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Mention marble sculpture and most people will think about some thing like Italian marble statues, for instance as Michelangelo’s David or Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. However some of the greatest works of marble are entire buildings themselves, for instance India’s Taj Mahal in Agra, an ancient bustling city on the banks of the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh.

First mentioned in the old Hindu epic the Mahabharata, where it was referred to as Agrevana, or “the border of the forest,” today’s Agra is most famous for the Taj Mahal, Urdu for “crown of buildings.” It’s a marble mausoleum constructed by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtza Mahal.

It’s possibly the most stunningly beautiful piece of marble sculpture anywhere, an entire complex built to symbolize eternal love. It’s not for nothing that the Taj Mahal is usually found on lists of the seven wonders of the modern world, including one composed by polling a hundred million people.

Thus the Taj Mahal attracts anywhere from two to four million visitors each year, of whome about two hundred thousand are from outside the country. This is a significant fact, as admissions are significantly lower for Indian citizens than for foreigners.

The best time to see this beautiful work of marble is during the cooler months of October and November, which are important considerations since a lot of walking can be expected (the whole complex consists of several buildings and sweeping gardens) on account of the strict pollution controls in place that ban all traffic, except for some electric busses. Environmental pollution is also a serious matter in the area around the Taj Mahal.

Its storied white marble had turned yellow, and now there is a four thousand and fifteen-square mile area around this UNESCO World Heritage Site where emissions are subjected to the strictest standards.

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? Really, there’s no better way to take in the sights than in a manner 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 more affordable than the aforesaid 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.

Needless to say, many people have long traveled just to do certain things at, specifically, certain places. Climbing and hiking come to mind immediately; they are possibly the pastimes most associated with travel. But there are many sports and otherwise physically rigorous 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 truly has it all, including outdoors life!

Racing isn’t 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 might seem surprising that individuals 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 such individuals rather take a little break from any type of racing for a while? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to slowly ease oneself into one’s day rather than rushing, rushing, rushing all the time?

Most folks would agree. But for the speedsters, it’s all about the speed. For these kinds of people, it is like how fish have to swim and birds have to fly. It is not so much a conscious choice as an inborn need. If anything, it is 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, as well. 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 will have accumulated so much experience. They’re almost fearless – and though fear normally 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 with the New York City Staten Island Ferry service offer various kinds of boat seats. Some designs enable you to lay down flat virtually as comfortably as on any other hard bench, while other types 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 loaded 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 positive 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 in comparison 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’ve 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 numerous ships employed by the Staten Island ferry service. Some offer a second storey observation deck of sorts, while others can carry cars as well. However, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, vehicles have not been allowed on the ferry.

Being an “agent” usually refers to commissioned sales, and selling is one of the trickiest jobs to be found anywhere – and anytime – but what about as a career? Most peopel would absolutely 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 people 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 actually 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.

Tourist traps. Made to wring every last dollar out of you. It’s as if they were thought up to ruin your vacation. And sightseeing rides rank right up there.

Take Zalman Silber’s Skyride in New York’s Empire State Building. With a name like that, you’d expect it was up there at the top, where it’s located. Instead, it’s only on the second floor. Moreover, express access to the top – for which you pay an additional fifty percent of the ticket price – is just a matter of skipping a few lines. It’s not as if you go straight to the top. You’ll still have to wait on lines, only perhaps one or two less.

And so what is the Skyride? A movie. A half-hour film. That’s it! Definitely a case where the sizzle sounds better than how the steak tastes.

But Zalman Silber redeems himself with his other attractions, the Skywalk and The Edge. The first amusement is aptly named for sure, essentially a catwalk a thousand feet above street level outside the top of the Sydney Tower in Sydney, Australia. It’s an exhilarating experience where, unlike traditional observation decks enclosed behind glass, visitors walk out onto a metal plank that juts out of the building, creating the breath-taking feeling of being suspended in mid-air!

As can be imagined, wind gusts are quite strong at such a height, and special “skysuits” cable-tethered to support structures are used to ensure guest safety. But the Skywalk is open in most kinds of weather, and available practically the whole year.

A similar attraction is The Edge at the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia. This time, visitors are in a fully enclosed cube that sticks out of the building near the very top, with fully transparent glass all around – even beneath one’s feet! A really cool feature of this amusement is how everything is initially opaque, and only suddenly transparent to create an exciting sense of unexpected suspension almost a thousand feet above ground!

These two are great fun and a must for any to-do list when in Sydney or Melbourne. These are the kinds of experiences that really make vacations memorable. After all, vacations are about more than simple relaxation and getting away from work. They are about experiences – ideally, new experiences, positive experiences, unique experiences. And while such attractions as the Skywalk exist elsewhere, such as over the Grand Canyon in the State of Arizona, there’s only one such thing in Sydney and one such thing in Melbourne, offering stunning vistas outdone only by a helicopter flyover.

So beware the tourist traps and spend your hard-earned dollars instead where it would go the furthest. Patronize only those rides which offer true value for the money!

Virtual travel has basically only come of age now, in the 21st Century, thanks to the kinds of Web 2.0 applications like Google Magps’ Streetview function. Unlike something like the sort of corny movie one might view at a Zalman Silber Skyride or Oztrek, where the audience simply sits back and watches tape of a helicopter flyover intended to induce a you-are-there feeling, virtual travel today is really virtual, and much more interactive – which is all to say, realistic like never before.

Indeed, two people have even embarked on that time-honored tradition of The Great American Road Trip – only this time, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, they will do it all from the comfort of their own homes. Making use of Google Maps and its Streetview option, Peter Baldes and Marc Horowitz have managed to trek across the country without paying for gas – or speeding tickets!

Perhaps best of all, however, are all the strangers you can meet along during such a road trip – and they aren’t necessarily locals, either! Thanks to those same wonders of modern technology, it’s easy for others to check in on you, joining you for a part of the virtual trip by webcasting the trip live, just as Marc and Pete mentioned above had done. After all, what’s virtual travel without virtual companions?

Unlike the travel videos of yesteryear, virtual sightseeing this way is fully open-ended, just as if you’d won the lottery and can afford to do whatever you want, whenever you want to! No longer will you merely be following along passively; with the simple click and drag of a mouse you can instantly teleport anywhere! Started off in Rome and suddenly longing for Paris? Have most of Germany covered and now want to check out Japan? It’s easy, and fast, thanks to virtual travel in the 21st Century!

Of course, as any Physics 101 student will tell you, you don’t get something for nothing in this universe. And with respect to sightseeing virtually, you give up a lot even as you save a lot of time and money. You won’t meet folks face-to-face, or feel the wonderful weather or sample regional specialties, culinary and otherwise. Most of all, as any globetrotter knows, much of the fun lies in the journey itself, the very getting there. All this, and much more, are lost on a virtual trip.

It is, in many ways, about what you get with a Zalman Silber spectacle, only without the professional production values – a flowing stream of images, as if instead of a juicy well-done steak on your plate you are presented with a glossy high-resolution photo of one! Virtual travel will likely never replace really being there yourself, and it still has a long way to go before it can even begin to rival the same level of fun offered by the real thing – for right now, the sizzle is the most attractive thing about it.

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 is 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 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 more accurately referred to, technically speaking, as sustainable energy, energy that meets present needs 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 energy is. Conventional fission power, or nuclear, energy is technically a eco-friendly form of energy though numerous 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 eco-friendly must, in the end, focus on the role of China.

But what is China’s position in all of this? As it is generally 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 Sea Eagle 435ps PaddleSki inflatable catamaran-kayak. Yes, that’s a mouthful – and the boat is quite an eyeful, too! But the included boat seats, even in the “pro” and “ultimate” packages, leave much to be desired. They certainly look cool, all sleek and hi-tech in black, but they don’t offer much in the way of comfort, barely supporting a kayaker up!

Indeed, the boat seats included in the cheaper packages, which are standard inflatables, seem to be a whole lot more comfy. Every thing else provided by Sea Eagle makes a excellent impression, however. To be fair, the black high-back seats are supposed to be more performance oriented, and that means comfort was a deliberate second-place consideration. Being closer to the water offers far better stability and a lot more paddling power.

In the final analysis, it is performance in the water that truly matters, and in this regard the PaddleSki is really good. It tracks well and is fairly fast, thanks to its length and catamaran-style pontoons, respectively. The pontoons keep most of the boat above the surface of the water, making for less drag.

Stability and speed. Sea Eagle’s PaddleSki offers both important characteristics in spades. It’s a very friendly craft only marred, perhaps, by the boat seats available for it. Otherwise, it is a very sturdy animal, with fantastic handling suitable for fishing or camping trips along the river. By being an inflatable, the PaddleSki is easily stowed away. Regrettably, it weights a whopping fifty or sixty pounds when packed, but seems very light, if a bit unwieldy, when fully inflated.

Accessories include such useful items as a side motor mount for electric or gasoline engines and a sliding seat and frame for rowing. Sailing is also possible thanks to Sea Eagle’s sailing rig. They all cost a lot of money, however – anywhere from a third to a full half of the price of the most inexpensive PaddleSki package available!

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 choices leaving most to wonder vainly what condition had stricken their beloved console, snatching it from this mortal coil. The power would be activated and nothing would happen and there’d be little choice beyond cursing nefarious fortune and her ambiguous design, frequently plunging into a void of existential woe. Nevertheless, with the most recent generation of consoles, there’s at least some onboard indication of what evils have befallen your system, most infamously the X-box 360 and the Red Ring of Death.

One can’t help but wonder if this knowledge has been of greater use to mankind, or if the question of console 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 particular affliction and are interpreted as follows.

When the ring is solely aflame in its southeastern most quadrant, facing the exact same direction as the flight of 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 component 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, however, among we mere puppets on this earthly stage are the red lights that seize the ring in all quadrants save for that between north and east.

Glance but for only a moment to confirm your sickly apprehensions, then avert thine eyes for what stares back is the eye of the devil whose red gaze will indelibly sear the soul. General Hardware Failure, plight of men and Gods alike and bane of all things good and sacred, has corrupted your X-box. Abandon all hope, for even among sorcerer’s alchemy and mystic’s incantations there’s naught that men of earthly constitution can summon.

But one option remains, to turn over 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.

It’s important to go with the correct equipment when in the great outdoors. Though beautiful, Mother Nature can be deadly – easily. One essential part of anyone’s gear when experiencing our national parks should be portable shelter – in other words, a tent. Some thing like the Big Agnes tent, as fine a line as any made anywhere.

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

You see, tent poles usually require two really toxic chemicals as a component of the anodizing process. However the Big Agnes tent are made from a special process 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 that is used could be safely recycled. Of course, there are numerous 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 organization 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 capability when compressed under the weight of a body anyway. For many folks, such details don’t really matter, but for true enthusiasts, such craftsmanship is crucial.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The all-important first date. This getting-to-know-you can be greatly enhanced by an amusement ride, and the most exciting 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, it’s true: 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 rate 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 need 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. Situated at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is essentially 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!

Great Australians in history. A difficult task for any scholar. To start with, of course, one must ponder 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 thrilling 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’ foreign 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 property 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!

Never go hiking without a camping tent – I learned that the almost-hard way. I say “almost” because considering that I’m not just alive to tell the story but suffered no injuries, either, it probably wasn’t as tough as it could have been had I not been so lucky.

I and my companions did not have a camping tent between us since it was just supposed to have been an simple day-hike over (and up) easy terrain. A thousand-foot mountain affords nice enough views, to be sure, such that the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen, but it isn’t considered a big deal by any who hike or climb real mountains.

So, of course, we didn’t bring a camping tent. And sure enough we get lost, and with only an additional two hours of daylight left most of us choose to backtrack downhill – except for myself and another friend. And although we do eventually summit, as novices we make the mistake of mistiming our descent, such that it’s already twilight by the time we choose to head back.

You see, being so inexperienced we mistook the fact that there was still light in the sky for having enough time to get back down. But of course we were at the summit, where we had a excellent view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And although the sun was low on the horizon it seemed wonderfully bright all around. Golds mixed with blues turned pink and white – it was a swirl of colours matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not recognize that not only does the sun set in seconds, but that in a forest the canopy of foliage will make even mid-afternoon seem much, much later to the human eye….

We could have brought a backpacking tent along. Instead, being young guys we relished in challenging ourselves and flirting with danger. We cavalierly enjoyed our mountaintop landscape 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 realized that we could not see very well.

Real hikers would have just immediately pitched or otherwise put together a backpacking tent but obviously we didn’t have one because we are novices and never imagined we’d need 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 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 getting to us because of the thick canopy of leaves. Even during high noon the ground would be mostly shaded, never mind now, right before nightfall. And in one of the most amazing 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 also we did not even have a backpacking tent!

Luckily, 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! Though it had been a humid summer day, it felt more like late autumn 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.