended up working as a receptionist for a law firm. She soon became acquainted with a filmmaker client who loved her music knowledge so much, he hired her as an associate producer. “Lawyers and small businesses always need administrative help,” says Gerberg. “You might be making minimum wage, but keep your ego under wraps. You never know who will walk through the door.”
Salary: Varies, but can be in the $20,000-a-year range.
5. Computer Technician
Gerberg says there is an increased need for tech support, as more people move their businesses home. Computer technicians make basic repairs, set up wi-fi and perform other jobs. Companies are also looking for individuals who can build websites, which makes this a no-brainer for anyone with a little creativity and HTML experience.
Salary: Set your own fee. Tech support rates vary according to the job, rates can be around $30 an hour or more.
6. Copy Editor
“Copy editing is proofreading,” says Rachel Goldman, who took her skills honed in her day job as an online news producer and used them to score part-time work as well. In addition to checking texts for spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting errors, “I also help the person brainstorm and flesh out their work,” says Goldman. Although she started out editing essays for college students, Goldman is now working on documents such as patent applications and television scripts as well.
Salary: Goldman’s fees vary based on length and subject matter, but she estimates that she makes about $100 per document.
7. Direct Seller
Companies such as Amway and Avon allow people to make money on their own time, while offering incentive programs like discounted insurance. And while the recession may have curbed consumer spending, Avon recently reported earnings that were above expectations. “Our products are selling well because it’s affordable luxury,” says Lindsay Blaker, an Avon spokesperson.
Salary: Blaker says she’s seen reps make anywhere from a few hundred dollars a month to six-figure annual salaries. “I met someone who went from a corporate setting to becoming a full-time seller because she was making just as much money staying at home,” she says. “People love the flexibility of the job.”
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