Tents and Marquees

2 September, 2010 (11:52) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are for when you want to make a daring outdoor scene. They are generally structures installed at a location for a period of time.

Why A Tent?
Commercial Tents are used as protection from the sun, rain or a gathering place. They can make a stunning and creative atmosphere for any event.

Tent Rentals
Tents can be rented or leased for a day, a weekend, weeks, months, etc. For one or two day events, the Tents are usually installed a few days before the event, depending on scheduling and weather, and remain until a few days after the event. Many rentals are quoted for the entire week, allowing for time to set up and design the interior and exterior. Some Tents are built for exceedingly long-term events and have been installed and remain installed for years.

What Kind of Tent Should I Rent?
Tent rental companies come in all sizes - from small-sized companies with just a few Tents to exceedingly large-sized companies - carrying dozens of several sizes and styles of Tents. Some general rental companies rent from tent rental companies to accommodate their client’s needs.

You may know you want to use a standard Tent for your event, or your event planner may already have in mind to use a Tent. You have options! There are lots of other stunning
structures and Tent styles out there. Some are unique and make a statement of their own. Ask the rental company you’re working with for a list of the type styles they have on hand.

Usually, the different types of Tents available in most companies are (the names vary depending of the company):

Folding Tents Easy and fast to use and always in demand. Very popular, because usually is the less expensive tent. Fast, flexible, cost effective and long lasting.

They are used by:

  • Corporate brands across most industries
  • Government & Council buyers
  • SME business marketers
  • Franchisees
  • Agricultural exhibitors
  • Emergency services & community groups
  • Folding Tents create brand exposure opportunities.
  • You can reach your audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message.

Inflatable Tents An exciting and fun alternative Tent. Easy & fast to set up. Be sure they have removable printed roof because in that way you can share the investment with other licences.

What Size Tent Will I Need?

The size of Tent depends on a few factors:

1. The number of guests you expect
2. Layout or seating arrangements or the style of event:

* Reception with what type of tables?
* Speaker engagement with what type of seating?
* Will you need a dance floor?
* Will you need display areas for your products?

If you are interested in a Tent, you can expect to need about 2,000 - 2,500 square feet for 200-seated guests. That could mean a 40 x 60 size Tent (Always ask the Tent rental vendor directly and they’ll give you the best dataabout the size of Tent you’ll need).

Therefore, the key rule is; know what you are going to use your tent for. The choice of tents is amazing, almost on par with the choice of cars that you can buy.

So if you need a tent for the family BBQ, for example, your needs are fairly basic
and your budget may be low. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a decent warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a diverse range of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to promote yourself, you can have your names printed for around $150-$300. Printing logos usually cost a little more.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The essential need for these buyers is a prominent and quality reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as boring as a website address or they can be a design extravaganza.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build recognition of your company with your printed Tent. Printed corporate Tents range in price from $1500- $4000. Good ones will really catch your eye.

Once you have decided on what sort of buyer you are and how you are going to use your Tents, a good Tents company will offer you a choice of frames, a warranty of between 3-5 years and help with formulating the printing-if you need it.

For more information about tents, contact Extreme Marquees. We have a range of cheap tents, for all sorts of home and business applications.

New Zealand’s Top Holiday Cities

23 August, 2010 (05:51) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

New Zealand has a stunning array of breathtaking landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, majestic coastlines, breathtaking rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These picturesque wonders have all made New Zealand an appealing destination for all kinds of holidays.

Fantastic travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at slashed prices. Among the top holiday cities in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a distinguished online specialist travel operator and provides fantastic tourist services for New Zealand. Travel Online provides an instant quote and booking service for accommodation in cities right across the country.

Queenstown
The international resort town of Queenstown is situated on the shoreline of Wakatipu Lake. This beautiful region is among the most scenic locations on the globe. Throughout the year adventurous and stimulating sports like jet boating, bungy jumping, and white water rafting take place. This town is the epicentre of the entire world’s bungy jumping activities too. With the advent of winter, the town gets transformed to an alpine wonderland with snowboarders and skiers from all corners of the world assembling at the annual Winter Festival.

There is constant request for Queenstown Accommodation all round the year and Travel Online offers a select group of hotels best suited for New Zealand holidays. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments, with luxurious facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Larger apartments with more bedrooms, tennis courts, private jetties and fitness centres are also available at a higher price. Luxury complexes with studio rooms in the vicinity of cafes, bars, and restaurants are also found in Travel Online’ Queenstown Accommodation selection.

Christchurch
When choosing a place to stay in Christchurch look for hotels that give views over the astounding Victoria Square, across the transfixing Avon River or towards the historic Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with fantastic festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals accommodated in the vicinity of the Christchurch Cathedral will find hotel rooms with a Manhattan-style feel. Tradition and elegance are everywhere in these hotels along with a keen eye on service excellence. Luxurious bedrooms with full-fledged kitchen facilities are common, along with hi-tech conference facilities, resort-like leisure features like spas, saunas, gyms, and swimming pools. Many of these hotels provided by Travel Online are located in the vicinity of the Technology Park, the International Antarctic Centre, and the airport. Travelers who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan life will find suitable accommodation in the radiantcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is situated in between 2 harbors and has more boats per person than anywhere on the planet. Within minutes a person has the flexibility of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the high life in the casino, surfing at endless beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and spacious executive / marina suites. Travel Online caters to the tastes of corporate and business tourists and can beat any price seen on Auckland accommodation advertised. Auckland harbor is stunning, and is seen perfectly from atop Sky City and the surrounding accommodation.

Affordable and comfortable apartments are available for casual tourists, equipped with kitchens, laundries, and balconies to provide a wonderful holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More adventures include cage-bereft shark dives, scuba expeditions and snorkel safaris. New Zealand is waiting.

Travel Online has a wide range of Queenstown accommodation close to all the snow action and cosmopolitan Christchurch accommodation surrounded by all that theatre and art. For holidays in and around the water, Auckland accommodation is as good as anywhere in the world.

Repairing Flooded Carpet: A cheap job is a good job right? Wrong….

17 August, 2010 (14:40) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

Don’t have an inexperienced 24 hour carpet cleaner show up to repair your carpets with water damage. These are the things you need to be wary of:

Overcharging. An inexperienced water restoration carpet cleaner may build the job up with extra extras. E.g. using dehumidification for drying the flooded carpets when it is not needed.

Not using the correct equipment. They may use equipment from hire places to dry the carpet. This is ok to do, but a professional water damage cleaner will have all their equipment to provide a speedy response and hopefully a better value job.

The right moisture metre. If they don’t have the proper moisture meter, they cannot see when the carpet is fixed. This furthers the danger of future mould growth. Mould removal in future may be required.

Specialisation. There are a whole lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage repair work on the “side.” i.e. they aren’t the ones who take on this kind of work often. Be wary of them. Repairing carpets is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips needs to be taken on by a professional, otherwise it can be damaged beyond repair.

You could be pondering, how do I choose a proper Flood Restoration professional? Below I have set out some things to check for when hunting around for a carpet flood damage business:

How large is their Yellow Pages ad: This can be an indication as to how much business they have already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad slot can cost about $50 000. When they have invested in a large ad, you get some promise that they are established.

Where do they show in Google? The higher the rate in Google, the more webpage clicks there has been for this business.

What Qualifications do they have? The fundamental qualification required is a IICRC qualification in Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies use them for their carpet damage jobs? This is a very good indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is very likely to be good at their skill. Insurance companies generally use the providers that give them the better value for the money.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own a minimum of 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this could show they have been in the game for some time. It took our business 8 years to acquire that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What type of commitment can you get out of them on a phone call? See if you can pin them down to a set price for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they can’t give you a fee for at least this, you know they are not going to serve you, so move on.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business in Brisbane is premised to a 59 minute response time to water damage emergency. The job needs to be completed ASAP. Mould can grow after a 24 hour period.

If you go by these tips you are sure to get a Flood Damage Restoration business who knows how to do the job.

If you have carpet water damage Brisbane, call us for flooded wet carpet drying. Brisbane storm season is approaching and you may need storm damage carpet cleaning. Brisbane and surrounding areas serviced.

Podiatry as a Career in Australia

12 August, 2010 (15:49) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am frequently asked by patients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to consider . There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a option that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even Family Doctors. Big Business controls a lot of health practices. Consider how often you see an independent optometrist these days – can they compete on price with the multinational chains?
  • Legal Issues: In Australia (unlike the USA where things are very different), podiatrists very, very rarely face malpractice suits. The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your patients the bad news that their condition will be terminal.
  • Working Hours: Emergency call outs are very unlikely. This is a desirable fact for those among us who like their sleep uninterrupted.
  • Financial Reward: Whilst it is true that podiatry doesn’t pay as well as being a doctor or dentist , the pay is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the best facets of a career as a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will consult on a plethora of bite-sized jobs each day, many with a cure you can provide immediately. From someone that has worked with unanimously grumpy customers in a past career, believe me when I tell you, it makes the day much more pleasant when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will allow you a great deal of opportunity to help resolve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatry gives a professional the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for instance where one works under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can work as a podiatrist are those with a podiatry degree . The clear roles that this demarcates relieves the requirement to find your ‘niche’ after university - as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Feel the need to travel? There are many places in the world that do not make their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to work your way around the world, Australian podiatrists can be registered in any Commonwealth country and are especially in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a great range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, a painful corn, a sports injury, some back pain and at least a couple of painful plantar fascias. The key to being a good podiatrist is to be a great problem solver. Each patient is an individual with a unique complaint requiring a well considered solution.

How do you become a qualified as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist means six Australian Universities:

  • Curtin University
  • La Trobe University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Western Sydney.

Last year, the entry score for the QUT was OP 8.

Stephanie Cosgrove graduated as a podiatrist from QUT in 1990 and with a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Podiatry) in 1996. Since 1991, she has worked in private practice as a Podiatrist Brisbane. She received three university prizes during her studies, including the award for excellence in design and manufacture of orthotics. Brisbane has been the site of her private practice since 1991 which has grown to four locations and eleven staff. If you want to Walk Without Pain consider a visit to Brisbane’s most innovative podiatry practice today. Call for an appointment now on 1300 A1 Feet.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

7 August, 2010 (09:21) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

Take charge of getting your site produced by a developer and understand the process it will save you money and aquire you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Comprehending your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to create a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full comprehension of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to acknowledge how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be furnished with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can get an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will build a good profile and identify not only what type of site to construct for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for efficient development. The more interaction and information you allow them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by becoming what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is created, the developers will more than likely acquire the general layout of this concept and then create the inner page template. It is this template that will be repeated for most of your pages for your site.
Present your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t get too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be kept when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is preferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are essential later on in not only establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; present a decent amount of content but provide it in a way that a reader may achieve a summary of what you are trying to infer across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system works on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can utilize and comprehend the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been made for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not work 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program works and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, odds are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are available to download on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to put your site live make sure you have finished the above testing step until you are content that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have discussed search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

6 August, 2010 (02:44) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

A logo is a crucial step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face represents the tone of your business, gestures the service and screams the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the formation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that formulated the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it recreated. This is unnecessary and may cause difficulties when trying to recreate the logo exactly as determined originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future difficulties.

Tip 1
First things first - you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is hinted that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will assist in getting a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are searching for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A good example of this is the well-known and executed Nike logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an crucial decision as it not only could affect the output costs but can also hinder your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be commiting your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Confirm you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and ensure that it includes all the files needed for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Make sure you have a copy of your logo as a PDF - with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to manage. For example it is hard to to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size - they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Make sure sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
readable

Tip 7
Insure that you accept a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you collect a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact graphic design Brisbane today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

31 July, 2010 (07:36) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

How many times have you commissioned business cards to print and received yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been fired up to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then caught that the crucial tag line is gone or your logo has been ruined.

There is only one way to prevent this from happening and that is to set up a style guide. Not only will a style guide help you steer the reproduction of your logo - it will also help you extend your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.

We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.

Step 1 : Outline the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to use in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will require different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.

Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may requirecopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to specify to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make certain you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reprinted.

Step 5 : Confirm to accommodate any contributing logos or logos of business that are associated with you. It’s also important that you deliver a copy of the layout to these companies to insure they agree with the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

Step 6 : Ensure that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.

Step 7 : Ensure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be validated as correct.

Get your Style Guide completed and as tight as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly advise a training session – whereby your design studio arrives and trains your staff on how to utilize the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.

For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.

Projectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)

19 July, 2010 (13:35) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

The common question customers ask when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, short for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, an acronym for ‘digital light processing’ are the two most popular projector imaging technologies. With so many business brands and types available, it can be confusing for customers to choose between both technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors offer superior image quality and colour accuracy. The following article tells you why DLP projectors struggle with reproducing a similar rate of image quality.

It’s like a set of blinds in your house over your bedroom window. By twisting a rod you can make the shutters open or closed, according to if you want to let light in or not. That is exactly how an LCD projector functions. Each pixel operates like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either send light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is constructed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the pros like to call them. Each pixel element functions to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the point at which the projector is switched on to when the content reaches your screen is extremely significant in regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors project white light from the lamp by dividing it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which direct the coloured light to 3 individual LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels form the elements of the image by switching each pixel on and off. The pixels are then combined in a glass prism to deliver the projector image. An important point to know about LCD projectors is that all three colours are delivered onto your projected surface at the same time. The way a DLP projector works is widely different and even how an image looks is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is processed through a turning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This approach to making an image casts a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to create the image elements. The elements of the image are sent in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eyes will then combine each coloured element of the image into the whole image. Using LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to offer the highest brightness and fantastic colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at any given time, and so resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some DLP developers have included a white segment in the colour wheel to improve brightness overall, but this further damages colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP provides a higher contrast ratio and ergo must be better quality. For those who are unaware, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the technology is capable of. DLP projectors do offer high contrast specifications as compared to the majority of LCD projectors. Initially, this can seem to be a benefit, however, in truth, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room in which the projector is being utilised. Do not be hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you are trying to see requires moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector forms with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is incontrovertible in DLP systems because moving images change position between the time red, blue and green colours are projected. LCD projectors do not have this problem because the colours are processed at once. DLP manufacturers have developed 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to answer the colour break up artifacts, but the cost of these projectors make them almost impossible for the majority of businesses and consumers.

Another difference between LCD and DLP is how they match the balance for the refractive qualities of light. Take yourself back to high school science, and recall when they taught you how various colours of light refract varied amounts when directed through the same lens. The downside with DLP projectors is that they use the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light at different levels. Usually with a DLP projector, an extra yellow colour will be projected above and some extra blue will show below an image as simple as a lone black line. In manufacturing LCD projectors can be fixed to remove these effects on the projected image, as each colour is directed on isolated LCD panels.

The only real plus (excluding price) with picking a DLP projector is its overall smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to transport and cannot be traded off against the image plusses of LCD projectors. If the outcome of the picture quality is vital to you, then the answer is a no-brainer. Take an LCD projector! LCD projectors will always show bright, colourful images with fewer image blips. If you want to learn more about LCD technology in more detail, see this tremendous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any other questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager for Projector Central, Australia’s top online shop for projectors. Brisbane-based, Projector Central has been servicing Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in Brisbane and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

16 July, 2010 (07:59) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, arising as private games. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), made more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting became fashionable with the wealthy and nobility, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other organisations, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated method on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to monarchy in 1820, it came to be known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal sponsorship made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continuing setting of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Every member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large bets were held, and the club life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English took control. Sailing was mostly for fun and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was originally largely impacted by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there arose a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be done on an even par with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged primarily for the nobility and the affluent, cost was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller yachts occurred in the later half of the 19th century in the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A journey around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the seaworthiness of small boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, when steam was set to replace sail power in public vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in pleasure boats. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing was a favourite activity of the wealthy. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service for World War II.

As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were developed, many big yachts began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade after, big power-yacht manufacture blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the biggest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power craft declined after 1932, and the style thereafter was toward smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, many small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and keeping their own small leisure craft. The popularity of boats and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

8 July, 2010 (05:55) | Uncategorized | By: The Captain

Taxes are distinguished by the impact they have on the placement of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind that applies the same relative liability on all taxpayers—i.e., in the case where tax liability and income move in equal levels. A progressive tax is characterizable by a greater than proportional rise in the tax burden in relation to the rise in income, and a regressive tax is recognisable by a less than proportional rise in the relative burden. So, progressive taxes are regarded as fighting a lack of equality in income distribution, whereas regressive taxes may result in an increase these inequalities.

The taxes that are usually thought to be progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are declarably progressive, however, might become less so in the upper-income demographic—especially if a taxpayer is able to lower his tax base by declaring deductions or by leaving out some certain income parts from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates if applied to lower-income demographics would also be more progressive if personal exemptions are claimed.

Income measured over the course of a given year does not necessarily provide the most suitable measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory rises in income can be saved, and within temporary declines in income a taxpayer might decide to finance consumption by reducing savings. So, if taxation is compared alongside “permanent income,” it should be less regressive (or more progressive) than when compared with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (excepting luxuries) are mostly regressive, because the portion of personal income consumed or spent for specific goods lessens as the amount of personal income rises. Poll taxes (also termed head taxes), levied as a flat amount per capita, obviously are regressive.

It is difficult to dictate corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, because of a lack of certainty about the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of deciding who bears the tax burden lays crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being considered.

In regarding the economic effects of taxation, it is necessary to differentiate between various ideas of tax rates. The statutory rates will be dictated in legislature; generally speaking these are marginal rates, but occasionally they are average rates. Marginal income tax rates indicate the fraction of incremental income demanded by taxation when income rises by one dollar. So, if tax burden increases by 45 cents when income increases by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax regulations usually contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that increase as income rises. Structured analysis of marginal tax rates need to review provisions apart from the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) falls by 20 cents for each one-dollar increase in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points greater than nominated within the statutory rates. Since marginal rates display how after-tax income changes in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the important ones for appraising incentive effects of taxation. It is even more complicated to understand the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, since it may rely on such considerations as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem shows that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is zero under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates show the fraction of total income that is demanded in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is relevant for considering the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate rises with income. Average income tax rates usually grow with income, both because personal allowances are allowed for the taxpayer and dependents and because marginal tax rates are graduated; conversely, preferential treatment of income received for the most part by high-income households might dwarf these effects, producing regressivity, as shown by average tax rates that lower as income increases.

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