Excellent Advice For Making Improvements To Your Home. | OK ...

TIP! Use high-quality insulation around your plumbing system to prevent your water from freezing during this coming winter. It?s easy to find weatherizing tape or foam insulation to use on on your pipes.

Home improvement offers a chance for anyone to participate. Home improvement projects can benefit you much further than providing you with a nicer home to live in. A project that?s well executed can significantly raise your home?s market value. This article should give you some ideas on how to do some great home improvement projects.

TIP! Have a knowledgeable professional look at the floors you already have in your home before you install new hardwood floors. You may have some great, natural hardwood beneath your linoleum or carpet that just needs refinished.

Make sure you include everything in your budget. Unexpected expenses quickly start adding up, and your mistakes can cost you by throwing your budget off track. This can be avoided through proper planning. What can go wrong? What if the materials you want are not available? When you ask these questions, you will be better prepared.

TIP! To get the most out of your home improvement projects, make sure you are using the best tools for the job. This will help make sure the job is done right.

If you can afford it, purchase natural materials for use with indoor projects. Wood, ceramic, stone and other real materials are usually superior to synthetic substitutes. They look better and last longer. The most costly natural materials may be less expensive over time because the synthetics will likely need replacing often.

TIP! Protect floors and other surfaces when you are painting, replacing cabinets or demolishing walls. You can prevent further work by covering areas of your workspace up.

If you wish to do an easy home improvement project, get to a store and purchase some paint. Adding some new paint to a home can give it a new appearance, which doesn?t really cost you a whole lot of money or time. If you want to sell your home, then adding new paint to your home can improve your home?s appearance to potential buyers.

TIP! Whilst undertaking home renovations in your kitchen or bathroom, it is a good idea to install new water-resistant wall board in place of the existing ordinary wall board. Water-resistant wall board is called ?green board? by the construction industry and will stand up to moisture much better than standard wall board.

It?s much cheaper to live in your home whenever performing home renovation. Therefore, you should attempt to only renovate a single room at once. This will allow you to live in your home more easily, unless you?re working on your only bathroom! If you need to ask a family member to spend a few nights at their home.

TIP! A new floor is a smart way to modernize any room. You can install laminate flooring on your own and it is nearly indestructible.

The information you?ve learned in this article is just a small taste of the wealth of home improvement knowledge that is available. Keep learning and acquiring knowledge to enjoy what home improvement has to offer. Well thought out plans and research can be what makes or breaks your home improvement project. Before you tackle your next project, learn all you can.

Source: http://okheyday.com/excellent-advice-for-making-improvements-to-your-home/

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Patrios vs. Ravens LIVE UPDATES: AFC Championship Game 2013

Here we go again.

In a rematch of last year's AFC title game, the New England Patriots will once again host the Baltimore Ravens with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

In what could be the last stop of Ray Lewis' last ride, the Ravens take on yet another future Hall of Fame quarterback in Tom Brady. Last week in the Divisional Round, Baltimore faced Peyton Manning, rallying in the final seconds to force overtime with a miraculous touchdown pass from Joe Flacco. It was in the second OT session when the Ravens' defense came through and intercepted an ill-advised pass from Manning to set up the game-winning field goal.

But now they take on Brady, who with New England's win over Houston last week, broke Joe Montana's record for most playoff victories. He's also just four postseason touchdown passes shy of tying Joe Montana's record of 45.

"It's a chess match, because he understands every coverage, he understands every defense," Lewis said about Brady's ability to read defenses, via NFL.com. "And if you give it away too early, then the game is like checkers for him."

While much of the focus will be on the Brady-Lewis narrative, the x-factor of the AFC Championship game might be Baltimore's quarterback. Flacco 7-4 record in the postseason isn't too shabby, and five of those wins have come on the road (tied with Eli Manning for the most in NFL history).

"I would like to think that I go out there and play consistently and approach everything the same way," Flacco said earlier this week. "I think that's been proved out. We win a lot of football games around here, and this is actually the third time I'm standing up here getting ready to play in an AFC championship game."

Will Flacco finally get over the hump and help extend Lewis' last ride to New Orleans for the Super Bowl? Or will Brady and the Patriots send the Ravens home for the second year in a row?

Scroll down for live updates.

Jacoby Jones gets no room to run. Ravens will start at their own 14 after a 9-yard return.

@ BaltimoreLuke : Clear communication issue as Graham wanted Chykie Brown to switch on that third down. #Patriots back on top. Ellerbe penalty huge. #Ravens

Patriots take a 10-7 lead. The drive was 11 plays, 79 yards, 5:10.

Brady takes the shotgun snap and finds Welker running toward the sideline for the easy touchdown. Ravens' cornerbacks were yelling at each other right after he caught it.

Ridley tries to power his way up the middle but gets stuffed for about 1 yard.

Ravens blitz forcing Brady to get rid of it fast but Pollard was at the line to bat it down. Incomplete.

After an 8-yard gain by Ridley up the middle, Brady hits Hernandez on a slant route and the Pats pick up 5 yards and a first down. Ball at the 2-yard line.

Ridley runs up the middle for 4 yards and a first down. Patriots hurry up and run a screen to Welker, who runs down the right side until he's finally brought down by Suggs for a gain of 24.

Brady hands it off to Ridley who runs up the middle for 7. Patriots are in Ravens' territory.

After a 7-yard pass to Welker, Brady hits Lloyd with a quick screen on his left that goes for 4 yards and a first down.

Following a return of 22 yards by McCourty, Ridley runs right for about 3 yards. Ellerbe is flagged for a personal foul giving 15 more yards to New England. He slapped a NE player after the play.

@ _BLowe : The absence of Talib hurting the Pats. Arrington was lined up opposite Torrey Smith on the 25-yard gain. That's a tough matchup for NE.

Ravens go up 7-3 after the extra point.

@ MikeReiss : Backup safety Patrick Chung requires medical attention on the field after Ray Rice TD, then walks to sideline under his own power.

Rice gets hit in the backfield but stays on his feet, runs left and into the end zone for the TOUCHDOWN. Ravens take the lead. Rice broke 2 tackles on the run. Chung is down on the play.

Flacco goes for the fade pass to Pitta in the left corner and he comes down with the ball but he didn't get both feet in bounds. Incomplete.

Rice gets another handoff and starts to his right, then cuts up the field for about 5 yards. First and goal from the 2-yard line coming up.

Ray Rice runs up the middle this time, bursts through a hole and cuts to the left for about 8 yards.

Flacco drops back and fires a high pass to Torrey Smith who jumps up and comes down with the catch at the 25-yard line. Great throw and catch.

Pearce gets a carry this time, bounces to the outside and picks up about 4. Ball is at NE's 40.

Flacco drops back and finds Pearce running right out of the back field and he goes down the right sideline for about 9 yards.

They go to Rice on first down again and he picks up about 2 running left.

Flacco drops back, gets plenty of time and finds Rice on his right coming out of the backfield and he picks up 11 yards and another first down.

Rice gets the handoff in shotgun formation but he is held to just 2 yards.

Flacco drops back and hits Pitta open down the middle of the field and the Ravens pick up 17.

Flacco runs a play-action and hits Leach that would have been about a gain of 5, but the ball got stripped and knocked out of bounds back a couple yards. So just a 3-yard gain.

@ JeffDuncanTP : Baltimore's four drives have started at the 13-, 10-, 8 -& 10-yard lines. They did not run a play in New England territory in the 1st Qtr.

@ _BLowe : From a starting field position standpoint, Pats have had a significant edge - it's just not showing up on the scoreboard.

Patriots dominating time of possession, 10:30 to 4:30.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/20/patrios-ravens-live-afc-championship-game-2013_n_2516375.html

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Second presidential terms loaded with setbacks

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Second presidential terms are never easy ? even for George Washington.

More often, they're fraught with peril, frequently marred by scandal, failure, hubris, and burnout, and souring relations with Congress.

President Barack Obama acknowledges the dangers of overreach but vows to steer cautiously. The odds are against him.

He's the 20th U.S. president to serve all or parts of two terms. Most of the others have encountered setbacks and frustrations.

He's also the third in a row to win a second four-year term. Both predecessors stumbled.

President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House over lying about an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, although the Senate declined to remove him from office. President George W. Bush failed to get a big Social Security overhaul through Congress and was slammed for his handling of Hurricane Katrina and growing voter anxiety over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

From Inauguration Day, a second term president's influence and power begin to ebb.

"It's called fatigue, people burn out. Typically, the top people are recruited for the first term. For the second term, you kind of go to the bench," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. "It's a little less illustrious than the starting lineup. You're going to get more people perhaps a little less sure-footed. That's putting it, perhaps, mildly."

There's something of a political Continental Divide with second terms. At some point everybody's attention starts flowing in the other direction as those in both parties start shifting their focus to the next election.

Also, Obama sets out against a backdrop of looming new fiscal showdowns that will come to a head in March ? another battle over the debt limit, mandatory spending cuts postponed from January and the expiration of spending authority for the entire government.

And some of his top second-term goals such as immigration and tax-code overhaul, gun control and climate-change legislation come as grim budget realities cast a long shadow over what he can accomplish.

History is littered with troubled second terms.

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. Ronald Reagan's second term was marred by the Iran-Contra guns-for-hostages scandal.

Even George Washington, the nation's revered first president, had an ugly second term.

His backing of the Jay Treaty expanding trade ties with Revolutionary War foe Britain divided the nation. Many leaders ? including future president Thomas Jefferson ? challenged Washington. Jefferson called the treaty a "monument of folly." Angry crowds gathered outside Washington's house and talk simmered of impeachment.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to win four terms but had a tumultuous second one despite a 1936 re-election landslide. His effort to expand and pack the Supreme Court with ideological allies was soundly rebuffed by Congress. And Democrats suffered mightily in the 1938 midterms.

Since Roosevelt's day, presidents have been constitutionally limited to two terms. The downside for victorious incumbents: being unable to run again limits a second-term president's clout, lessening the ability to reward allies or thwart political foes and hastening lame-duck status.

But second terms don't have to be failures ? and Obama won't necessarily succumb.

William Galston, a domestic policy adviser in the second Clinton administration, said the notion of a second-term jinx or curse is an over-simplification because "a lot of presidents have trouble in their first terms" and don't get re-elected. And second-term achievements ? such as Clinton's ? need to be weighed along with setbacks, he said.

Galston also suggested some things may be easier for Obama in his second term given the dynamics of his re-election victory ? such as immigration and tax-code overhaul. He's already gotten Congress ? post-election ? to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, something he couldn't do earlier.

Clinton's second term? "I would judge it as an incomplete success. And its incompleteness is largely his own fault," said Galston, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In his book, "Presidential Power in Troubled Second Terms," presidential scholar Alfred Zacher concluded that only one president had a truly better second term than his first: James Madison, president from 1809-1817. But seven others had OK second terms despite setbacks, he wrote, most recently Dwight Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton.

Reagan, despite Iran-Contra, oversaw a major 1986 simplification of the tax code and the unraveling of the Soviet Union in his second term. Clinton learned how to reach across the aisle to deal with Republicans on welfare overhaul and deficit reduction and left office with an annual budget surplus ? an achievement no other president since Andrew Jackson can claim.

James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, said that by the end of a first term, "The American people have gotten to know the president very well. The enthusiasm of his first election is long gone. That limits the possibility of great success in the second term."

Also, presidents who were just re-elected can get overconfident from their victories, see their elections as a "mandate" to push their agendas, start believing re-election campaign hype and surround themselves with many burned-out senior staffers and inexperienced younger ones, suggests Kenneth M. Duberstein, who was Reagan's chief of staff.

"Add to this too much communal drinking from the same Kool-Aid, and it is a recipe for disaster for any second-term president," Duberstein wrote. "All of us who have served in second-term White Houses have seen this witch's brew."

President George W. Bush claimed "political capital" from his 2004 re-election win and "I intend to spend it." But it was a losing investment. He got little done in his second term.

Thomas Cronin, a political science professor at Colorado College, said Obama's time to wield influence is limited and he needs strike quickly.

A year or two into a president's second term, "people say, well, let's just wait this guy out," Cronin said." That's why the next six to ten months are so crucial."

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/second-presidential-terms-loaded-setbacks-190629344.html

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Vice President?s Banquet Speech at Banquet Hosted by Vice President of Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam

Following is the text of the speech by the Vice-President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari at the banquet hosted by Madam NGUYEN THI DOAN, Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam today :

?Your Excellency, Madam NGUYEN THI DOAN, Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be in a country that holds a special place in the hearts of the Indian people. The occasion itself, the conclusion of an India-Vietnam Friendship Year, adds to the significance of the visit. I congratulate all those who contributed to making the Friendship Year a great success.

Vietnam and India share a long tradition of close relations. Its foundations were laid by our great leaders, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ho Chi Minh. Successive generations of our leaders - and here I would specially like to recall Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Pham Van Dong - nurtured this friendship.

We in India have admiration for the indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese people, for their determination to succeed against all odds, for their tenacity and courage against powerful adversaries. Vietnam?s rapid economic and social development resulting in increased prosperity for your people is commendable. The success of your effort in achieving the Millennium Development Goals are worthy of emulation. I congratulate the leadership and people of Vietnam for their success in reducing poverty from 58 percent to less than 10 percent in two decades.

Excellency

Today Vietnam and India have a Strategic Partnership founded on a common vision, shared interests and mutual trust and friendship. We are convinced that it will promote peace, stability and security in this region and the world.

We stand ready to impart greater content to our partnership for mutual benefit. The agreements and MoUs that we have signed today will open new avenues for bilateral cooperation.

We value our strategic understanding and cooperation at regional and multilateral forums like ASEAN, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, East Asia Summit, ASEM and international organisations like the United Nations and WTO. We deeply appreciate Vietnam's support to India's candidature as a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council.

As two developing countries with a stake in the future, we must take advantage of our synergies to jointly face emerging challenges and also to exploit new opportunities.

We wish to bring together the exchange of ideas and culture, with a contemporary face, to our ancient bonds of friendship. To facilitate these ties and promote people-to people contacts, we plan to open the Indian Cultural Centre in Hanoi this year.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to invite you all to join me in a toast:

-- To the good health and happiness of Her Excellency, Madam NGUYEN THI DOAN, Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and all of you present here tonight;

-- To the well-being and prosperity of the friendly people of Vietnam; and

-- To the everlasting friendship between India and Vietnam.?

******

Sanjay Kumar (from Hanoi)/VPI (2)/15.01.2013
(Release ID :91587)

Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=91587

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The milky way spawns galaxy of Nobel winners

LONDON: Countries that consume large quantities of milk and its products also tend to have a lot of Nobel laureates among their populations, according to new research. A previous study published in the New England Journal of Medicine had reported a strong association between a nation's chocolate consumption and Nobel laureate prowess, speculating that the flavonoid content of chocolate was behind the boost in brain power.

This got the authors of the new research thinking. As chocolate is often combined with milk, could it be the amount of milk/milk products consumed per head that fuels Nobel Prize success?

In a paper published in journal Practical Neurology, they looked at the 2007 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization on per capita milk consumption in 22 countries as well as the information provided by the author of the chocolate theory, and found a significant association.

Sweden has the most Nobel laureates per 10 million of its population (33). Although, it hosts the Nobel committee, which some might argue could introduce an element of bias; it also consumes the most milk per head of the population, getting through 340 kg every year.

And Switzerland, which knocks back 300 kg of the white stuff every year, has a Nobel haul of similar proportions (32).

At the other end of the scale, China has the lowest number of Nobel laureates in its population. But it also has the lowest milk consumption of the countries studied - at around 25 kg a year.

There does seem to be a ceiling effect, however, noted the authors, with no discernible impact beyond an annual per capita consumption of 350 kg, as Finland's Nobel haul seems to attest.

"Is milk consumption therefore simply a reflection of a strong educational system, or do Nobel Prize winners celebrate by drinking it?" the authors queried. But there is a plausible biological explanation for the link: milk is rich in vitamin D, and this may boost brain power, the evidence suggested.

"So to improve your chances of winning Nobel prizes you should not only eat more chocolate but perhaps drink milk too: or strive for synergy with hot chocolate," they concluded.

Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/fy/8at2Ete0ium9X3uL/story01.htm

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Israel seeks to remove Palestinian tent outpost in West Bank

By Ali Sawafta

E1, West Bank | Sat Jan 12, 2013 1:57pm EST

E1, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday he was seeking court approval to remove an outpost of Palestinian tents pitched in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel has earmarked for a new settlement.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Palestinian outpost, built in the geographically sensitive area known as E1, could remain for six days while the issue of its removal was being discussed.

Netanyahu's pledge last November to build settlements on E1 caused an outcry, with European diplomats warning that it could kill off any hope of creating a contiguous Palestinian state.

The prime minister's office said in a statement on Saturday that the government was petitioning the court to retract its ruling on the outpost, and had instructed security forces to block off roads leading to the rocky desert terrain.

A group of Palestinian lawmakers was refused entry. But others who came from nearby villages made the long trek up the hillside northeast of Jerusalem to join scores of protesters who have erected 20 large, steel-framed tents in an effort to preserve the land for a future Palestinian state.

The encampment's name, "Bab el Shams", which means "Gateway to the Sun" in Arabic, was taken from a novel by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury which tells the history of the Palestinians through a love story. The writer called the protesters in solidarity.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestine Liberation Organization official, said Israeli forces had prevented her from entering the compound with other lawmakers.

"We will continue to try to enter the village of Bab el Shams, which to us means freedom," she told Reuters.

For years Israel froze building in E1, which currently houses only a police headquarters, after coming under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush.

But Netanyahu has recently announced a wave of plans to expand settlements after the Palestinians won de-facto statehood recognition at the United Nations General Assembly last year.

International powers view all Jewish settlement building in areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War as detrimental to securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

E1 covers some 4.6 sq miles (12 sq km) and is seen as particularly important because it not only juts into the narrow "waist" of the West Bank, but also backs onto East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to establish their capital.

Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, which is dominated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, and the Gaza Strip, which is run by the rival Islamist group Hamas.

Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 over the issue of Israel's continued settlement building.

(Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Reuters/worldNews/~3/QCQAuDHHw4g/us-palestinians-israel-tents-idUSBRE90B0FD20130112

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?Os acord?is de cuando Google compr? The Dealmap en un movimiento para integrar...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151371093955935&id=54999640934

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