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22 centuries later: the new Silk Road opportunity

A new Silk Road that would connect Europe to China’s fast-growing market is being planned by some of the world’s largest trade and transportation organizations. Following the same route taken by Marco Polo when he established the original Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (207 BC to 220 AD), the 21st century Silk Road – enabled by modern navigational technology – is forecast to reduce freight times to days, rather than the weeks or months it can take goods to be transported by sea. This will be an interesting development in the transportation industry and may mean that Same Day Courier Slough businesses have access to a wider global transportation network.

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New Opportunities for Multinationals

The $1trillion’s worth of trade means plenty of opportunity for multinationals, explains John D. Schulz, contributing editor for Logistics Management magazine. In an article on the potential benefits of this new Silk Road, Schulz says that according to business executives and officials from the World Bank and the US Chamber of Commerce – who met at the end of April to discuss the project at a two-day forum held in Washington – the timescale for completion extends over the next decade. There has already been confirmed interest from a number of governments and businesses.

News of the new Silk Road comes at a time when ocean shipping has slowed down, reports Schulz, a possible result of a number of economic factors including the Syrian refugee crisis and recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and France.

But according to some experts, when troubled European economies begin to recover there could be considerable opportunities for the global community of multinational surface transportation providers.

Pallet Potential

A forum was organized by the US embassies to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey, and was the platform for introducing a number of projects and investments to US business leaders from multinational industries. According to Schulz, there were discussions about the benefits of greater cooperation, harmonizing trade and transit routes, and the importance of an integrated network of transit, logistics, and infrastructure. With pallets the number one choice for shipping and storage, however, there will undoubtedly be room for pallet providers to further the conversation on the immediate and long-term logistics of transporting goods and materials along the new Silk Road.

admin by — May 22, 2019 in General
Tips to successfully use metal to metal adhesives

Soldering or welding is not always an option for bonding two pieces of metal together, particularly for delicate or small projects, or when there isn’t the correct equipment or space available. Companies such as Armourgeddon Tank Driving who offer Tank Driving Days will be used to joining metal items together and may use metal adhesives along with other methods to ensure that their tanks are in the best working condition for members of the public to enjoy the day in and day out.

If you are looking to join together two pieces of metal we’ve got some tips on how you can successfully use metal to metal adhesives.

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Use the right adhesive

The first step to effectively bonding together the metal pieces is to use the right metal bonding adhesive for the job. One of the main forms is an epoxy, which is designed for where structural support is being provided by the metal. Other adhesives are commonly used for less critical projects – such as arts and crafts or jewelry making.

Clean the surface

The effectiveness of the adhesive can be reduced if there’s any dirt, grease, oil or other types of residue present on the surface. This will make it harder to create a strong bond, so it’s essential to clean both of the surfaces properly beforehand and then leave them to dry completely.

Create a grip

If you want to ensure that the metal bonding adhesive forms a very strong bond then you can create some texture on the surface of the metal to give it something to grip onto. It’s easy to do this by rubbing sandpaper across the surfaces so that they become rough and gritty.

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Follow the instructions

It is important to ensure that you read any instructions that come along with your chosen adhesive. These will let you know how long the glue will take to dry and if the adhesive needs to be combined with another element before using it.

One of the key benefits of a metal adhesive is that it can save you both time and money compared to other methods, for example, welding. However, not following the instructions correctly can mean you need to carry out the work again.

Apply pressure

The metal adhesive doesn’t just work like paper glue and you’ll need to use some pressure to ensure you get a strong enough bond. You can use a vice or clamp to keep them pressed together, which will encourage the adhesive to work.

 

admin by — May 19, 2019 in General
Why Must You Check Bonding and Earthing for Safety?

If there is a difference in electrical potential between one conductive surface and another, then an electromotive force exists. If you touch both, that EMF travels through you – with potentially damaging effects. Potential electrical discharges can also damage equipment or start a fire. Engineers that work in plumbing and for Gloucester Boiler Service companies such as http://www.hprservicesltd.com/gloucester-boilers/boiler-service-gloucester/ take many safety precautions to ensure that they are working in a safe environment and that where necessary the electrical supply to a particular appliance such as a boiler or particular area of the house is switched off before work begins.

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Electrical Bonding

Electrical bonding and earthing are both ways to address this danger. Bonding is the strategy of connecting components or surfaces together with a conductor so that no potential difference can arise between them. Earthing denotes the connection of the whole system to earth so charge can then drain away. It’s often used synonymously with “grounding”, although technically grounding can denote the neural pathway that returns current to the source. Wherever possible, Earth connections use green (or yellow and green) cabling, whereas in the technical sense grounding is often accomplished by a black one (never assume either is safe to touch when an appliance is connected).

Even the charge from an AA battery can damage electronics if it discharges incorrectly, although the current is not a direct threat to health. However, a shock from a car battery can be enough to kill. Any equipment for connection to the mains must be safely earthed. Bonding and earth connections are usually secured with metal grub screws, bolts, soldering or welding.

 

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Metal Bonding Adhesive

Most adhesives are insulators, but their use to create electrical connections is becoming more common due to the development of new conductive adhesives. These usually take the form of adhesive resins and pastes infused with conducting materials like silver or carbon fibers. Whilst these are already being successfully used in low voltage electronic circuits, metal bonding adhesive does not normally have the combination of conductivity and adhesive reliability to replace metal joints for safety-critical earthing, although they can add strength to them.

However whenever electricity is involved always be clear whether conductance or insulation is the quality you require and consult the supplier for advice. It is also common sense to use registered electricians for electrical repairs and household wiring.

Conductive adhesives are sometimes painted on the inner surface of insulating boxes. So used, they create a Faraday cage that contains electromagnetic radiation and inhibits discharges between internal and external components.

admin by — May 17, 2019 in General
Is your business equipped for out-of-hours telecoms?

To be competitive in the current market, businesses need to be at the forefront where technology is concerned. VoIP has numerous benefits, but it can also support your out-of-hours needs to keep your business productive and running seamlessly.

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The need for out-of-hours contact

Consumer need is evolving, and expectations are growing higher. The users of services and buyers of products expect they can interface with businesses anywhere, any time. Companies have to be able to respond flexibly and give consumers consistent support.

With ISDN and PTSN are being phased out as BT aims to switch their network off by 2025, businesses will have to find an IP alternative. It’s estimated that those using VoIP will reach 204.8 billion by 2020, and the benefits of such digital technology, including its use for out-of-hours support, makes it a popular choice for successful businesses.

How VoIP makes it possible

With VoIP systems, the staff is able to work more flexible, allowing them to access the system and work from any location at any time.

Enabling out-of-hours telecoms doesn’t need to come with a huge expense, either. VoIP is more cost-effective both in terms of initial set-up and maintenance, and when it comes to local and international call costs. Choose a reliable wholesale VoIP termination provider, like https://www.idtexpress.com/, to ensure you get full support and the best quality communications.

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VoIP systems have a range of versatile features, many of which can help when it comes to out-of-hours communications. You can set up out-of-hours routing for times when the business is closed, whether that’s regular weekends or ad-hoc closures for public holidays. This can allow you to set up greetings to advise customers of your regular opening times, or set up a voice mailbox to take messages; you can give a professional edge to the service with pre-recorded greetings, or add a personal touch with custom audio. Alternatively, there are instant messages or chatbot services to provide support to consumers, or calls can be diverted to groups, mobiles or extensions to allow staff to pick up from another location.

Setting up an out-of-hours schedule is straightforward with VoIP, and the aforementioned options can ensure that the business runs smoothly, customers feel informed and valued, and no important communications are lost.

admin by — May 15, 2019 in Business
10 interior design secrets from the pros

After you have purchased your new home with the help of Gloucester Estate Agents you can begin to decorate the rooms as you wish. Gloucester Estate Agents TGRES can help you find a property that is the best condition possible so that you do not have to start completely from scratch. There is no rule book available when it comes to the interior design world. The design comes from a creative outlet and with that, a natural flair for throwing colors, art, and fabrics together to create something beautiful. Your colors are as important as your fabrics and if you choose fabrics first, you can build your color scheme around them. The rooms you are redesigning should be started with a creative palette and with simplicity comes to class and style.

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Hot Home Tips

The room you are redesigning should be looked at as a whole rather than piece by piece. Check out the art pieces you want to put into the room and the furniture at the same time. Are you redoing the whole thing and fitting engineered wood flooring? Are you repainting the walls and ceilings too? This is why a color palette is important – knowing these things will get you everywhere. Art pieces that you are proud of should be put in the center of the room and be on display properly so that they can be enjoyed.

According to an article on Mother Earth News, there are more options out there for green flooring that is friendly to your carbon footprint. So if you are redecorating and you incorporate this into your home, you are doing something beautiful for the environment at the same time. With beautiful engineered wood flooring comes furniture options to maximize the room you are in. Large mirrors to reflect light, low furnishings to add scale to a room and splashes of color through the room.

Go Big…Then Go Home

There is a place for thrift store furnishings but your beds and sofas should never be from there. You want to go big with big items! With flooring, you could choose engineered wood flooring as well as many other varieties depending on what look you are going for.

You can make neutral décor simply pop just by adding different fabrics and textiles. The contrast of the materials that may be full color, splashed against neutral designs means that you have something totally beautiful in place of something plain. In small living spaces, deep furnishings can give the illusion of grandeur that a small room often lacks. Time to pick up that paintbrush and get to work!

admin by — May 14, 2019 in Home
Wedding Dress Code for Guests: How to Interpret It

It seems a long time ago now since wedding guests were asked simply to come in their best “smart casual” outfits and you could make do with your favorite posh frock and a little hat or fascinator in your hair.

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Nowadays, couples will theme their big day, and the dress code for wedding guests is changing accordingly. You might look for trends in the photos of vintage, rustic and beach weddings. A Wedding Venue has seen almost every theme that there is going and is in some instances even able to help with some of the arrangements.

Whatever the wedding style and location, though, you can be sure that there will be a theme of some description for you to factor in when you attend the Gloucestershire Hotel Wedding Venue.

Traditional Country House

Go for pretty blush pinks and flattering A-line dresses with feature prints of festoons of flowers. Keeping the styles short and flirty but with delicate embroidery for the added class is a must for a summery wedding feel.

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Wedding by the Sea

There’s only one key detail for that upcoming beach wedding – crochet. Be it in soft china-blue patterns, bright reds or lemon yellows, you will find something fashionable enough for being beside the sea. If you really want to get noticed on the sand, perhaps try a bold dress color and match this with an impressive headpiece.

Rustic Outdoor Soiree

For that country retreat or rustic wedding, think subtlety and femininity: classic shapes in soft shades or with flower-spray prints if you really want to look at home in the cottage garden. Alternatively, for something a bit more unusual, choose a trendy culotte jumpsuit.

Vintage/Retro Glamour

If you have a vintage wedding theme to work with, much will depend on the era selected by the wedding couple. You can find plenty of ideas for vintage style, from Old Hollywood and Art Deco to 1950s diner chic. Either think big Grease-style skirts in vibrant shades for fifties glam or try a shoulder-revealing sixties style. Lace makes for a perfect vintage look and can be found in a variety of different colors and patterns.

Opulent City Wedding

For an upscale city wedding, pick a demure ankle-skimming dress and add an understated corsage or sophisticated lace posy for cool city style. If you’re looking for something a bit different to a dress, try coordinating a flowing skirt with a form fitted top.

admin by — May 14, 2019 in Lifestyle
How to Lay Out Your Shop Floor in Easy Steps

Carefully considering your store layout can increase revenue by boosting efficiency, organization and strategically directing your customers towards higher-priority products.

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These seven tips will help you to create a shop floor to increase sales and enhance customers’ experience.

1. Choose a Floor Plan

Most retail stores use one of three store layouts: a grid layout (commonly used by grocery stores); a loop layout, which maximizes wall space and leads customers along a path; and free-flow plans, which are often seen in upscale stores. Choice of layout can depend on the shape and size of your store, the products you sell and your target customers.

2. Create a Blueprint

Before implementing your store layout, creating a blueprint allows you to get a clearer picture and identify potential problems. You may be able to work from an existing blueprint or draw your own schematic using grid paper or online tool. Sketching out different floor plans will help you establish what works best for your space.

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3. Consider Traffic Flow

It is important to keep traffic flow in mind when arranging your store’s aisles, paths, and displays. Having a ‘decompression zone’ is important in creating a transition space for customers entering the store, whilst personal space is also essential to avoid crowding.

4. Choosing a Checkout Area

According to DeAnna Radaj, an expert in retail feng shui, the front left is a good position for the checkout, due to customers usually turning right when entering stores before completing a loop. Therefore, the front left is on customers’ natural exit path.

5. Product Mapping

Product mapping refers to the process of deciding where to feature all of your products. It is important to ensure the most suitable fixtures are chosen, whilst flexibility in display areas is crucial for accommodating seasonal products.

6. Accessories and Amenities

Adding the finishing touches to your store is essential for creating an enjoyable customer experience, such as seating areas and dressing rooms. Retail signage is also a decorative and practical addition, such as retail signage from Mood Media, which includes digital retail signage and promotion boards.

7. Fixtures and Displays

After choosing your store layout and product mapping, it is important to consider your permanent fixtures, such as lighting, shelving, and counters, as well as movable displays, including gondolas, modular units and clothing racks.

admin by — May 13, 2019 in Business
What to include in your SEO strategy

Successful websites need visitors, but visitors that call for the right reason. Without a clear digital marketing strategy built into your website and other business operations, you will struggle to get results.

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Search engines rank your website using a range of factors. Only two are beyond your control – domain name age and your competition – the rest you have to work on, hard.

Keywords

Brand consistency matters even more online than off. Every appearance of your business name and address must be consistent: discrepancies will prevent you from appearing on Google maps let alone search results. Similarly, each webpage needs to be designed consistently around the keywords customers search for. Those keywords should then infuse your website design and other marketing.

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Don’t guess these keywords! You can check how often potential customers search for a keyword or phrase using Google Analytics. However, raw Google statistics can be misleading, and identifying effective keywords can be tricky. For example, if your business sells cooking appliances, the Google popularity of “microwaves” will include people interested in physics not cooking. If your customers are likely to prefer a local business it is wise to also promote your location – for example, “professional SEO services London”.

Continuously monitor your costs and website traffic using Google’s search console, watching how clicks and conversions (sales) respond to your SEO and marketing strategies.

Back-links

The more links to your business that Google discovers on other (respected) websites boosts your ranking. Writing for blogs is one way to promote this. Another is to attract media attention by engaging in community events. At the very least, register with important “yellow page” and directory sites like Yell and My Local Services. Try to keep links consistent with your keywords, for example, professional SEO services London.

Traffic

Nothing succeeds with Google-like success. The more people visit your site the higher Google ranks you, and the higher you’ve ranked the more people visit. It keeps household names on top even when smaller businesses offer better service. To break into that loop use every means to get customers looking for you. Every email, invoice, letter and company van can promote your website. Consider old-fashioned leafleting and direct marketing too.

But remember, you are trying to woo customers not just Google. A sleek professionally designed website will convert more visitors into loyal customers.

admin by — May 13, 2019 in SEO
Five Great Tips for Field Hockey Goalkeepers

It doesn’t matter which position you play in field hockey, there will always be room for improvement in both your physical game and your mental attitude to the sport. The goalkeeping position might seem the least thrilling, but it can be quite the mental battle. Here we look at five key tips for mental and physical survival in the goal position.

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Keep Calm and Keep Your Eye on the Ball

This may seem very obvious. Of course, you need to watch the ball at all times. But watching the ball getting closer or being flicked from way back down the field can cause a keeper to tense up. Stay loose, stay big and occupy that space. The more relaxed you are the more quickly your body will be able to react and stop that goal.

Stay Stable

Try not to wobble around or be tempted to lean back into your net. By keeping the balls of your feet on the ground, your center of gravity is lowered, so you are stabilizing yourself to ensure that when you do have to move, smother or kick the ball, you are in balance and less likely to fall backward. This sounds tricky. The best thing is to watch a hockey drill video to see the stance that the keepers take in between saves and kicks.

Come in for a Safe Landing

While the keeper is well padded, sometimes overly rotating to make the save can cause an awkward landing. You can improve your skills on the field with a hockey drill video. Always make sure that when you smother or dive you land smoothly on your hips and make full use of those guards. Over-rotation can cause knee problems, which can be tricky to fix.

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Hands in the Air

You want to fill that net space as much as you can – less space means less chance of a goal. Keep your hands up but stay comfortable – we don’t want a keeper with cramp. Then you can easily reach for those quickly incoming top corner shots.

Take It on the Chin

Not literally! Some goals are going to get past you. That’s par for the course. Yes, some goals might get through, but you can’t let them get you down. You are still an excellent keeper.

admin by — May 12, 2019 in sport
A short history of the sash window

Timber windows can be traced back hundreds of years in the UK. The sliding sash window originated in London in the 17th century and can be found exported to colonized countries such as India, the US, and the Caribbean. They are becoming incredibly popular additions to homes and many people have these installed after moving into their new property following the legal completion by a Conveyancing Solicitors Manchester company like https://www.samconveyancing.co.uk/conveyancing-solicitors/conveyancing-solicitors-Manchester

But what is the history of these beautiful window decorations? Here is just a very brief look at the history of the sash window.

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The origin of the sash window

The sash window design was born at a time when streets were narrow and any window jutting out could have blocked a thatcher’s path or even touched the opposite building.

The sliding variation of the sash window became prominent during the English Baroque period after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Many architectural gems featuring sliding sash windows were built during this period, such as Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, and Greenwich Palace. The sash window design is not attributed to a specific location or person.

Georgian period

The original paned sash window rose in popularity during the Georgian period (1714-1811). A bowed window was included in the design to bring more light inside, especially in cramped streets. Intricate glazing bars were also added to create smaller, cheaper panes of glass.

Late Georgian or Regency (1811-1830) windows retained the multi-pane appearance but featured ornate moldings and features, creating a distinctive design that was particularly fashionable in Brighton.

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Victorian period

The Victorian era (1830-1901) brought innovation in glass technology. The window tax imposed in 1696 was also abolished, whereby houses with more than ten windows were liable for additional taxes. This tax had a large effect on properties, with bricked-up windows becoming architectural features.

In 1834 a new glass was developed – cylinder plate glass – and became widely implemented across British cities and towns from the 1850s. This facilitated the economical manufacture of heavier and larger panes of glass, with rural areas continuing to install multi-paned sash windows until around 1880.

Victorian houses became associated with single, large-paned windows with square-angled or canted bays, which were considerably cheaper than bowed windows. To fit in with fashion and signify wealth, many Regency and Georgian properties updated their windows to the more modern large-pane style and forwent the glazing bars. Today, Dublin windows and doors are available from companies such as www.keanewindows.ie/.

Modern sash windows

Contemporary sash windows are constructed from Accoya, double glazed, and coated with microporous paint.

admin by — May 8, 2019 in Home
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