Thursday, February 2, 2012

DIY Home Improvement Recommendations to Help you become ...

Completing DIY home improvement projects can be quite satisfying. Not only is it going to be a lot less expensive than hiring a person to do it for you, there is pride that comes along with doing it on your own. Even though this is quite rewarding, it is very important to be sure that you are really ready and qualified to complete any home repairs or improvements before you actually get started. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some guidelines for finding success with your DIY home improvement projects.

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If you wish to get the most ideal results form a DIY home improvement project, exploring examples of what you want to achieve can be helpful. If you are totally new to something, it is smarter to examine some educational materials or request some suggestions from someone, as opposed to staggering around and hoping for the best. Starting with your local home improvement or hardware store, there are several resources you can turn to for help these days. You can usually find someone knowledgeable and willing to give you some advice on the project you?re planning, especially if you?re purchasing supplies there. You can also find instructional books and videos that can help guide you. A video can be especially informative, while you are able to watch someone else to the task one step at a time.

When you prepare for your home renovation project, you may be able to save money on materials and tools. It?s never a good idea to compromise on quality, just to find something that costs less. Home improvement and hardware stores carry more items however you can find some items at recycle centers or places, like Re-Stores, which carry the same merchandise for about half the price. If you are able to discover the items you need at these places, you should be able to lower costs quite a bit, while still using good quality stuff. On the topic of tools, you can ordinarily find used ones in nice condition, either at a local business or on the Internet.

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Don?t mess up in the way a lot of DIYers do, which is to be too excited at the start of a project, but to not do the right amount of planning. One of the most critical things to ponder over is measurements. For quite a few projects, even small boo-boos when it comes to measuring can have terrible outcomes and wreck the whole project. It doesn?t matter if you are using a notebook or a computer, but the most ideal method for getting ready for a home improvement task is to write it all down. This comprises of funds available, materials needed, measurements and the approximate time it will take. While it is quite likely to happen as you move forward, the plans might be altered from time to time, although at minimum, this will permit you to have a productive start and stay away from any misfortunes.

We?ve looked at some of the many factors that are involved in DIY home improvement projects. Any more the best place to look for information might be online, but there are plenty of books and magazines, as well as TV programs with plenty of information. All you need to do to change your home, is get the proper planning, and any job can be done, even if it is only a few simple repairs. Your home can be changed to look better with lots of possibilities.

Source: http://haircutsfashion.info/2012/02/02/diy-home-improvement-recommendations-to-help-you-become-triumphant/

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Trump's golden graves might not be costliest

They say you can't take it with you when you die, but that's not necessarily true for the wealthiest Americans ? like Donald Trump.

He announced this week he is considering building a 1.5-acre cemetery next to his high-end golf course in Bedminster, where members pay a lifetime fee of as much as $300,000. If they want to stay beyond that, they most likely will pay a membership fee that includes burial.

It may be among the pricier final resting places, but if it gets state and local approval, it'd be a bargain compared with some of the country's other swank cemeteries.

Putting one's name on the most permanent of marquees can reach several million dollars at the most exclusive cemeteries ? a far cry from the median $6,560 for a funeral in 2009, the most recent yearly figure from the National Funeral Directors Association.

At Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., a National Historic Landmark renowned for its landscaping, the choicest piece of pond-front property costs upward of half a million dollars, said Sean O'Regan, vice president of cemetery services and operations.

"While you're not purchasing real estate ? you're purchasing burial rights ? it's definitely location, location, location," O'Regan said.

Woodlawn in the Bronx
The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, which was designated last year as a National Historic Landmark, is popular among the wealthy and famous. Burial arrangements can range from $600 for cremated remains to $3.5 million for an historic private mausoleum more than 100 years old, Woodlawn President John Toale said.

The Frank E. Campbell funeral home in New York's Manhattan is the go-to place for celebrity funerals. In its 115 years of business, the home has arranged final rites for the titans of New York industry, famous sports figures, politicians and countless celebrities, Vice President Dominic Carella said.

"We fulfill any request, from private jets, to horse-drawn carriages," Carella said, adding that no request surprises him ? from arranging Dixie Land bands to a funeral procession with the rarest of collectible Ferraris. "We've had funerals from $20,000 or $30,000, to a couple hundred thousand dollars."

Wealthy clients who wish to go quietly know the company's fee includes keeping personal details from the media and providing undercover security guards to keep the paparazzi at bay, Carella said.

For a public funeral, as when tens of thousands of mourners attended viewings in Miami and New York for Latin music legend Celia Cruz, the company can organize the crowds, control the information flow, and take care of special requests from the family.

And as in life, those accustomed to keeping commoners at arm's length can do so in death.

"I have families that come in to me and say, 'I want a family plot, but I don't want anyone next to me,' so they'll buy the six plots around them," Carella said.

He recently sold 12 grave plots to a man in East Hampton, N.Y., who wished to be buried in the center of the property and surrounded by landscaping.

Large family plots and mausoleums have gone the way of many a celebrity marriage. While wealthy and famous figures of the past customarily would be surrounded in death by family members, a modern-day mogul may be torn over which relatives or ex-relatives will share the burial plot.

"It's the changing dynamics of the family. Going back 20 years, if someone came in and said they had five children, they'd buy a grave for 15," Carella said.

Campbell used to build 12 to 15 mausoleums a year but now erects only one or two.

"People are moving. There are mixed marriages, interfaith couples. The number of people buried together is fewer," Carella said. "A lot has to do with the changing dynamics of what's going on in society."

Kensico Cemetary
Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y., is another East Coast "destination" resting place. Carella recently arranged a funeral there. He said the plot cost $450,000 and the mausoleum nearly $1 million.

Forest Lawn, which has cemeteries in and around Los Angeles, is one of the most well-known burial spots for Hollywood celebrities. Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson are buried there.

Spokesman Ben Sussman said prices start as low as $2,000. He declined to say how much the "distinguished properties" retail for. The spots include a private garden and sarcophagus or statuary.

But lavish burials or A-list cemeteries aren't the only way to go out with a bang.

For about $4,000, California-based Angels Flight will custom-design 210 fireworks containing the deceased's ashes, which can be fired off in a beach-front display, set to music. For an extra $1,000, the company will take a funeral party out on a yacht for an ocean fireworks display. And for those with a large enough piece of property, Angels Flight can stage the display in their private yard.

With cremation on the rise, some companies will custom-design an urn or transform ashes into a diamond ring, incorporate them into an oil painting or bury them in an eco-friendly underwater reef.

And for stars of the small screen, like Trump, there's a company that makes video tombstones that play a montage of photographs set to music.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46236692/ns/business-us_business/

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U.S. News - Cost of Alabama immigration law disputed

By msnbc.com staff and news services

A study finding Alabama's crackdown on illegal immigrants?will cost the state up to $11 billion is under fire from the law's supporters.

The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing?after?Alabama's tough?law passed in June 2011, costing Alabama's economy up to $10.8 billion.

The lost jobs also cost Alabama up to $264.5 million in lost state sales and income taxes, and as much as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes, it said.

The study?found?potential economic benefits?include?saving money?used to provide public benefits to illegal immigrants,?increased safety for citizens and legal residents,?more business, employment, and education opportunities, and?ensuring the integrity of various governmental programs and services.

The study asks: "Are the benefits of the new immigration law worth the costs?"

"Economies are demand-driven and so any policy, regulation, law, or action that reduces demand will shrink the economy no matter how well-intentioned," Addy asserts in the study.

"That's baloney," state Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur,?immigration bill cosponsor,?told?the Huntsville Times.?"It's clear the study overestimates the negative and underestimates the positive to skew the result toward an agenda," Hammon said. "If 40,000 illegal workers leave the state, they free up jobs that homegrown Alabamians are happy to have."

Addy said the university?research staff?has looked at key issues facing Alabama,?including?the economic impact of last year's tornadoes, the BP oil spill and Gov. Bob Riley's Amendment 1 proposal to overhaul state taxes, the Times reported.

Addy's study said, "Anecdotal evidence to date seems to point to less than 9 of every 100 vacated jobs being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens."

Hammon told the newspaper that?the state unemployment rate fell since the bill was signed, especially in Marshall County, "once a known hotbed for illegal immigration."

A spokeswoman for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, who signed the bill into law,?told the?Times that Bentley also questioned the study's conclusions. Alabama?has the lowest unemployment rate among seven southeastern states, the spokeswoman said.

In its latest unemployment rate report, which was for December 2011, the state's Department of Industrial Relations?said the state unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, down a full percentage point from December 2010. the governor's office said the rate?had been falling?since August, when the rate was 9.9 percent. April 27 tornadoes that tore through Alabama had caused a spike in the rate, officials said.

In Marshall County, the December jobless rate was 6.9 percent, down from 8.0 percent a year earlier.

A U.S. appeals court has blocked Alabama from enforcing parts of the law, including a provision that permits Alabama to require public schools to determine the legal residency of children upon enrollment. But the court left most of the law untouched.

There are an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah have passed "omnibus" immigration crackdowns since Arizona blazed the trail in 2010 with a law requiring police to check the status of all those they arrested and suspected of being in the country illegally. That measure has since been blocked by a court.

msnbc.com's Jim Gold and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10290742-cost-of-alabama-immigration-law-disputed

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Will Bird Flight Secrets Lead to Faster UAVs?

While deftly maneuvering between trees and other obstacles, the northern goshawk can reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour in pursuit of its prey, flying through some of the world?s densest forests, no less. Biologists have long admired the bird?s airborne precision, but engineers are taking notice now too. They?re hoping to emulate the hawk?s unparalleled speed and agility in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

With the help of Harvard University biologists, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculated theoretical speed limits for a given density of obstacles through which these birds fly unscathed. "Birds are aware of how closely they can get to these things, but we don?t know how they estimate it," says Emilio Frazzoli, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

Presumably, the birds? mechanism is more innate than the engineers?. Frazzoli and his Ph.D. student Sertac Karaman applied an ergodic model?a tool commonly used by ecologists to determine the distribution of trees in a given forest?to calculate the probability of a collision at various speeds and forest densities. (The faster a bird flies, or the denser the forest becomes, the greater the chance of a collision.) Based on this probability, the researchers calculated a theoretical speed above which there is no "infinite collision-free trajectory"?in other words, a speed at which even the most skillful fliers are highly likely to crash.

"Under a very general set of assumptions we can show there exists this critical speed, the exact value of which depends a lot on the specifics of the model," Frazzoli says. Other such factors include the density of the forest, the size of the trees, and the maneuverability of the bird based on the Harvard biologists? observations.

Determining the critical speed is important in understanding how well different animals, humans, or vehicles can approach this theoretical limit. "It?s an analysis tool for biological systems, but also an engineering tool that will allow us to set a safe speed," Frazzoli says.

For example, today?s UAVs are used mainly for military purposes, but autonomous aircraft could have applications beyond high-flying surveillance, Frazzoli says. He envisions scenarios in which drones could fly through hazardous buildings such as the disabled Fukushima nuclear power plant, patrol borders, or scope-out potentially dangerous situations prior to human entrance. And if you had a UAV flying through a crowded area, you?d want to know its critical speed for that environment.

It?s important to remember, however, that while a UAV could be programmed with a predetermined speed based on the density or difficulty of the environment, it won?t necessarily be able to reach its critical speed?this is a theoretical limit. "Essentially, the [critical speed limit] is an ideal measure of performance that we can use to assess how well proposed UAV sensing, planning, and control systems would perform," Frazzoli says.

In reality, UAVs rely on limited sensors to detect unforeseen obstacles and are also subject to disturbances in their motion from inclement weather, according to Matt Keennon, project manager of the Nano Aerial Vehicles program, a Pentagon research effort led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which created the PM Breakthrough Award-winning hummingbird UAV. Keennon says that though flying robots will be able to move faster than their ground counterparts and through vertical spaces, like an elevator shaft, there are several design challenges to overcome before they can fly too much faster.

Keeping the aircraft from drifting into walls or ceilings, maintaining communication through cement walls, and correcting for air currents inside buildings all present difficulties, Keennon says. "[That?s in addition to] putting all the necessary technological pieces into an aircraft small enough to fly indoors."

But if everything goes as well for these UAVs as it does for goshawks, Frazzoli would also like to see how close human pilots can come to the theoretical limit. He and Karaman have designed a flight-simulator game to test people?s ability to navigate dense forests at top speeds. However, the difficult part in finding the theoretical limit for human pilots, says Frazzoli, is seeing how closely this limit matches what people actually do in practice.

Like UAVs, people may not be able to reach their critical speed ? or worse, may not be able to stop once they do.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/planes-uavs/will-bird-flight-secrets-lead-to-faster-uavs?src=rss

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Romney picks up 2 delegates from South Carolina primary, denying Gingrich sweep (Star Tribune)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193373188?client_source=feed&format=rss

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