When you are booking and planning for your next winter trip, the first thing to consider is whether you have found the ideal ski lodge. Your entire ski trip centers around your accommodations, as this generally determines the entire mood of the visit. With so many options on the market, it can be difficult knowing what to look for. There are some specific things to consider, however, based upon your needs. Consider the following five criteria of a great ski hotel:

1. The price is right.

A great ski lodge is going to fit your budget. If that means sticking within the parameters of an economically feasible trip or treating yourself to a luxurious stay, you will be happier if you pay the price for which you are initially searching. Check online for bonus deals at a higher-end resort. Call any potential site and ask about any specials. Another overlooked, but dynamite option, is to consider a mixed-style hotel. These hotels generally offer standard hotel rooms and suites, as well as condominium-type deals. Condominium ski resorts are generally privately managed rooms, so there is an assortment of prices, from the more affordable to the more luxurious.

2. The location is right.

Any accommodations that you book should be in the perfect spot. Of course, this means you will want to be near a good ski lift. Some hotels offer free transportation to lifts. Ski schools and mountain views are also things to consider. But do not forget the physical location of the hotel: you want to be in a great town or city. Skiing is a physical sport and while it is an exhilarating experience for many, it can also be hard on your body. Generally, most people who partake of a ski trip like to unwind in the evenings with music and food. Make sure you are in a great location with other activities available in the event that you choose to take a day off.

3. The amenities are right.

Ski lodges vary from place to place. There are very primitive abodes, including those that do not have electricity. These are for those who crave adventure and camping-like settings. Then there are those that cater to families with children. Look for swimming pools, accessibility to spas, fireside features, and cafes. These might seem like minor attractions, but in the end, they can do a lot to enhance your trip.

4. The scenery is right.

For a successful ski trip, you will want to find a mountain range, of course. Beautiful ski resort towns generally cater well to those seeking out winter excursions. Choose a beautiful destination known for its wintry scenery, and you will find yourself experiencing a more idyllic vacation. It may seem minor, but the right town can do wonders for your morale.

5. The entertainment is right.

A fantastic ski lodge will offer entertainment for all ages. Check out their live music capabilities and inquire about any special events. Generally, a great ski hotel will play host to different festivals and evening specials. Check online or call the concierge to inquire about any special events.

There are only a couple of “nevers” that apply to casino table games. One of them is NEVER reach into your pocket to bet more than your original buy-in, the other is NEVER QUIT A WINNING STREAK.

A winning streak can come at any time, and last any duration. You just don’t know, so you have to play it out until it is over.

Maybe it will just be a run at a particular table, or maybe it will be an entire playing session, or maybe it will be the entire weekend, but until you start losing, keep on playing!

Let me share a story about one of my winning steaks. It lasted for an entire day and it was the greatest day I ever had gambling in my life.

It was not the most money I have ever won, but it was the greatest streak I was ever on.

Just to set the story line; we flew into Las Vegas on a Friday night planning on staying through Sunday afternoon, my bankroll was $1500 and my table buy-in was $100.

We had an up and down weekend through Saturday night and were about even.

We got up Sunday morning and after breakfast checked out of the hotel, left our bags with the Bell Captain, and planned on playing a few tables before heading to the airport for our afternoon flight home.

We were staying at the Golden Nugget downtown and decided to walk down to the Union Plaza Hotel and give it a try…this is where the streak began…I hit a craps table for about $3500, had one “helluva” run. We went back up the street to the Golden Nugget and hit another craps table for $900 or so, then went across the street to The Horseshoe and hit a blackjack table for another $150.

By this time my pocket was bulging with money, so I gave everything other than $100 bills to my wife. We called it the “crumbs”.

The winning streak continued ALL day, and everything other than $100 bills went in my wife’s purse. Every time I played that day I won, $180, $240, $460, $1290, $130 on and on it went.

We used the “crumbs” to eat our meals and pay for any expenses we had that day. I think we stopped for shrimp cocktail about four times.

We obviously changed our return flight and checked back into the hotel for the night.

Finally sometime late that evening I lost at two or three table in a row. The streak was over.

When we got to the room, my wife emptied her purse and had over $900 in “crumbs”…and I had thousands in $100 bills.

What a day that was! What a winning streak that was!

Had I stopped playing because of my flight schedule I might have still gone home a winner because of the first table, but would have not ended up with the thousands I did take home. I would have quit the streak before it was over and would have never known what I missed. But, because I rode it to the end I MAXIMIZED my winnings and had one of the best days gambling ever.

Just like life itself you have to have a game plan and be prepared to take advantage of any situation you might find yourself in.

Know your play. Know your way.

The phenomenal success of Sir Richard Branson can only be described as meteoric. From humble beginnings as a high school drop out, the young Branson followed his passion. His love of music led him into mail order music. He sold vinyl albums through written classified advertising.

The success of this simple business model as an entrepreneur, he inevitably realized that owning his own production label was where the money was and Virgin records was born. He produced many artists including the classic haunting smash hit by Mike Oldfield called Tubular Bells. Of course beyond this he went on to buy his own damn airline!

Branson as an entrepreneur is a fascinating case study. This article is more about his framework and business moves than about the man himself. Branson has the uncanny nack of empathizing with a target audience. If you were to ask Branson himself I am sure he would have to admit there is where he expels most of his entrepreneurial concentration. His ability to put himself in the shoes of an entire demographic and “see” what they would want most is the secret weapon in this juggernauts arsenal.

My own observation is that Branson learned this skill very early. His first business success was direct marketing. (his record business) Direct marketing is a very scientific business model in that you create advertising and closely monitor your audiences reaction then adjust your advertising and hone it to higher and higher levels of response.

This approach of Bransons held him in good stead through-out his entire business career. He learned that valuable lesson of business empathy very early in his entrepreneurial career and has applied it to everything he has done since. There is a lot fledgling entrepreneurs can learn from studying Branson, but the one big lesson to be taken from his career is business empathy and understanding the lowest common denominator needs of an entire market demographic.

Unlike in the world of human interactions, popularity is equated with quality in the world of technology. The AEC industry is firmly supported by the technological advances of our age, and prefabricated housing is becoming increasingly popular. The emergence of prefabricated or modular construction in the housing industry is an affordable and reliable solution to the challenge of quality housing worldwide. Prefabricated housing, sometimes known as prefab homes, prefabs or modular homes, are manufactured off site in sections, from just bathrooms to entire floors, that can be transported, placed or assembled to form housing units. Prefabricated housing can be independent dwelling units for individual families (houses) or single units which have been stacked on top of each other to form multi-storey housing or apartment blocks. How useful prefabrication is in the housing sector, why it is so and who can deliver services key to accurate prefabrication design are some of the things we will explore.

So, what are prefabricated buildings?

Prefab buildings can be built from components (such as panels), modules (in the case of entire modular homes, houses on wheels) or sections (parts of manufactured homes) constructed off site and transferred to the site when they are ready to be installed. A team of technical experts attach the different services to the building layout. These can include double-storey homes and customised homes. Modular or prefabricated homes can be created in sections and then transported on site to be put together as part of the construction process or installed. Whole rooms, such as bathroom pods or kitchens, can be created in a factory setting as prefabricated units. Steel frames can be erected on site to ‘slot’ in the prefabricated units or entire concrete foundations can be laid into the ground in readiness for the new home to arrive. Financing, construction and appraisals of these homes are carried out in the same way as for regular homes. Prefabricated houses can also be assembled on production assembly lines, which are transferred in complete sections or floors to the site, where these complete home units are connected floor by floor and then also connected to the location’s main water supply, sewage system and electrical lines.

How are they constructed?

They are usually constructed in factories that are some distance away from the actual housing site, indeed they could be in a different country. These purpose-designed factories effectively consist of assembly line environments, where different elements and trades come together at different stages of the assembly line to add the various components to the building. Starting with floors, walls and ceilings, the structure moves along for internal fixtures and MEP elements such as piping, plumbing, boilers, bathrooms and entire kitchen fittings, before being moved across to finishing areas such as glazing, doors, electrical fittings and even bathroom tiling. Once the house is assembled, it passes through final QA checks before being handed over to logistics teams for transport to its permanent site.

Plumbing and electrical lines are connected to the city’s water and electrical connections and the prefabricated sections are sealed. Prefabricated homes can have a number of rooms and be of different designs. These homes can be set on a permanent foundation, blending in seamlessly with other regularly constructed homes. Repairs on the homes are conducted by the real estate company involved in its sale.

During the settling-in time period, a prefabricated home ‘settles’ in to the location, after which some cracking of the drywall could occur. Appliances that were incorrectly installed can be repaired by changing the wiring or plumbing, and the ventilation, heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems can be properly installed by a set-up crew.

One of the driving forces behind a successfully assembled and reliably functioning prefabricated home is the effectiveness of its design. Increasingly, architects, engineers, contractors and trade contractors use BIM (Building Information Modelling) construction drawings at some point as part of DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly). DfMA is a design process that groups the design for manufacture, or the ease with which parts will be made for a product, with the design for assembly, which refers to the ease with which parts will be assembled. DfMA helps the design team reduce manufacturing and assembly costs by identifying, analysing and removing waste and inefficiency from a product’s design. DfMA modelling and drawing is fast becoming synonymous with design for prefabrication.

Construction drawings, or shop drawings, graphically illustrate the details, data and specifications of a prefabricated design, contain information about the MEP (M&E) systems and include the details of prefabricated components. BIM technology is part of the larger virtual design and construction (VDC) process that helps find solutions to challenges faced by subcontractors and designers before building prefabricated components in the factory.

Advances in technology have made it possible and indeed preferable to outsource the delivery of BIM services such as modelling and drafting. Outsourced firms specialise in delivering drawings and models quickly, using the latest software, such as Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Navisworks and others, and by employing well-qualified experts. Modular construction drawings provided by these CAD drafting firms are typically accurate and error-free.

Prefabricated construction has reportedly been used in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai and in the construction of the prestigious Sydney Opera House.

Advantages of Prefabrication

• Faster completion of projects, therefore reducing costs
• Diverse uses – can be used to create high-rises, single-storey construction, villas, townships, as well as to create ceiling slabs, terrace blocks, wall panels, columns, staircases, bathrooms, light fixtures, etc.
• Customisation – unique property specifications can be accommodated easily, resulting in reduced expenses
• Durability – prefabrication in the structural aspect of construction bolsters structural strength, sometimes helping to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters. Concrete panels are created with elements of high quality in a controlled factory environment and therefore last longer.
• Well suited for certain sectors that have repetitive design elements, such as student housing, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, prisons, police stations and senior housing.
• Increased and more efficient quality control in factory settings
• Safer and less stressful working environment for labourers in a factory than on site, especially in crowded areas, as on-site dangers are eliminated for workers
• Less on-site space is required to assembly components which have already been assembled off site
• Less waste is generated during construction, since prefabricated component waste is disposed of at the factory and not transported to the site
• Competitive edge – allows flexibility in design decisions till the nth moment
• Saves space – housing can be built in cramped spaces in tight schedules and take up less space

Modular construction in the housing industry has expanded its scope for buyers and builders. Buyers have more options to choose from and builders have more build options for construction, changing the overall construction landscape. Projects see MEP contractors use an increasing number of modular construction plans during collaboration. Prefabricated construction is more affordable and more green, since such buildings are better sealed against drafts and there is improved quality control systems in factories, thus leading to improved insulation and better energy efficiency. This will ultimately benefit neighbourhoods and residential and commercial projects.

The various advantages of using prefabricated housing can only be enjoyed when the DfMA modelling and drawings are flawless. Since this demands considerable time and resources, an increasing number of Western firms are looking overseas for their prefabrication design services.

Benefits of Outsourcing Prefab Design Services

• Cost reduction, since skilled labour and expenditure on resources overseas is significantly less expensive
• Use of advanced tools and technologies, such as AutoCAD and Revit, by experienced and well-qualified human resources
• Standardisation of drawings across projects, so that MEP installations and other services are made easier
• 3D axonometric drawings of the entire construction project are generated, showing methods and means by which individual subcontractor components or systems can be placed in the project
• Skilled draftsmen and other technical professionals work faster, maintain accuracy, provide complete audit trails with drawing references, approval records
• Faster turnaround time, since overseas firms employ ready and dedicated teams of trained personnel capable of working to constantly changing specifications, helping to complete projects on schedule
• Increased flexibility, as outsourcing allows Western firms to pick and choose services according to need. The flexibility thus generated helps expand the business.

Outsourcing prefabrication design services is thus an increasingly popular option, and this approach will save time, increase productivity, ensure higher safety levels and increase profits. Using Revit, AutoCAD and other software to create modular construction drawings and models helps provide high-quality prefabricated design support for Western firms in the industry.

With consistent development in technology the entire process of conducting business has altered. Setting up a business is no more end of the task as a myriad of other work follows it. Business without proper advertising is simply of no use. To reach the targeted audience, it is crucial to make proper marketing and advertising strategies.

Relying on experienced professionals to take up the entire responsibility of your business advertising becomes a better choice. Instead of depending on the untrained employees for advertising, digital agencies make a preferable choice. Their knowledge about the market and strategies leave your competitors behind and give your business a global popularity.

If you are not aware of the many advantages of hiring a digital marketing agency, then continue reading this article. Here are some of the major advantages of relying on digital marketing agencies.

Get Help from Experienced Staff:

When you sign up with an advertising agency, it helps your business to enjoy the many benefits from experts. Since these are organizations, it means they host many people who have wide experience in this field. They can help you in many ways, starting from graphic designing to mobile app programming. With knowledge, they offer a positive difference with their advertising and marketing efforts.

Build Up Vibrant Online Presence:

Without proper online advertising, earning successful result in today’s date is almost impossible. This is not something very easy as it requires specialized knowledge and skill. Hiring them can definitely create a vibrant online presence in variable ways. They develop websites for businesses with unique features that attract visitors towards your website. This in turn helps to earn impressive revenue and create a good online presence.

Reduce the Marketing Costs:

When you try to do the entire marketing and advertising with an in-house team, it means you need to invest huge. For an in-house team large software and various other resources are necessary. Training them and making them skilled, requires a lot of investment and time.Agencies, in such scenario, is the perfect answer as they offer excellent result without paying huge in lesser time.

Successful Brand Development:

Businesses are known by their brand name. It is essential to develop, protect and set up the brand through advertising and marketing. A simple mistake can turn destructive. These agencies work by developing strategies. This involves informing customers and increasing business recognition with varying elements of the brand. They can definitely attract customer and make a reputed name.

The above-mentioned are some of the prime advantages of hiring a digital marketing agency. With their valuable strategies and knowledge, you can definitely give a push to your business. So hire them and get a vibrant global popularity.

Lump sum annuity is a debatable topic. Many companies have pension plans where they offer annuity which is evenly spread over the life span of its employee. In this, employee gets an assured amount of annuity each month. However, there are many companies which also offer a one time total annuity to their employees. These both methods come with their usual advantages as well as disadvantages.

Lump sum annuity:

Here the employer pays in one installment the entire claim of the pension of the employee. This amount is a large one. Now this entire amount is at employee’s disposal. At this point the intelligence of employee in suitably making use of this amount counts.

If he is successful in managing the annuity in an efficient way, he will be able to generate an equal amount as annuity as his monthly annuity plan would have given him. There are hundreds of able retired employees who had opted for lump sum annuity and are now doing exceedingly well because they were successful in managing their investments. These assets ultimately pass on to their heirs.

The problems come into play when management of funds is not done properly and then the person is left with nothing for his decent living. It is therefore necessary for a pensioner to take a cautious view of different investments plans which are offered by the investing companies. Here it is advisable than he should take an opinion of an able and experienced investment planner.

Annuity pension plan:

In this pension plan, a monthly amount is offered to the investor. Here the investor gets a predetermined and fixed amount of money each month or at some identified intervals. This is a guaranteed amount which a pensioner will get during his entire life.

Some insurance firms even offer many additional facilities like coverage of insurance for spouse against accidents and ailments. Hence here the not investor but this investing company worries about his investment plan.

The main disadvantage of this pension plan is that as time goes by, the monthly amount may become irrelevant due to the inflation rate. In long run, these returns may not help the pensioner. Moreover if the investment company invests unwisely in its endeavors then it the pensioner who will suffer in the end. Many such incidents have taken place earlier too.

So, in this the wisdom of pensioner is supreme and it prevails. The pensioners are advised to take a expert opinion in this matter.

There have been countless studies done on poker players from around the world and hundred’s of online poker reviews posted by the most advent poker players show that online poker tournament’s such as Sit-N-Go’s are the most profitable overall. The main reason? You can’t lose your WHOLE ENTIRE BANKROLL playing an online poker tournament. When you sit down in a ring game aka cash game, you run the risk of losing your entire hard earned bankroll in one hand. Let me give you a little scenario.

You think your aces are good, you push all in preflop only to be called by QQ and get cracked. Your hours of grinding at the .25/.50 poker tables, .50/1.00 poker tables, and finally playing 1.00/2.00 poker blinds is done the drain. It happen’s all the time to so many player’s, read the poker news or poker message boards around. There are TONS of them. You will see many horror stories and even entire sections of some forums dedicated to texas holdem bad beats! It seriously happens all the time and the only way to prevent this from happening to you is managing your bankroll and not going on TILT.

The easiest way of managing your bankroll is simple. Stick to Sit-N-Go’s, where you only run the risk of losing a set amount of money (the online poker tournament buy-in) and NO MORE. Your losses are controlled and if your poker hands are not hitting or you are getting sucked out on for the night, take a break and recover tomorrow. Your bankroll can always be built back up, if you lose it all you will have to redeposit. Not only will you be re depositing once, you will be doing it over and over again just to play online poker.

You simply just need to deposit one time and that is it. Treat your bankroll as if it was your own kid. It needs love, attention, and care. Without these 3 elements, you will go broke QUICKLY. Know your poker rules even before you deposit for the first time. Play poker online free of charge before you open that wallet up! I know it’s a rush to win money, but you won’t succeed without the proper mindset and training.

You can practice for play money until your blue in the face, but you won’t know how to play REAL poker until you start at the real money level. At the play money level, you will see many players’ push with total garbage and not a care in the world if they lose, tack on $1000.00 top prize finish, you better bet your last dollar these same players will play differently. To get a real feel of poker online if you are just starting out, try depositing $50.00 on Full Tilt Poker or Pokerstars and make sure that’s the last time you EVER deposit. Play online poker tournaments such as $2.00 Sit-N-Go’s to build your bankroll up. Once it reaches over $150-200 move on to some $5.00 Sit-N-Go’s.

Once you master winning single table Sit-N-Go’s over and over again, the real profit and fun comes when you start multi-tabling! Multi-table your way into living off the profit’s of your Sit-N-Go’s all from the comfort of your own home.

Sanskrit literature is vast, all comprising, varied and ancient. It is impossible to master all the Sanskrit works as it would take very many years whereas the human life is very short.

There are hundreds of scholars who willingly jumped into this vast sea of Sanskrit literature to explore the gems available.

Among the great scholars L.Sternbach stands tall by his wonderful and dedicated work. He was very much attracted by the Sanskrit Subhasita verses and dedicated his entire life in collecting them. The entire Sanskrit world admired him and he was awarded the title ‘Subhasitavidwan’.

His life aim was to publish all the Subhasitas with English translation with detailed notes. So he was in search of a suitable scholar and found Mr Bhaskaran Nair, Director-Professor of the Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, Hoshiapur, India. So he requested in 1966 Head of the Sanskrit department Jagannath Agarwal to persuade Acharya Vishwa Bandhu to spare the scholar for this valuable cause. It is to be mentioned here that Acharya Vishwa Bandhu, during the days of partition, in 1947, came from Lahore, with huge Sanskrit literature, to conceal it in big gunny bags, taking a big risk. He founded the great Vishweshvaranand Vedic Research Institure at Hoshiapur.

Six years passed. In 1972 he wrote to the Acharya that the work Maha-Subhasita Samgraha was for him like a child and he intended to bequeath the whole of his fortune after his and his mother’s death to the Institute which will take up the publication of this work.

As promised he has given his all for this great cause leaving a small amount to take care of his aged mother. Perhaps this is a unique event of a foreign scholar to sacrifice his entire life and wealth for Subhasita verse publication.

Accordingly the team headed by Bhaskaran Nair has brought out eight volumes of the great work containing about 14000 verses.

Sternbach has written many books. One among them is, ‘Aphorisms and Proverbs in the Katha-Sarit-Sagara’. From Katha-Sarit Sagara, the Ocean of Streams of Stories, which contains nearly thousand such aphorisms and proverbs, he has selected about 697 wise sayings.

His English translation is always superb. He is also famous for his foot-notes and his friends would comment that his work contain often more footnotes than text!

For a sample, we may quote the following:

No one is able, even by doing the utmost.., to overcome the incalculable freaks of marvellously working Destiny.

No one can calculate the caprices of Fate or the waves of the sea.

Good and evil done by a man is made to return upon himself.

Think for a moment, an American by birth has given his everything for the sake of Sanskrit. At the same time he did not forget his duty towards his mother.

Sanskrit Lovers worldwide and Indians in particular will ever remember this great soul.

Let Us Salute the Great American, Sanskrit Scholar Ludwik Sternbach!

Wildstorming is the radical cousin of traditional brainstorming, as it turns the process upside-down and inside-out, where strange and bizarre concepts are the rule.

During a wildstorm session, team members suggest absolutely crazy solutions to the core issue which is being examined. Wildstorms are a great place to ponder ideas that are true overkill or prohibitively expensive. Wildstorm answers can deny physics and logic; they can be weird, fanciful, or even illegal. In fact, they can be impossible! The main rule for a successful wildstorm is that the ideas should be anything but practical.

The Payoff?

Wildstorming is both an ‘ice breaker’ for thinking about a problem as well as an exercise for looking at a particular issue from a wide-variety of angles, especially non-traditional ones.

The remedies discovered during a wildstorming session themselves would probably never be implemented; nevertheless, wildstorms do lead to creative insights on the causes and effects of the core problem. The end result is novel breakthrough solutions.

How It works!

Palm wine is a popular African and Asian alcoholic beverage gotten from the sap of different palm tree species including coconut palms and date palms. The fresh palm juice is sweet, colorless, clear juice which contains 10-12 percent of neutral sugar.

Palm wine regional names:

It is called various names depending on the origin, region and people

· Oguro or emu in Nigeria,

· Nsafufuo in Ghana

· Matango in Cameroon,

· Kallu in South India,

· In Mijikenda, Kenya it is called Mnazi

· in Sabah, Borneo it is called Goribon (Rungus)

· In in North Sumatra, Indonesia it is called Tuak

· In the Philippines, Borneo and Mexico it is called Tuba

· In Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nsamba

Tapping of palm wine

Tapping is the process of collecting the wine from the tree and the person that does this task is called a tapper. Tapping can be done in two major processes: Cutting of the palm flower and Falling of the entire tree.

Cutting of the palm flower: The tapper cuts a 10-15cm from the top of the palm trunk and places a gourd below the cut to collect the sap from it. The fresh white liquid collected from the flower is very sweet and non-alcoholic at first till it is fermented.

Falling of the entire tree: The entire tree is fell to collect the sap and sometimes fire is lit to the cut end to further enhance the sap collection. The fresh unfermented sap can be refrigerated and with the addition of little lime you can prevent fermentation in it.

Nutritional content of palm wine

· amino acids

· potassium

· magnesium

· zinc

· iron

· Vitamin B1, B2, B3, and B6.

Fermentation in palm wine, causes and prevention

Fermentation starts immediately the sap is collected because of natural yeast in the air and pores of the pot. Within two hours of collection, the wine can be fermented to get up to four percent alcohol per volume. The longer you leave the wine to ferment the higher the alcohol content, but the more fermented the more the sweet taste turns sour.

Fermentation can be prevented by adding little lime to the wine.

Distillation of palm wine

Stronger drinks can be produced from this wine through distillation. The distillation gives different products called different names according to the region.

· Ogogoro in Nigeria

· Akpeteshi or burukutu in Ghana

· Sodabe in benin and Togo

· Lambanog in Philippines

· Lagmi in Tunisia

They are further uses and benefits of this wine, which makes it a wine to be considered.