Hypothecate » Uncategorized

The UK’s Pesky Weather

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:38:07 +0000

Why is it that in Britain we always seem surprised when the weather goes a bit haywire? We live in a country with one of the most unpredictable and unstable climates in the world, and it’s always been this way.

In fact, we experience the same amount of rain as most other European capitals, it’s just that ours can be spread throughout the year and our “dry spell” is minimal compared to countries further south, so people need to prepared for all eventualities.

The changeable weather has helped to shape our nation’s identity, for example the wind helping us to defeat the Spanish Armada, and some argue that it has influenced our attitudes to life by making us wary of being too certain about outcomes and aware that plans can change.

It might seem like recent weather has been more extreme, but as history shows, our climate has always been unpredictable. In 1683-84 it was so cold that the Thames froze over so solidly that “frost fairs” happened on the ice, with people walking freely about on the frozen river and building shops on the ice.

We complain about the extreme nature of our seasonal changes now as if we forget that in bygone years heavy snow followed by warm summers was commonplace. However, some argue that climate change has added an extra unpredictability – that in previous years trends lasted for years, whereas now we have two extremely snowy early winters followed by a very mild one this winter. When you combine this with the floods and other events, not just in the UK but across the world, it’s easy to panic about what the unpredictability means.

And even if you don’t panic about what it means, it’s easy to be irritated by it. Trains being cancelled, roads blocked, hose-pipe bans….it might make things more exciting for people in catastrophe modelling jobs but for ordinary people it’s just inconvenient, and for tourists it must be a nightmare.

However, it was ever thus. Records tell us that a Roman soldier posted to Hadrian’s Wall received a letter informing him that two pairs of socks were on their way to him from Sattua to help him cope with the cold weather.

Frugal thinking – is renewable energy the way forward?

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:48:28 +0000

A penny now may be worth a dollar tomorrow. This is the kind of thought process that homeowners go through right before they decide to switch to renewable energy. This is because renewable resources, often regarded as the energy of the future, most times carry with them a start-up cost that is hard to ignore. However, when these same homeowners consider that these initial costs will save them tons in future energy costs, they understand the renewable energy is clearly the cheaper deal.

The most prevalent type of renewable energy in the UK is solar, which usually comes in the form of electricity generated using solar panels. This kind of system works by collecting energy from the sun on photovoltaic cells and then converting it into electricity that you can use in your home. The more energy you are able to produce from your solar panels, the less you will have to use from your current energy provider. In addition, solar panels only lose around 0.5 percent of their effectiveness each year, which means that even decades after you purchase them, they will still generate a significant amount of energy.

As a close second to solar power, wind power is also an option for homeowners looking to switch to green energy. Wind power is generated by small turbines that spin when hit by powerful winds. This kind of energy can also be used to power a home when small turbines are installed on the roof of a home or in the garden. Wind turbines, whilst they require more maintenance because of their moving parts, can last for more than two decades.

Obviously, not everyone will have the start-up cash that it takes to install one of these systems in their home. However, even if you can’t have your own solar or wind energy system, you can still take the Good Energy challenge by making sure your provider gets its electricity from a renewable source. And if the energy company that you currently use has no renewable plan, it is becoming easier to switch providers without penalties and fees.

Once you have set up a renewable energy system in your home, there are also steps you can take to make it easier to conserve energy. Everyone knows that turning off a light before leaving a room can save energy and turning off the tap whilst you brush your teeth can save water. However, new technology has also made it possible to have inexpensive fixtures and installations that can help you take steps like these without even thinking about it. If you value your energy savings, make small purchases like compact fluorescent light bulbs, motion-sensor light systems and tap fixtures that reduce the flow of water. All of these improvements can help you pocket even more of your own money and help save the environment.

Article by Good Energy

1984 Big Brother in 1012

Alan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:10:23 +0000

Back in 1949, when George Orwell first penned his iconic literary work 1984, he surely can have had no idea how prevalent his character Big Brother would become in future society. Now this is not an article about the long running and increasingly cringe worthy TV show, so if that is what you were hoping to read about then move along.

The Big Brother referred to here is the fact that you cannot sneeze or break wind these days without it being recorded somewhere, and coming back to bite you on the bum at a later date, no pun intended. Everything we do or say is logged somewhere, we literally can’t do anything without it being noted, so it seems as if Big Brother is truly watching over us these days.

Granted, these logger/recorders/stalkers are clever about it. They make it sound as if the fact they have every second of our lives stored someone is actually for our own benefit and privacy is greatly over rated. Yeah right, so when we are in a mall and are using our smartphones, the fact that they are being tracked so our every movement can be monitored is a good thing? That’s open to debate.

Our lives now are quite simply an open book, there is nothing secret or private about anything. We browse a website; out details are logged, we make a purchase; our details are logged, even that sanctity of secrecy, voting, isn’t secret anymore.

Think about it, we get a voting card with a number on, it gets matched against our name and we are giving a ballot paper with the same number on, then we get a Christmas card from the party we voted for. To save time they may as well get us altogether and ask for a show of hands, but then the geek in the office sitting matching numbers with names and other personal details would be redundant.

We blame the age of technology for living in this big brother society, but in reality it goes back way further than that. There were cellars all around London at one time packed to the rafters with people personal info, then when the world of the floppy disk and computers arrived, a little bespectacled chap with a ghostly palor thanks to never seeing daylight, no doubt beavered away for hours transferring the data then shredding the files.

From the day we are born our info is logged, which is fair enough, but the fact we are tracked for the rest of our days isn’t. You know that pin prick test they do in the heels of new born babies? This is supposedly to check for some disease, as far as we know a micro chip could be getting popped in there. If we ever got to see the heel of a criminal, they could well have a scar where they hacked theirs out to let them get away with their crimes.

At the end of the day, we have to say that George Orwell either had a fantastic imagination or could see into the future. Either way, Big Brother is here, there, and every where.

How to Involve Your Staff in Your Office Design Ideas

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:13:58 +0000

Advertising Feature

There has been a growing trend in recent years for companies of all sorts to come up with new and better ways for employees to work. Along with traditional incentives like performance-based awards and company retreats, many businesses have been taking a hard look at their physical workspaces to see where office refurbishment might improve the working environment and thus improve staff morale and productivity.

While these physical changes have often proven successful, they do involve significant disruption of the office space. In order to minimise confusion and ensure a new setup that will support your company’s business functions, it is important to understand how productivity is optimised, how employees interact and to set clear goals for the project.

Your facility manager should take the time to establish a solid workplace strategy that will address current problems and future goals. Managers should also work to develop good relationships with company planning staff, design professionals and workers who will be impacted by the change. Collaboration is the key, and it may be beneficial to get input from all workers – regardless of seniority.

Because office design affects so many individuals and working groups, it is important to gain a clear understanding of workers’ specific priorities and factors for success. A good way to do this is to spend time with every department, conducting interviews and gathering information from staff at every level. Ask about employees’ particular concerns, such as security, climate control, filing and resource storage systems, technology requirements and preferences, storage space, and how they interact or communicate with colleagues both within their teams and company-wide. Identify the most crucial factors that employees might use to gauge a redesign project’s success or failure; consider things like minimising disruptions, staying on schedule with construction deadlines, and maintaining team cohesion.

Once this information has been collected, you can work to design a plan that will optimise your office space, improve workflow and collaboration, and encourage staff to welcome the changes you expect to implement. Show employees how the plan addresses their needs and concerns, will help them to do their jobs better and will improve their overall comfort and satisfaction while at the office.

Many companies use models or workspace mock-ups to generate excitement and support among workers. It is also a good idea to highlight specific design elements or amenities that will enhance their working life – things like improving acoustics to eliminate noise distractions, germ-killing UV lights integrated into the HVAC system, innovative artwork or fresh colour schemes, updated communal spaces, lounge areas, client meeting areas, etc.

Letting your staff take part in the office design process gives them a feeling of empowerment, and that their opinions are valued. This can go a long way in improving employee relations, communication and collaboration. So long as these initiatives are carefully managed, tactfully discussed with staff and given sufficient time to develop and change as needs are identified, it is possible to involve workers at every level while creating a plan that all employees can feel good about.

The growing Halloween mafia

Alan — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:02:59 +0000

It’s that time of year when we start the run up to Christmas, with Halloween and Bonfire night. In years gone by you would get the odd child knocking on your door and shyly asking for a penny for Halloween, or a penny for the Guy. Now you get an organised platoon of suspiciously tall children knocking on your door like a policeman and basically blackmailing you with the menacing phrase ‘trick or treat’.

30 receptacles will then be thrust in your face, and you don’t dare put sweets or money in just one or two. If you don’t fill every bag/pot/cauldron/sock, from the shadows emerge two heavies, AKA parents, who look at you and defy you not to fill the aforementioned containers to the brim. When they are satisfied that both your bag of sweets and your wallet are empty, they nod gravely and the posse moves on.

The downside is that for the rest of the week you sit in the dark at night frightened to answer your front door due to the first squad completely wiping out your supplies which you had hoped would do both Halloween and bonfire night. What used to be a bit of fun for the kids has turned into commercial venture and the poor child with the least in their bag/pot/cauldron/sock becomes a social outcast and viewed as a failure.

We shouldn’t really be surprised to be honest that the whole Halloween and bonfire night thing goes on for about 6 weeks, what message are shops sending out to kids when they are filling their shelves with Christmas tree, cards and decorations in August. For those retailers who seem to be a tad confused, let’s clear this up once and for all; CHRISTMAS IS IN DECEMBER!

The official word is that all shops effectively work a season ahead, like the fashion industry, and having their Christmas stuff out on the shelves four months early increases sales. It certainly does that, as invariably there are always those who post on their Facebook status in September “all xmas shopping fin ”, and then in December they put “lost all xmas prezzies, have to buy them all again “.

There, dear readers, is the moral of the tale. Shops have their stuff on sale in August as they know people will buy them early, invariably lose them, then have to buy them again thus twice the sales, clever!

It is very easy in the UK these days to not only get mixed up over what day it is, but what month it is. We look forward to the January sales and bomb off down to the shops to grab some bargains, but do we find reduced gift sets and slippers, no, we have shelves full of flipping Easter eggs.

The answer is simple, the people of the UK must unite and refuse to buy an item earlier than 6 week before the celebration, nothing Christmassy before November, nothing Eastery before, well, this changes all the time, but you get the drift.

KissBank.com smooches into London

Alan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 02:14:22 +0000

KissBank.com smooches into London

KissBank is a new website that has been created in order to make the world a kinder place and encourage people to focus less on themselves. The site has recently been launched in the capital. The website, which can be found at www.KissBank.com is based on two premises. The first is that there is a method understood world wide that can reward the kindness of people. The second is that money is not a good way to judge how much someone it worth.

The website at www.KissBank.com is the home of a new global currency which is known as the Kiss. To send a kiss you do not have to pay and people are sending millions of these each day all around the world and they are helping others for no money. The system on www.KissBank.com is based on the ‘kindness economy’ and if you do something good then someone may send you a kiss.

Everyone who signs up to the website will have an account which they can see their kisses in. There is a monitoring system known as the KissBank Index which gives details about who has the most kisses in their accounts. Once a year, at New Years, the website publish a list of who has got the most kisses. The website also has information about who is doing good deeds around the world and this can be found at KissBank News, here visitors can ‘kiss’ celebrities and other figures for good deeds that they do.

We are currently translating the site into 10 languages – so it will be a truly global bank by Christmas.

Founder Bob Duffield says: “I believe KissBank represents a shift away from the ‘Me Me’ generation towards a kinder, more connected society.”

Kissbank’s comprehensive Press Pack can be downloaded HERE. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

And, don’t forget to open your own www.KissBank.com account!

Wildfires Getting More Frequent Because Of Climate Change

Alan — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:35:25 +0000

Scientists from the United States have been working together and using a variety of methods to try and predict how fires will behave in response to the change in climate, and what the results might be if we do not reduce our carbon emissions very soon.

Director of science for the nature conservancy, Mr. Jim Bergen, who is also part of the alumni at Texas Tech University, has voiced his concerns about the effects that the widely spreading fires will have on wildlife habitats, as well as areas populated heavily by humans.

“There is a balance to be struck, obviously fires kill and destroy people, animals, plants and property, but fire is also essential in some areas (such as the Australian Bush) for the regeneration of new life.”

“We need to understand ourselves how these fires work in order to strike that balance, and then we need to educate others around the world in managing the fires, to conserve the wildlife and habitats as well as protect people and property too.”

At the University of California, Wildfire specialist, Professor Max Moritz has been working with Katherine Heyhoe, a professor of Geosciences from Texas Tech University. They have been using data from thermal infrared satellites to monitor wildfires across the globe in order to try and establish a pattern.

By using the infrared technology, they have been able to successfully identify common factors and establish the pattern they were looking for. These results will help them to predict the changing behaviour and locations of the wildfires, which in turn will help them to manage the fires and limit the dangers whilst still protecting the natural conservation work, which the fires do.

It seems that Global warming is certainly having an impact on wildfires. Professor Heyhoe says that this is inevitable and will continue, but at least now, we have a way of predicting and managing the risks. “Fires will continue to thrive in hot dry climates. As the world heats up, more areas are becoming hot and dry, so of course there is now a wider risk.”

“These climates allow fires to thrive but they still have to be ignited first, and most of these fires are started by careless humans. Some are sparked by lightening. Very few just ignite on their own.”.

Why are TV adverts so unrealistic?

Alan — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:57:23 +0000

When our favourite programmes are rudely interrupted by the commercial breaks, many of us head for the toilet or go and put the kettle on. So what of the rest of us who have empty bladders and aren’t thirsty? We are left to sit through several minutes of mindless imagery that is either instantly dismissed by our brains, or gets under our skin at the sheer banality of it all.

Whatever the product, there is a set formula which advertising companies seem incapable of stepping away from. We have the beautiful family who have just stepped out of a spaceship obviously; this is further illustrated by their inexplicable excitement at getting a new bottle of toilet cleaner.

Next on the scale of annoyance come those adverts where, to save money, bizarre foreign adverts are beamed into our living rooms with the standard of dubbing not seen for decades. These tend to advertise such things as tasteless desserts that even the dog turns its nose up at and air fresheners for when small children leave a smell in the toilet that causes the paint to peel off the walls.

Naturally, there are some adverts that are bearable, these tend to include animals as A) their acting isn’t from the forestry school of theatre and B) the cutesie factor is not something you can take offence at. You would think that small children fell into this category also, but sadly, if the tweenies that they pertain to place into these adverts were your kids you would have Supernanny and the Samaritans on speed dial!

Let’s not forget the serial commercials, those who feature the same people every time and their oh so exciting lives are spread out over numerous adverts. While these on the whole aren’t exactly offensive there is something incredibly annoying about the parallel universe they live in where everything goes to plan.

For most of us, if we want to do our grocery shopping online we have to get out our crystal ball and decide what we will be eating in 6 months time as that’s how long it will be before there is a delivery slot available in our area. Not so in advert world, they can make their order while on the phone to their partner and have it delivered and unpacked before sad partner returns home.

Ok, so adverts aren’t meant to be gritty, true life dramas but the lack of credibility beggars belief and it’s hard not to blame that darned puppy when you are falling over the mountain of toilet rolls to try and reach the shower….

HSBC profits way up, layoffs way up

Alan — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:51:18 +0000

Shareholders have reason for optimism, but employees have reason for dread as the latest reports from big banking hit the global media. HSBC, Britain’s largest international banking corporation, is planning and already implementing a somewhat different strategy in its stated purpose of cost control and increased revenue. They will be cutting costs by doing away with approximately 30,000 jobs by 2013, and increasing revenue by focusing on emerging markets.

Reaction from the stock market was positive: a banking analyst at WestLB AG in London said that wasn’t surprising, since its obvious HSBC needs to “keep costs under control.” Stock prices took a quick leap upward when the bank’s plans were announced. Shares rose by as much as 5% as of noon today (1 August), bringing the total market value to an estimated £110 billion. However, though the share value rose, the implications for much of the workforce are ominous.

Of approximately 52,000 jobs currently held by HSBC employees in the UK, as many as 5,000 may be cut entirely, along with about one in twelve of some 335,000 jobs in other countries. The reasons for the cutback are explained in part as cost-of-living increase in wages plus the addition of a lot of jobs in countries that are showing significant growth.

HSBC’s chief executive officer, Stuart Gulliver, told reporters that the cuts would be mostly in what he called “an unnecessary bureaucracy” in the head office support staff. He noted that the bank may be hiring as many as 4,000 people for positions in ‘emerging markets’, but that the planned number of job cuts does not even include those in assets that are going to be sold. Gulliver also indicated that there may be further cuts if lenders are forced to separate consumer and investment banking.

HSBC has already closed operations in Russia and Poland, and announced the sale of 195 retail banking operations in the U.S., mostly in upstate New York. The sale to First Niagara Bank will mean about $1 billion (£615,500) for the seller, contributing to the unexpected profit HSBC reported for the first half of the year. Meanwhile new hiring will be taking place in markets like Mexico and Brazil, where things are looking brighter on the economic scene.

The fact that HSBC reported substantial profits at the same time they announced major cost-cutting raised additional protests from the Treasury select committee and from union leaders such as David Fleming at Unite. They say this decision will mean poorer service for small businesses, as well as costing the jobs of many who can least afford it.

It’s not too late for your Wimbledon lawn to earn you £££ from the All England Championship with CampInMyGarden.com

Alan — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:32:03 +0000

It’s not too late for your Wimbledon lawn to earn you £££ from the All England Championship with CampInMyGarden.com

Wimbledon and other London events are accessible by Garden camping to a wide range of visitors. www.CampInMyGarden.com – offer Wimbledon lovers a pitch in the garden.

Like or leave it there is not getting away from the huge numbers of tennis fans that will be descending to southwest London for the Wimbledon tennis tournament starting 20 June. So you might as well profit from the masses. Residents of Wimbledon and those nearby with garden space can now make a bit of extra money hassle free for themselves from the event when they sign up at www.CampInMyGarden.com

Some people make money by leaving their homes and letting them out to players and their entourages or fans but not everyone can do that. But opening your garden to campers is an excellent way to cash in and turn Wimbledon into a money making experience without having the share your entire living space.

At this point in time there are very little if any traditional accommodations available for the event. Many fans will face expensive and long commutes into London to try and get the most out of their tickets since not everyone has five star budgets of debentured or corporate ticket holders.

Those who are able to get last minute tickets have little or no place to turn to for an overnight billet. With camping now being popular again a pitch as close to centre court as possible is just what the dedicated tennis fan may be looking for.

Gardens big and small are in demand. Sign up on the website and choose what facilities you can offer. You can charge more for extras such as access to a bathroom, use of wifi, facilities to wash and dry clothes and providing meals or picnics. Depending on the space available, you can play host to one or several tents at a time.

CampInMyGarden.com founder Victoria Webbon had the interests of locals and visitors in mind when she came up with the website idea. “Living close to a popular event site can be frustrating, with extra traffic and crowds. This is an easy way to turn it to your advantage without disrupting your home life. Garden camping makes tennis at Wimbledon and other London events accessible to a wide range of visitors who might not otherwise be able to afford the experience. And a warm welcome in your garden could secure their loyalty and see them coming back again and again for a sightseeing visit to London or to attend other events, bringing you some handy extra income every time.”

It’s currently free to join the site at www.CampInMyGarden.com to advertise a garden for campers or to search for suitable camping accommodation using UK maps or close to a major event.