Monday 31 December 2012

Tips For Making Your Home Improvement Project An Easier One


The terribly thought of holding a hammer is ready to send some owners into a work of cold sweats. this is often not necessary any further as this text can provide some basic tips to assist out all sorts of property homeowners. By exploitation the following tips, you'll be ready to increase the worth of your realty quickly.

Painting is one in every of the fastest and least high-priced strategies to enhance your home’s look. If you're considering repainting the outside of your home, you ought to measure whether or not you'll be able to do the work yourself. Painting may be a job that needs solely a number of basic tools and a moderate level of ability. If you are doing your own repainting, you'll be able to save a major quantity of cash. once evaluating if you'll be able to make love yourself, you wish to contemplate what proportion offered time you've got to try to to this point overwhelming job, your health and fitness level and whether or not you possess the abilities to induce the work done.

Improve your home and lower your water bill by dynamic  out your rest room with a a lot of economical model. several firms have reduced the quantity of gallons it takes to flush and that they even feature choices, like flushing solely liquids or solids, therefore you'll be able to management what proportion water is employed, reckoning on what's within the rest room.

In order to form a living running a home improvement gig, you need to recognize the right rates to charge. This includes having the ability to relinquish your client an in depth report of the expenses that they're acquisition. These rates embody materials and labor, therefore confirm that you simply don’t charge them an excessive amount of otherwise you won't get the work.

These straightforward and economical tips may be distributed by virtually anyone. The a lot of you apply the softer you'll become with functioning on improvement comes yourself and you'll eventually be ready to move onto a lot of sophisticated problems. this is often an excellent thanks to save cash on your home and even improve the whole price.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Child Star from ‘Home Improvement’ Pleads No Contest to Drunk Driving


Taran patriarch Smith, the previous kid star UN agency vie Tim Allen’s youngest kid on “Home Improvement,” was condemned in the week for driving beneath the influence and drug possession, in line with a report from the Huffington Post.
Sources say Smith was inactive back in February when police approached his vehicle once he was pose ahead of a hearth hydrant.
When the officers found Smith, they suspected that he was beneath the influence of marijuana because of the smell of the vehicle and promptly searched his automotive, that disclosed that he had a major quantity of hash.
After discovering the drug, the police inactive the 28-year-old actor and charged him with a DUI and drug possession, in line with sources.
In order to lighten his ultimate sentence, Smith rumored pleaded guilty to the charge of drug possession and “no contest” to the drunk driving charge. In most jurisdictions, a “no contest” plea carries identical weight as a guilty plea, however the litigant technically doesn't admit to his or her guilt.

Friday 21 December 2012

Get an Energy Audit


Before we tend to get into the gist, we must always mention that the simplest thanks to get your home operational at its most potency is to rent knowledgeable density certified energy rater to guage your areas. This person can conduct what’s referred to as associate degree “energy audit” and he or she's going to check your home for energy losses and questions of safety, and generate a close report light what your home’s problems area unit. With a report in hand you'll simply target and order specifically what you wish to try and do, and what you'll afford to try and do.

If you can’t afford associate degree energy audit, you'll begin to spot associate degreed remedy some drawback areas on your own with the assistance of an infrared measuring device, just like the Ryobi Non-Contact Infrared measuring device. This handy gun permits you to securely live surface temperatures and pinpoint spots wherever your house is experiencing air leaks or missing insulation. As energy efficiency engineer David Johnson says, “Air leaks account for 25-30% of a mean energy bill, and will be} one in every of the foremost profound steps that you simply can work the betterment of your home’s comfort and reducing the number of your monthly bill.”

Our tips ahead can address common drawback areas seen altogether forms of homes, and that they can provide solutions to issues that may be simply mounted, usually while not business on facilitate from knowledgeable.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Stop Consuming Energy Drinks! Exclaim Top Cardiologists in Mumbai

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) claim that the concoctions of caffeine and ginseng are irrational and impermissible, as per the health standards. Three companies from Mumbai, Gurgaon and Pune have been cracked down.

The food safety regulators have banned the sale of few other products that has similar combinations and are categorized or promoted as fatigue reliever, alertness improver, tension and stress reliever. These beverages, available in small bottles and sachets, are generally consumed by youth as a fashion statement or health beverage.

"Adversarial effects" of concoctions of caffeine and ginseng - a compound extracted from a herb used for making Chinese medicine in tradition form, was the main reason cited by scientific panel, said FSSAI. This panel also warned that the effects can be fatal when consumed along with alcohol, as claimed by Canadian Journal of Cardiology. It warns that opposing effects has potential to trigger sudden cardiac deaths, when combined with alcohol or other drugs. FSSAI started cracking down on the manufacturers by making these letters; it sent these companies, public on its own website.

There are concerns raised by health activists regarding the regulation of ingredients of energy drinks in India. Caffeine content is the main concern. Generally caffeine content is regulated in carbonated beverages - 145 parts per million (ppm); however, for energy drinks there are no such regulations. In some of them, the content was as high as 320 ppm. Activists claimed that such drinks have high doses of caffeine and it can lead to serious adverse effects on health in long term.

FSSAI crack down came when the health activists were raising strong voice regarding ingredients regulation in such beverages. This crack down led to immediate ban of - Monster and Absolutely Zero manufactured by Monster Energy of India; Cloud 9 in different flavors made by Pushpam Foods & Beverages; Tzinga Lemon Mint, Tzinga Tropal Trip and Tzinga Mango Strawberry manufactured by Hector Beverages. In the notices sent out to these three companies, the dictum stated immediate stoppage of manufacture, sale and distribution.

A team of researchers and doctors have cautioned the about effects of such drinks on heart. In the paper published researchers have told that it is important to consult cardiologists before consumption. Cardiologists in Mumbai strongly support the research results. They claim that mixing caffeine, ginseng and alcohol or drugs have lead to cardiac arrests in young and healthy individuals. They urge the people to understand the lack of regulations on these high caffiene level beverages; and insist that parents should advise their children against its consumption. Further, cardiologists in Mumbai insist that there should be warning on the labels that "Consumption of energy drinks is risk to life."

Credihealth is a healthcare startup helping patients find the best doctors, hospitals, diagnostic centres among other medical facilities. No wonder its tagline is 'the healthcare answer'. Like the WED, Credihealth likes to run campaigns on all significant health days. Another feature of the health website is the health blog.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

What Is a Flipped Class?

In the traditional class, teachers spend most of the class time lecturing. Maybe 90% of the class time is spent on delivery and review of content, while 10% is spent on application of content. Clearly this is not an effective way of teaching.

In most cases, the teacher finds in the classroom different groups of students: struggling learners, middle group of learners, and high level learners. The middle group of students could follow along while the teacher explains the content. But there is a group of high level students who are not challenged to move forward. And finally, there are the struggling learners who are not receiving enough effective help to understand the content; in fact, they depend on their effort outside the class for applying the concepts given on the class. But this is almost impossible for them since they are easily distracted. It is evident that there is not enough time for effective differentiation in the classroom.

How to overcome these difficulties which represent the general case and to transform teaching and learning?

American teachers believe that "flipped learning" is the model of instruction that permits the student to being able to apply more information and do collaborative learning in the classroom. Then how to flip the classroom? This teaching method refers to the use of teacher-created videos on a media device which permit the student to watch the lesson online outside the class, freeing the students to have more time on application when they come into class.

Since home work and teaching are flipped, this is a real shift in efficiency in the classroom. Students take notes at home before class and prepare to participate in class activities. In other words, students come to school more prepared to apply what they have learned. And the teacher is allowed more time to individuated attention in classroom. In doing so, the students receive feedback right in the moment they need it. This method also opens more opportunities for collaboration among the students. When students watch the lecture videos outside of class (or in class), there is only 10% of class time allocated to watching and going through the instructional material, while 90% of the class time is spent on application of content, to promote effective learning.

Now all students could be engaged and challenged. As we can see, the deployment of technology goes hand in hand with collaborative learning and individualized education.

Marco Antonio Bomfoco, Ph.D., a Language and Literature expert, advocates for quality public education in an environment in which imagination and lifelong learning flourish. Marco Antonio wants every Brazilian child to have access to the highest quality education. He lives in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil.

Tuesday 13 June 2006

Wealth Building For Women - 4 Valuable Tips To Help Any Woman Increase Their Wealth

Most women are raised to inherently believe that somehow their wealth and financial well-being will be taken care of by others (i.e. marry, inherit).

Because of this, most women aren't taught how to build their own wealth, or even think to learn it on their own.

If you're a woman who desires to build more wealth, here are 4 valuable tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Get clear.

When we experience negative events (such as our parents telling us there isn't enough money), we subconsciously block out or avoid our painful memories. This process of avoidance actually insures that the event will get stuck in the body, at the cellular level, because it is never fully processed and cleared. So, clearing these beliefs is crucial to your wealth.

To start, make a list of any negative beliefs you determine you have about money or wealthy people, including the belief that your financial well-being will somehow be taken care of by others.

Use a clearing technique like EFT or whatever works best for you, until you feel clear.

Tip # 2: Stop your most costly money drains.

Money drains sabotage our efforts to accumulate and build wealth. The best way to take control of your wealth is to be aware of where your money is going. I'm not asking you to be perfect, and I don't want you to get overwhelmed with this, just look where your money is going and "plug" any money drains as you see fit.

Common money drains include: having more house or car than you can afford, dining out too much, alcohol, cigarettes, fancy coffee drinks, vending machines, excessive shopping, too many paid magazine subscriptions, convenience stores, happy hour, expensive vacations, not automating a regular savings amount, keeping up with The Joneses, parking or speeding tickets, overdraft fees, bounced check fees, credit card fees or interest, late payment fees, lending money to others, wasting food, overpaying insurance (not checking your policies regularly), bad credit, and anything else that is unnecessary and is keeping you from investing or saving.

Tip # 3: Show Some Respect.

You need to consistently show your subconscious mind that you respect money, you are interested in your finances, and you are serious about wealth building. Showing respect includes:

Keep your wallet neat and organized. Make sure all your paper money is straight, facing the same way, and nicely put in your wallet. Don't crumple them and shove them in your pocket or pocketbook.
Every penny counts to your subconscious mind, so don't treat coins like they aren't valuable.
Organize your bills as you receive them, and file them by due date.
Pay your bills on time.
Have a filing system for all your financial documents and keep it current and organized.
Don't use credit cards to buy things you don't need and can't afford.
Keep your checkbook balanced and don't float checks.
Always know your net worth (= assets - liabilities).
Tip # 4: Get serious about wealth building.

Once you get clear, seriously look at where your money is going, and begin to plug your money drains, you should have additional "free" money every month to start wealth building. Here are a few things to consider:

Pay yourself first, and show your subconscious mind that your wealth matters. Determine a set amount (even $5 a week), and have it automatically deposited to your savings account. Don't touch it, just let it grow.

Automate the payment of your bills as much as possible so you aren't always focused on or worrying about them.

Focus on eliminating any unsecured debt (i.e. credit card debt). This will give you a great sense of freedom to see the amount steadily decrease and ultimately reach a zero balance.

Create an emergency fund and add to it gradually (final balance to target should be equal to 6 months of your income). This will give you a sense of comfort and freedom.

Look into ways to create more income (i.e. start a business).

Start learning about different investments. Don't ever invest in something you don't understand.

Wednesday 15 June 2005

Improving Customer Attrition Requires As Much Heart As Smart

Headline: Three years of misses on both the top and bottom lines, customer churn exceeding $56 million annually and continuous market share losses result in the break up and sale of another industry leader. Approximately 1,500 employees received their pink slips as the Company closed it doors today!

If a firm's revenue growth is unimpressive I recommend that leaders first look to how they manage current customers for clues to the solution. More often than not customer attrition is the canary in the mine, a harbinger of poor sales growth. Not surprisingly many leaders opt for the sex appeal of new sales to solve their growth problem. They often conceptualize that a focus on customer attrition is too defensive, too demoralizing for their "hunters". In this exciting technology led world we live in let me remind you that an idea always precedes action. Your idea or philosophy about where the customer fits in your business determines everything about you as a company and ultimately what strategies you decide to implement.

In no particular order of offense let me describe how customer attrition philosophy is often actualized in real life. When faced with customer attrition challenges one group of managers will take a deep dive into spreadsheet management. All in the name of accountability they start tracking everything imaginable. They will assign task forces for task forces and even measure the number of project teams working on the problem. Sometimes they schedule conference calls before they know why. Very often marketing functionaries are wrongly obsessed with measuring outbound emails, outbound phone calls, scheduled presentations, and face-to-face sales meetings. This group clamors incessantly about how effective managers track activity and measure everything. I so want this group to re-read Deming's book, "Out of the Crisis" to get a sense of what the father of quality had to say about this phenomenon.

A second group of managers is marginally more thoughtful and tends to use lean process, six-sigma, and continuous improvement initiatives to kick start customer attrition improvement believing that process drives everything. Their teams minimize the kinds of data previously mentioned in favor of critical service incidents, order form errors, call center wait times, and a host of other process variances. Unfortunately this faction often draws conclusions from an exclusively internal perspective. This unit's findings mistakenly become the customer's in a very "we know best" kind of way. Although this cluster usually extolls the virtue of the customer's voice very rarely do we hear that voice in the final analysis. This crowd still finds its growth strategies de-railed because their perspective about customers is too fragmented. These managers tend to see customer attrition issues as quantitative exercises and often miss the human side of the customer's decisions.

The next group systematically and purposefully denies that customer attrition is a problem for their organization. These managers work extremely hard at separating facts and particulars about the customer situation. The level of dissection is so granular that it is impossible to understand context or to see important customer decision and use patterns. These managers see the truth that supports the story they want told but you can be sure their truth is not the complete truth. Make no mistake this group is often motivated by a combination of internal politics as well as pending investment trade-off decisions. However, this group is also motivated by the need to defend their turf.

The success culture in many of these organizations encourages managers to focus their energy on positive service events and customer experiences. The critical incidents that chip away at loyalty are decided to be outliers and exceptions that are not reflective of how the organization treats customers. Because it is our nature to unify observations any customer example that does not fit this unification pattern creates a tension that is inconsistent with the beliefs of this managerial group. Leaders grossly over-promote the positive customer experiences exaggerating their significance to such an extent that customers interpret the firm as "out of touch with our priorities". Customer attrition denial creates a false sense of excellence. It may take awhile to manifest itself in the marketplace; however, customers ultimately describe this group as complacent, misinformed about the quality of the customer relationship, and unresponsive. The term zone of tolerance comes to mind with this faction.

A relatively small group of leaders reason that customer attrition is not a bad thing. This faction assumes that unprofitable customers either need to be fired or charged draconian dues and fees for the privilege of doing business with the company. This group's decisions are based on the concept of customer attrition as a purification tool. Managers of this ilk promote their decisions as a spiritual cleansing of the firm based on a mystical Swedenborgian-like alignment with a higher cause. We often see this philosophy exhibited in firms where the sales force had been encouraged and/or commissioned to write new business at any cost. Ultimately the pendulum swings and either operations or finance feels compelled to clean things up. This concept of customer attrition is exceptionally dangerous because of its negative impact on brand image and sales force morale.

Time and again we are reminded that customer attrition is a complex business problem. There is no doubt that customer attrition improvement demands a certain degree of vision, alignment, and execution from both individuals and organizations. However, lacking a moral center that informs the customer attrition strategy there can be no sustainable vision, alignment or execution. So where do we find ourselves? Borrowing from Emerson: "We awake and find ourselves on a set of stairs; there are stairs below us, which we seem to have ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one which go upward and out of sight." In the context of customer attrition we must decide how we will conduct our customer relationships and whether we go up or down.

There is a three-step rubric to help you define your customer attrition philosophy. The first guideline recognizes the importance that customer history has on our success. Especially in these times it is insane to operate any business without the benefit of a marketing software solution. However, a history of critical incidents, sales call reports, webinar attendance, email communications, campaigns etc. is not as useful as actually living the customer's reality. Until leaders find a way to make customer history personal customer attrition will always be nothing more than an intellectual exercise. If you are serious about solving a customer attrition problem your systems and procedures must be aligned in a way that aids in developing a deep knowledge of the customer as an individual. You must accept that there will be data that unifies your understanding as well as information that defines relevant degrees of variance. To make history personal you must be willing to accept and use these two qualities of nature to your advantage. By the way, creating this kind of history is not simply a matter of algorithms and customer surveys.

Second, sustainable customer attrition solutions also require virtue. For example, organizations can implement technology in either a virtuous or a dishonest way. Does your marketing software system enhance your ability to manage the customer lifecycle or does it only recognize the initial sale? Does your system encourage honest customer responses or inquiries or does it manipulate customer visits by directing customers to home pages of your design? Does the structure of this critical system essentially support how you intend to conduct the customer relationship over time? Why are these questions important? Within the context of customer attrition we know that a subjectivity bias is disastrous. As in most things virtue is in truth. So, the marketing software system must not only possess the right architecture to match your customer attrition philosophy it must enable you to conduct a truthful inquiry and analysis.

The final piece of the rubric is to implement a diagnostic framework that helps you perform a comprehensive analysis of the individual customer situation. Customer attrition is a dynamic challenge and as such is not something you solve today and then check off the list. Organizations that have an actionable customer attrition philosophy develop a common system for examining the health of each customer relationship. Their systems, whether automated or manual, recognize the interrelatedness of price, product and service quality, delivery system effectiveness, communications, ethics, and customer experience. In addition, the implementation of this framework will be consistent and routine providing a longitudinal analysis that aligns with the customer lifecycle.

At the end of the day there may yet be a few commercial enterprises in which customer attrition has little significance. However, most of us live in a competitive business environment and understand how difficult it is to win a new customer. So while keeping and growing customers may be considered somewhat less exciting than winning new customers I have argued that customer attrition performance is the center of sustainable business performance. It requires a greatness of heart and smart.