Arsène Lupin III is a formidable thief capable of cracking all the safes in the world. A fictional character introduced by the mangaka (Japanese for “comicbook artist”) Kazuhiko Kato, better known as Monkey Punch, in the 10 August 1967 issue of Weekly Manga Action, Lupin is meant to be the grandson of another fictional character, Arsène Lupin, a French gentleman thief and detective created by Maurice Leblanc, the best-selling early Twentieth Century pulp fiction writer. As the world’s number one thief, in addition to safes Lupin is also a master at disarming traps and alarms. His ventures have proved him quite a talented driver and pilot as well, and he is an expert shot – with a pistol, no less.

For all his abilities, however, Lupin has a doltish, even idiotic look. Yet they belie his ferocious reasoning abilities and social charms; Lupin is able to get past people with about the same ease as when negotiating safes, particularly booby-trapped ones.

When not practicing his art – he seems to steal more for the challenge than for any personal gain, frequently discarding treasures or not caring if he should lose them after first conquering the quest of acquiring them – Lupin enjoys fishing, gambling, and dating beautiful women – not necessarily in that order!

Giving rigor to the dubious proverb about honor among thieves, Lupin will frequently foil other criminals who are engaged in activities of a violent, murderous nature. Actually, most of his adventures involve not only the police, epitomized by his nemesis Inspector Zenigata, but really sinister characters of deep malice.

Immensely well-liked and voted among the Ten Most Iconic Anime Heroes, Arsène Lupin III has been ubiquitous in three television series, five feature films, nearly two dozen television specials, and a number of original video animations and videogames.

Plastic water tanks are a far cry from the armored behemoths also called tanks, but they do share a curious historical connection. Yes, that’s correct, modern plastics were invented after World War II, while tanks first made their debut in the waning years of the Great War, but there’s something of a relationship.

Although not plastic water tanks, military tanks were first so named by their British creators in an effort to disguise their research and development. It was hoped that by classifying these inventions simply as “tanks” on paper, any German spies who might have gotten a hold of the secret documents that referred to them could maybe be mislead. As it turned out, the label stuck and tanks have been called just that ever since.

In English, anyway. In German, and numerous other languages, they’re known as only “armor,” a more appropriate term which is a recognized synonym in the English-speaking world, particularly among military circles. A far cry from today’s plastic water tanks indeed, but the notion is never far away in the minds of military history buffs.

The connection is a little more than merely etymological, in fact, as the earliest designs did look like nothing more than basic water tanks to those who had the security clearance to see them. Tanks have dominated the battlefield for over sixty years, and even nowadays they form the core of most conventional land warfare tactics.

The introduction of attack helicopters and guided missiles have greatly reduced their striking power, as well as the asymmetrical warfare prevalent in conflicts nowadays render them ill-suited for most missions, but nothing on the horizon can match the tank in its useful combination of firepower, maneuverability, and defensive capacity. Though less used, the tank still figures eminently in invasion tactics and grand strategy and should find a role for itself in the decades yet to come.

The all-important first date. Such getting-to-know-you can be greatly enhanced by an amusement ride, and the most exhilarating 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. Yep, that’s right: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to think of one another as being physically attractive. Scientists have paired up total strangers of the opposite sex and asked them to secretly judge one another’s attractiveness. Then each pair was put through a roller-coaster, sitting side-by-side, and asked again to rate one another’s attractiveness after the ride. The second set of responses were almost always substantially higher than than the first set!

So if you intend to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaging in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Located at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is really 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!

“Multimedia” and “virtual reality” used to be big buzzwords throughout the second half of the ’90s, before the “dot bomb” when internet start-ups were popping up like mad and the stock market couldn’t get enough of them, throwing money at almost every one in a confident shotgun fashion.

And now those days are long gone, having moved onto the next big bubble (which was, by the way, subprime mortgages, something that’s still a nightmare the world over), but virtual reality and multimedia have only become better and better – though full sci-fic implementation is still quite some way off. That’s because a lot is involved in comprehensive sensory reproduction, though for many, the “rated-G” audiences of families on a vacation package, say, something like the New York Skyride by serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber would be just fine (it is, briefly, an IMAX-like helicopter fly-over of famous city attractions synchronized to motion seating). But in research and development laboratories around the world, all the biggest names in consumer electronics are busy figuring out how to apply declassified military technology in a relevant way to ever more immersive videogaming and other kinds of entertainment.

Two trends appear ready to finally come to fruition: 3D and kinetics. First, three-dimensional technology is one of the most heavily explored fields in home electronics, and it seems poised for a prime-time debut in the form of astonishingly advanced television screens that require no 3D glasses to view 3D imagery. Secondly, the multiple billion-dollar videogaming industry has been crucial in developing kinetic controls, whereby user commands are conveyed not through a physical interface but through the user’s own body movements. These two advances are being marketed right now by some of the biggest names in the business, famous labels such as Nintendo and Microsoft, companies that have a proven record of success in most of the things they do. A far cry from the likes of Zalman Silber!

Besides entertainment, the most obvious other uses for these technologies would be in real estate as well as education. Teaching subjects like chemistry and physics will surely be revolutionized by the implementation of intuitive user controls and interactive 3D graphics that do not need a special interface. Wholesale property investment already makes broad use of virtual reality by providing 360-degree views and video walk-throughs of real estate to prospective buyers from around the world. Using virtual tours over the internet, likely buyers can establish from the comfort of their own homes whether an actual site visit is warranted, though property is also often bought simply on the basis of the virtual tour!

Virtual reality tours have come a long way since something like the New York Skyride of serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber, which is an IMAX-like cinematic experience found at the city’s famous Empire State Building. Contrast that with the United States Army’s Virtual Army Experience, or VAE, which is an interactive multimedia virtual tour of what it is like to be an American soldier in the 21st Century.

The VAE was designed to capitalize on the appetite of today’s American youth for electronic entertainment. As opposed to continuing to run television commercials as was done before, it was decided to support conventional forms of outreach with one that a lot more right away and forcefully resonated with today’s young males. A thing like the aforementioned Skyride by Zalman Silber is family entertainment and totally innocuous, G-rated to seat as many as possible. It’s mildly educational while the VAE is meant to showcase the most positive aspects of modern soldiering to action-oriented youths. The VAE presents a life-sized networked environment for visitors to obtain a little taste of soldiering and battle. With a complicated setup that involves computers, video, motion sensors, and full surround sound, the VAE is an engaging method to both entertain and educate, not to mention recruit. Through the use of classic storytelling alongside familiar videogaming conventions, the VAE has been hailed for its innovative use of cutting-edge technology to inform in addition to to sell.

Website visitors gather from the “Assembly Area,” whereupon uniformed VAE staff shepherd site visitors on towards the “Joint Operations Center.” There they meet former soldiers, now employees of Army partner Ignited Minds, a marketing firm, who serve as “team leaders.” An intelligence briefing ensues, which covers the upcoming virtual mission. Time is also taken to introduce Army rules of engagement together with correct use of simulator equipment and appropriate deployment of Army tactical doctrine. Then it’s on towards the mission itself, which takes place inside the “Mission Simulator” proper. The objective is to evacuate civilians, an unassailably righteous scenario that critics contend mask the far more likely and less innocuous duties of Army life and death in a time of war.

Upon completion on the mission participants are debriefed in an “After Action Area” where Army values are introduced within the context of the mission, values including duty, honor, respect, and camaraderie. At particular venues, an actual war hero is on-hand to speak with participants, lending an inspirational air of authenticity that has a lot of VAE website visitors applauding.

It is all incredibly beguiling, specifically for young men still trying to prove themselves to themselves.

Stocking and supplying medical office supplies has traditionally been one of the duties of a hospital dispensary, which is mainly dedicated to dispensing medication according to doctors’ prescriptions. Nowadays, the term “dispensary” refers to a handful of different institutions around the world – or, even, within the country.

For instance, in California a dispensary is a specially designated store licensed to sell not medical office supplies but medicinal marijuana (which is also the situation in the Canadian province of British Columbia), while in the states of Idaho and South Carolina a dispensary used to refer to the governmental agency that served as the only legal source of alcohol.

Also no source of medical office supplies is the Kenyan dispensary, a small outpatient health facility normally managed by a registered nurse. These nurses report to clinical officers at a health centre, which is also where patients are referred to for treatment in cases much more complicated than a common ailment like cold or malaria. Modeled on the British system, this sort of health care dispensary is no simple storehouse of supplies but what Americans would call a community clinic.

This kind of medical clinic or dispensary got its start in London, England back in the 1700s, and is credited with aquainting physicians with the problems of the poor mainly because unlike the case with hospitals or a private practice, this dispensary service in fact brought doctors into their patients’ homes. Their social consciences shocked, thus were the first dispensaries set up – free healthcare for the poor.

Indeed, young aspiring doctors of the day were really eager to serve as honorary physicians to the dispensaries, though such an appointment was generally voluntary (with no more than a small honorarium at best) and not as prestigious as a hospital posting. It was nothing short of a health care revolution: for the first time since the Hippocratic Oath, altruistic motivations were the norm.

The right wedding favors can be hard enough to find, seeing how they should reflect not only the occasion but the couple and all their guests, but for individuals in alternative~ lifestyles for example open marriages it may be extremely challenging. On the one hand, traditional wedding favors do not seem to honor the most unique aspect of this kind of a marriage – namely, that it’s open and the couple is not exactly shy about the fact – but on the other hand most individuals want to remember a marriage, not a social statement.

Of course, one may easily retort that marriage by definition is a social statement to begin with – but the institution is so common and nearly universal that it is no “statement” at all, not in the sense of a declaration beyond the obvious.

Wedding favors are also statements, in effect, a kind of message from the couple to their guests. They symbolize what the couple wishes the guest to remember of the wedding, as well as how the guest should view the couple. So how to go about choosing the right takeway gift, the right momento?

In the end, it depends on the couple, of course. The overwhelming vast majority would no doubt prefer innocous ceremonies and by extension sourvenirs – even anonymous affairs that make the official proclamation of their marriage blend into the vast background of all marriages occurring in their culture. Hence the double difficulty encountered by those in alternative family arrangements where nothing seems to recognize, much less celebrate, their beliefs.

What to do, then? Fortunately, many such individuals, those who choose and even proudly proclaim their unusual unions, are very creative and eminently capable of designing their own distinctive parting gifts for their guests. But as modern society becomes ever more permissive, it is only a matter of time before enterprising folks begin catering to this niche market with specific products that not only recognize their particular flavor of marriage but even honor it.

A webinar is a webcast that offers limited interactivity, for example audience polling or a brief Q&A session afterwards. If you think about it, however, the state of today’s webinars are hardly far removed from something such as amusement rides like Oztrek by New York entrepreneur Zalman Silber. These are IMAX-like experiences that are passive, with no audience interaction, the only difference from a traditional movie screening being the synchronized motion seating effects involved.

But a webinar is more an online workshop than multimedia entertainment. Something like the Army Virtual Experience, or VAE, however, works to combine both aspects, possibly portending the future.

The VAE is a mobile infantry combat simulator that allows participants to get a small taste of soldiering under extremely hostile environments. Created by the United States Army in conjunction with American software developer Zombie Studios, full-sized Blackhawk helicopter and full-sized Humvee vehicle simulators are employed to further develop the sense of realistic immersion. It is really a mobile infantry combat simulator, available in a handful of different versions from full-sized to traveling packages suitable for indoor or outdoor installations. It was developed as a response to the increased appetite of young American males for electronic forms of entertainment, augmenting traditional advertising efforts on television. In two years and at a cost of almost twenty million dollars, the VAE has been deployed at a variety of sites throughout forty states at venues ranging from NASCAR races to music festivals.

Available in different versions, the full VAE requires just under twenty-thousand square-feet of room for all the various aspects of the simulation technology involved, from the aforementioned life-sized replicas of Army machinery to the various computers and network equipment necessary for bringing it all together to life. It’s a long ways off from the kind of passive technology deployed by amusement rides like the Oztrek by serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber. Employing a giant IMAX-like screen with motion seating that is activated in synchronization with onscreen events and actions, this sort of immersive experience is purposefully safe and innocuous, suitable for the general family-oriented audiences it seeks. By contrast, the VAE leans heavily towards young males, with an emphasis on fire-and-forget gameplay. The full-version starts off in a traditional manner akin to something like the aforementioned Oztrek, with a twenty-minute ride in which video briefings are given by various soldiers of the United States Army explaining their areas of expertise and specialized duties as well as their personal goals outside of the military. But the similarity to yesteryear’s virtual tours soon ends as participants go on to engage in any number of war-fighting scenarios from inside life-sized Blackhawk and Humvee simulators.

Investing in Washington, D.C. can present many challenges distinct to that locale. Professional developers like Isaac Toussie recognize that, first of all, the property markets of our nation’s capital consists of some very interesting characteristics. Even though the city’s real estate environment continues to be harsh due to still-disappearing gains, gains made during pre-2008 boom-times, new developments are occurring that may signal a turn-around.

Not everyone knows that home sales have fallen as credit’s dried up the way a pro like Isaac Toussie does, resulting in ripple effects like job insecurity and worse. In fact, suburban D.C. has even been through price drops of up to one hundred thousand dollars! But as is often the case in the world of business, there may be a silver lining in even this disaster. That’s because one man’s tragedy is another’s opportunity, to put it candidly. And thus the glut of foreclosed properties has come to tripped off a buying spree in many places, particularly among the many first-time home buyers of Prince William County who finally found prices within their reach. It should also be noted that so-called “vulture investors” have swooped in as well to snap up distressed properties, which is generally considered to be a good reflection of the wider economic situation, as it is a strong sign of a certain confidence in the market, that market fundamentals remain solid. In fact, these two groups of buyers play a role not unlike that of canaries in a mine, signaling trends and shifts.

The second matter that has occupied many a thoughtful observer of late concerns the rate of mortgage delinquency, which has actually declined a little, according to a recent industry survey just completed. The rate at which mortgage payments have fallen behind has decreased slightly during the fourth quarter of 2009, which is surprising indeed considering that delinquency rates generally rise during the last three months of the year, as a result of all heating expenses for winter and the holiday shopping season.

Surprised though market analysts may be, very few are puzzled because most take this development for nothing more than a statistical outlier, a coincidence. Most economists and other experts continue to believe that the situation remains extremely dangerous, as there are still record numbers of homeowners in financial straits, with the biggest challenge of all unresolved: that way too many have missed at least three payments, and these people are just the ones least helped by any relief program whatsoever, historically speaking; these are the very individuals who will be going into foreclosure rather soon.

One more thing to know about D.C. property markets: the city was the nation’s murder capital during the 1990s, and still suffers from the ravages of municipal mismanagement to this day. Of course, tony nabes like Georgetown exist, but for the most part D.C. is a place where real estate investors need to exercise due diligence when looking into opportunities. The city has been slowly recovering, with gentrification helping pull some pockets of poverty and despair up and out into the modern 21st Century economy, but it’s not a sure bet that current commitment levels will endure.

By no means 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 difficult as it could have been had I not been so lucky.

I and my companions did not have a camping tent among 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 sunlight left most of us choose to backtrack downhill – except for me and another friend. And though 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 great view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And though 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 colors matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not realize 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….