January 2, 2019 Curtains

Blackout Curtains: Keeping Light Out}

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Blackout Curtains: Keeping Light Out

by

AlfredOliver

Sometimes, for sleeping rooms blackout curtains are preferred to lighter fabric curtains or blinds. Blackout window curtains usually have an extra lining as well as using heavier fabric with tighter fibers. The material colors are often, but not always, dark and solid or with pattern details. These lined blackout curtains will block most of the sunlight from entering the room.

This keeping sunlight out is especially advantageous for those who do some of their sleeping during daylight hours and especially if the window is on the south side of the house or building. The south side generally gets sunlight most of the day as the sun passes across the earth’s sky. If retiring before the sun has set, light blocking curtains help to give the room a comfortable feel that encourages sleep. Light blocking curtains are useful in a baby’s room, too, for closing at naptime. Also, when there is a bright street light that glares into the bedroom at night blackout window curtains are a big help.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr4pZ6tsONc[/youtube]

Scientists who have studied sleep have found that a deeper and more healing sleep is experienced in a darker room. Everyone should try to get the most quality sleep that is possible and blackout curtains will promote this sleep. When proper sleep has been gained, the person awakens with ease and feels refreshed and energized for the day. Quality sleep helps the person to be able to better perform and function during daylight hours. Naturally, the mind is also renewed so that thinking processes are not sluggish.

Another room that may be good for light blocking curtains is a den where TV and movies are viewed. When the family is relaxing together in the evening, the sun may be sinking lower in the sky and shining right through the window and onto the TV screen. At least some people in the room will not be able to see a picture at all with the sunlight wiping out the images on the screen. Blackout curtains can block the light where normal windows will not do much to hinder it.

For whatever the reason the room needs to be protected from bright sunlight or other lights coming into the room, blackout curtains will do the best job. In war time, blackout curtains could keep lights inside a room from being visible outside the window. This concept works also for privacy and light blocking inside.

Maac Dougal writes content on Blackout window curtains,

Blackout curtains

, Lined blackout curtains and Light blocking curtains. For more information visit at

lightcatchercurtains.com

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Blackout Curtains: Keeping Light Out}

January 1, 2019 Uncategorized

New edition of Canada’s Food Guide released

Thursday, February 8, 2007

A new version of Canada’s Food Guide was announced by Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement on Feb. 5, 2007. The guide has helped Canadians with healthy eating habits since 1942 but was last updated in 1992. It is the Canadian government’s most-requested publication after income tax forms.

Changes to the Food Guide include:

  • a first-time recommendation to include a small amount of unsaturated fat in regular diets;
  • physical activity to complement healthy eating;
  • advice for some people to take vitamin supplements;
  • an advisory to limit foods with excess salt, sugar, fat and calories, which is considered an unprecedented caution regarding junk food.
Examples of the Food Guide’s four groups (clockwise from top left): vegetables and fruit, grain products, meat and its alternatives, milk and its alternatives
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Brazilian environmentalists tell residents to urinate in shower to save water

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Environmentalists in Brazil are urging the country’s residents to urinate in the shower while washing themselves, to help conserve water and save the rainforest. Television ads being aired in the country claim that by doing so, the nation could save over 1,000 gallons of water per household each year.

SOS Mata Atlantica ran the ad campaign in an attempt to use comedy to get people to reduce the amount of water they use. “[The ad is] a way to be playful about a serious subject,” said Adriana Kfouri, a spokesperson for Atlantica.

The animated ad narrated by children shows people, including a trapeze artist, an alien and dancers, all taking a shower while at the same time, urinating in it. The ending of the ad then states, “Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!”

Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London, England, proposed a similar campaign in 2006. He said urine should be classified as a “green waste” and that “there is no earthly reason that you need to flush the loo if you have merely urinated. That’s a huge saving of water.”

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Wikinews interviews 0 A.D. game development team

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team.

Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project’s PR, compiled the below Q&A, which the full team approved prior to publication.

Home Care Services

Do Employees Appreciate Embroidered Shirts In Los Angeles County?

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bytimothyharvard

The investment in embroidered shirts in Los Angeles County may be something you have thought about but have not put into place yet. You worry about the investment. Is this something your team can appreciate and wants from you? It can be hard to tell in some situations. However, the addition of a high quality product like this really can impress your workers and it can help your employees to stand out, too. Consider a few details.

A Quality Uniform Matters

When you invest in your team, they notice and they care. For example, if you hand out t-shirts or basic polos to every person, they see themselves as one of the many. They do not feel important or special. Anyone could be wearing that shirt. ON the other hand, with the investment in embroidered shirts on Los Angeles County, you suddenly gain something a bit better to offer to your employees. They now see their name, the company’s name, and the logo with it. They know you have invested in them. This is a personal investment. And, it really helps employees to see that they stand out.

From the point of view of the customer, this is a very good thing as well. These shirts stand out because they show you care about choosing the right employees to do the job. Investing in your employees means your company is good for the community, too.

The fact is, the investment in embroidered shirts in Los Angeles County is an easy decision to make. It does not cost much more, but it creates a lot of prestige and support from your workers and from your customers. They appreciate what you are putting into your business as much as you appreciate the work they do for you.

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Rower Tuijn halfway across Pacific in record attempt

Monday, July 9, 2007

Dutch adventurer Ralph Tuijn has reached the halfway point of his attempt to be the first person to row across the Pacific Ocean unaided.

The 16,000 kilometre journey from the coast of Peru to the seaside city of Brisbane, Australia, the widest section of the Pacific, has never been crossed absolutely unaided by a rower, and Tuijn says just nine people have rowed it even with assistance.

Tuijn reached the central point of his crossing, an insignificant point of water in the ocean, 111 days after setting off from Peru in March. He has been making good progress, and has since cut his estimated time of arrival in Brisbane by a month.

The Dutchman, who now expects to reach his destination on October 20, has kept in touch with those tracking his movements through daily internet postings from his laptop computer, including his wife Winnie. His boat, the Zeeman Challenger, is a seven-metre custom plywood vessel.

Tuijn has overcome a variety of obstacles to reach the halfway point. He is suffering from the constant attention of sharks, who often bump his boat and disrupt his attempts at sleep. One particular shark, dubbed ‘Gomulka’ by Tuijn, has been trailing the adventurer’s boat for extended periods.

He has also accidentally burnt himself when he spilled hot water on his foot whilst trying to make coffee, apparently also from a shark ‘bump’. He is also forced to manually pump water for cooking and drinking after his automatic water pump broke down not long into his journey.

“Physically everything feels great and I can’t help feeling that I could do this for 500 days, but mentally it’s still hard to be on your own for such a long time”

His vessel has no motors or sails, but relies on his physical rowing power to move. The boat does have a solar power system to provide energy for his laptop, a telephone and a global positioning system.

Tujin, who is raising money for a children’s home in Mumbai, India, is rowing at an average speed of 58 kilometres each day. His diet consists of freeze-dried foods and fish, which are keeping him physically well-conditioned despite tiring mentally.

Tuijn is a serial adventurer and experienced rower. He has rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, as well as cycled across Russia and the icy terrain of Greenland.

December 29, 2018 Financial Services

What The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief ACT Means For You

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By Calum MacKenzie

On December 20, President Bush signed a law that is meant to help homeowners who are facing foreclosure or who sell their homes in a short sale. Before this law, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, if your bank or lender forgave a portion of your mortgage debt because the value of your home had decreased, the IRS treated the forgiveness as taxable income.

That meant that if your mortgage lender forgave $15,000 in mortgage debt because your house was worth $15,000 less than your remaining mortgage balance, the IRS treated it as earned income. When you filed your taxes, you were required to add that amount to your annual income and pay taxes on it at your regular tax rate. Just when you most needed a break, you ended up owing taxes on $15,000 in phantom income.

Not for the next three years. Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, taxpayers can exclude up to $2 million of forgiven mortgage debt on their principal residence in 2007, 2008 or 2009. If you’re married filing separately, you can exclude up to $1 million in forgiven debt from your income.

What is mortgage forgiveness?

Mortgage forgiveness is a term that has become more familiar in the real estate market over the past couple of years. In essence, anytime that a lender accepts less than the full amount of the debt owed in full payment of a mortgage, the difference between the amount owed and the amount accepted is ‘forgiven’.

Let’s take a look at Sue and Jim. They took advantage of a great adjustable rate mortgage to buy a home for $350,000 four years ago. The payments were manageable until the adjustable rate did what adjustable rates do – and thanks to the changes in the housing market and the sub-prime lending market, they are now facing foreclosure. To make things even worse, the best offer that they can get on the home for which they paid $350,000 is $275,000. Although they still owe $330,000 on the mortgage, their lender agrees to accept the $275,000 as full payment of the remainder of the mortgage, forgiving $55,000 of the debt.

Under the Old Rules The IRS Gets Their Cut

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULXdkLQiN2w[/youtube]

When a bank or other mortgage lender forgives your loan or any part of it, they send you a 1099C in the amount of the debt forgiven. You are then required to count the amount on the 1099C as taxable income along with your earned income and wages. Sue and Jim from the paragraph above would have got a 1099C from their old lender. When they file their taxes for the year, that $55,000 would be added to their earned income, adding the insult of having to pay taxes on income they never saw. Instead of relief, they’d end up owing the IRS a hefty chunk of change at the next tax term.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act Changes Everything

Well, not exactly everything. If you’re forced into a short sale, you’ll still get a 1009C from your lender, and you’ll still have to file that with your taxes. Now, however, you’re allowed to exclude the forgiven amount up to $2 million ($1 million if you’re married, filing separately) from your taxable income. In other words, while it’s still counted as income, you won’t have to pay taxes on that amount of your income.

Who Qualifies for the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Exclusion?

According to the IRS, you’ll qualify for this tax exclusion whether you mortgage debt is forgiven as part of a refinancing or if it’s forgiven in connection with a foreclosure. In order to qualify for the exclusion, the following conditions must apply:

– The debt forgiven must be on a mortgage for your principal residence. The principal residence is qualified based on the amount of time that you lived in it over the past five years.

– The mortgage forgiveness must be because of loss of value in your home or because of a forced short sale in connection with a mortgage foreclosure. A forgiveness that is given in return for services performed for the lender is not allowed.

– The debt must be forgiven between January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2010.

– The debt forgiveness must be on the mortgage used to buy your home.

How to Claim the Debt Relief Exclusion

In order to claim the debt relief exclusion, you’ll need to show the IRS how much of the debt has been forgiven. That will require some calculation on your part, because the IRS wants to see the fair market value of your home as well as the amount of your mortgage that was forgiven. Often, when the lender makes out the 1099C or 1099A, they may just put the value of the loan in the field that’s reserved fair market value of the home. In some cases, the 1099C or 1099A may not include the fair market value at all.

Like your math teacher, the IRS wants to see your work. When you submit your taxes, you’ll need to include documentation of the fair market value of the home as well as your calculations. If the fair market value of your home – the price that it was sold for – is not listed on the 1099C form, you may do best to hire an appraiser to document the fair market value.

The calculations can get complex if you’ve taken out home equity loans or a second mortgage on your home as well as the primary mortgage. In this case, special considerations may apply. For instance, the income exclusion only qualifies for ‘acquisition indebtedness’ – money that’s spent to buy your home, build a new home or that you use to make substantial improvements to your home.

Suppose you bought a house 10 years ago and paid $80,000 for it with a 100% loan. The Florida land boom was very good to you, and five years later your home had increased in value to $200,000. You took advantage of lower interest rates to do a cash-out refinance for $150,000, paid off the remainder of the original mortgage and pocketed $70,000. When time comes to sell, though, you can only get $100,000 for the property and your lender agrees to a short sale because the home has decreased in value, forgiving $50,000 of the loan amount. Can you use the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Exclusion to avoid taxes on the $50,000?

That depends, says the IRS, on what you did with the cash-out part of the loan refinance. If you used the money from the refi to pay college tuition or your daughter’s wedding, then you’ll have to pay taxes on the forgiven amount. If, on the other hand, you used it to make major improvements to your home, then it qualifies for the exclusion – but you’d better be able to prove the expenditures. If you’re audited, you may need to provide your original warranty deed, or your HUD-1 form. You may need to show cancelled checks, receipts and invoices to show the cost of improvements you made.

Filing For the Debt Forgiveness Exemption

The new law came at the end of the year, after the tax forms for this year had been printed, so you won’t find anywhere on the tax forms to make the calculations you’ll need to prove you qualify for the exemption. The IRS is suggesting that those who are facing a short sale or foreclosure this year use electronic tax preparation software. The private software companies have worked hard to update their own forms so that you can do all the necessary calculations within the software, then print out the results so that you can attach them to your completed tax return.

About the Author: Calum MacKenzie is REALTOR focusing on Tampa real estate, New Tampa real estate and Wesley Chapel real estate.

Source: isnare.com

Permanent Link: isnare.com/?aid=227911&ca=Finances

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News briefs:April 28, 2005

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Contents

  • 1 UK Attorney General raised legal doubts over Iraq invasion
  • 2 New Italian government gets confidence from the House
  • 3 European human rights body condemns U.S. “torture” at Guantanamo Bay
  • 4 Munch’s “The Scream” might have been burned
  • 5 Lebanon government wins ‘vote of confidence’
  • 6 CIA gives up search and interrogation on Iraq WMDs
  • 7 Dutch mayors support legalisation of cannabis
  • 8 Dorothy’s dress from Wizard of Oz sells for £140,000
  • 9 Hunter Tylo to rejoin the cast of “Bold and Beautiful”
  • 10 Boeing secures $11bn of aircraft deals
  • 11 News Bullets from Wikipedia’s current events