Lower summer energy costs and get a facelift for your home

(ARA) ? During summer, many of us look forward to fun-filled days at the pool or beach, but we definitely don?t look forward to exorbitantly high cooling bills during the heat of the season.

A typical single-family home shells out $2,200 in annual energy costs, according a recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy?s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And according to the Laboratory?s website, if a house has central air conditioning, even though the system is only used a few months out of the year, it is most likely the single biggest consumer of electricity, driving annual air conditioning costs that can exceed a shocking $1,000.

However, there are a number of ways you can improve the energy-efficient aspects of your home and save on electricity costs.

Seal the deal

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of the most cost-effective ways to improve energy efficiency in homes is to seal and insulate windows and doors. Often, this means replacing old, leaky, sticky, poorly performing windows and doors. A typical home that replaces its single-paned, clear glass windows with energy-efficient windows can realize up to $494 in annual savings, according to the EPA.

?Windows are a wonderful source of natural light, but if they are old, they can act as giant heat lamps in the summer, allowing the sun?s heat into a home,? says David Harrison, chief marketing office of Champion Windows, one of the nation?s leading home improvement companies. ?By installing our Comfort 365 Replacement Windows, homeowners can help shrink their cooling bills. Champion?s Double hung replacement windows exceed ENERGY STAR rating requirements by an average of 42 percent for Solar Heat Gain, which is the measure of the sun?s heat that comes through your window. Champion windows also help keep the cool air in and still let in natural sunlight ? without the heat.?

For more energy saving window tips check out the U.S. Department of Energy?s website or Champion Window?s Energy Efficient Replacement Windows at www.championwindow.com.

On the side

Another great way to cut costs is to increase insulation by installing energy-efficient siding. Vinyl siding and energy-efficient underlayment can increase a home?s R-value, a measure of insulation?s ability to resist heat traveling through it. The higher the R-value, the better the thermal performance of the insulation. By increasing the R-value, homeowners can save more than 20 percent on their electricity bills, according to energysavers.gov.

?Installing an energy-efficient siding system, including ENERGY STAR rated insulation board, can help insulate your home against the heat, reduce the amount of air flow into your house, making it easier to keep cool air in during the summer,? says Harrison. ?At Champion, our customers have told us they were pleasantly surprised to see a decrease in their energy bills after their siding installation.?

Other ways to improve energy efficiency and lower summer electric bills include:

* Increasing insulation in attics

* Making sure you have proper roof ventilation

* Sealing air conditioner ducts

* Keeping your blinds closed when the sun is shining in

* Using a programmable thermostat

By making a few of these changes, you won?t cringe when you open those utility bills, and you might even be able to reap benefits beyond the summer.

?If homes are not properly insulated or sealed, cool air is leaking out and homeowners are throwing money out of the window,? says Harrison. ?By making a few energy-efficient changes to your home, you can help keep electric bills in check and even increase the value of your home.?

Source: http://money.rambergmedia.com/lower-summer-energy-costs-and-get-a-facelift-for-your-home/

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Vote for MagCloud as a 2012 Small Business Influencer Champion ...

It?s great to have more reasons to keep celebrating MagCloud?s birthday this month! We?re thrilled to hear that we were nominated for the Small Business Influencer Award this year. ?As you may remember, we were selected as one of the last year?s Small Business Influencer Champions and hope to repeat that distinction again!

This prestigious recognition honors companies, organizations and people who have made a significant impact on the small business industry. We remain committed to improving our services and offering new products to assist small businesses with their marketing efforts. Over the last twelve months, we?ve rolled out Digest Landscape, new Flyer options, Square Format, Large Format, improved the MagCloud iPad App, Premium Paper and Shipping Options, and still have more to come!

We would love your votes to help?us reach the Top 100 by August 5. Have we made a meaningful and lasting impact for your business? Place a vote! Yes, you can vote every day. :)

For more information on the 2012 Small Business Influencer, be sure to follow @SMBInfluencer on Twitter or the folks behind this initiative ? Anita Campbell (@smallbiztrends) and Ramon Ray (@ramonray). Let us know that you voted by leaving a comment below and thanks for your support!

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Source: http://blog.magcloud.com/2012/07/29/vote-for-magcloud-as-a-2012-small-business-influencer-champion/

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Facebook Timeline Photos Redesign Lets You Blow Up Favorites 4X Larger, Shows Tagged Shots First

Facebook is taking photo curation to next level. You can now favorite your own photos to make them appear 4X larger in a revamped Photos section of your profile. The redesign that rolls out over the next few days also sees a much better navigation system that first brings you to "photos of you" or whomever's profile you're on, instead of a list of albums. The update doesn't automatically feature the most beloved photos on your Timeline based on Likes and comments, the way Google+ now does in its news feed on tablet. Still, it digitizes a natural behavior of how we interact with photos in the physical world -- making big prints of our favorites.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MyHlbvWguHM/

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Iran leader: Stop exporting oil, make new economy

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's supreme leader has outlined a new approach to overcome Western sanctions ? stop selling oil and build knowledge-based industries instead.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's says what he calls a "resistant economy" can effectively counter the sanctions.

This month the European Union enforced a ban on oil imports from Iran, after the U.S. stepped up its banking sanctions.

The sanctions aim to force Iran to stop enriching uranium. The West suspects Iran is aiming to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that.

Khamenei said Iran should stop selling raw materials, including oil, and instead promote "knowledge-based companies which can make a resistant economy more sustainable."

He gave no timetable or details of what would amount to a total overhaul of Iran's economy.

Khamenei's remarks were broadcast on state TV Sunday night.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-07-29-Iran/id-adfa7b4a137740a087c4f1a790b627bb

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Thomson Reuters on the Front Foot - David Worlock | Developing ...

Jul

28

Filed Under B2B, Big Data, Blog, Financial services, Industry Analysis, internet, news media, Publishing, Reed Elsevier, Thomson, Workflow | Leave a Comment

It has been a month of contrasts . Good solid results at Reed Elsevier have the market analysts demanding the sale of Lexis Legal : the chief break-up irritant at Bernstein can forecast a 20% increase in value as soon as it is done . Reed Elsevier now trades at a discount to last year?s valuation as well as to the wider quoted marketplace . And how does this come about ? Simply by representing the company to analysts as a diversified investment portfolio , and then? disappointing them with the results , which always prompts a demand for the sale of the weakest bit and the purchase of something stronger .

Meanwhile , over at Thomson Reuters , it has been a dynamic July in terms of forward progress . You can measure that in terms of acquisitions if you like , but to me the key element is the strategic positioning of these purchases and what they do to pursue the goal of market leadership in services and solutions for corporate finance , tax and regulatory , from banking and equity trading , law and tax/accountancy in practitioner terms right across to the desktop of the corporate finance? ,tax and legal department at the other . If the Thomson Reuters vision works out , it will connect up all of these functions and activities into a series of solutions which will compel big and then medium and small corporates into easier methods of information handling, and methods that get easier the more reliant they become on inter-related services and solutions from Thomson Reuters . This is about integration in the face of user need , about recognizing the primacy of the network , and about? bringing one huge company with many specializations into focus on the issues of service and solution . This is not a diverse portfolio of disparate elements : it buys the bits it needs and sells the bits that do not fit , but? the definition of acquisition has to do with whether these global aims are satisfied as well as whether the purchase makes financial sense and the required return .

Lets take a few July examples . The headline purchase was the acquisition of FX Alliance for $625 m . Here , then , are Thomson Reuters , a leading player in the sell-side interbank foreign exchange market? , one of its traditional strengths , pulling in a major player from the bank-focused? currency trading business for corporates , asset managers and hedge funds . Foreign exchange is a huge diversified marketplace , involving some $5 trillions of transactions per day , and this deal gives Thomson Reuters the ability to work in both the internal institutional markets and the corporate -facing? external market , using electronic platforms and high speed trading techniques all the while .

By comparison , my next two examples are smaller in scale , but demonstrate other aspects of the process that is going on . Having written extensively about the launch of the Thomson Reuters GRC division ? bringing legal and tax into focus with financial services in the areas of Governance , Regulation and Compliance , I want to mark the arrival of ? Eikon for Compliance Management ? with a special commendation . It seems to me that this now closes a huge loop , and provides a service environment which was never more urgently needed . It is said that there are now 60 new regulatory announcements a day? from some 230 regulators and exchanges in financial markets , yet less than a third of traders report having any compliance? training or update in the last 3 months . But to join up solutions for your customers you need to start with a joined-up company yourself .

My last example dates back to the experience of some 25 years as an external director on the international side of the Bureau of National Affairs , which has now disappeared into Bloomberg . An issue that intrigued me there , which attracted a great deal of attention and was crying out for a service solution , was Transfer Pricing . Boring ? More likely stupifying ! Here was an area that always demanded a software -based solution , since most tax lawyers and finance specialists were deeply reluctant to get entrapped in its intricacies , and access to someone who knew what they were talking about was rare and expensive . BNA produced great books on the subject , and so did WK and others . But Thomson Reuters has produced ONESOURCE Transfer Pricing , with an Analyser to get update on the compliance requirement for corporates who trade across borders and a Documenter and Benchmarking solution , ensuring that users have the right forms , and , vitally , ensuring that they are benchmarking against corporations whose solutions have already been accepted by the authorities . Here then is a vital but expensively neglected field of corporate activity , which reflects on much that Thomson Reuters is now about .

The final reflection is upon ?platform ? . At all levels Thomson Reuters is on a multiplicity of platforms , and while content integration and re-use has led to access being eased and common metadata standards evolved , this still clearly has a good way to go . And there is strength in this multiplicity ? no one wants to interrupt the steady absorption of Eikon , now beginning to fulfill expectations , or damage the market primacy of WestlawNext . I expect , however , in the age of data , to see the continuing back-end integration of this very large? player?s systems to be a continuing theme . At the moment its greatest rival is a company , Bloomberg , who is swaddled in the limitations of a Victorian corset ? the Terminal . That too will have to go , as Bloomberg limit their own future through an inability to get its new plays in law and government to sell to end users who do not want even a flat-priced , all you can eat deal on a? box originally built for traders . There is a midpoint , and Thomson Reuter?s migration looks like getting them there first .

Source: http://www.davidworlock.com/2012/07/thomson-reuters-on-the-front-foot-2/

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avast! blog ? International Technology Upgrade Week

How many times have you seen a prompt to update software on your computer? How many times have you ignored it, and then got worried or annoyed because it kept reminding you? You are not alone in your procrastination. A full 40% of adults surveyed by Skype say they don?t always update software on their computers when prompted to do so. More than half said they needed to see a prompt between two and five times before they download and install an update.

Skype conducted the survey in preparation of International Technology Upgrade Week. We support them in spreading the word about why it?s important to keep software in top condition ? having the latest security updates being the most important reason.

One of the ways cybercrooks get malware into your system is through exploiting programs that are old or not up-to-date. Most programs, like avast!, send out regular patches and updates, but a quarter of those surveyed said they don?t clearly understand what software updates do, and an equal percentage don?t understand the benefits so updates don?t get done and vulnerabilities persist.

In the survey of American, British and German consumers, Skype asked for their top reasons for either downloading or not downloading updates:

Top Reasons for Updating
1. Keeping computers safe from viruses/hackers
2. Ensures software is free of bugs and crashes less often
3. Having the latest and greatest software features
4. Upgrades are often free

Top Reasons for Not Updating
1. Worried about computer security, so I don?t download everything I?m prompted to
2. There is no real benefit to me
3. Upgrades take too long
4. Lack of understanding about what the update(s) will do

Take some time during International Technology Upgrade Week to make sure your computer software is all updated, and remind your friends and family members too. And next time one of your programs prompts you to update, don?t wait too long before you take care of it! Here?s a tip to help you.

Tip to beat procrastination

The two-minute rule says: If you determine an action can be done in two minutes, you actually should do it right then because it?ll take longer to organize it and review it than it would be to actually finish it the first time you notice it.

Source: https://blog.avast.com/2012/07/25/international-technology-upgrade-week/

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92% Marvel's The Avengers

All Critics (279) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (258) | Rotten (21) | DVD (3)

Never underestimate the entertainment value of the Hulk Smash.

If you are a Marvel fan, then The Avengers will feel like Christmas. Thanks to the merry doings of the director, Joss Whedon, all your favorite characters are here, as shiny and as tempting as presents under the tree.

Ultimately, it all comes back to Whedon: His clear vision for each character and how they might be profitably intermingled; his unexpected knack for action choreography; his funny, tender, immaculately constructed script.

A spectacle in the grandest sense of the word ...

Whedon, a pop-genre magician best known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is a master of viewer manipulation - because he never gives up his own seat in the crowd.

The performances are so well-pitched in The Avengers, meshing with such vividness and ease, that it's tempting to overpraise the good but not great movie that surrounds them.

The filmmakers play a conservative game, not setting out to make a great movie but simply making sure not to screw it up an entire franchise.

Feels like actual Marvel Comics are being injected directly into your bloodstream. It's simply jaw-dropping.

While it reflects a movie culture that has traded originality for scale - one wonders if there's a shred of originality anywhere in the film - The Avengers is grand, throwaway fun.

Yeah, it's all that. A tent-pole cash cow for the studio, a dream come true for fans, and treat for action aficionados, 'The Avengers' comes at you as the first true "summer movie spectacular" of the 2012 season.

Wonderful blink and you'll miss them comic beats in the middle of the finale's mayhem. And what glorious mayhem!

The overlong, stale experience barely raises a fast pulse, as the movie quickly stumbles into a standard film structure and doesn't even try to break free.

... The movie isn't so much a work of storytelling as it is a marathon of wish-fulfillment moments for comic book enthusiasts -- punches peppered with punchlines.

The culmination of four distinct franchises is an exciting and entertaining product.

It's the humor that's The Avengers' strength.

Whedon's clear fanboy glee is irresistibly contagious to the audience, whether the heroes and villains go at it with fisticuffs or sharp, witty dialogue.

Comic-book movie delivers the goods

By the time the utterly routine (and decidedly endless) finale rolls around, Marvel's The Avengers has unquestionably squandered the potential of its premise and its cast...

Delivers big time with everything longtime fans and newcomers alike could possibly want in a summer blockbuster that definitely surpasses the hype.

This too-long adventure is a sensory overload --- complete with loud, protracted battle scenes and hunky super heroes who provide the necessary eye candy. It's also very funny, and highly entertaining.

There is much humor laced throughout the film, giving it an air of not taking itself too seriously -- which is as it should be in a film of this genre.

The Avengers lives up to every last ounce of hype.

It's a blockbuster that manages to please with intelligence and fun. Whedon makes it look easy.

It's all very smoothly done but comes without a hint of surprise or revelation.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marvels_the_avengers/

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