OUTDOOR CHRISTMAS LIGHTING TIPS | Coach House Accents

With tomorrow being the first day of December, many of you if not already are getting ready to put up your holiday lights. One may think how hard could it be to simply string lights around the house but there are some safety tips along with ways of going about this process that can be extremely helpful. The DIY Network has posted a great article from James Young discussing tip and tricks for installing your holiday lights and this can really come in handy. Take a look to see if you are putting up the proper lights, utilizing the correct outlets, and even how you manipulate your lightshow. Good luck, have fun, and Happy Holidays!

by James Young-DIY Network

DIY Network?s licensed electrician James Young shares tips and tricks for installing outdoor Christmas lighting properly so your joy lasts the whole season.

Be Cautious When Installing Exterior Lighting

Use a good ladder when installing your lights. Secure them with insulated holders (never use tacks or nails). Don?t install your lights on trees that come in contact with power lines. Before installing your Christmas lights, plug them in to make sure all of your bulbs are working. Make sure to turn your lights off when you leave or go to bed at night.

Use the Proper Outlet

For starters, safety first! Your source of power should come from a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlet. This type of outlet will shut the circuit down if there is overcurrent. We want your lights to shine, not sparks to fly! If you don?t have a GFCI outlet, a qualified electrician can permanently install one outdoors for holiday seasons to come. Or, you can buy a portable outdoor unit from your local home store for less than $20.

Keep Extension Cords Out of the Way

When using extension cords, make sure they are rated for outdoor use, and keep the connections above ground, snow and water. Try to avoid high-traffic areas. Tape cords across walkways, and use the correct length needed to travel to your lights. You don?t want your cords to be too long so they pile up and create walking hazards.

Always Choose Waterproof Lights

There is a variety of lights to choose from. First and foremost, always use waterproof or water-resistant lights with a tag marked underwriters lab (UL). This means the lights meet national industry standards with the American National Standards Institute. Also, when you?re buying Christmas lights to use outside, make sure they are rated for outdoor use (just like your extension cords). Never use indoor Christmas lights outdoors.

Using C7 or C9 Bulbs

For a more traditional holiday light, you will want to use a C7 or C9. These are the cone-shape lights you?ll find most often in home improvement and convenience stores. The difference in these lights is size and wattage, with C9 being a little bigger and easier to see from a distance. Both come in frosted or clear color bulbs and are great for illuminating both your house and trees.

You can buy these in strands of 25 bulbs or larger strands of 100 bulbs. The 25-bulb strands can be connected together (daisy chained) up to a maximum of three strands; 100-bulb strands should be connected separately. Don?t connect them together! The C7 and C9 strands use a standard screw-in candelabra base for easy bulb replacement. The strands are connected so if one bulb fails it only affects itself. Buying light strands with inner fuses is a great idea to prevent excess current on the strands.

Using Miniature Bulbs

Another option for outdoor lighting is the ?miniature,? which costs less and consumes less power than the classic outdoor light string. It can be used around the perimeter of your home, as well as in trees. In most cases, the miniature comes in strands of 50 or 100. The strings run in series, which means if one bulb or socket fails, you can lose a whole section.

The positive thing is that most miniature bulbs have a shunt inside of them to keep the entire string of lights lit if a bulb filament burns out. The key is to quickly replace the burned-out bulb. The shunt will allow the rest of the lights to remain lit, but it will increase the voltage in the rest of the bulbs, reducing their lifetime. With miniatures, you get what you pay for, so get a quality set of lights, and don?t connect more than three sets of strings.

Using Landscape Net Lighting

To light shrubs and bushes, net lighting is a great way to go. Net lighting is a mesh of interconnected mini LED lights that can drape right over your shrubs like a blanket. No more weaving light strings in and out of branches!

Using Animated Lighting

Animated lights are great for Nativity scenes, as well as reindeer and angel displays. Animated lights are made of wire frames outlining different shapes and scenes, and they are surrounded with mini lights in different color variations and patterns.

Using Shimmer Spheres

Shimmer spheres come in shaped and circular formations, like snowballs, or stars and striped formations. They are made up of many lights in different sizes. You can even find some that twinkle. Your house will be shining with holiday cheer for the whole block to enjoy.????

Source:
by James Young
DIY Network
http://www.diynetwork.com/outdoors/outdoor-christmas-lighting-tips/index.html

Source: http://www.coachhouseaccents.com/2012/11/30/outdoor-christmas-lighting-tips/

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Discover The Many Business Opportunities Available By Using A ...

The worldwide web is a powerful tool in so many ways. For those in business it is nothing less than revolutionary. It is now possible to sell, promote, publicize, and strategically market your company, your brand, and your products using the web. Each year seems to bring an innovative channel or trnd that helps executives in their marketing efforts.

Indeed, Vancouver Internet marketing has never been more exciting and fruitful. The city itself has become one of the world's great IT hubs, which means executives can take advantage of the large pool of talented IT experts and specialists. But even beyond the wealth of human capital in the region, Internet Marketing Vancouver is promising because of what's happening around the world. As more persons gain access to the web the potential market for companies increases"and increases quickly.

One of the reasons it's so important to keep up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in SEO marketing, social media, web design, and mobile phone applications is that it can help one tap into new consumer groups. Tastes, desires, and demands are changing all of the time, especially among those who have most recently joined gained access to the Internet. In order to understand how to get to such persons and to keep up with the latest developments in Internet marketing it is important to work with a competent, reliable team of IT professionals.

Vancouver Internet marketing firms can provide you with a crucial means of taking your brand deep into the public sphere. With the right design, software, and advice you can energize and invigorate your company by reaching into new markets and riding the wave of new consumer trends. The various combinations of web-based tools will enable you to develop new business opportunities that you may have not even expected. Using Internet marketing tools opens you to a world of new possibilities. The extensive network of arrangements that constitutes the worldwide web allows your brand and your products to be propagates and circulated in many kinds of ways and through many different channels. However, it is important to be diligent in selecting the Vancouver Internet marketing firm that you work with. You want to work with a firm that is able to deliver world-class service for rates that are reasonable. But finding such a firm need not be too burdensome. Indeed, Internet marketing Vancouver firms can be easily found on the web, which has the added benefit of enabling you to review what they have to offer first-hand.

The world is getting faster"changes, modulations, and innovations are happening at a startling pace. Staying on top of the best ways to organize, interpret, and act on what you gather about the needs, desires, and demands of the market can be a challenge. But you do not have to go it alone. Vancouver Internet marketing firms provide you with the knowledge, ability, and skills you need to plan and implement an effective strategic marketing campaign. Internet marketing is the future, and Internet marketing Vancouver firms can help you seize that future.

The world is moving faster and Internet marketing is the future. Find out how a an Internet Marketing Vancouver can help you seize that future for your company

Article Tags :

Source: http://www.workoninternet.com/business/reviews/miscellaneous/220485-article.html

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Lignin-based thermoplastic conversion process

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2012) ? Turning lignin, a plant's structural "glue" and a byproduct of the paper and pulp industry, into something considerably more valuable is driving a research effort headed by Amit Naskar of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In a cover article published in Green Chemistry, the research team describes a process that ultimately transforms the lignin byproduct into a thermoplastic -- a polymer that becomes pliable above a specific temperature. Researchers accomplished this by reconstructing larger lignin molecules either through a chemical reaction with formaldehyde or by washing with methanol. Through these simple chemical processes, they created a crosslinked rubber-like material that can also be processed like plastics.

"Our work addresses a pathway to utilize lignin as a sustainable, renewable resource material for synthesis of thermoplastics that are recyclable," said Naskar, a member of the Department of Energy laboratory's Material Science and Technology Division.

Instead of using nearly 50 million tons of lignin byproduct produced annually as a low-cost fuel to power paper and pulp mills, the material can be transformed into a lignin-derived high-value plastic. While the lignin byproduct in raw form is worth just pennies a pound as a fuel, the value can potentially increase by a factor of 10 or more after the conversion.

Naskar noted that earlier work on lignin-based plastics utilized material that was available from pulping industries and was a significantly degraded version of native lignin contained in biomass. This decomposition occurs during harsh chemical treatment of biomass.

"Here, however, we attempted to reconstruct larger lignin molecules by a simple crosslinking chemistry and then used it as a substitute for rigid phase in a formulation that behaves like crosslinked rubbers that can also be processed like plastics," Naskar said.

Crosslinking involves building large lignin molecules by combining smaller molecules where formaldehyde helps to bridge the smaller units by chemical bonding. Naskar envisions the process leading to lower cost gaskets, window channels, irrigation hose, dashboards, car seat foam and a number of other plastic-like products.

Other ORNL authors are Tomonori Saito, Rebecca Brown, Marcus Hunt, Deanna Pickel, Joseph Pickel, Jamie Messman, Frederick Baker and Martin Keller. The research was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Tomonori Saito, Rebecca H. Brown, Marcus A. Hunt, Deanna L. Pickel, Joseph M. Pickel, Jamie M. Messman, Frederick S. Baker, Martin Keller, Amit K. Naskar. Turning renewable resources into value-added polymer: development of lignin-based thermoplastic. Green Chemistry, 2012; 14 (12): 3295 DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35933B

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/7igVP_lu5tM/121130222251.htm

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Global hacking network declares Internet war on Syria

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Global hacking network Anonymous said it will shut down Syrian government websites around the world in response to a countrywide Internet blackout believed to be aimed at silencing the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria was plunged into communication darkness on Thursday when Internet connectivity stopped at midday. Land lines and mobile phones networks were also seriously disrupted.

The Syrian government said "terrorists" had attacked Internet lines but the opposition and human rights groups suspect it to be the work of the authorities.

Opposition activists have used the Internet extensively to further their cause by publishing footage of aerial strikes and graphic images of civilian casualties. In the absence of a free press, they have used social media to disseminate information during the uprising and communicate with journalists abroad.

Anonymous, a loose affiliation of hacking groups that opposes Internet censorship, said it will remove from the Internet all web assets belonging to Assad's government that are outside Syria, starting with embassies.

By 1000 GMT on Friday, the website for Syria's embassy in Belgium was down but the embassy in China - which Anonymous said it would target first - was operating. Most government ministry websites were down although this could be due to the blackout.

Several networking experts said that it was highly unlikely that the lines had been sabotaged by anti-Assad forces.

CloudFlare, a firm that helps accelerate Internet traffic, said on its blog that saboteurs would have had to simultaneously sever three undersea cables into the port city of Tartous and also an overland cable through Turkey in order to cut off the entire country's Internet access.

"That is unlikely to have happened," CloudFlare said.

The government has been accused of cutting communications in previous assaults on rebel-held areas. Anonymous said Assad's government had physically "pulled the plug out of the wall".

"As we discovered in Egypt, where the dictator (Hosni) Mubarak did something similar - this is not damage that can be easily or quickly repaired," it added, referring to an Internet outage during the early days of the 2011 uprising in Egypt.

French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said the communications cut was of a matter of "extreme concern".

"It is another demonstration of what the Damascus regime is doing to hold its people hostage. We call on the Damascus regime to reestablish communications without delay," he said.

Rebels have seized a series of army bases across Syria this month, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions and on Thursday fighting on the outskirts of the capital blocked access to the international airport.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011, according to opposition groups.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, said the Internet cut could signal that Assad is seeking to hide the truth of what is happening in the country from the outside world.

Syrian authorities have severely restricted non-state media from working in the country.

The hacker collective has staged cyber attacks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency. Earlier this month, The Israeli government said it logged more than 44 million hacking attempts in just a few days during its military assault on Gaza after Anonymous waged a similar campaign.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston, John Irish in Paris and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/global-hacking-network-declares-internet-war-syria-142548644.html

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What You Need to Know About Fitness Equipment Reviews | Health ...

The Internet is an incredible resource for researching products.? In particular, you can find countless reviews from both professionals and customers.? For individuals in the market for fitness equipment, the Internet can assist you in the complicated procedure of selecting the right equipment for your body and budget. ?Because buying fitness equipment like treadmills, elliptical trainers or exercise bikes can be overwhelming.

There are countless models, and prices vary from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.? So it is advantageous if you can find some online assistance and direction in selecting a product that can accommodate your fitness goals and physique within your price range.

So it would seem a no brainer to turn to one of the numerous fitness equipment reviews sites.? There are countless sites that review products like treadmills, elliptical trainer and exercise bikes.

However, there is a problem with the vast majority of these review sites.? Most of these sites are authored by people who have no background or experience in the industry.

They?ve built these sites and have gone to great length to get them ranked in the search engines for one reason ? Money!

Affiliate Marketing and Fitness Equipment Review Sites

Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar business.?? This is how it works. Web sites refer traffic to merchant sites and if that referral results in a sale the originating site, the affiliate site, gets a commission. ?The sales are tracked through cookies that identify where the traffic originated.

In fact, you may have been to an affiliate site, clicked on a link to a merchant site left and came back several days later and the affiliate site still got the commission.? Some affiliate programs will credit an affiliate site up to 60 days from the original visit.? ?Practically all sites that review products are affiliate sites, in addition to most coupon and product and services comparison sites.

Most people who surf the Internet are unaware of this industry.? And in fact, many of the products you purchase online may have been initiated by going to an affiliate site.

There are affiliate programs for just about any product or service that is sold on the Internet, including clothing, automotive, health products, financial services, auctions, electronic, books, food products, housewares, telecommunication services, travel services and of course fitness equipment.

Affiliate marketing is not necessarily a bad thing, and in fact many affiliate sites offer a valuable service to their viewers.?? They provide insight and information into products and services and help you to sift through the details and the numerous options in order to make an informed purchasing decision.

However,? there is also the dark side of affiliate marketing, where sites offer up a bunch of bogus information that is more construed to making a profit than assisting their viewers.

What makes affiliate marketing so attractive is that there is a low threshold to enter the business.? You just need to be able to create a web site, add some content and manipulate the search engines, like Google, into ranking your web pages. ??It is an entrepreneur?s dream come true.

The Appeal of Fitness Equipment Affiliate Marketing

What draws so many people to fitness equipment affiliate marketing is the high price points and generous commissions.

For example, there are several fitness equipment merchants whose average online sale is $1,000, and their commissions to their affiliate could be as high as 12%.? It doesn?t take many commissions to make a very comfortable living.? And of course, you can conduct your business from anywhere in the world.

It is the easy entry into the business and the potential money that draws the uninitiated into the business of reviewing fitness equipment.? In fact, the majority of the fitness equipment reviews are done by individual with no experience in the fitness equipment industry.

Worse yet, many have never been on the products they review.? Their reviews are just a rehash of what is on the merchant site.? And not surprisingly their recommendations are based on which products are most likely to result in a commission.

I?ve?come across fitness equipment review sites that were written from individuals in either Eastern Europe or India.? They can barely write in English, and I know for a fact that none of the products they review are available in those countries.

I?ve come across treadmill review sites where the author?s claim to credibility is that they were runners.?? Another was a stay at home mother who works out at a health club and that made her an authority on treadmills.? The fact is there are only a handful of fitness equipment review site that are written by individuals with industry experience.

If you are in the market for fitness equipment you want to rely on authoritative sites.? How do you tell an authoritative site?? First, check out the ?About Us? page, if there?isn?t?one that is a red flag.? If they do have an ?About Us? page, but they have no industry experience, move on.

Buying fitness equipment can be complicated and expensive.? That is why you need the help of a professional, either online or off to assist you getting the right product for your fitness goals.

I have a confession to make, I am an affiliate marketer who reviews fitness equipment.? However, I have worked in the industry for over 17 years and work hard on offering my readers the best advise in purchasing fitness equipment.

Related posts:

1. Six Affordable Fitness Alternatives to Expensive Gym and Fitness Equipment
2. How Sports Help Mental, Social and Psychological Fitness In Addition to Physical Fitness
3. 7 Mobile Apps That Make Fitness Fun

Source: http://healthonabudget.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-fitness-equipment-reviews/

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Film review ? Wreck-It Ralph (2012) ? Cinema Autopsy

Ralph (John C Reilly) and Felix (Jack McBrayer)

Walt Disney Animation Studios have long appropriated and repurposed the narratives and characters from European fairy tales, folklore and myths to make feature films that connect with contemporary audiences and reflect the ideology of the time. Attempting to do something similar with the narrative and characters of computer games is a bold and innovative step, which recognises the importance of games in popular culture. The Walt Disney Pictures films Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982) and Tron: Legacy (Joseph Kosinski, 2010) previously attempted to transform gaming logic and iconography into narrative cinema, but it is the computer-animation feature Wreck-It Ralph that demonstrates the full potential of the concept. Not only does Wreck-It Ralph successfully adapt the style, characters and narrative of games into a feature fiction film, but it recognises the prevalence of gaming mythology and like the classic Disney fairy tale films, it engages with that mythology to reflect specific values and serve as a morality tale.

The premise of Wreck-It Ralph is that the characters within computer game arcade machines are self-aware and have lives of their own when not being played. Voiced by John C Reilly, Ralph is the disillusioned antagonist in a game titled Fix-It Felix, Jr. Fed up with being typecast as the villain, Ralph sets out to prove that he can be heroic, which leads to adventures briefly in the violent first-person shooter Hero?s Duty and then the cutesy confectionary themed kart racing game Sugar Rush. The first striking thing about Wreck-It Ralph is that it is from a studio known for perpetuating stereotypes and tropes, and it is set inside a medium that is also notorious for its stereotypes and tropes due to the simplicity of many game narratives requiring clearly defined good and bad characters. And yet Wreck-It Ralph signals right at the beginning that it is about a character who is sick of being stereotyped and is intent on subverting the restrictions placed upon him. Not only is Ralph a self-aware computer game character, but he is also a self aware Disney character.

Director Rich Moore has a background directing animated television shows, such as The Simpsons and Futurama, so has some experience working with material that manages to be self-reflexive and satirical while maintaining a broad appeal. Wreck-It Ralph is full of famous computer game characters and generic characters that even the most casual gamer should recognise as belonging to a particular style of game. More impressive is how well Wreck-It Ralph adopts the movements and style of various eras of gaming into the way the characters move and interact with their surroundings. The results not only deliver plenty of fun sight gags, but also effectively flesh out the worlds behind the arcade screens. However, it is the logic of gaming narratives that are most subversively used. For example, Hero?s Duty character Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun (voiced wonderfully by Jane Lynch) is revealed to be as aggressive as she is because of the backstory she was programmed with, acknowledging the simplicity and often shallowness in which character motivations, across many different types of media, are often explained and justified.

More interesting is how successfully Wreck-It Ralph represents class and gender. Disney has long celebrated inherited power and wealth for its protagonists while the villains were often members of the lower or working classes who refuse to stay put. Through the tales of royalty and aristocracy, Disney championed a very problematic vision of the world where the ruling class were seen as righteously occupying a place of born-to-rule privilege that should never be undermined. Often a princess character was at the centre of such narratives, and frequently the drama came from her being wrongly denied her birthright. While the princess characters have become more an active participant and less a passive bystander in the last few decades, she still exists as an unobtainable ideal the audience is supposed to side with, despite how such a character defies all notions of equality.

Wreck-It Ralph beautifully undercuts all notions of plutocratic rule. As a character who refuses to adhere to his social status, Ralph is an unusual and unconventional Disney protagonist. As early as the opening scene he comments on the hero of his game Felix Jr (Jack McBrayer) having the good fortune to inherit the magic hammer from his father, introducing the fundamental unfairness in the way things have turned out. And while Felix isn?t portrayed as a villain, he is initially presented a na?ve character who mistakes his good fortune as success he achieved himself.

The moment that Wreck-It Ralph really excels is when it resolves the story involving Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman), a 9-year-old computer glitch and racer in the Sugar Rush game whom Ralph teams up with. Wreck-It Ralph seems to head directly toward the sort of resolution that typifies so many previous Disney films to only undercut itself in such a blatant way that it seems to be overtly acknowledging the Disney legacy of entitled princesses in order to declare it no longer relevant. It?s a wonderful moment.

Perhaps it is no surprise that a Disney film that celebrates outsiders (Ralph the ?villain? and Vanellope the ?glitch?) over social cohesion should contain a variation of a character from Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, 1951), the most anarchic and unconventional of the classic Disney animated feature films. In Wreck-It Ralph the main setting is ruled as a monarchy by King Candy. He is the tyrant of Sugar Rush who not only looks like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, but is voiced by Alan Tudyk to sound just like the Mad Hatter voice actor Ed Wynn. Linking to?Alice in Wonderland in this way is?yet another touch that suggests the extent in which Disney may have acknowledged and then shaken off its previous regressive values.

With Wreck-It Ralph Walt Disney Animation Studios demonstrates that it can deliver a self-acceptance message along with a fun spectacle, without indulging in antiquated born-to-rule scenarios or princess tropes. The voice cast is uniformly excellent and it?s difficult to think of another recent animation where the leads have been as perfectly voiced ? Reilly, Silverman, McBrayer and Lynch are exceptional. The writing and narrative structure recalls the best Pixar films, where no story element is superfluous. Scenes that seem like fun diversions during earlier parts of the film are recalled later to tie everything together without ever feeling contrived. Wreck-It Ralph is a major advancement for Walt Disney Animation Studios in all regards.

Thomas Caldwell, 2012

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Source: http://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2012/11/30/film-review-wreck-it-ralph-2012/

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Guy Ritchie Welcomes Baby Girl with Jacqui Ainsley!

Madonna's ex-husband welcomed baby No. 2 with his fiancee! Plus, see more stars who welcomed new bundles of joy

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/celebrity-babies-2011/1-b-16266?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Acelebrity-babies-2011-16266

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