Solid Advice For Making Your Outside Yard Look Nice! | Home - Ike ...

TIP! Adding a water filtration system to your home will increase its value. It doesn?t take very long to accomplish.

Is this your first time making improvements on your home? If so, most likely you do not know even know where to start. As many people have discovered, the first home improvement project can be especially daunting. This article will provide you with some great tips that will make your home improvement projects a little easier.

TIP! You can make your own window screen if you are having a hard time finding the right size. Frame kits can be cut to any window size, and then it?s just a matter of attaching the screen with the cording and an inexpensive tool.

A helpful tip on home improvement that can save you and your neighbors some money is to create a ?community toolbox? that everyone can contribute to and use for home improvement projects. This can prevent you from having to purchase an expensive specialty tool that you?ll use only once. Instead, you can borrow it from the neighborhood handyman who uses it on a more regular basis. You two can help by sharing tips.

TIP! Genuine wood floors are a better choice for your money instead of laminate flooring. Although laminate might look real and be easy to clean, you cannot refinish it.

Don?t forget about landscaping the next time you start doing home improvements. The front lawn is one of the first things that people see, and you will want this to look exceptional. A well kept lawn, some shrubbery and a few flower beds can easily bring beauty to your property.

TIP! Look into wood cabinets if you are considering replacing your cabinetry. They are durable and stand up well to daily use.

Take your time when doing demolition during a home renovation. It is always wise to find out what is behind a cabinet or wall prior to demolishing it. The wall in question may contain electrical wiring, plumbing lines, or important equipment; disturbing these by accident can make your project a lot more expensive.

TIP! When doing a bathroom remodel, consider not replacing the tub, instead just have it refinished. If your tub has a porcelain coating, there are people that specialize in doing this for you.

If you are buying new appliances, it?s important to think about how long they will last. A refrigerator can last up to 20 years, but a dryer and washer will only last about 10 years. Choose your appliances carefully when updating the rooms in your home.

TIP! When renovating your home, you should never go above your budget. Setting a budget will make sure you get what you need and that you won?t end up overspending on anything.

If you don?t want to clean your gutters every two weeks or you live in a forested area, a protective gutter screen is the answer to your prayers. They prevent the build up of leaves and other debris and the rain water will flow freely down to the ground. The guards will eliminate the need to constantly clean your gutters, for they only require minimal maintenance.

TIP! A good place to start home renovation is the kitchen. Get started by cleaning the walls off.

If you do not have a lot of money to replace your cabinets, consider resurfacing them to create an updated look for a budget price. If can be pricey to replace kitchen cabinets. However, for a fraction of that cost, you can reface the fronts of the cabinets. Your kitchen will look fresh and new and you won?t have to spend a fortune.

TIP! Before you begin your home improvements, devise a solid plan. You need to plan a budget, the changes you would like, and the amount of time you need to invest prior to doing any work.

You can greatly improve the safety in your home by gathering your family members and discussing safety escape routes. In an emergency, it is easy to panic. If you have a good escape plan in place, people in your household will know what to do in the event of fire, flood, or other disaster. This will help ensure their safety. So have a family meeting to make escape plans, and consider all the ramifications of each.

TIP! Whenever you plan any home improvement project, make sure that you find out how to complete as much of it as possible on your own. Having the work done professionally can set you back thousands of dollars.

As you?ve seen, improving your house is way easier than it first seems. Keep in mind the benefits you get and money that you can save by tackling your home improvement jobs.

Source: http://homeimprovementbasics.com/home-improvement-tips/solid-advice-for-making-your-outside-yard-look-nice/

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Republicans losing public opinion wars in "fiscal cliff" talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations are expected to continue Thursday on the "fiscal cliff" with Republicans at a growing public opinion disadvantage and approval ratings for President Barack Obama rising to levels not seen since the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Senior Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota said on MSNBC late Wednesday that he thought Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner were edging closer to a deal.

He added that he hoped something will be announced next week to avert the steep tax hikes and budget cuts set for the start of 2013.

"I believe that they will have a framework agreement," Conrad said. "I believe they'll have it early next week. And I believe it will secure the votes in both the Senate and the House. We may miss some on the wings, but I think the center will hold."

Republican Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, in a Fox Business News interview Wednesday evening, disagreed with Conrad's assessment.

"I started pretty optimistic about this that we could get this done well before the holidays, but I don't feel that way anymore," Brady said. "It seems to me a decision's been made perhaps by the White House already to take us off this fiscal cliff."

Conservative Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said the economy had already been damaged by the uncertainty caused by the deadlock.

"We can't fix it Christmas Eve and expect it all to bounce back in January," he said Thursday on CBS.

Sharp differences remained between congressional Republicans and the White House in talks to avert the cliff, and negotiators warned the showdown could drag on past Christmas.

Both sides refused to give any ground in public, with the main sticking point being the expiring tax cuts, which Obama wants extended for all but high earners and Boehner wants extended for everyone.

Polling shows strong support for Obama's position. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey released late Wednesday, three-quarters of Americans say they would accept raising taxes on the wealthy to avoid the cliff.

Among Republicans, some 61 percent say they would accept tax increases on high earners.

An ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday indicted that nearly half of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the negotiations versus the quarter of respondents who approved of Boehner's.

At the same time, Obama's public opinion rating has reached about 54 percent in the Real Clear Politics polling average, above the level where it peaked in May 2011, when bin Laden was killed.

Republicans are in a bad negotiating position, Conrad said, noting that the Democratic-controlled Senate has already passed a bill preserving tax cuts for the middle-class, leaving the Republican-controlled House standing in the way.

"And so Republicans are really in an awkward position," he said.

Boehner, meanwhile, faces increasingly conflicting pressures, from the right to hold firm, from the Republican center to be flexible and from the polls to abandon his position.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-losing-public-opinion-wars-fiscal-cliff-talks-132424569--sector.html

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NHS Shared Business Services ? a rare success story (part 1 ...

The history of shared services operations in the UK is not a very happy one.? That?s not just true in the public sector ? I suspect if the private sector had the same level of disclosure, and National Audit Office crawling all over them, we?d see the same thing there. But there have been some particularly? high profile public sector failures, such as the Department for Transport and the Research Councils, both castigated by NAO.

But there is one shared services operation that actually has a different story to tell.? The National Health Service Shared Business Services (SBS) operation, a 50:50 joint venture between the Department of Health and with French IT / BPO firm Steria, has an enviable track record.? So in this series, we?ll give an overview of the operation today, then get into analysing why it has been successful, and look at lessons that other shared services operations might usefully learn.

SBS was originally an internal NHS operation, formed in 2003. But then in 2005, the Department of Health decided they needed private sector expertise to make it work, so after a competitive process engaged Xansa (who were later acquired by Steria), as the chosen private sector ?partner in perpetuity?. ?350 staff transferred into the new venture, which retains the NHS ?badge?, and has an independent Board, chaired by David Edmonds, and including Peter Coates, the Department of Health Commercial Director, who has been involved from the start.

After a slow start, it has grown steadily so today, with expected revenues of over ?80M this year, it provides services in finance and accounting, payroll & HR, family health services and procurement to around 50% of all NHS organisations around the UK. ?175 different organisations use the finance and accounting services, 66 use payroll and over 50 the procurement services. The numbers are huge ? SBS is processing 5 million invoices a year, administering over ?43B annual spend and in payroll, servicing more than 200,000 employees with 2.5 million payroll transactions per annum for NHS organisations.

SBS has been profitable since 2009, with any bottom-line ?surplus? shared with customers. In July 2012, some ?1.49 million was returned to NHS clients, based on 2011 performance which showed a bottom-line profit of around ?4 million. ?And there is a target for savings of ?224M ( a strangely precise number?) to be generated by 2014 for the NHS, which they?re well on track to achieve.

There are now some 1900 staff, demonstrating the impressive growth since 2007. Of those, 800 are located in India, which is an issue of some sensitivity given the public sector nature of the work. ?We?ve tried to get a balance?, John Neilson, the CEO of SBS told me. ?The offshoring is part of the reason we?ve generated significant savings for our clients ? but we?ve grown our UK based staff numbers significantly too. We?ve also put a ceiling on the amount of work we will offshore, there?s no call handling outside the UK, and we applied a no compulsory redundancy policy to the original NHS staff who transferred?.

Their move into? the procurement services arena a year ago came with the acquisition of what was previously the North-West Procurement ?Hub?.? That enables them to provide ?services ranging from a full procurement outsourcing offering, to provision of access to a wide range of compliant framework contracts.

And the customer response appears to be very positive. The percentage of clients agreeing that they ?would recommended NHS SBS to others? has grown from 39% in 2007 to 95% in 2011.

I took a look at their operation in Leeds recently and met some of the senior team, with a focus on identifying why this venture has been a success when so many other attempts in the public sector haven?t. So in part 2 we?ll get into that, and also cover what they?re doing specifically in the invoice processing area.

Tagged as: best practice, Outsourcing, public procurement, Public Sector, Shared Services

Source: http://spendmatters.co.uk/nhs-shared-business-services-rare-success-story-part-1/

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The Best Web Marketing Advice That Can Change Your Small ...

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Beginning a blog for your internet business will help you have conversations together with your buyers. Visitors are able to discuss your content. People who reply to your content are potential prospects. Remarks are fantastic, and will assist you to have the capacity to talk about stuff along with your buyers or potential customers.

Perform a podcast to attract site visitors and customers for your internet site. Using a podcast, you are able to Rashard Mendenhall Jersey discuss your product or service, the services you provide, or anything else you?d like. Check with buyers to e-mail you with questions or topics they?d want to go over. Additionally, the podcast will allow you to build partnerships with these you wish to buy from you.

Your prospects require belief that their merchandise continues doing work, so generally stress which kind of help they are going to obtain after buy. This too might help clean up some inquiries consumers have about their buy, because no-one desires to obtain an item that will cease working with out guidance!

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To greatest increase traffic and desire for your site, ensure that it tons swiftly. Each of the web pages on the site ought to weight in at most ten seconds. Properly, your web site need to weight in at most six seconds. If it indicates splitting up merchandise internet pages or lowering the appearance information of your own website, practice it.

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Possessing received a fair quantity of information on ways to achieve success in relation to online marketing, you?re gonna wish to start off utilizing the understanding you figured out. The only method to succeed with this topic is when you actually try out. It?s the only way which you is ever going to make advancement.

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Lady Gaga accused of illegal gay rights promotion in Russia

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking legal action against American pop star Lady Gaga for promoting gay rights to minors during a concert on Sunday.

Vitaly Milonov, a member of the ruling United Russia party in the St Petersburg assembly and the architect of a city law that bans gay "propaganda", accused the singer of breaking the law at the beginning of her show.

"We saw that in addition to music, songs and such, there were direct calls for 12-year-old citizens to support the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community," Milonov said, adding that he would file a complaint to prosecutors over the singer's actions.

He had unsuccessfully called on authorities to bar people under 18 from attending Lady Gaga's show.

A vocal defender of lesbian and gay rights, Lady Gaga said offstage that her managers had received a call threatening her with arrest or a $50,000 fine if she spoke in support of the LGBT community, according to media reports.

The lower house of parliament is expected to consider legislation similar to the St Petersburg law later this month.

It is not clear whether it will pass. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, now the head of United Russia, said in an interview last week that "not all human relationships are subject to legal regulation".

Lady Gaga took Medvedev's comments as a sign of support for her show and thanked him on her Twitter microblog.

"Thank You Prime Minister Medvedev for not standing by your party's anti gay propaganda law & instead supporting my show+fans all over Russia," she said in her tweet.

Lady Gaga has a concert in Moscow on Wednesday.

Last month, a St Petersburg court rejected a $10 million compensation claim against U.S. pop star Madonna initiated by Milonov and a group of anti-gay activists who accused her of hurting their feelings by promoting homosexuality at a concert in the city in August.

Madonna has called the city law a "ridiculous atrocity".

Homosexuality, punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union, was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but much of the gay community remains underground as prejudice runs deep.

(Writing by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lady-gaga-accused-illegal-gay-rights-promotion-russia-190648269.html

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Oppo launches Find 5, touts 5-inch 1080p display, quad-core and 13MP camera

At last, the wait is over for Oppo's latest flagship device. Launched in Beijing earlier, the Find 5 comes with pretty much all the top ingredients in the current market -- many of which had been teased by the company multiple times already: 5-inch 1080p display, Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chip with 2GB RAM, a 2,500mAh battery and Android 4.1.2. There's also NFC, and on top of that, the Find 5 comes with a special version of Sina Weibo that uses the phone's NFC to let users instantly follow each other. The 13-megapixel camera isn't just about numbers, as it also packs fast hardware-enabled HDR for both photos and video! Oppo claims it's the first in the mobile industry to carry this awesome feature. Audio-wise the Find 5 features Dirac HD, a technology that's embraced by the likes of BMW, Bentley, Rolls Royce and Datasat; making Oppo the first mobile phone brand to join the party. The included earphones are fine-tuned for Dirac, naturally.

Alas, much like the Droid DNA, this Chinese superphone also suffers from the lack of microSD expansion, so users may struggle to fully appreciate the 441ppi screen with just 16GB of built-in storage. As for pricing, we already know that the US will offer the Find 5 for $499, and luckily, it'll just ¥2,998 or about $480 in China. Stay tuned for our hands-on, and there's also a press release after the break for the time being.

Gallery: Oppo Find 5 product shots

Continue reading Oppo launches Find 5, touts 5-inch 1080p display, quad-core and 13MP camera

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Movie Review: 'Life of Pi' ? CBS Philly

By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? No, not that kind of pie, even if it is Thanksgiving.

Life of Pi is director Ang Lee?s movie version of author Yann Martel?s fantastical tale about a shipwreck and a 16-year-old boy?s miraculous survival after more than seven months at sea while sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

The oddly compelling book certainly seemed unfilmable to this reader?s eyes, yet Lee, the Oscar-winning director of Brokeback Mountain, somehow managed to pull it off with impressive results.? And while the movie has limitations resulting from its reverence for the source material, its ambition and quality are unmistakable.

(3 stars out of 4)

The faithful screenplay by David Magee, based on Yartel?s 2001 novel, is about an Indian boy nicknamed Pi, played by newcomer Suraj Sharma, who is lost at sea after the ship carrying his zoo-owning family capsizes during a violent storm.

Everyone dies but Pi, who ends up on a small dinghy with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, a rat, and a tiger named Richard Parker.

Let?s just say that Pi?s ark will soon be a lot less crowded and that Pi and Parker are about to become unlikely traveling companions.

The boy-versus-beast narrative of Life of Pi is related in flashbacks as the adult Pi, played by the casually mesmerizing Irrfan Khan, relates his adventure at sea when he was much younger to a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall) as he struggles with loss, hunger, thirst, despair, faith, loneliness, and, lest we forget, that imposing tiger.

Pi?s literal and spiritual journey across the Pacific Ocean is never less than visually striking although it was shot entirely on dry land inside huge water tanks in Taiwan.

But it is the footage of the tiger, and its seamless interaction with the human protagonist, that is perhaps the film?s most staggering achievement.? The vast majority of it is amazing computer-generated imagery while a few of the shots involve real tigers, but it is magically impossible to tell the difference.? For a director who took deserved heat for the shoddy CGI work in Hulk, this digital accomplishment must seem especially sweet to Lee.

Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Sense and Sensibility; The Wedding Banquet; Eat Drink Man Woman) obviously loves a challenge, and in this project he takes on and conquers three filmmaking no-no?s: working with animals, kids, and water.? To say nothing of 3-D.

As for the film?s celebrated ?3-D-ness,? it remains to these eyes an unnecessary accoutrement.? The spell that the beautifully-shot drama casts has little to do with that particular technological wrinkle, even if we do spend much of our viewing time absolutely marveling at just how Lee managed everything.

And yet, an exchange late in the game ? one that will not be revealed here ? offers a literary conceit that gives us pause and somewhat undermines the film?s hard-won sense of wonder.? Enough said.

So we?ll tame 3 stars out of 4 ? although we literal purists would much prefer to make it 3.14 out of 4 ? for a ravishing coming-of-age fable about, among other things, faith and the power and importance of storytelling.? Although there?s no hidden dragon in Life of Pi, the crouching tiger is a doozy.

?

More Bill Wine Movie Reviews

CBS Philly Entertainment News

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/11/23/movie-review-life-of-pi/

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