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Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Cash for weight loss? Works better when employees compete for pots of money

Apr. 1, 2013 ? Do cash rewards for healthier habits work? Maybe, says a new study, if you add on one more condition -- peer pressure.

A growing number of companies are offering employees an opportunity to boost earning power at work via cash incentives to stay healthy. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers will soon be able to offer even larger financial incentives to prod healthy lifestyle behaviors among their workforce, such as quitting smoking and losing weight.

But people who are offered money for weight loss may be much more successful when awards are based on a group's performance -- rather than just their own -- according to a study led by the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System and the University of Michigan Health System.

Group-based financial incentives led to nearly three times more weight loss than cash awards based on an individual's weight loss success alone, according to the findings that appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"There is broad and growing enthusiasm for rewarding healthy behaviors in the workplace, but there is little evidence on the effects of these strategies," says lead author Jeffrey T. Kullgren, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., health services researcher in the VA Center for Clinical Management Research and the division of general medicine in the U-M Medical School. "We anticipate more employers to offer these awards in an effort to help control health care costs while also improving the health of employees.

"We found that these incentives were substantially more powerful when delivered in groups, which has important implications for both policymakers and the employers who are considering offering them."

The study examined two types of incentive strategies among employees who were obese at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In the first group, individuals were offered $100 each month they met or exceeded weight loss goals. In the second group, individuals were placed into groups of five people in which $500 was split among the participants who met or exceeded monthly weight loss goals -- upping competition by allowing some to earn more than $100 if other members didn't meet goals.

After each monthly weigh in, an automated message notified participants of their earnings -- or if they failed to meet their target, what they would have earned had they been successful.

After six months, the group approach overwhelmingly beat out the singles when it came to enticing people to shed pounds.

"Despite the health and economic consequences of obesity, the problem isn't getting any better, and there is great interest in identifying new approaches to combating this major health issue in our country," says Kullgren, also a researcher for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

"Approaches such as 'The Biggest Loser' have received popular attention as ways to harness group dynamics to encourage weight loss, but the winner-take-all nature could be discouraging for everyone but the most successful person. We need more data to compare how different group-based approaches stack up against each other."

Starting in 2014, the Affordable Care Act expands employers' ability to reward employees who meet health status goals by participating in wellness programs. Rewards may include premium discounts or rebates, lower cost-sharing requirements, the absence of a surcharge, or extra benefits related to employer-sponsored health coverage.

Additional Authors: Andrea B. Troxel, Sc.D.; George Loewenstein, Ph.D.; David A. Asch, M.D., M.B.A.; Laurie A. Norton, M.A.; Lisa Wesby, M.S.; Yuanyuan Tao, M.S.; Jingsan Zhu, M.S., M.B.A.; and Kevin G. Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.

Disclosure: None

Funding: National Institute of Aging, of the National Institutes of Health (Grant RC2103282621). Support was also provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Jeffrey T. Kullgren, Andrea B. Troxel, George Loewenstein, David A. Asch, Laurie A. Norton, Lisa Wesby, Yuanyuan Tao, Jingsan Zhu, Kevin G. Volpp. Individual- Versus Group-Based Financial Incentives for Weight LossA Randomized, Controlled Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013; 158 (7): 505-514 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Iq2hQHFQ4dc/130401181313.htm

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Tuesday, 2 April 2013

How Do You Get More Likes on Your Facebook Fan Page ...

Laurie Eno 225x300 How Do You Get More Likes on Your Facebook Fan Page? I recently had a small business owner ask me about how to increase the number of Facebook ?Likes?.? While Facebook marketing is certainly a legitimate social media marketing tactic, we must first discuss the value of a Facebook like to a small business.

Social marketing gurus have pondered the tangible value of Facebook fans for years. Last year, when Facebook decided to limit the amount of access you have to people who have liked your fan page (unless you pay for people to see what you post), they significantly reduced the inherent value ? in my book. For example, I have nearly 3,000 likes on my fan page and I post typically once a day to my page.? On average, 207 people see what I post each day. In the good old days, everyone who ?liked? your brand saw what you posted in their news stream, but with every revenue model update that is rolled out by Facebook, the value of likes has diminished. That said, I still come across plenty of small business owners who generate a ton of business and customers through Facebook, despite the hurdles they continue to send up.

One such business owner is Laurie Eno, publisher of the Daily Corgi. ?The Boston, MA, based internet entrepreneur mixes fur and fun on her Facebook fan page. She started it in the fall of 2009 as a companion page to her blog, The Daily Corgi. These days she has over 19,000 (likes).

Ms. Eno says there are three things that have helped her build such a big following and high engagement on Facebook. ?Her first fan page strategy was posting frequency and consistency. ?People come to expect regular activity on my page; they know what they will see on my page since I post several times a day.?? She says the quality of posts is important, even if it?s ?just? a photo. ?Whether it?s a cross-post from my blog, which derives more than 60% of total page views from Facebook, or a reader submitted photo story, I carefully curate what goes on the page.? She has so much fan-generated material that she rarely struggles to find things to post to Facebook or her blog.

She has infused her Facebook page with her own voice, ?I reply to peoples? questions, comments and messages on an individual, first name basis?. She says that her readers and regular commenters largely make her page so engaging. ??Readers can post their own photos on the page, and if they are especially good images I?ll share them to the main wall of the page and when I do that, they feel their dog has ?made? The?Daily Corgi.? ?She claims this is a real measure of internet fame. ?Once a week she features an adoptable?Corgi or an update on a recently adopted?Corgi too. ?I sign the updates with my first name, I speak from the heart ? and in return I receive equally heartfelt responses from repeat visits and new fans.? She takes on testy comments as well. She discourages her readers from posting advertisements, products or services. And she prohibits breeder advertisements altogether. ?I maintain a standard of conduct on the page that applies to everybody, no exceptions, no smearing or meanness is tolerated,? said Ms. Eno.

She has also made her?Facebook page?a place where people can come with their grief over losing a beloved Corgi. ?If a reader?s dog is going in for surgery or facing a grim diagnosis, I post on the page about to rally moral support from readers,? said Ms. Eno. She often gets 100-200 comments of support from her fans grieving dog owners. ?People are getting more than entertainment; they are being supported and finding solidarity in a virtual community.?

And all this dog loving makes money too. ?She started running ads on the blog last year, and the commission structure is based on web traffic; which is largely generated from Facebook. She has grown the fan page to 19,000+ without ever buying Facebook ads. She mostly uses her page to promote giveaways / fundraising efforts. She wants to add a third party app to generate revenue from Facebook, but is concerned about the platform?s ever-changing rules. ?The last thing, I want to do is run afoul of them and have the page taken down,? said Ms. Eno.

As a blogger, she leverages her influence with corporate sponsors. She will post sponsored posts by major companies including Subaru of America. While her posts for her corporate clients appear on the blog, she cross-promotes the links on her Facebook page, Twitter and Pinterest, too.

When it comes to getting more ?Likes? on your Facebook fan page, Lena West, Founder of the Influence Expansion Academy, suggests what she calls the C.Q.H. Approach.

C is for consistency. ?Ms. West warns that small business owners should not complicate things. ?Rather than try to follow some complicated updating sequence, just make it a priority to be consistent in updating your Facebook page.? ?This also means to be consistent in marketing your page on and off of Facebook.

Q is for quality. ?Resist the urge to post anything and everything.? Ms. West says make sure your content does one of three things, ?It should either inform, uplift or entertain your visitors.? Mix it up a little by sharing videos, images, poll questions and quick fill-in-the-blank exercises,? she says.

H is for human. ?Don?t focus so much on always being ?on brand?; show your personality to your target audience,? said Ms. West.? Be sure to tag your fan page from your personal profile to make it easier for your friends to become your fans too. You may also want to post something about your business on your personal page occasionally to remind your friends about your business.

If you work Facebook the right way, you can attach more customers and significant traffic to your business website. Just keep in mind that you do not control the platform, and it could change any minute.

If you liked this article, please like my Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/smallbizlady

About Melinda Emerson

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America's leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. Her latest ebook, How To Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online was released in 2012.

Source: http://succeedasyourownboss.com/04/2013/how-do-you-get-more-likes-on-your-facebook-fan-page/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-do-you-get-more-likes-on-your-facebook-fan-page

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Angelina Jolie funds Afghan girls' schools with new jewelry line

Angelina Jolie opens a school for 200-300 girls in Afghanistan, in an area outside Kabul that has a high refugee population. This is the second girls' school Jolie is funding, and she says she plans to fund more with proceeds from her new jewelry line.

By Reuters / April 2, 2013

An Afghan woman walks past posters of Hollywood actress and UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie, right, and Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif, left, on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2010.

Hossein Fatemi / AP

Enlarge

Angelina Jolie has opened another girls school in Afghanistan and plans to fund more from the proceeds of a jewelry line going on sale this week that she helped to design, celebrity website E! News reported on Monday.

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Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, funded the girls-only primary school in an area outside Kabul that has a high refugee population, E! News said in an exclusive report.

The school educates 200-300 girls, E! said. It showed pictures of the school, which opened in November, and a plaque acknowledging Jolie's contribution.

Jolie also funded a girl school in eastern Afghanistan that opened in 2010, according to the UNCHR.

Jolie's representatives did not return calls for comment.

E! said that Jolie plans to pay for more schools by selling a "Style of Jolie" jewelry line that she helped create with jewelry maker Robert Procop. Procop designed the engagement ring given to the actress by her partner Brad Pitt in April 2012.

"Beyond enjoying the artistic satisfaction of designing these jewels, we are inspired by knowing our work is also serving the mutual goal of providing for children in need," Jolie was quoted as telling the website.

Procop's website said the "first funds from our collaboration together have been dedicated to the Education Partnership for Children in Conflict (founded by Jolie) to build a school in Afghanistan."

According to the Style of Jolie website, the newly expanded collection includes versions of the black and gold necklace that the actress wore to the premiere of her 2010 movie "Salt," a pear-shaped citrine and gold necklace, and rose gold and emerald tablet-shaped rings, earrings and bracelets. No price details were released.

The jewelry will go on retail sale for the first time on April 4 through Kansas City jewelry store Tivol, Tivol said.

Procop told E! that it was "an honor to have the opportunity to be part of creating this line with Angie, as we both believe every child has right to an education."

Jolie is not the first celebrity to open schools in faraway places. Both Oprah Winfrey and Madonna have funded the building of schools in South Africa and Malawi in the past six years, although both ran into trouble.

Madonna's project provoked controversy over costs and mismanagement, while a staff member at Winfrey's school was arrested on charges of assault and abuse of students.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/4RCjjDBbKHI/Angelina-Jolie-funds-Afghan-girls-schools-with-new-jewelry-line

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Monday, 1 April 2013

This Accordion-Shaped House Doesn't Quite Fit In

This meandering house was planned around a central narrow corridor, resulting in its accordion-like shape. Designed by FujiwaraMuro Architects, it's a bit out of place in a Japanese residential neighborhood filled with traditional homes. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AbGR6I10f0c/this-accordion+shaped-house-doesnt-quite-fit-in

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Somewhere Over The Brainbow: The Journey To Map the Human Brain

More than 100 years ago, Golgi staining on nerve cells opened the gates to modern neuroscience. Scientists recently developed the Technicolor version of Golgi staining, Brainbow, allowing more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.

AFP/Getty Images

During the State of the Union, President Obama said the nation is about to embark on an ambitious project: to examine the human brain and create a road map to the trillions of connections that make it work.

"Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy ? every dollar," the president said. "Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's."

Details of the project have slowly been leaking out: $3 billion, 10 years of research and hundreds of scientists. The National Institutes of Health is calling it the Brain Activity Map.

? People have been studying the brain for centuries and they've been mapping it, but the brain is just so complex that we barely understand it now.

- Carl Zimmer, science writer

Obama isn't the first to tout the benefits of a huge government science project. But can these projects really deliver? And what is mapping the human brain really going to get us?

Building A Brain Map

Much like the Human Genome Project a decade ago, scientists are hoping brain mapping will lead to new scientific advances and breakthroughs, and that perhaps it will even unlock the secrets of conditions such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

"With the brain, we're kind of at the same stage as we were in the early 1980s with the genome," says science writer Carl Zimmer.

Zimmer tells Laura Sullivan, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that there's no way to know what mapping the brain can do, but if mapping happens it's going to be both pricey and complicated.

"People have been studying the brain for centuries, and they've been mapping it, but the brain is just so complex that we barely understand it now," he says. "We have maybe 85 billion neurons in our heads, but we can only listen to maybe 1,000 at a time. [So] we're only getting a tiny picture of what the brain is doing."

There are several ways to map the brain, Zimmer says, one well-known example being an MRI. The resolution, however, is not nearly high enough for scientists to see all of the intricate wiring of the brain, where hundreds of thousands or even millions of neurons can fit in an area the size of a poppy seed.

"There are people who are trying to go down to that level," he says.

Some of this is already happening, albeit slowly, in labs around the world, Zimmer says. The problem is the efforts aren't coordinated.

"In the case of the Human Genome Project, the government said, 'We're going to coordinate all of this and we're going to get this genome sequenced,'" he says. "That's what the brain activity map people would like to do; coordinate all of this effort toward a common goal."

The next steps for the brain mapping project, Zimmer says, is simply to get a detailed plan going, and then get neuroscientists onboard. He says that debate should begin unfolding in the next few months.

With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colorfully labelled hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues to create a "Brainbow."

AFP/Getty Images

With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colorfully labelled hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues to create a "Brainbow."

AFP/Getty Images

Zimmer warns, however, that at first the project is likely to be underwhelming to the public, and Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases won't suddenly be cured. In all likelihood, scientists will study the brains of fruit flies and other creatures before moving on to the human brain.

"You have to walk before you can run," he says. "In order to develop the tools to map a human brain, you've got to start with much smaller brains made of the same basic kind of neurons. So look for big headlines about fruit flies the next couple of years."

The Human Genome Case Study

Completed a decade ago, the $3 billion human genome project, which mapped our DNA, was another massive science project undertaken by the government. In 2000, then-President Clinton said it would "revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most if not all human diseases."

That's a bit of a stretch even 10 years later, but for one man in particular it turned out not to be a stretch at all. When Clinton was giving that speech in 2000, oncologist Lukas Wartman had just entered medical school. During that time, he began having severe bone pain and high fevers.

"Finally, [I] dragged myself into the doctor," Wartman tells NPR's Sullivan. "So the next day, I had a bone marrow biopsy which showed the unthinkable, that I actually had leukemia."

Right away, Wartman began chemotherapy treatment. He responded well and went into remission. He finished medical school, but then the cancer came back.

"By this time, I was an oncologist myself, and kind of knew what was going on," he says.

Wartman took on intensive rounds of chemo and a stem cell replacement surgery. He was grateful when it worked and was ready to build a life. He focused on his research in the cancer lab and was thinking about the future.

Then one night, the fevers came back, as well as the exhaustion and he knew. He just couldn't face it.

"So this time, I did ignore it for a little while, and went to Spain, and went to my friend's wedding," he says. "The last thing I wanted to think about was the possibility of this coming back again, because I knew now that the odds of me surviving yet another relapse of this leukemia were just really poor."

Wartman joined a clinical trail, but it failed. There was nothing left, and it appeared to be a death sentence.

Then Wartman and his fellow researchers at the lab started thinking. The human genome project had figured out how to map healthy genes, so they decided they could use the same technology to map Wartman's healthy genes and compare them to Wartman's cancer genes.

When they compared them, they found a protein that the cancer relied on to survive. Wartman then scoured the database of every known drug on the market and found a drug made for something else entirely, that just so happens to kill the very protein his cancer needed to live.

Wartman started taking the drug on a Friday, and his blood counts were low. By Monday, his blood counts had perked up.

"The only word, and I don't necessarily mean this in a religious context, but this was almost like a miraculous response to this drug," he says.

Wartman and his colleagues had killed his cancer, and today he's completely healthy. Now, everyone else in the country with the form of leukemia that he had, and who is not responding to chemo, use the same drug.

"I probably wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for the human genome project," Wartman says. "Because I definitely benefited from the finances and the effort that the government put into a focused research question and it had very tangible benefits in my case."

Why Not Map The Brain?

Like the Human Genome Project, getting the science community onboard with a brain mapping project could be tough. Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California-Berkeley, has already started campaigning against it.

"The idea that science should be organized and funded in massive, centrally run projects that are organized by committees and bureaucrats in Washington rather than by individual scientists ... it just doesn't work," Eisen says.

Eisen says he agrees that government funding was necessary in collaborative science projects such as the moon landing or Human Genome Project. But, he says, this isn't one of those problems.

"If you listen to neuroscientists talk about this today, they don't even know what it means to understand the brain," he says. "This is not a moon shot."

Eisen says that in this instance, where creativity and innovation are needed, one of the worst things that the scientific community can do is put 500 biologists in a room to pursue a singular, consensus plan to get there.

Zimmer says there's another problem: How do you know when you're done mapping a brain?

"The problem is that while the genome was finite, the brain is really infinite," he says, "because not only does it have 86 billion neurons ... [and] 100 tillion connections, but those connections are changing all the time.

"It's very dynamic, and that's really what matters to us. ... So when do you know when you've finished mapping the brain?" he says. "You might never finish it."

But for Wartman, whose life was saved by gene mapping, it's far simpler. He says we have to take the leap, spend the money, cross our fingers and hope.

"I do understand that there's some resistance to it," Zimmerman says, "but at the same time, while it's not a sure bet, it's a bet that if it does pay off could really reap tremendous benefits for humanity.

"So I think as a society it would be great if we were willing to commit to supporting projects like that."

The details of the brain mapping project are expected to be released in the coming weeks in the president's budget proposal.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/31/175858397/somewhere-over-the-brainbow-the-journey-to-map-the-human-brain?ft=1&f=1007

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China's urbanization drive leaves migrant workers out in the cold

By Lucy Hornby and Jane Lee

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Twenty minutes' drive from Shanghai's glitzy financial district, dozens of migrant workers are preparing to abandon homes in old shipping containers, as one of the more unusual solutions to China's housing shortage faces the wrecking ball.

Cheap but crowded neighborhoods are being cleared across China as part of a stepped-up "urbanization" campaign by China's new leaders. The country aims to spend an estimated $6 trillion on infrastructure, including housing, as a projected 400 million people become urban residents over the next decade.

But in an ironic twist, the clearance of so-called "villages within cities" removes cheap housing stock for the very people targeted to fuel that migration, without providing sufficient replacement units. The land is sold by municipalities to developers who generally erect expensive apartment towers.

That throws into question how the government can achieve its ambitious goal.

"On the one hand, the law doesn't allow former farmers to expand housing for migrant workers, on the other hand local governments don't have the money to build affordable housing either," said Li Ping, senior attorney for Landesa Rural Development Institute in Beijing.

About 130 million Chinese migrants live in tiny, sub-divided rooms rented out by former farmers whose villages have been swallowed by sprawl, according to government surveys.

Policies to provide government-built housing while razing these shabby "villages within cities" result in a net loss of housing units, according to urban planners and academics, while choking off the private rental market that for decades has enabled China's massive urban migration.

The dilemma poses harsh choices for those who have made lives in the cities on the slimmest of margins, such as the migrants in the converted shipping containers in Shanghai.

"They can't just come and ask me to move. I have so many products here that I sell. So much stuff worth at least tens of thousands of yuan," said Li Yanxin, a migrant from nearby Anhui Province who runs a small convenience store out of his container. His profits - and therefore his ability to pay for his teenager's education - depend on the low rent he found in the container village.

Local officials put muscle behind a policy of clearing such sites, often declaring these dwellings illegal by noting non-agricultural land allocated to villagers cannot be used for commercial purposes. Land reclassified as "urban" can be sold at a huge profit.

"Not everyone can live in a high rise. Especially those of us who work in the recycling business," Zhang Baofa, who rented out the used shipping containers in one of the more creative solutions to Shanghai's shortage of cheap housing.

Local officials, embarrassed by photos of the container village circulating on the Internet, have vowed to remove the site within days. On Thursday, after four years of operation, they declared Li's store to be unregistered.

"This is zoned as village land. I borrowed the land. I bought the containers. I rented it out. I would know if it were illegal," Zhang said.

SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL

Chinese cities lack the visible slums of other developing countries, thanks in part to communities such as Xinzhuang in Beijing that collectively house about 3.4 million migrants just within the capital.

A high whitewashed wall and strip of green lawn hide Xinzhuang's 10,000 residents from surrounding luxury apartment blocks. Three black chickens scratch along a filthy gutter of blue-grey water next to the public latrine. Rooms of about 12 square meters each house families of three, for an affordable 500 yuan ($80) a month.

"A regular apartment would be more comfortable, but it's about 2,000 yuan a month. That's too much for the type of people who live here. They want to save what they can. We fill the lowest niche," said landlord Dong Gang, whose former farmhouse is now a two-story concrete structure divided into about 30 makeshift rooms.

One of the 1,000 original residents of Xinzhuang, he has been renting to migrants for 20 years. Complicated zoning laws mean that Dong can't expand beyond the footprint of his original home, hindering investments that might improve housing quality.

"In Beijing over the last two years they've been 'cleaning up' crowded tenements - that raises rents and forces many out," said Hu Xingdou, a specialist in migrant issues at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Within the next two years, Beijing city is expected to allow migrants to rent but not buy city-built housing units. Even so, many migrants won't qualify to rent, and the number of government-built units often falls short of the number of migrants displaced.

"There is going to be less of this type of housing, because almost all cities have policies now to demolish 'villages within cities'," according to estimates by Tom Miller, author of "China's Urban Billion".

URBAN VILLAGES

For two decades, Chinese local governments have been able to ignore the problem of housing migrants, thanks to the makeshift villages and other arrangements that accommodate about 40 percent of migrants. The remainder live at factory dormitories or tents and pre-fab housing set up on construction sites.

As China's cities and export industries boomed, cheap private housing helped keep down the cost of labor, says Li Jinkui of the China Development Institute in Shenzhen. He estimates Shenzhen would have spent 25 years' worth of annual revenues to house the people who were renting in its "villages" in 2000 - a population now estimated at 5 million people.

Of 1.35 billion Chinese, 690 million are estimated to live in cities, but only about half of those can claim urban residency status due to an archaic national registration system that ties all citizens, and public benefits, to their hometowns.

City governments often lack figures for how many people live in neighborhoods targeted for demolition, but they can document their destruction with precision. Beijing's most recent city plan notes that 171 "villages within cities" had been "cleaned up" in the previous five years, but as of 2011, there were still 100 left.

The loss of affordable housing could accelerate, according to a Beijing plan released Thursday to catalogue "illegal" buildings on collectively owned land and then destroy them next spring. Coal briquettes burned in unheated slum villages contribute to Beijing's choking winter pollution.

European and American cities had huge programs to replace slums with public housing, Miller said. "The question is what happens when they are demolished in China?"

(Additional reporting by Langi Chiang in BEIJING; Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-urbanization-drive-leaves-migrant-workers-cold-012351130--business.html

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Home Improvements That You Can Do Yourself

Home improvement are some things where a consumer may suffer aggravation. Hiring a bad individuals, malfunction to plot as well as improbable goals are some of the reasons this occurs. This post goes over some ideas to help you locate good results instead of failure home based improvement project is successful. Read on for more information info.

A new countertop made out of the corian slab cost in the thousands. If you opt for flooring, you will end up investing close to $300.

Do-it-yourself can mean many different tasks that you can do in just about any size price range. If the price range won?t permit a big construction undertaking, then you can definitely effortlessly improve the price of your property through scaled-down, cheaper projects like dwelling and also repainting your home.

Tire out supporters must be put in the washing area, bathroom, along with earlier mentioned your stove.This will help prevent mold along with removing unsafe gases from your home which can be associated with food preparation. This also stops get rotten, way too.

A few jackets of paint will surely improve your home. A whole area can entirely customize the search of your area. It is best to decide on some gentle hues which go while using design of your home.

You could be able to detect a problem with the loss of h2o strain. Start with checking out with neighborhood friends to determine if they are having related troubles. If they are not necessarily, you are aware that pressure to succeed dilemma lives as part of your own house?s domestic plumbing. Check the water force at all your own shoes to ascertain whether it is a comprehensive home problem. You could possibly simply need to alter a good aerator, or else clever, an appointment to some specialist could be as a way.

Take into consideration what place you would like to work with very first. Plan out your current strategy watching for discounts along with discount rates about development supplies as well as furnishings. Preparing in advance is a wise way to lower your expenses if you are giving you better wallet.

Do that if you?re suffering from calcium in the water. There are several kinds of normal water softeners.Discover the the one which great for your current type of normal water plus your house.

Take into account adding a baby shower throughout at least one bathroom in case not one of one?s existing lavatories actually have a single.A shower is way better when you?ve got young children and is also considerably more accessible compared to a bath tub. A five-minute bathtub that can take five minutes makes use of less than a quarter in the normal water required to load a new tub.

Don?t forget to take proper your own home?s septic system. There are chemical substances you can buy that assist squander break down and stop this via stocked full.

Even modest home improvement jobs may surge in the house?s worth. If you?re going to read your property accessible in the near future, make some tiny changes. One thing you can do is to paint an individual home within and also exterior. This straightforward and will improve the price of your house.

Make your spending budget involves anything that is necessary.

In case you hire a professional, ensure that the work is guaranteed. If you omit reading anything, you may overlook deficiencies in security which will ensure that any troubles are amended when they?re discovered. It is vital that you know that the work will be confirmed work.

These kind of fantastic products could take in any quart involving Water. Location these types of at your house . via flood damage.

It?s really a huge outlay to get new home furniture. You are able to add spice to your living space by simply purchasing neighborhood cd merchants along with rummage sales. You could uncover a number of correct gems one of the rubbish. Some may need to end up being worked on, nevertheless through investment time, you may get a loved item in your house.

An excellent diy suggestion is always to take community circumstances into mind when coming up with a new restoration. For example, if your region is actually gusting, you might avoid a deck.

A new entrance patio is really a beneficial location to invest your house advancement task to focus on could be the patio. The patio helps make the very first impact about virtually any guest who?s visiting your property. This will increase the home worth of the home?s charm of the entrance.

You might want to repaint your porch. Make use of paint that?s quality.

Clogged rain gutters can bring about significant waterflow and drainage issues during a residence. Clogged gutters can lead to leaking within cellars and garages . you do on account of rainwater. Make a habit of cleaning your current rain gutters you need to comes about.

Make sure you possess a sound plan before starting virtually any home improvements. Decisions concerning various parts of the actual reconstruction really should be done before you start any project.

When generating home restorations, a fantastic tip is to apply the initial many months of the year to price range as this is the time period you will probably have the least amount of money mainly because it comes after christmas.

Help to make affordable and easy improvements for the exterior of your home is accounted for whenever remodeling. It?s also possible to place several well-placed shrubbery.Energy wash your home. Clear your own glass windows until that they twinkle as well as glow. Many of these make for a fantastic effect since visitors get to your home.

Upgrading jobs could be messed up otherwise done right. This article has reviewed some great tips to help program and also carry out your current future do it yourself tasks. Your setup on this suggestions can certainly produce a massive difference in your improvements for your home.

Source: http://www.remodeling24hours.com/home-improvements-that-you-can-do-yourself.html

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