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Cruising the Panama Canal

DMEditor November 25, 2016

Just having returned from a cruise through the Panama Canal, I can truly say that it was at once not what I expected and, at the same time, even more than expected. There is a history and a mystery to the Panama Canal which makes it an adventure unlike any other you may never experience.

Perhaps you learned about the Panama Canal in grammar school and how it reduced the sea travel time between the Americas and Asia and Australia. Strategically, it was a military asset for whichever country had control over it as it controlled the sea lanes and ship and troop movements.

You might also have learned somewhere along the way that it was a difficult undertaking and that the U.S. involvement enabled its eventual construction after failures by the French and others in the early 20^th century. Many people died during the building of the canal from accidents and malaria. The invention of DEET was necessitated because of the canal.

Looking at the geography on a map one has no appreciation of the difficulty that the terrain in the Panama region posed to 1900s engineers and planners. The thickness of the jungles. The need for locks to account for changes in elevations. Intense heat and humidity. Remoteness.

The canal itself is large enough that there might be several ships in its lanes at once. In many parts, it isn’t just a two lane “road”. Existing lakes serve as holding points for ships as they wend their way through the jungle and the waterways, both natural and man-made. The number of ships anchored at the entrance to the Canal from the Atlantic and Pacific sides at any one time can number in the hundreds. Each waiting their turn to enter the canal per schedule.

Every ship, no matter the size or country, freight or passenger, is steered by a Panamanian captain who boards each ship at one of the entrances to the canal. The journey took us 5 hours from one end to another. The journey is slow, quiet and transformative. The pace is dictated by canal traffic and serves to provide a break from the “get there quickly” mentality of freight lines and cruise ships.

The canal is industry to Panama. Our ship of approximately 1000 passengers paid more than $100,000 to Panama for the journey through the canal. One hundred years plus after its construction, it is still one of the most amazing feats of modern engineering and is still a lynchpin in world commerce.

-Amanda Munroe

Home and Garden

Staging Your Home

DMEditor November 25, 2016

Of all the things you can do to help sell your home, staging might be the most important of all. Of course price and location are very important, too. We don’t want to diminish the importance of either of these selling points. It is also true, however, that the media has changed the rules.

As with so many things in our culture, omnipresent television has once again turned another industry on its head. This time, it is the real estate industry. No longer can you clean your house and expect prospective buyers to imagine their furnishings in your spaces. No, now you have to decorate your home as if it were a theater stage, placing furniture pieces to show off a room’s size. Having worn or dirty furnishings is also a no-no as its makes a home look tired and worn out.

Color? Another faux pas. Everything must be neutral so as not to offend anyone’s sensibilities. That lovely turquoise tile that reminds you of the Caribbean better be gone before the first open house or else you will find you are getting feedback of the “it needs a total makeover” variety from other agents and buyers.

The fact is that many people have no imagination or no vision. They can’t see themselves in your home unless you depersonalize it so that there is no imagination or vision necessary. It is the same tactic that new home builders use in their model homes. Have you ever noticed when visiting model homes that each model is decorated to conform to a different lifestyle? Each of those lifestyles has an income level associated with it too.

Television has taken this concept to an extreme with makeover shows that plaster the airwaves twenty four hours a day. When TV spokespeople tell homeowners that their home is cluttered, ugly, out of date and requires an extensive overhaul before it can be put on the market, what do you think the average buyer is going to expect from every home he or she visits? Exactly. A perfect home, decorated to the nines, with space galore and no clutter. Anything less is not worth their time or their interest.

TV has set the bar very high for the average homeowner. Staging can cost thousands of dollars. And don’t just take the numbers you see on shows as the true cost of staging. That $3500 staging cost is just for a day or two, long enough to have one open house and to take pictures. Most stagers rent their furnishings by the month so $3500 won’t cut it.

The affordable answer? Stage your home yourself. Declutter by packing away things you will have to move eventually and put them in a storage locker. If you are buying furniture for your new home, use that furniture to stage your home instead of your favorite, well-broken in sofa. Paint your walls neutral colors and use white linens wherever you can. Keep everything off your kitchen counters and encourage your kids to keep their toys out of site in their very clean and organized closet.

Stagers and real estate agents like to site the statistic that staged homes sell quicker and for more money. In this market, anything that sells a home at all is worth your time and effort.

– Susan Olson

Business

Vets and Entrepreneurship

DMEditor November 25, 2016

Today is Veteran’s Day here in the United States. This day was set aside to all those living and past that sacrificed everything to preserve our freedoms.

Forbes magazine published a holiday-themed article today called “Vetrepreneurship” by Mark Rockefeller which profiled 25 start-up companies that were recently launched by veteran service personnel. From tech to food preparation, the list is broad and is a testament to the training and discipline that were no doubt drilled into each founder during their tours of duty. These launches have attracted capital from Silicon Valley and are doing quite nicely in a less than robust economic environment.

I wanted to tell you the story of another vetrepreneur that I have had the great privilege of knowing for three years now and who I finally got to meet in person this past April. I had first heard about this soldier in 2013 although at the time, didn’t know that he was actually on active duty in Afghanistan. He happened to be on a few webinars I had participated in and, like the rest of us, was trying to learn new 21^st century internet marketing skills. Although none of the webinar participants knew it at the time, he was attending these webinars while in a bunker in Afghanistan during his off duty time. The fact that he was able to participate in an online discussion from somewhere in the middle of nowhere in less than safe and secure conditions is a story for another time however.

It was during this soldier’s third tour of duty that he decided that this tour would be his last. His goal was simple: to acquire enough internet marketing clients on his next furlough home so that he had an ongoing business ready for him to manage and grow upon his retirement from the Army. His wife had just given birth to their first child, a boy, and Afghanistan was about as far away from where he wanted to be at that time. Doing internet marketing from Afghanistan for these new clients would be hard, but not impossible. Fortunately, the time zone differences actually worked in his favor as business hours in the U.S. coincided with late night in his bunker in Asia – a good time to make calls, prepare reports and deploy internet assets.

Fast forward three years and this same soldier now has a second child (born just last week) and a new home and a happy life back here in the U.S. There are no doubt countless stories just like this each day from veterans that served in the Middle East or any of the other corners of the World. This is a quiet story, however. You won’t read about it in the newspapers, or see it on the nightly news, but like the vetrepreneurs highlighted in Mr. Rockefeller’s Forbes’ article, it too is a story of success, of grit, of making a plan and sticking to it. It is also a tale of applying military precision and adding a creative mindset that is able to adapt to any environment in the pursuit of a worthy goal.

To all the sung and unsung heroes that have served this country with honor and their last full measure of devotion, we salute you this Veteran’s Day 2016.

By Amada Munroe

Technology

The Benefits of Solar

DMEditor November 25, 2016

Solar power is growing rapidly as a sustainable energy source. What is the cost of solar panels? And what are the benefits, or income from solar panels? It is important to weigh the costs and benefits. And when do solar panels become profitable, or what is the payback period for solar panels?
Solar panels: costs, benefits and reimbursement
This article explains how to calculate the costs and benefits of solar panels is established. Furthermore, an estimate payback.
Cost of solar panels
The cost of solar modules consists of one-time purchase costs. Once when the system is running and is cost effective, will have in the long run to recover automatically. It is not easy to revenues, costs and payback period of solar panels to recharge and to weigh up, because several factors. There are several factors that play a role in the initial cost of solar panels. They are:

the desired yield
the type of solar panels
the life of the solar panels
the quality of the material
any rebates on the purchase price

Purchase costs for solar panels
What is the average purchase price for solar panels? The average quality plays a role in the price calculation. A basic installation for an average home costs between $3000 and $4000. The number of panels exceeds 5 or 6, depending on the type of panels. For quality you obviously pay a higher price.
The cost per Watt peak is around $3.15. Larger systems are relatively cheap: the price per watt peak is lower.
Rebates on solar panels
Rebates available on solar panel purchases can come from the manufacturer or from federal energy programs. It is best to check with your installer as to the current programs available in your area.
Revenue and earnings solar panels
The capacity of solar modules is expressed in Wp, or peak watts. This is the output from the solar poles at optimum conditions. The ideal value is obtained only in sunny locales.

payback solar panels
When calculating payback play mode, tilt and tilt direction of your ceiling a role. In addition, subsidies, licenses and renovations are also affected. Because of the complexity of the factors that the calculation of costs, benefits and payback period of solar panels, there is no simple mathematics for hands. There are several mathematical models to find on the Internet that gives an indication of the proceeds of your solar panels.
Full payback for solar panels is about 16 years, provided a constant electricity price. Upon an increase in electricity prices of 10% per year, the payback period is reduced to eight years. The faster the electricity price rise, the shorter the payback period.

– Jim Lewis

Finance

Brexit and the U.S. Economic Outlook

DMEditor November 25, 2016

The outlook for the US economy and the upside on the stock markets after new US numbers
The US jobs figures for June are the strongest since October 2015. Both the US dollar and European stock markets strengthened after the announcement. However, SEB’s Chief Economist Robert Bergqvist doubts that job statistics are enough to get the market to exhale.
“We do not know if companies are now after Brexit begin cutting back on new hiring.”

The US market went up as the dollar strengthened after the US jobs report, reports the news agency Direkt, while the mood on the European stock markets rose, reports Bloomberg.
The statistics showed that the number of employed persons in the US increased by 287 000 in June, compared to the 180,000 that were expected. It is the largest employment gain since October 2015.

However, SEB’s Chief Economist Robert Bergqvist does not believe that the strong job numbers sufficient for that optimism to be entrenched at the dealers. But it is a welcome piece of the puzzle that gives us some peace of mind. Brexit results have not had time to be reflected in job statistics.Robert Bergqvist indicate that the outcome of the Brexit vote not yet had time to be reflected in the statistics – and that there is still great uncertainty about the consequences.

– It’s a figure that is backward-looking. We get clear signals from the United Kingdom to households and businesses react fairly strongly due to the Brexit fall out, says Robert Bergqvist – and emphasizes:
– We do not know if companies are now after Brexit begin cutting back on new hiring.
Robert Bergqvist will closely monitor the reporting on the upcoming interim reports.
– They will be very crucial as the temperature of what the economy is going and how companies are doing, he says.

Robert Bergqvist does not believe that job numbers will alter the Fed’s assessment in July.
– I believe that the US central bank is afraid of two things: First, if brexit can get exchanges breathless again. Partly too strong dollar. The strengthening of the dollar can hit on the American economy. Robert Bergqvist indicate that while the British pound fell trying to Japan and China to weaken their currencies. I can see the contours of a currency war going on. All currencies cannot be weakened without any amplified – and then it is the US dollar, he said.
If the dollar strengthens too much, it can dampen the outlook for the US economy. There is a risk for the US central bank. We believe that it is only towards the end of the year as the Fed raises interest rates, says Robert Bergqvist.

– Len Moses

Arts

Sweden Touts Design

DMEditor November 25, 2016

As part of the export strategy, the Swedish government is now focusing on increasing the export of tourism experiences, products and services in design. The mandate was given to Visit Sweden in cooperation with the industry in design, fashion and architecture. Swedish Design has been a driving force in the preparations started in spring 2014 and welcomes the opportunity for a more long-term and continuous efforts to promote Swedish design internationally.

The Ministry of Industry has decided to invest a total of SEK 28 million from 2016 to 2019 to develop and strengthen the international marketing of Sweden as a design country. These measures will contribute to creating greater international interest in design, such as in fashion, architecture, interior design, furniture, decorative arts and new media in Sweden, so that exports of design products and services increases and that more people come here and experience and consume Swedish design. The work will be led by Visit Sweden, in collaboration with the Swedish Design, trade associations and other industry representatives.

A situation analysis to Visit Sweden made with Swedish Design, ASFB (Association of Swedish Fashion Brands), Swedish Association of Architects and the Wood and Furniture Industry shows that there is an opportunity for Sweden to take a clearer position internationally and that there is great potential for design firms and tourism industry to grow.

– We see that this will benefit not only the design industry, but growth in general, both for export and domestic consumption. We were with and the work initiated two years ago and pleased with the decision. It is a unique effort in the design area with everything from crafts to digital products and services, says Ewa Kumlin, CEO of Swedish Design.

Swedish Design has since the association was founded in 1845 as the Swedish Society worked both at home and abroad to strengthen Swedish design, form, architecture and fashion. Swedish Design today has a government mandate to promote Swedish design nationally and internationally and has in recent years initiated and participated in several international initiatives along with promoting authorities and industry. The new communications platform provides increased opportunities for greater sustainability, coordination and planning of the growth-promoting actions of Swedish design.

– Design is a strong profile bearer of the Swedish brand. We and our partners are ready to start work immediately in order to enhance the growth of Sweden, says Thomas Brühl, CEO of Visit Sweden.

Visit Sweden and professional organizations in the design, together with Business Sweden and the Swedish Institute to create international marketing, among other things, identify a position for Sweden, develop a communication strategy and implement marketing campaigns abroad.

“Design is a common denominator for a number of cultural and creative industries. Design can be a physical product or an integral part thereof. It can also be a service supplied to customers abroad. But it can also be a part of an experience that can only be consumed on the spot, and therefore be a reason for a visit to the country rise. Design is an appropriate theme for brand building as foreseen in the export strategy. ”

– Susan Olson

Breaking News

About DMEditor

Posts by :

Cruising the Panama Canal

Staging Your Home

Vets and Entrepreneurship

The Benefits of Solar

Brexit and the U.S. Economic Outlook

Sweden Touts Design