Most people are shelving plans to take a vacation this summer due to the economic situation.  They think they simply can't afford to go away on an expensive family trip and still support themselves.  That sentiment would be true if travel prices had remained static. But they haven't.

Prices across the travel industry have been slashed to levels that more or less match the financial situations of most consumers.  For instance, cruise deals to the Caribbean are now running at about $250 for a seven-day cruise.  That's just $35 a day!

That means you can still vacation this summer without taking any more of a financial hit than you would have during good economic times.

The Cattle Network - the Internet's leading source for all cattle news - reports that personal ID cards for cows are not far off.

One of the largest cattle feeders in the US, Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, is working with Idaho-based technology firm Southfork Solutions Inc. to develop a system to individually identify the hundreds of thousands of cattle that visit the ranch each month.

The current system whereby each animal stands in front of an ID reader whenever it comes to the feeding or water trough is just not efficient enough, and requires an accompanying paper-based tracking system.  What Five Rivers is looking to develop is an electronic identification system that will allow it to monitor the animals even at a distance.

Real estate investment news site BiggerPockets.com believes that both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - the massive federal lending companies - are going to fail and require an injection of government funds.

If that is accurate, then the US may only be experiencing the beginnings of its mortgage crisis, with far worse days ahead for the real estate market as even fewer people are able to secure loans to buy new homes.

BiggerPockets suggests in its analysis that young families starting out today should hold off on buying and look for rental houses in the short term.

The Associated Press reports that a team of firefighters in the small Arkansas town of De Queen recently responded to a call only to find it was their own station on fire.

The local fire department does not work on weekends, but is on call in case of emergencies.

When a call came in one Saturday that an electrical pole was on fire, the team made their way to the station to grab their gear.  They never got any further after discovering that it was not an electrical pole on fire, but their own station.

Fortunately, the fire was put out without major damage to the station or firefighting equipment.

Anybody with a computer and an Internet connection has by now heard of Forex trading.  It's being advertised everywhere as the "next big thing" in do-it-yourself wealth building.

Everyone wants to be more wealthy, but everyone also wants to take the path of least resistance to reaching that goal.  So why should you, the average Joe looking to find a money-making hobby, consider Forex trading?

Well, first of all, consider that roughly $3 trillion is traded on the foreign currency exchange markets every day.  Yes, that is $3 TRILLION every single day.  So there is definitely a big enough pie for everyone to have a slice.

Second, unlike trading in stocks or bonds, Forex trading can result in fairly substantial gains on a very small investment.  We are talking in the ballpark of $200-$500 to get started and make some serious money.

Of course, like any kind of investment, there are risks involved in Forex trading.  But a good basic knowledge of the way things work, a reliable Forex broker on your side and an easy-to-use Forex trading system will go a long way to minimizing those risks and ensuring your success.