Home Blog Page 12

A decade of success: what impact has the Raspberry Pi made?

By
Claire James
-

Which is the bestselling computer to have been produced in the UK? You might be surprised to know that it’s a wonderfully versatile device of relatively recent origin: the Raspberry Pi. Despite (or perhaps largely due to) being the size of a credit card, the Pi has gone from strength to strength since 2012.

That’s the year when the first Raspberry Pi unit was shipped. To date, more than 40 million Raspberry Pis have subsequently been sold worldwide, according to the University of Cambridge. So, why was this miniature computer originally created, and how has it thrived?

The genesis of the Raspberry Pi 

The Pi is the brainchild of Eben Upton, who cofounded the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the Cambridge-based charity responsible for making and selling Pi units. “Given how far we’ve come, it’s sort of funny to remember how parochial our ambitions were at the start,” Upton recently recalled.

Upton became a Director of Studies at the University of Cambridge’s St John’s College after completing a PhD at the University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology in 2006. However, around this time, the number of applicants for computer science courses here had hugely declined. 

He notes: “There was a feeling that if we could get a programme or piece of hardware into the hands of young people at the right point in their lives, we might be able to do something to reverse that decline.”

How the Raspberry Pi’s versatility has kept it relevant  

In a separate interview with Elektor, Upton observes that, in its first year of release, the Pi “wasn’t really used by students” but did find favour with “adults, people like us, people who already have skills in this area.” The Pi also saw broad industrial adoption from 2014 onwards.

The Foundation launched the Raspberry Pi Pico after realising that the original Pi was “a bit too powerful for beginners in education, providing too much flexibility”. Upton points out: “The Pico is very simple. You plug it into your PC and it has an LED that you can flash.” 

Today, people completely new to the Raspberry Pi can still pick up a Pico from a specialist retailer like The Pi Hut. However, various other Pi models also abound — including the Pi 400, essentially a complete PC built into a compact keyboard, making this Pi particularly suitable for novice programmers. 

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed the Pi game 

The Foundation manufactures its Pi units in the UK and sells over seven million of these devices annually. As one of the main selling points of the Pi is its relatively low cost, it shouldn’t be hugely surprising that sales rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many coders would have had more time on their hands. 

Of Raspberry Pi models sold new, the cheapest is the Pi Zero, while the Foundation’s main product is the Pi 4B, according to Business Matters. It certainly looks very plausible that the range of Pi models on the market could grow yet further over the coming years.

SEO for Real Estate Websites – What Works and What Doesn’t

By
Claire James
-

SEO for real estate websites can be tricky. There are a lot of moving pieces and many people try to take shortcuts. Over the past couple of years, a lot of attention has focused on estate agents SEO Services for real estate websites. This is natural due to the enormous size of the industry and the fact that Google AdWords and Bing are driving many buyers to websites.

Real estate agents are beginning to catch on to the value of SEO, and there’s no better place to start than with your own website. Great SEO can do wonders for your real estate website — it will increase your search visibility, improve your site’s reputation, and increase your conversion rate!

Many people feel that simply include a few keywords in their text will help them reach the top of Google’s search results. Unfortunately for webmasters, real estate SEO isn’t quite that simple. It’s not possible to optimise your estate agency’s website in a single day. Search engines require time to recognise you as a reliable source in your field, and you’ll only appear in search results if what you’re offering is relevant to a user’s search query. SEO for estate agents, London isn’t a one-time fix. It’s a long-term process that needs time and work. With over 30 years of combined property sector expertise, we know what works and what doesn’t. Your website will receive more traffic as a result of our professional advice and coaching, resulting in more leads. We’re pleased to assist you no matter where you are in the world.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Estate Agents

The process of improving the quantity of organic visits to a website (i.e., people who don’t pay for clicks) is known as search engine optimization. By conducting thorough research and regular analysis in order to obtain the best possible outcomes for your company agencies can assist you in achieving your business objectives with a fully customised real estate SEO solution. There are numerous strategies for your real estate firm to succeed online. Using the appropriate technologies in the right methods can greatly improve your online presence, allowing you to acquire that much-desired competitive advantage.

Want to know one of the most beneficial aspects of SEO for real estate agents? You don’t have to pay for clicks like you would with PPC to drive people to your website. Despite the fact that paid advertisements appear at the top of search engines, over 70% of internet users ignore them and prefer click on the first organic result. There are numerous strategies for your real estate firm to succeed online. Using the appropriate technologies in the right methods can greatly improve your online presence, allowing you to acquire that much-desired competitive advantage.

Want to know one of the most beneficial aspects of SEO for real estate agents? You don’t have to pay for clicks like you would with PPC to drive people to your website. Despite the fact that paid advertisements appear at the top of search engines, over 70% of internet users ignore them and prefer click on the first organic result. It’s no longer about writing for the web’s convenience. In reality, writing naturally without jamming keywords into your text is more crucial. It’s critical to select terms with a high search volume but are still relevant; for example, ‘SEO Company For Real Estate’ may be useful but has a low search volume. ‘Real Estate SEO’ is likewise relevant, and it has twice as many search phrases as ‘Real Estate Marketing.’

SEO can definitely work for real estate websites, but it’s not a quick and easy fix. There are several good principles to keep in mind for any website, including: keyword research, on-page SEO, meta tags, sitemaps, and content marketing. However, even if you incorporate all of these things into your site, you won’t experience instant success. Optimizing your site will take time and effort on your part.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when it comes to SEO for real estate websites. You should always think about your target audience, what they might be interested in, and how that relates to your neighborhood. Also, give some serious thought to the keywords that you will use as well as how you will tie those keywords into your content.

In the end, search engine optimization for real estate websites is a very specialized field. It requires an understanding of the real estate marketing process, as well as the technical intricacies involved with keeping your website up to date on both a content level and code level.

As Google employees prepare to return to physical offices, should other workers follow suit?

By
Claire James
-

Although the government in England has relaxed their guidance, and are no longer asking people to work from home, the question of whether workers want to return to the office is a key one to consider. Here are some prompts for discussing and deciding whether your office should stay remote, or not.

Majority rules

The majority of people have experienced working from home over the past two years or so, and there are mixed messages about whether workers would rather continue to work from home or if they would like to go back to being in the office.

However, analysis of recent data revealed that jobs specified as “remote” receive 300 percent more applicants than office-based roles.

Changing functions – the future of the office

Traditionally, the office provides a physical space where people come together to coordinate to produce the best output and performance that they can. For employees, it provides a place for face-to-face interaction that technology can never fully replicate in terms of social interaction.

As employees get used to working from home and the benefits that come with that, it could be that the function of the office changes in future. Ideally, workers should have an option when it comes to returning to the office. Some industries find it harder to work from home than others and it’s true that issues with internet connections prevent continuous work, but where possible workers should be given the choice between returning to the physical office or remaining at home.

The environment

One major argument for continuing to work from home is the benefit that it’s having on the environment, particularly when it comes to commuting. In the UK, 68% of workers travel by car or other motor vehicle. Just imagine the emissions commuting in itself produces! Improved air quality goes hand in hand with this. Air quality has improved not only in cities but in urban areas where levels of commuting are high, too.

Power consumption overall has decreased as a direct result of working from home because of COVID, too. The majority of office buildings pay incredibly high electricity bills, especially when the entire workforce is in the office.

Top benefits of remote working

Employee retention: remote working options make it easier for employees to balance childcare and other responsibilities, thus increasing the chances of them staying in their job for a longer period.

Recruitment: remote working prevents employers from being limited to candidates within the local area and working from home often acts as an incentive for candidates.

Biggest challenges of remote working

Work-life balance: although working from home can improve work-life balance, if employees aren’t strict enough with themselves they can struggle to switch off at the end of their day.

Work spaces: employees risk suffering from physical ailments if their home work space doesn’t cater to their needs effectively. Some workers may not have a spare room to work from and end up working from less-than-ideal places without a proper desk or ergonomic office chair. 

Final Thoughts

So, should other workers follow in the footsteps of Google’s employees and return to the office? Ultimately it depends on your personal circumstances. There are certainly a number of pros and cons worth considering when making the choice, so do whatever works best for YOU as an employee, employer, or business. 

Your Options when it comes to Blinds for Bifold Doors

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
-

Bi-folding doors have become increasingly popular in recent years and naturally, users want to find what blinds are perfect for bi-folding doors. Despite there being a wide range of blind styles available on the market, very few are compatible with bi-folding doors due to them obstructing the opening and closing of the doors. This article shall talk you through your available options and which blinds you should avoid to achieve the best blinds for bifold doors.

Roller Blinds

While roller blinds cost relatively low, boast easy installation and are available in a wide range of colours, they are,however, not a viable option for bifolding doors. Roller blinds tend to appear bulky when placed above the window which can negatively affect the smooth operation of bifolding doors. Roller blinds will also negatively affect the aesthetic look of your room as they will not mount properly onto a bifold door.

Vertical Blinds

Vertical Blinds are another style of blind that are best avoided for bi folding doors. Vertical blinds open and close from side to side instead of up and down and are operated via a pulley system by pulling the chain or cord to move the blinds left or right. 

Vertical blinds are not the most practical choice of blinds for bi-folding doors as they will block access to the door as they would have to be fully drawn back everytime the door is opened.  The fabric of vertical blinds is also known to stack and bunch which would further ruin the aesthetic of the bi-folding doors.

Roman Blinds

While roman blinds can be a viable option for bifold doors it does involve some problems.

If you are keen to pursue roman blinds for your bi folding doors then you would need to have these blinds mounted on the wall above your door. The fabric of roman blinds may also gather when lifted into the open position which, again, would get in the way of the smooth operation of the doors.

Venetian Blinds

There is a huge variety of Venetian blinds available on the market and while they can be either mounted onto a window or above a window they are not suitable for bi-folding doors.

The style of venetian blinds do not complement bi fold doors as the slats have particular dimensions that would result in the headrail needing to be placed out from the window or door by more than one depth.

Integrated Blinds

Integrated blinds are the best option for bi fold doors as they are both practical and aesthetically pleasing.  Integrated blinds offer a permanent blind solution as they sit between the double glazed glass and therefore avoid getting in the way of the doors operation in the way that other blind options do. Integrated and integral blinds come with the option of five control systems to choose from based on your personal taste. The only thing you will see with an integrated blind is the device that is needed to operate it.

Influential Industrial Designers Through the Ages

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
-

There are a number of iconic industrial designers who over the years have impacted the lives of millions of people around the globe with their innovative concepts and designs, particularly those affiliated with large corporations focusing on industrial design.

Industrial designers are responsible for creating a number of different products which we use every day. In this article we shall explore a number of innovative industrial designers and some of the work they have brought to life over the years.

1.   Jonathan Ive

Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (KBE, RDI) is a British-American product, architectural and industrial designer. Originally from the UK, Jony Ive is well known for his time serving as the chief designer at Apple from 1992 to 2019, leading the product design, interface design and implementation.

Being one of the most recognised designers of all time, Ive is well known for his innovative designs across a whole host of Apple products, such as the Apple iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook and iPad, all of which have helped shape Apple’s iconic product line. It was announced in June 2019 that Ive would be leaving the company in order to co-found his own company, LoveFrom, along with Apple colleague and industrial designer Marc Newson, and is the Chancellor at The Royal College of Art today.

1.   James Dyson

James Dyson is a British product designer, inventor and businessman, most famously known as the founder of Dyson, enhancing the vacuum industry with his innovative concepts. Mr Dyson is known for his bagless vacuum cleaner, as well as some other notable inventions, including the no-blade multiplier fan and the AirBlade hand dryer. Not only did Dyson help to shape the industry we see today, but his useful and innovative ideas are utlised by millions of people around the globe each day.

1.   Marc Newson

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1963, Marc Newson is recognised by some of the world’s biggest and brightest companies. Newson has lived and worked all around the globe, including Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and most recently, London. His business, Marc Newson Ltd, has worked across a number of disciplines since 1997, covering brands and consumers from fashion and luxury goods, to transportation to manufacturing and technology. His work ranges from aircrafts to furniture to luxury yachts. The iconic industrial designer was crowned by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people, winning a number of awards and praise along the way.

1.   Ingo Maurer

Ingo Maurer is a German industrial designer specialising in the innovative design of lamps and lighting concepts, originating in the 60’s. His designs are notoriously innovative and he is famous for paving the way in the lighting industry for an abundance of design ideas and future concepts which millions of people know and use every day. Maurer initially studied an apprenticeship as a typesetter, before studying graphic design in Munich, Germany. He left for the USA in 1960, and worked in New York and San Francisco doing freelance graphic design projects. He returned to Germany in 1963 and founded his company ‘Design M’, which focused on development and manufacturing lamps based off of his own designs. After some time the company was later renamed ‘Ingo Maurer GmbH’. One of his first ever designs of a bulb in 1996 was included in the design collection at the Museum of Modern Art. Maurer’s products are still sold worldwide as his team grows each day

1.   Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck is a French designer famous for his work across multiple disciplines such as interior, product, architectural and innovative industrial design efforts since the start of his career in the 1980s, including furniture and objects that have simple but inventive structures.

As a promoter of democratic and useful designs, Starck’s concepts are known for their political messages which enhance them and bring them to a whole new level. Starck’s portfolio consists of some of the widest range of industries, including the lemon squeezer, as well as larger design concepts such as yachts and hotels, aeroplanes, rockets and wind turbines. Starck self-proclaims himself as a ‘modern monk’ who will never retire, prefers to live alone and work by the hour.

A Career Timeline of Ahmed Ezz

By
Claire James
-

Born in Cairo in 1959, Ahmed Ezz comes from a family of construction material traders. Founded by his father, Mr. Abdel Aziz Ezz, the family business traded goods within Egypt and beyond. Abdel Aziz Ezz graduated from the same class as the late Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and was an officer in the Egyptian Armed Forces.

Ahmed Ezz was educated at Cairo’s Port Said School, later studying Civil Engineering at Cairo University and graduating in 1982. He attributes his many achievements in business and politics to the example set by his father, who taught him from an early age that all of a person’s successes and failures are their sole responsibility, instilling in him the belief that he could achieve anything he set his mind to if he worked hard enough.

Starting out in the family firm while simultaneously studying at Cairo University, Ahmed Ezz immediately recognised the benefits of expanding the company’s overseas trade operations via the Ezz Foreign Trade company. In addition to developing the company’s import/export operations and global supply chains, Ahmed Ezz also played a leading role in creating an effective local distribution network within Egypt, building relationships with domestic suppliers.

Ahmed Ezz founded the Ezz Ceramics and Porcelain Company – also known as Gemma – in the mid-1980s. Gemma earned a strong reputation throughout Egypt for the quality of its products, rapidly increasing its market share thanks to its high-profile, celebrity-endorsed marketing campaigns. Gemma continued to grow throughout the 1990s and was floated on the Egyptian Stock Exchange in 1998, at which point Ahmed Ezz owned two thirds of the company’s shares.

In the early 1990s, Ahmed Ezz ventured into the steelmaking industry. He established Ezz Steel, embarking on a major investment in Egypt’s steelmaking capacity through the acquisition of El-Baraka Rolling Mills in Ramadan City, which was rebranded as Al Ezz Rolling Mills. Mr Ezz also established Al Ezz Steel Rebars in Sadat City.

In 1998 he established Al Ezz Flat Steel in Suez, creating a state-of-the-art steelmaking plant producing flat steel coils through an innovative continuous production process. Ezz Steel’s most important acquisition came in 1999, when the company purchased 1.7 million shares in Alexandria National Steel Company, which subsequently became Ezz Dekheila Steel Company.

Ezz Steel itself was floated on the Egyptian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange in 1999, at which point Ahmed Ezz held 60.3% of the company’s shares.

In 2000, Mr Ezz became a Member of the Egyptian Parliament, representing Menouf-El Sadat. He worked ceaselessly to exceed the requirements of his constituents, enthusiastically and effectively elevating local issues to a national level.

In his role as a Member of Parliament for Menouf El-Sadat, Ahmed Ezz closely monitored issues affecting the lives of his constituents, working fervently to introduce and amend laws to break down barriers and helping ordinary people overcome challenges impeding their success. Mr Ezz was the driving force behind important policy reforms that facilitated authorised development to take place in carefully controlled areas outside of existing urban zones.

Becoming concerned about the scale of uncontrolled and illegal development in his own constituency, Ahmed Ezz tackled the root cause of the problem rather than simply ordering the demolition of illegal buildings. His efforts culminated in the creation of the Committee for the Preservation of Agricultural Land and the Management of Urban Development, a body dedicated to researching the problem of illegal development and its causes to find an effective solution.

Chaired by Ahmed Ezz, the committee subsequently urged politicians to accept existing structures rather than condemning them. The committee also lobbied for aerial surveys across Egypt to assess the extent of the problem across the country. Mr Ezz’s efforts paved the way for the establishment of new, more realistic development zones across Egypt, facilitating necessary urban expansion, but in a controlled way, preserving important agricultural areas.

Re-elected in 2005, Ahmed Ezz spent more than a decade in office representing the Menouf El-Sadat constituency, a region comprising 32 villages and 147 small communities.

How to Edit a Travel Video

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
-

If you are a traveler, you may enjoy creating and publishing travel videos online. Sharing your experience with your audience and receiving their likes and comments can be even more exciting. But editing a video can be a headache if you are not familiar with the process. It can be a time-consuming and exhausting task that you might want to avoid.

As you know, it takes some skills and knowledge of certain tools to edit a video and turn your small clips into an informative travel story. But you can quickly learn it. 

To make it easy for you, we have prepared a step-by-step guide on editing a travel video.

Step 1: Organizing your content

As the first step, you will need to create backups of your clips. Ideally, you should keep your video clips in three different locations. Store your content in your local computer, an external hard drive, and on cloud storage to avoid the risk of losing it due to any unexpected events.

At this stage, make sure to organize your content in an easily accessible and manageable order. Use a naming structure that includes the place, date, and time or number for better management. 

There are several options for external drives and cloud storage that you can choose from. The size, price, and subscription cost will depend on your current and future requirements.

Step 2: Add clips to the project in editing software

In the next step, create a project in a video editor. At this stage, you can select footage that you want to include in your video timeline. If there are hundreds of clips, it will be good to preview and pick the best ones beforehand at the organizing stage.

You can keep them in a separate folder to make them easy to locate and select while creating a project timeline. It will also save time since you don’t have to watch and remove unnecessary clips.

You can go with a desktop application or an online video editor as long as the editing software is concerned. Web-based online video editor tools provide templates, a media library, and many other features that you can easily use to create beautiful videos.

Step 3: Selecting the resolution and dimensions

In the initial stage of creating a project on an editor, you can also select the resolution and dimensions. It depends on which platform you want to post it. You may set 1080p as a standard HD quality size if you publish your videos on YouTube.

There are higher quality sizes, like 2k and 4k quality sizes, and you can select a suitable size for your video. However, note that most videos generally have HD quality.

Step 4: Cutting the clips to keep the most important content

Once you have finished adding clips to the project, you are ready to start the actual work. You would want to keep your video interesting, so it is better to only include the most relevant content and keep it short.

Remove repeated scenes, long pauses, events like transmuting from one place to another, and many other things that you as a viewer would like to skip. You may also want to cut parts if your video is turning out to be too long. The ideal length of a travel video is 10 minutes, but you can make it up to 20 minutes long.

Step 5: Trimming and sequencing the content

Once done with cutting unnecessary parts of your clips, it is time to trim further to refine your video. It is good to keep scenes as short as possible unless they need a long introduction or explanation.

Your travel video will get more viewers if you make it enjoyable by including the actual scenes of a place. Skip things like markets and buildings that we can find in every city. Of course, you may keep specific buildings and unique shops that add valuable information for the viewer.

Step 6: Adding voice, pictures, and subtitles

Most travelers speak while filming their trips. But if you have just covered the scenes without any explanation, you can do it in this step. You can add your voiceover once you have removed the extra content and covered only the meaningful scenes.

Apart from that, you may want to add pictures relevant to the clip. For example, before showing your clip about a place, it would be good to display a high-quality photograph that creates a hook and raises curiosity.

You can also add subtitles since many viewers would love that when they want to watch your video with the volume off.

Step 7: Adding elements like texts, colors, and stickers

There will be some scenes to which you would like to add some creative elements, i.e., title or name, stickers expressing your emotions, and color overlays.

Elements like titles and names work like bookmarks and make respective scenes memorable. On the other hand, stickers and overlays can add spice to the video, and your audience would enjoy watching the video with them.

Step 8: Adding music, sound effects, and transitions

Your travel video can be more enjoyable if it has good background music. Additionally, you can use sound effects and transitions at relevant places, like points where you have used stickers and overlays.

These things add life to the video and help keep your audience interested in seeing what comes next. Without these elements, even a good travel log would seem boring, and the viewer would leave without finishing it.

Step 9: Reviewing and exporting/publishing a final video

After completing all the steps mentioned above, the final step is to review, export, and publish your video. We recommend that you do this step the next day if you are not in a hurry to publish it.

A gap of a day can give you a fresh perspective. You will be able to view your video from an audience’s viewpoint and find areas that need to be removed or improved. Once you finish polishing, you can export and publish it online.

Conclusion

Editing a travel video is no more a cumbersome task, thanks to the internet, online tools, and desktop applications. You can learn to use a specific video editing software by going through their tutorial. In this article, we have covered the most crucial steps you have to follow while editing a video, regardless of which tool you use. We hope it will be helpful for your upcoming vlog.

Seven simple ways to add value to your property

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
-

The real estate sector is still booming as 2022 begins. Many of us have relocated or are going to sell our existing residence. So there’s no better time than now to think about what features and upgrades will increase the value of your home in the long and short term. There is no better way to know the accurate value of your property than using a free property valuation service. To find out what’s currently appealing to homeowners and buyers, we spoke to a number of professionals ranging from interior designers to estate brokers. For many people, the process of getting their home ready to sell can be intimidating. It’s a fallacy that you need to spend thousands of pounds on repairs to make your home stand out to potential buyers, but this isn’t necessarily true.

The property market is at an all-time high, with home values in England increasing by 80% in the last ten years. With Brits returning to remote working and the rise of the Omicron variant, it’s unclear how this will affect property values in 2022. We’ve compiled a list of seven basic strategies to assist you to obtain the best bargain on your property at various price points.

Spend less, do more

DIY projects like painting, repairing cracks and broken doorknobs, and replacing carpets can be done on a budget and don’t require much expertise. Furthermore, something as easy as tidying and decluttering costs very little and instantly improves the appearance of your home. When each room appears to be designed specifically for its intended use, consumers are more likely to visualise themselves in that place. Did you know that one of the most common reasons that potential purchasers are turned off is foul odours? Deep cleaning and putting out candles or fresh flowers will readily cure this.

Bathroom and kitchen

Regardless of how the rest of the house looks, a clean and tidy kitchen and bathroom are essential for enticing buyers. A kitchen remodel can increase the value of your home by at least 5%. Even if you don’t have the funds to complete a full remodel, you may make these spaces appear more modern by removing old and worn cupboards and washing down visible surfaces. Changing an old shower curtain in the bathroom can also make a great difference.

Make the outside as attractive as the inside.

Because many purchasers create their first impression of a property based on its exterior appearance, kerb appeal is just as vital as the interior. Cleaning your external spaces, such as mowing the lawn and pruning overgrown bushes, installing outdoor lighting, and repainting the exterior walls, can make your property much more welcoming to visitors when they first come in.

Obtain planning approval

If you don’t have the funds to build an expansion or do other large-scale renovations, obtaining planning clearance is a less expensive option. It costs £400 to apply, and depending on the property’s location, when permission was obtained and how long it has remaining, and the scope of the improvements covered in the licence, it can enhance the value by up to 10%.

Attract a diverse range of buyers

Giving the illusion of more space is one of the best ways for buyers to imagine themselves in the property. The use of neutral colours and basic furniture, as well as the storage of personal items such as family photos during viewings, can help you reach a wider audience while maximising your home’s full potential without being too overwhelming.

Adding a workspace

With most organisations adopting hybrid and work-from-home strategies, a dedicated home office space will remain a top desire for homeowners in 2022. Only a third of garage owners really use their space to keep their vehicle. As a result, turning your garage space or even a spare bedroom into an office could help you make better use of your space while also increasing the value of your property.

Install solar panels and double glazing

For homebuyers, double or triple glazing is quickly becoming a must-have. It not only saves money on bills and increases the value of your home, but it also reduces noise, which is a desirable feature in heavily crowded places. The average cost of double glazing for eight windows and two uPVC doors is £4,500, with a ten percent gain in house value.

The popularity of eco-friendly home designs is currently on the rise. Solar panels and other green home renovations raise the value of your home. If you act quickly, the government would gladly assist you with the cost of thermal solar panels through its green grant programme. Solar panel installation costs range from £3,000 to £5,000 for three water or electric solar panels. You should be ready to sell your home at the best price once you’ve checked off these items on your list!

Where Do the World’s Luckiest People Live?

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
-

Luck is a term that is used differently – some associate it with overnight fortune while others relate it to lifelong fortune. Well, some people can become lucky by winning a lottery, whereas others can simply be born lucky. If you are unsure of how this can be possible, we are here to explain it to you. In this article, we will share with you some of the countries where the luckiest people live. They are not only fortunate enough in terms of money, but also the quality of life, freedom, and other various aspects. So without waiting, let us get started.

#1: Switzerland

The people of Switzerland are privileged in terms of the following factors:

  • Finance: Considering factors like the total percentage of millionaires based on the adult population, the average adult wealth, and disposable income of households, Switzerland holds the perfect score of 100 out of 100 for finances.
  • Safety and Health: With regard to social benefits attained by households, air pollution, life expectancy, health status, road safety, and homicide, Switzerland’s overall score is 96.31 and thus, ranks in seventh place for health and safety among all the nations in this study.
  • Liberty and Life Satisfaction: Among the top five nations in this regard, the passport strength index, human rights index, life satisfaction, and gender equality in Switzerland are all good.
  • Career Opportunities: GDP per capita, social mobility, income inequality, population with tertiary education, long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, and work environment quality were all measured in this section. All of these scores have made Switzerland among the top five privileged nations when it comes to providing career opportunities to its people.

#2: Iceland

  • Finance: The overall score for finance is based on the nation’s wealth, the average income of adults, and the percentage of millionaires. Iceland scored 72.49 out of 100 putting it in third position for its finances.
  • Safety and Health: With a life expectancy of about 83 years, the people of Iceland experience high road safety, decreased health issues, and low homicides.
  • Liberty and Life Satisfaction: Factors like gender equality, human rights, and life satisfaction have demonstrated the people of Iceland are among the most privileged in the world. The country takes the 7th spot globally in this section.
  • Career Opportunities: Based on the opportunities provided to the people with regard to education, employment, income, and social benefits based on GDP, the nation has made its people among the luckiest ones for living in Iceland. It takes third place with 93.81 points.

#3: Norway

  • Finance: Ranked 12th among the strongest nations financially, the Norwegians are privileged with regard to finances. Not only is the average income of the adults high but also 4% of the adult population are millionaires.
  • Health and Safety: With 14.68% of the nation’s GDP being received by households as social benefits, Norway takes fifth place in this area. The country has low air pollution, and overall good health status of people, which further increases life expectancy.
  • Liberty and Life Satisfaction: The freedom to travel along with gender equality and human rights is so good in Norway that the country ranks in first place in liberty and life satisfaction, scoring 100 out of 100.
  • ●      Career Opportunities: With very low income inequality and just under 10% of youth unemployment, Norway tops this list as well for offering the best job opportunities to its people, with a maximum score of 100.

The Link Between Eating Disorders and Addiction

By
Claire James
-

Eating disorders and addiction are both very serious conditions with severe consequences on the health of the person, but they also resemble one another a lot. Whether this is coincidence or correlation depends on a case-by-case basis, but overall, the commonalities between the two are worth noting enough to establish a link.

Eating disorders are an obsessive form of preoccupation with food which often ties in with the personal body image of the person and negatively impacts their everyday life. According to substancerehabilitation.com, “It is a psychological condition with severe physical symptoms that are detrimental to both mental health and general well-being.”

Mental and Physical Health

The quoted excerpt above from Substance Rehabilitation, though written originally about eating disorders, can also be applied to the way addiction works. This is one of the similarities between the two: the way they impact the mindset and the body of the person struggling.

People go into deeper depression and anxiety over their eating disorder/addiction. Their mental health severely deteriorates, and these people typically find it hard to set any priorities outside their eating disorder/addiction. This is because these problems are so innately consuming that it’s very hard to have time to do other things.

Quite obviously, eating disorders and addictions both impact the body similarly: malnourishment. Besides that, they make the human body susceptible to many illnesses and diseases because the immune system takes a direct hit and becomes extremely weak too.

Relationship With Food/Substances

Eating disorders and addictions to substances typically begin in the same way: small. They start small and harmless, and then they spiral beyond the control of the person who is going through the disorder/addiction.

People with eating disorders have a very extreme relationship with their food. Depending on the sort of disorder they have, they will either omit the food out, restrict, or binge then use some technique to get rid of the food (laxative/purging). Their preoccupation with their eating habits typically becomes the centre of their life and the most important aspect of it.

This is similar to people with addictions, too. Whether it’s alcohol or drugs, the person struggling frequently has their entire life revolving around their addiction. They sometimes have a strict schedule for how regularly they need their substance, and if they don’t get it, sometimes withdrawal symptoms may begin to show.

Increasing Extremities

Both eating disorders and addictions only get worse with time if people are not given the help they deserve. With eating disorders, the “goals” that people set for themselves for losing weight or having smaller measurements continue to get more and more extreme, leading to an increasingly unhealthy diet. Mostly, people with eating disorders are gravely malnourished because they are so particular about what they eat and/or how they eat and when they eat.

This is a pattern seen in addictions, too, and research supports it. Addictions tend to get more extreme over time, with the body’s natural tolerance catching up to the substance intake, thereby requiring more of the substance to feel the effects of it. The more the substance is consumed, the worse it impacts the person, and the cycle continues until the person gets help.

Using Amphetamines to Control Eating

A great number of people with eating disorders use amphetamines to control eating. Amphetamines are appetite suppressants, meaning they nip hunger in the bud. A big part of eating disorders is staying hungry for extended periods of time. Precisely for this reason, amphetamines are so widely used, because they help with hunger pangs.

Research states that 2.7% of people with bulimia and 8.1% of people with anorexia rely on some form of amphetamines to reduce their appetite. Adderall, Focalin, Ritalin, Concerta, and Dexedrine are among the common amphetamines that are often abused to control appetite. Another reason they’re widespread is that they can be obtained illegally with not a lot of trouble.

This usage of amphetamines can lead to an addiction to them, thereby leaving the patient with an eating disorder to develop another illness: an addiction.

Summary

Eating disorders and addiction can be similar in attributes but are two separate things. Sometimes, one can lead to another.

#1 Both eating disorders and addictions lead to negative impacts on mental health.

#2 People with eating disorders have an unhealthy relationship with food, similar to how people with addictions have an unhealthy relationship with their substances.

#3 Both eating disorders and addictions get worse with time unless help is provided.

#4 Amphetamines are used to control eating because they suppress appetite.

#5 Using amphetamines to control eating can lead to an addiction to amphetamines.

1...111213...38Page 12 of 38

Categories

Latest Posts

Recent Posts

Popular Categories

© News-Review.co.uk | All Rights Reserved