Deck Design Enhancing Your Home And Garden Enjoyment

Submitted by: Keith Smallwood

A well built deck provides a platform for enjoying your outdoor space and garden and decks rapidly become a focus for family gatherings in the warmer days. There is nothing better than enjoying food outdoors or simply enjoying a casual drink with friends and good conversation while listening to the birds and soaking up the sun. There is a lot to be said for building a deck on your home it enhances the look and feel of the property, increases your enjoyment and it also adds value to your home as well.

The style of your home should determine what kind of decking you should be using. You need to keep the decking in tune with the architecture and materials used in the construction of your home to avoid any clash which will detract from the appearance and feel. You should also consider that a deck is not simply an outdoors feature decking is usually found attached to the home (instead of being free standing) and as such, the deck becomes an intermediate space between the home interior and the rest of the garden. It is not unusual to find decks have become enclosed to some extent as a consequence of this intermediate status.

The materials you choose for the deck will also impact on your future costs and convenience. Wooden decking provides an excellent original effect and is warm and inviting, however you will need to seal it properly and reseal it every few years depending on the amount of use and the impact of the elements. Composite decking is made from a combination of waste wood, typically sawdust, which is then mixed with plastic (usually recycled). This can be made to look like natural wood and it has the added advantage of not warping or splitting.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nPP4nzTYGA[/youtube]

Vinyl PVC decking provides true, long-term durability which is practically maintenance free. Ensure that the decking you use has a non-slip surface which is particularly important for vinyl PVC material in order to avoid any unfortunate accidents, especially when it is wet. Vinyl decks can be used in almost any part of the garden or home exterior and they are especially suitable for surrounding above ground pools where there is the risk of a lot of water, which will eventually accelerate rotting in wooden decking.

Aluminum decking is generally much more expensive compared to all other forms of decking material, however it is going to last the longest and it is very lightweight which means it can be used anywhere. Aluminum decking is also very stylish in appearance and there are no gaps on the surface of the deck itself.

Whichever decking material you use, building a deck will enhance your home and your enjoyment of it. You will be able to use your deck in almost all weathers, however enjoying a fine summer evening with a grill cooking good food and good company to enjoy the end of day is one of life s pleasures. Think carefully about where you want the deck to be built and what materials you are going to use, and it pays to consult with a specialist in order to get the very best out of the design and construction experience they will have.

About the Author: Keith Smallwood is the president of Creative Energy Exteriors, a leading provider of

Richmond home improvement

products and services such as

Richmond windows

and

Richmond decks

. Creative Energy Exteriors can be found online at: CreativeEnergyExteriors.com .

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UK public sector workers strike over pension rights

Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Local Government workers in the UK withdrew their labour yesterday as part of a dispute over pension entitlements. The members of 11 different trades unions were involved in the 24hr strike. As the day began they declared that support for the strike was solid. Although the strikers work for local councils, their pay and conditions are agreed nationally. The Local Government Association which represents the local councils in England and Wales declared predictions that 1.5 million people would stay away from work as “wildly optimistic”.

The Unions’ complaint is that local government workers are being treated unfavourably compared to other public sector employees. They say that agreements on pensions that have been reached with civil servants, teachers and health workers will allow those staff to continue to retire at 60 while local government staff will be forced to work until they are 65. Civil servants work for national government, teachers work for local councils but have their own pension arrangements and most health workers are employed by the state-controlled National Health Service.

The Local Government Association claims that if council workers continue to be able to retire at 60, it will increase the levels of Council Tax (a tax on people living in properties which funds a proportion of local government expenditure) by 2%.

The striking workers provide a wide range of services from assisting teachers in the class room, through inspecting kitchens for hygiene to provising care to the vulnerable in society. In some places council workers collect tolls for road tunnels or manage ferries. Mainstream media have reported on the strike all day with heavy coverage of disruption to commuters where transport has been affected. The unions have emphasised the large number of their members who are women working in low paid jobs.

The Government which regulates the scheme claimed that the early retirement provisions (called the rule of 85) were age-discriminatory and had to be removed.

The strike ended at midnight. The Unions have not declared any further strike days.

The Unions involved were AEP, AMICUS, CYWU, GMB, NAPO, NIPSA, NUJ, NUT, TGWU, UCATT and UNISON.

wanker

Jimmy Wales asks Wikipedian to resign “his positions of trust” over nonexistent degrees

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Saturday, March 3, 2007: with update as of March 4, 2007.

Controversy and discussion erupted on internet forums on 28 February 2007, when publicity was given to Essjay, a prominent Wikipedia administrator and editor, having claimed false credentials which were published in a magazine. Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia co-founder Jimbo Wales was travelling in India, and at 06:42 on March 3 he issued a statement that further information had come to his attention and he had asked the editor to resign his positions of trust within the community. At 03:17 on March 4 Essjay announced on his user talk page that he had retired and was no longer active on Wikipedia.

The affair became public when the The New Yorker issued a retraction to their article about Wikipedia which they had published at the end of July 2006, stating that biographical details they had printed about an administrator and contributor they had interviewed had been found to be false, even though he had confirmed the accuracy of these details as shown on his user page while remaining anonymous.

The Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Stacy Schiff was referred by the Wikimedia Foundation for an interview for the article to Wikipedia administrator Essjay, a member of Wikipedia’s arbitration committee and generally trusted member of the community.

One regular on the site is a user known as Essjay, who holds a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law and has written or contributed to sixteen thousand entries. A tenured professor of religion at a private university…

EssJay had fabricated a persona which he described on his user page on Wikipedia, presenting himself as a tenured professor at a private US university. After the news broke, EssJay claimed that the false details were intended to avoid cyberstalking.

The following is an excerpt of a statement Wales issued on his talk page:

I have been for several days in a remote part of India with little or no Internet access. I only learned this morning that EssJay used his false credentials in content disputes. I understood this to be primarily the matter of a pseudonymous identity (something very mild and completely understandable given the personal dangers possible on the Internet) and not a matter of violation of people’s trust. I want to make it perfectly clear that my past support of EssJay in this matter was fully based on a lack of knowledge about what has been going on. Even now, I have not been able to check diffs, etc.

I have asked EssJay to resign his positions of trust within the community. In terms of the full parameters of what happens next, I advise (as usual) that we take a calm, loving, and reasonable approach. From the moment this whole thing became known, EssJay has been contrite and apologetic. People who characterize him as being “proud” of it or “bragging” are badly mistaken.

On a personal level, EssJay has apologized to me, and I have accepted his apology on a personal level, and I think this is the right thing to do. If anyone else feels that they need or want a personal apology, please ask him for it. And if you find it to be sincere, then I hope you will accept it too, but each person must make their own judgments. Despite my personal forgiveness, I hope that he will accept my resignation request, because forgiveness or not, these positions are not appropriate for him now.

I still have limited net access… for a couple of hours here I will be online, and then I am offline until I am in Japan tomorrow morning. I believe I will have a fast and stable Internet connection at that time, and I will deal with this further at that time.

Wikipedia is built on (among other things) twin pillars of trust and tolerance. The integrity of the project depends on the core community being passionate about quality and integrity, so that we can trust each other. The harmony of our work depends on human understanding and forgiveness of errors.

Essjay revealed his identity as Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old with no advanced degrees, who has never taught, when he was hired by Wikia, a company that runs community-based wikis.

Jordan has since posted that he was shocked Schiff would publish such information; “It was, quite honestly, my impression that it was well known that I was not who I claimed to be, and that in the absence of any confirmation, no respectible publication would print it.”

Five-hundred edits were made to his talk page between 09:45, March 1, 2007 and 17:04, March 3, 2007, and the barrage of comments was expected to continue for an extended period. EssJay subsequently retired from the English Wikipedia, and requested that his bureaucrat, checkuser, oversight, and sysop privileges be revoked.

Wikipedia allows its users to be anonymous, by creating usernames as pseudonyms. However, it is considered unethical to purposely misrepresent oneself to the media, or to use unjustified claims to qualifications to support arguments with other contributors.

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Installing A Church Sound System

By Edward Kendricks

No matter what the size of your church is you probably have music of some kind. If you attend a bigger church you probably have a full band or a choir that needs to be heard by the congregation. This means that you will need a good PA system in your church to get the best sound possible. The PA system will help the person speaking be heard much more clearly. Also, in many churches the music is the centerpiece of the worship service which makes having sound very important. What is the point of having a band and singers if that cannot all be heard properly by those in attendance?

Depending on the budget of the church there are many options available in sound systems they can have installed in their place of worship. There are many companies that can do this and it is wise to have them send out a professional to install the system so that is installed correctly. They can make sure that everything is connected properly so that no speakers get blown and the system works properly for an extended period of time. They can also make sure that the PA system is installed so that it does not detract from the overall look and feel of the church during the service. You want your sound system to make the service better and more enjoyable. You do not want your sound system to be distracting to detract from the service in any way. A trained professional will be able to make sure that the PA system sounds good and fits into the design of your church.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8jM3rSSuwY[/youtube]

There are many things that you need to consider when you are deciding what kind of PA system you want to have installed in your building. The most important of these aspects is how big you church is. If you have a larger church you are going to need a larger more state of the art system that can fill a big room and not distort from getting too loud. It needs to be able to handle the power that is needed to sound good in a big room. You will probably need both regular PA speakers and subs so that the low end does not blow out the speakers because of the bigger amount of power. You will also need a lot of good power amps to get a good clean sound as well.

Another thing you need to consider is what kind of presentations that you are going to be putting on. If your church just has a speaker and a piano player you will not a big mixing board to handle all of the channels you will need. If you have a large band with a choir you will need a bigger mixing board and probably a dedicated sound guy to handle all of the inputs for microphones and instruments that the service will require.

No matter what style of church you attend you will need some kind of PA system to help make your service more enjoyable and clear for those in attendance.

About the Author: Edward Kendricks writes for CTS (www.cts-networks.co.uk), a UK

church PA system

installer.

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Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO apologies for financial planning scandal

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO apologies for financial planning scandal

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.