Alternative fuels including wind, solar, geo-thermal, ethanol, coal seam gas and natural gas.

Why You Should Hire an Architect

Posted: September 8th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments »

An architect is a well trained expert who has experience in planning, designing and the construction of buildings and the oversight of construction jobs.

Also, one is not considered an architect until he or she has properly passed all the necessary education and accredited programs to procure a license in order to practice architecture. When practicing architecture, the architect can have freedom to design the building or group of buildings, as well as the space around it that still counts as part of the property. These ideas form the planning stage of the project and can take months to finalise.

The reason why architects are so important to the success of any building plan is simple: they can put your ideas into a feasible and concrete reality. If you have great ambitions for your home or place of business, then an architect can ensure that those dreams will come true.

But aside from the actual design of the building, there are so many other complex factors (beyond the scope of inexperienced people) that need to be thought out, and these are also covered in the responsibilities of the architect.

For example, there are some architectural firms that not only design the building for you, but they also prepare the bid documents for the pricing of the entire project, and are the ones that most commonly talk to the contractors, stakeholders and any third parties involved in the assignment.

When you hire an architect, you will not have to be bogged down by all the small technical details. All you have to be concerned about is if whether or not the building is coming along according to the plans originally devised with the help of the architect.

The architect is also very helpful before the actual construction. If you do not have an actual plan but do have an idea on what you want your structure to look like, then that is where the professional can help you on the project.

All you have to do is to present them with some ideas and they can be the ones to take care of site analysis, the assistance you may need in zoning and planning, any environmental impact studies you may need, tendering and contract negotiation with the contractor and his men, and so much more.

The architect that you hire will be involved in all of the aspects of your project. Essentially, you are hiring an architect because you require a trained expert to take charge of planning and designing the building or dwelling as well as provide the necessary feedback and support throughout the entire assignment.

Engaging an architect is like taking on a business partner for your project, one who is knowledgeable, knows the risk areas around the project and knows how to minimize those risks, has the necessary people skills to work with contractors in order to hire additional resources within budget.

A good architect will treat the project as though it is his or her own and will devise creative ideas and plans to the manager, and discuss in great detail the advantages, disadvantages, any problems of a particular strategy.

These are just some of the many important benefits and key reasons why you should hire an architect. There are so many more reasons that really prove that any project worth going through with has to be under the supervision of a highly qualified architect. In the end, it all boils down to the fact that you have a dream construction project, and your architect is the person to make all these dreams become reality.

Looking for Brisbane architects? For renovation architects Brisbane, contact Dion Seminara Architecture. They are leading home improvement architects. Brisbane office is located in Morningside.


Tents and Marquees

Posted: September 2nd, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | No Comments »

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 fantastic
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 lively 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 informationabout 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 incredible, 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 tight. 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 range of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to advertise 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 identical 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.


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

Posted: August 18th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Don’t have an amateur 24 hour carpet cleaner attempt to repair your carpets with water damage. These are the worries you must be wary of:

Overcharging. An amateur water restoration restorer may build the job up with superfluous steps. E.g. using dehumidification for the water damaged carpets unnecessarily.

Correct equipment. They can borrow equipment from hire businesses for drying the carpet. This is all right, but a professional water damage cleaner will own all their equipment so they offer a speedy response and hopefully a better value job.

Does not have a proper moisture metre. If they don’t have the choice moisture meter, they will not be able to tell if the carpet is fixed. This furthers the potential of future mould growth. Removal of this in future may be required.

If they aren’t specialised. There are many “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage repair work on the “side.” i.e. they do not do this sort of job often. Be aware of this. Restoring water damage to carpets is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips needs to be completed by a professional, otherwise it can be permanently damaged.

You might be wondering, how do I locate a proper Flood Restoration Business? Below I have selected some things to look for when you call around for a carpet flood damage business:

What size is their Yellow Pages advertisement: This can signify how much repair work they are doing already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad can cost upwards of $50 000. When they have paid for a large ad, you can have some expectation that they will deliver the goods.

Where do they come up in Google? The higher they are in Google, the more webpage clicks there are for their business.

What Qualifications do they have? The foundational qualification they need is a IICRC qualification for Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies use them for their carpet damage jobs? This is a great indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is probably going to be superb at their work. Insurance companies tend to use the providers that give them the top value for the money.

What Equipment do they have? They should own a minimum of 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this could show they have been up and running for a good 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 through a phone call? See if you can pin them down to a fee for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they won’t give you a package for at least this, you know they are not willing to serve you, so go elsewhere.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business based in Brisbane is committed to a 59 minute response time to a water damage emergency. The restoration needs to be responded to ASAP. Mould can appear inside a 24 hour period.

If you stick to these tips you are sure to find a Flood Damage Restoration company who knows what they are doing.

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

Posted: August 13th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | No Comments »

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am regularly asked by parents if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to contemplate . 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 great news 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 medical practitioner or dentist , the salary is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most fulfilling things about working as podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will experience 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 rewarding when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will allow you a lot of opportunity to help relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatryallows 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 acts under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can hold themselves out to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this delineates relieves the need to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Got the urge to travel? There are many places around 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 travel 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 arches . The essence of 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 qualify as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist requires 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

Posted: August 7th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

Take control of getting your site created by a developer and understand the process it will save you money and gain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Comprehending your business and how you are currently established 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 consider 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 attain an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will construct a good profile and realise 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 made, the developers will more than likely acquire the general layout of this concept and then formulate the inner page template. It is this template that will be duplicated 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 preserved when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is suggested that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are crucial later on in not only interacting with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; provide a decent amount of content but provide it in a way that a reader may get 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. You need to know that you can use and know 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 operate 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, chances 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 on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to make your site live make sure you have finished the above testing step until you are happy 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

Posted: August 6th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

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

People spend a lot of money on the creation 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 needless and may cause difficulties when trying to replecate 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 suggested 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 excellent example of this is the well-known and executed Fedex logo.

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

Tip 3
Ensure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make certain that it includes all the files required 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 accomplish. For example it is troublesome 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 certain 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 get 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

Posted: July 31st, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

How many times have you mailed business cards to print and picked up yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been frantic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then recognized that the crucial tag line is missing or your logo has been squashed.

There is only one way to stop this from happening and that is to create a style guide. Not only will a style guide assist you direct the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you strengthen 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 work in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Mark 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 wantcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

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

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

Step 5 : Insure to take into account any contributing logos or logos of business that are linked with you. It’s also important that you send a copy of the layout to these companies to guarantee they accept the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

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

Step 7 : Make sure 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 affirmed as correct.

Have your Style Guide completed and as established 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 work 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)

Posted: July 19th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

The most typical question heard when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: will I take an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, which stands for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, standing for ‘digital light processing’ are the two commonplace projector imaging technologies. With so many different brands and different types available, it can be confusing for the buyer to choose between the two technologies. It comes down to the fact that LCD projectors provide superior image quality and colour accuracy. The following article will tell you why DLP projectors struggle with creating a similar level of image quality.

Think of a set of blinds in your house for your bedroom window. By pulling a rod you can turn the shutters open or closed, according to whether you want to let light in or not. Such is exactly how an LCD projector behaves. Each pixel operates like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either shine light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is created of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the professionals like to call them. Each pixel element operates to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the time the projector switches on to when the content reaches your screen is ultimately important for image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors direct white light from the lamp by separating it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which project the coloured light to 3 stand alone LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels make the elements of the image by switching each pixel on and off. The pixels are then meshed in a glass prism to send the projector image. Something to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are directed onto your screen all at the same time. The way a DLP projector runs is widely different and even how an image looks is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is projected through a spinning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This way of making an image requires a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors as described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to construct the image elements. The elements of the image are displayed in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eye will then combine each coloured element of the image into the full image. In LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to form the best brightness and spectacular colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at a time, and so resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some developers have placed a white segment in the colour wheel to improve brightness overall, but this then lessens colour accuracy.

I find in forums all the time that DLP offers a higher contrast ratio and thus must be better. For those uncertain, 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 machine is capable of. DLP projectors do have high contrast specifications compared to a majority of LCD projectors. At one glance, this appears to be an advantage, however, in the real world, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room where the projector is being used. Do not be duped by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you plan to view has moving images, DLP projection technology can also have image marks, or ‘artifacts’. The most common artifact that a DLP projector forms with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change up between the time red, blue and green colours are shone. LCD projectors do not have this characteristic because all colours are projected simultaneously. DLP builders have come up with 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to answer the colour break up artifacts, but the price tag of these projectors make them impractical for the majority of businesses and consumers.

Another differentiation between LCD and DLP is how they make up for the refractive qualities of light. Remember back to high school science, and recall how the different colours of light refract various amounts when shone through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they take the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light differently. Often with a DLP projector, a spill of yellow colour will appear above and some extra blue will come up below an image of something as simple as a single black line. During manufacturing LCD projectors can be fixed to take away these effects on the projected image, because each colour is processed on its own LCD panels.

The isolated true advantage (excluding price) with picking a DLP projector is its overall smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant to transporting the device and cannot be traded off against the image plusses of LCD projectors. If resulting picture quality is important to you, then the decision is simple. Take an LCD projector! LCD projectors will definitely make bright, colourful images with fewer image imperfections. If you desire to know more about LCD technology in more detail, have a look at this fantastic resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any persisting questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

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


Yachting and Yacht Clubs

Posted: July 16th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as fashionable with the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that point the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by conglomerating with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it came to be named 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 association 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 site of British yachting. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large stakes were held, and the society life was wonderful. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English gained dominance. Sailing was largely for pleasure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht society, 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 first sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was initially largely put upon by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a syndicate headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with only a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there was a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping required. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was an activity mostly for the nobility and the rich, expense was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller boats occurred in the second 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 trip around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the hardiness of less sizeable craft. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, when steam began to take the place of sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in personal boats. Large power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance cruising was a fond activity of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, purchased 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 better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many large boats began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. From the decade following, large power-yacht building flourished, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the best auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power craft lessened from 1932, and the fashion from then was toward smaller, less expensive yachts. After World War II, a lot of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a globally popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and upkeeping their own small pleasure craft. The amount of yachts and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

Posted: July 8th, 2010 | Author: squadron | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | No Comments »

Taxes are differentiated by the effect they have on the distribution of income and wealth. A proportional tax is a kind that imposes the same relative liability on each taxpayer—i.e., when tax liability and income increase in equal proportion. A progressive tax is characterizable by a larger than proportional increase in the tax onus in relation to the rise in income, and a regressive tax is characterizable by a less than proportional increase in the relative onus. Therefore, progressive taxes are viewed as removing inequity in income distribution, whereas regressive taxes might increase these inequalities.

The taxes that are usually considered progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are nominally progressive, however, could become less so for the upper-income categories—particularly if a taxpayer is permitted to reduce his tax base by claiming deductions or by removing certain income aspects from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates which are applied to lower-income categories could also be more progressive if exemptions of a personal nature are claimed.

Income measured over the period of a year may not definitely offer the best measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory rises in income could be saved, and within temporary declines in income a taxpayer might decide to pay for consumption by taking from savings. Therefore, if taxation is held in comparison with “permanent income,” it would be less regressive (or more progressive) than if made comparable with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (save luxuries) are generally regressive, because the portion of own income consumed or spent on specific goods declines as the level of personal income increases. Poll taxes (also known as head taxes), calculated as a fixed amount per capita, clearly are regressive.

It is hard to classify corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, principally due to a lack of certainty regarding the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of dictating who bears the tax burden rests crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being decided.

In analysing the economic effects of taxation, it is important to distinguish between varied concepts of tax rates. The statutory rates are nominated in the legislation; usually these are marginal rates, but occasionally they are average rates. Marginal income tax rates note the fraction of incremental income that is taken by taxation when income is increased by one dollar. Ergo, if tax onus grows by 45 cents when income increases by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax laws generally contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that rise as income increases. Heavy analysis of marginal tax rates are required to consider provisions in addition to the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) decreases by 20 cents for each one-dollar growth in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points higher than nominated by the statutory rates. Since marginal rates specify how after-tax income changes in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the necessary ones for considering incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to nominate the marginal effective tax rate applicable to income from business and capital, as it may be reliant on factors such as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem grants 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 required in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is relevant for appraising the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate grows with income. Average income tax rates generally increase with income, both because personal allowances are permitted for the taxpayer and dependents and due to that marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other side of things, preferential treatment of income received fundamentally by high-income households could dampen these effects, allowing regressivity, as displayed by average tax rates that decline as income increases.

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