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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to another edition of Isaac Toussie’s real estate insights. Today Isaac Toussie will be talking about an upstate town that once rivaled New York for industry and commerce. Taken from from the native term “Uppu-qui-ipis-in” which means “reed-covered hut by the water,” Poughkeepsie today has expanded beyond huts into a permanent settlement of some forty-three thousand individuals. Poughkeepsie is in fact the name of both a town and a city, both municipalities right next to one another because the city actually used to be the western part of the town (and, incidentally, was an independent village in its own right before that). Except for legal purposes, and such services as fire and police, the two communities are often viewed as one, with a total population exceeding seventy-five thousand people. The town is actually home to much more people than the city, which counts only some thirty-thousand-plus citizens.

Therefore, it’s expected that their respective real estate markets will be quite different. A closer assessment of the latest demographical figures shows that the town is much more affluent than the city, with a median income of over fifty-five thousand dollars a year as opposed to well under thirty-thousand for the city. Indeed, the Town of Poughkeepsie is able to provide for its own emergency services, which are staffed by fully paid civil servants, and not volunteers as is the case with many a suburban community.

As for the City of Poughkeepsie, it’s been severely battered by the economic malaise afflicting the rest of the state and the country as a whole. Average listing price in the two-week period between January 20, 2010 and February 3, 2010 fell almost thirty thousand dollars, to two hundred and fifty-one thousand dollars, though almost five thousand of that has been “recovered” as of February 10. However, the actual median selling price, based on two hundred and thirty-four homes sold, is almost thirty-three thousand dollars short of the median listing price, at barely two hundred and twenty thousand. Average price per square foot in the city is one hundred and thirty-two dollars.

Poughkeepsie was once the “Queen City of the Hudson,” but has suffered economic setbacks for the past twenty-plus years and was just beginning to recover in fits and starts when the recent recessionary woes struck. This has obvious implications for local realty, both residential and commercial. The Town of Poughkeepsie, however, seems rather more vibrant in comparison. International Business Machines, Incorporated, was once the most notable employer around, and while the company still maintains a campus in town, most of its production has been moved elsewhere. Vassar College in the City of Poughkeepsie is arguably the most notable employer now.

Should you purchase any Poughkeepsie property? Well, there’s no way it’s reclaiming its glory days, so the local real estate market is never going to be a hot one. But if your goals are more modest, and especially if you live in the city yourself, of course, Poughkeepsie property can be a solid investment.

Now even with all that said, however, we must end on this note, that of the legal disclaimer: Neither the author nor the publisher shall be deemed liable for the contents of this article, which constitute mere opinion only and should never in any way be misconstrued as professional advice of any kind whatsoever! Always consult the relevant professionals, properly licensed and/or otherwise qualified, when making business decisions of any financial consequence.

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

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

Of course, such a course of action is hard for athletes used to giving their all and pushing performance envelopes. But it must be learned, and practiced and mastered the same as any new skill, to be able to lay the right foundation for a physically rigorous, but also safe, life. The older athlete faces enough challenges with out bringing on more, for instance creating difficulties outright by refusing to accommodate nature’s unavoidable progression.

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

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

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

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

Like much of Greek cuisine, the Mediterranean Diet centers on dark leafy vegetables, fresh fruit, and high-fiber beans. Fats and protein comes from cheese, grilled meats and seafood, and not surprisingly olive oil.

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

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

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

A swimmer needs to practice each day, that is why the occasional swimming pool resurfacing could be so devastating to an athlete. But while traditional methods can take entire days, now there is a far better way to do things, one which doesn’t even require hired help.

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

To have a pool with out water in it is pretty depressing, least of which is due to the fact that swimming pools in need of renovation don’t usually look too good anyway.

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

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

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

Rhinestones are diamond simulants or imitations made of rock crystal, glass, or even acrylic. As the name suggests, a rhinestone used to be rock accumulated from along the River Rhine. Eighteenth-century Alsatian jeweler Georg Friedrich Strass was the first to coat glass with metallic powder in such a way as to simulate diamonds. We’ve come a long way since then, with some producers even able to reproduce the sparkling effects of a real diamond.

Rhinestones are discovered anywhere a diamond would be, from apparel to jewelry. They’re primarily used by those who cannot afford real diamonds, but musical celebrities have elevated the status of wearing them. Personalities as varied as Liberace and Elvis Presley have worn it so much that they’re now widely associated with it, and even caricatured that way.

The diamond simulant, however, is no cheap thing, inexpensive only when compared to the genuine thing. The gemological characteristics desired are usually matched (though never all of them simultaneously in any one material), making the simulant a valuable object in its own right.

One of the largest producers of rhinestones in the world is the Austrian concern Swarovski, which has a custom of manufacturing fine crystal products such as miniatures and chandeliers. From 2004 through 2009, it was a Swarovski creation that served as the star atop New York City’s famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

Preciosa is a Czech organization that is responsible for most of the other rhinestones in the world, with a process that uses only about thirty percent lead in order to minimize refraction.

Other unique coatings and coating processes are utilized to produce crystal rhinestones that exhibit diamond-like traits for example rainbows. Like Swarovski, Preciosa virtually makes sculptures, jewellery, and the like. Indeed, the former Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs host most of the fine rhinestone makers in the world.

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

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

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

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

Given the selection of art that’s accessible in replica form, it should be a fairly simple matter to discover the right piece that perfectly expresses your sentiments, whether of friendship and support or congratulations and well-wishes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When it comes to educational toys, parents today face a cornucopia of options that might sometimes threaten to break the bank! For no business has ever gone under selling things to parents that are touted as being beneficial to their kids. And given the modern-day social phenomenon of the helicopter parent, ever-doting and ever-present, the makers of educational toys know that anything marketed as somehow providing children with an advantage, often intellectual, is as sure a money-maker as anything ever tried.

Needless to say, not each and every single product is going to be a best-seller. But the chances of success increase when it comes to those purportedly designed to teach or help children learn. But if you think about it, educational toys have always been around. After all, what are jigsaw puzzles?

And so we come upon one of the greatest controversies in child psychology. Just what makes a toy educational? Aren’t toys, by definition, educational to begin with? To be certain, the more complex a toy the greater the likelihood that it’s educational – that it teaches, or may be learned from.

But because play is an inherent part of human nature, and any object manipulated in a spirit of entertainment can be a toy, does it not follow that just about anything may be turned into a toy – and an educational one at that?

Sure. But there do exist toys which are obviously significantly more educational than others. Lego-type building blocks clearly involve motor and cognitive skills. But something like a programmable robot kit is clearly much more “educational” in comparison. Of course, it all would depend on the age of the child.

And so, in a strange way, it all comes down to the little one anyway – toys certainly help, but never mistake education with learning itself, a fallacy all too easily seen in individuals who are primarily focused on factors outside the self.

Green energy. You hear about it all the time these days. 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 country, where most green technologies have been invented, and it’s China that seems poised to dominate this industry of the 21st Century.

So what makes for green energy, and why is it so essential? The term is more accurately referred to, technically speaking, as sustainable energy, energy that meets present requirements without compromising the surroundings 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, energy is technically a eco-friendly 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 merely 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 is 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.