A Birthday Is More Than Balloons - Involving the Kids to Be a Part of the Birthday Decor Prep

Well, it's your kid's birthday and s / he has turned a year older but you do not just want them to turn older but also wiser by the years.

There are many ways your kid can take DIY things at hand and contribute to her / his birthday celebrations. After all, it's not an out and out surprise for them. Oh come on, they are expecting things already. So, why not plan the jubilee with them and make it a learning experience for your ward.

Five steps to include the birthday kid in her / his hatch day festivals:

1. Let the kids hone their artistic skills and design the invitation cards for their birthday ceremony. This way they will be involved in a crucial step before hosting the gala ie to invite the guests with creative hand-made cards.

2. Let them revise their art and craft lessons and contribute in the decoration of the hall with innovative crafting skills. Quilling is a hit these days, why not exercise it with your kid and do your own decor. There are so many tutorials on Quilling craft ideas available on online platforms like YouTube and Pinterest. Your kid and you can later boast about it too.

3. We all know that the market is flooded with a variety of candles of different shapes and sizes, spotted ones too. But nothing beats the proud moment when your kid molds her / his own candles. You get these waxes in many stores and also molders to give various shapes. So, why not give your kid this opportunity to make their own illuminators and they can further personal the experience by writing one's name on them by using glitters. This will not only validate that the candles are your kid's own creation but will also give them the special birthday vibes when your child sees her / his name inscribed on the candles.

4. Involve them in the cake-making process. Yes, this can be their first step to the kitchen where they can get a hands-on experience of baking, using the microwave and garnishing as well. So, let's prepare your young ones to be the next promising contantant of Masterchef Junior.

5. And finally for the return gifts, if you are looking for simpler options, well you sure have introduced them to the kitchen already, so how about incorporating them in preparation some flavoured hand-made chocolates packed in mini paper bags. Or few of those molded candles can be kicked away and with guests' names inscribed with glitter on them, they will make for perfect return gifts. There are so many other ways your child can plunge into making innovative return gifts for friends, if your kid's birthday falls in the current month or say the upcoming December, it is The Time to introduce him / her to sewing classes, maybe hand gloves for the tiny guests or better let's start with simpler things like woolen caps. Or let them try clay pottery and make interesting things. There are so many DIY pottery toys available in stores.

With these many ideas and suggestions on mind, we are sure you are already planning for a unique and special birthday bash for your baby. This will ensure that your family will not just enjoy the party time and post birthday time of opening the gifts but the pre-birthday preparations will be equally a time well spent. Have a gala time!

Different Types of Construction Tools and Their Utilities

The tools and equipment used for construction purposes are known as construction tools. Some of the best equipments are used by the corporate companies for construction buildings. These tools are essential for the quick completion of projects. Several excellent tools are available today which is vital for construction buildings.

Essential Construction Tools

Although there are several apparatus which assist in building buildings some of the most essential tools are as follows:

• Crane: Used mainly for deconstructing buildings, crane is one of the most important equipments which are used widely. Cranes are also used to lift resources from one place to another easily. These machines are categorized as heavy construction tools . There are different types of cranes used for various purposes.
• Crawler: Also known as a bulldozer, the crawler is a tractor with a dozer blade. It is used for construction large buildings.
• Loaders: Loaders are used for construction buildings and roads. Loaders are also known as front loaders, scoop loader, front end loader, bucket loader and so forth. Loaders use buckets to move resources to different places. The different materials transported by the loaders include sand, gravel, wood chips, dirt and so forth.
• Forklift: Forklift is one of the most handy construction tools that are used for lifting heavy equipments. The forklifts are available in different capacities and sizes. It is mainly used for moving heavy equipments in warehouses and manufacturing units.
• Excavator: The excavators are constructive tools used for various purposes like digging holes, fountains, handling materials, demolition buildings, digging trenches, heavy lifting and so froth. This heavy building equipment is also known as the digger with a cab installed on a pivot and has a bucket as well as an articulated arm.
• Road roller: Constructive tools also include road rollers or roller compacter which is used to compact concrete, dirt, gravel and asphalt. The road roller is used primarily for constructing roads and other construction purposes.
• Concrete mixers: Widely used equipment is the concrete mixer which is used to prepare concrete mixture by mixing cement, sand, gravel and water. Earlier this homogenous mixture was prepared manually but now with the help of this apparatus, concrete mixer can be made quickly and easily. The mixer contains a rotating drum which mixes the concrete.
• Scrapers: A scraper is multifaceted equipment that is used for various purposes and is quite efficient for digging, excavating and hauling.
• Backhoe: Backhoe is used for demolition purposes and for digging holes. It is an apparatus that is used in most of the construction sites.
• Sand screeners: The sand screeners are quite essential to sieve the sand and segregate it from dirt and other foreign objects. There are many types of sand screener including vibratory screening machines supplied by the construction tools manufacturers in the online portals.

In addition to the above tools and apparatus, there are many other types of equipment which are essential in any building construction site such as saws, nail gun, tool belt and so forth. The use of these construction tools is imperative for better and faster completion of building projects.

A Birthday Is More Than Balloons - Involve Your Kid to Deck Up

Birthday, the word itself haunts a child to the world of dream. It will be much more exiting to your ward if you can involve his effort to decorate the Celebration corner. When a child thinks of his birthday celebration, some sights may flash on his mind. Perhaps it was the decoration that he saw in his friend's birthday or somewhere else. However his own birthday is the chance to execute those ideas and parents are supposed to encourage them to do so. It will not only be mere decoration but a way to enhance the child's cognitive development also.

Recycle the thrown out items-

We often throw out old containers, cans, papers, clothes and many more items. If you can store these recyclable things during the year and tell your child to make flower-vase, pen-stand, paper-fans, wall-hanging out of those; then there will be a good stock of decorative material to deck up the birthday floor. The child also gets to learn recycle, reuse, and his aesthetic sense will be increased.

Theme selection -

This time if you are going to throw a theme based birthday party, let your child select the theme. You may help him surely. But ask him to set a theme depending on some niche that he has learnt at school. Value education or moral science will be the best subject to find such themes.

Decking up the food corner -

It will be tough for a child if you ask him to cook for his friend. But it will be very much interesting to him if you give him a chance to deck up the dinning. You can instruct him to garnish the food platters or to decorate the tray of chocolates with tooth-pick and colourful thermocol balls. You can let the child decorate the birthday cake also with colourful candies. But never leave the child alone to do so, keep supervising. He can also arrange the plates, glasses, coasters, spoon and fork etc. It will teach him table manner.

Balloon decoration -

The first and foremost decorative item of the birthday party is balloons. Engage the kid to blow up the balloon and then help him to fix it on wall, roof or cabinet.

Streamer decoration -

Engage the child making various decorative chains of streamers. In his leisure time do sit with him and teach him to make beautiful chains out of those usual things. This will help your child to learn making incredible articles out of common ingredients.

Flower vase -

Let your child decorate the flower vases on his own. If he makes mistakes, then make him learn the right way and let him do again. This doing and undoing will help him out to enhance the sense of colour-combination.

So, here are some unique tips to involve your child to his own birthday celebration. Now let your kid engage with this and this time make his/her birthday the memorable one with a gala celebration.

Private Real Estate Syndicated Funds - A Passive Way to Invest in Real Estate

In today's economy, one thing is guaranteed. The world is trying to ditch the US dollar as the reserve currency and keeping your money in CDs and money market accounts is straight forward unsafe. For decades savers and investors found it safe to keep their money parked with their banks despite the current near zero rates of interest and volatility of the US dollar are justified reasons that compel more folks to find better investment strategies for their money. That's why many investors start looking for investments which keep up with inflation (real estate, gold / silver, commodities, and certain foreign currencies and stocks.)

If Real Estate investing has been on your mind but is not sure where to invest, how to find the best deals or how to correctly evaluate one, you may want to explore the opportunity of a passive way to invest in a syndicated real estate fund . A real estate syndicate is simply a group of investors who pool their money to purchase real estate. By pooling their money together these investors are able to purchase larger real estate properties with or without bank financing. This method of real estate investing has been a popular method of financing the purchase and sale of commercial properties such as shopping centers, office buildings and warehouses.

Private Real Estate syndicates raise funds through a private placement which is a security - an ownership interest in a company that owns and operates investment real estate. Unlike the REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), these investment vehicles are not publicly traded and are not priced to market on a daily basis. While REITs may have high dividend returns their publicly traded shares are subject to a significant degree of price volatility, an event less likely to occur with private syndicated funds.

Many real estate syndicates are offered as private placements, so it is important for you to understand the process and risk factors related to private placements. One of the most common risk is that the underlying investment is real estate, as a result these investments may be less liquid than shares in a REIT; when time comes the fund may be unable to sell the real property at a high sufficient price to generate the expected profits; Egypt outside factors such as a further deterioration of the economy may negate the value added through rehabilitation work. Then, there is that uncertainty of unforeseen future expenses, taxes, and liability, all of which being typical real estate issues that seasoned investors are familiar with. My recommendation is that you thoroughly evaluate the risks directly from the private placement memorandum.

Syndicated real estate funds are carefully crafted by using the expertise of attorneys, accountants, contractors, investment bankers, mortgage bankers, and real estate brokers. They are structured in form of a partnership agreement or limited liability company (LLC), whose code of ethics requires full disclosure of all material facts. To further determine whether this kind of investment is for you, you'll want to find out the experience and accomplishments of all directors and managers, the minimum required investment, the time-frame of your investment, and the potential annual return and capital gains on your money.

What I found enticing is the fact that one can invest in a private real estate syndicate by using his retirement account (IRA). A self-directed IRA is a unique hybrid tool that uses a self-directed IRA custodian and a specialized legal structure. Investments made with a self-directed IRA may grow untaxed provided the income generated is passive income.

Some other potential benefits associated with investments in these funds are:

* Gaining net cash flow through a passive investment. Owning real estate individually requires skills in assessing property values, negotiating purchase agreements, financing, negotiating leases and managing the property. An investor in such a fund has access to a group that has proven knowledge and experience to deal with all aspects of real estate.

* Achieving a higher yield by investing in larger and more profitable properties. By pooling the funds of a number of investors, real estate syndicates can achieve overall better returns when compared to many individual investors.

* Taking advantage of the troubled commercial real estate market by using the expertise of culture investors.

* Hedging against Inflation. Because inflation erodes the value of hard-earned money and reduces the individual purchasing power, investment diversification in tangible assets may potentially represent a more desirable way to maintain your current living standard.

* Potential profit from property appreciation. Commercial real estate value is determined by its level of stabilization. High occupancy rates, stable revenues, carefully assessed expenses, and experienced property managers overall significantly contribute to the increase in value.

* Favorable tax treatment. Check with your tax adviser regarding tax savings on private estate syndicates which may not be available when investing in a public company.

* Various Investment Positions. As an investor, you can choose from a variety of positions that best suits your investment requirements.

Overall I still think it's a smart move to diversify your investment portfolio with a hard asset such as real estate. But no matter what you invest in keep in mind that a "healthy investment" is the kind that ...

* generates substantial revenues for you during good times and bad times;
* is made out of real assets that do not vanish;
* does not lose its earnings potential with time;
* maintains its capital value;
* keeps up with inflation;
* is made out of assets that satisfy one or more human needs (housing, food, energy);
* can be passed on to your heirs and generate passive income for them.

Finally, if you're seriously considering placing a chunk of your money into such a fund do not forget to ask the hard questions such as if the managers and directors are investing their own money in the fund; how can you verify that the company is real and not a hoax; what could go wrong and if it does what happens to your investment. Use common sense and your own instinct, learn as much as you can, make decisions, and act on them quickly so that when the economic dust finally settles, your egg nest will still be there, intact and unharmed.

Top 5 Benefits of ATM Placement in Retail

An ATM placement can make a great deal of a difference to a retail business in a plethora of ways. Here are the top five benefits of installing an ATM in retail and how it can improve the performance of a business in terms of sales, customers, competition, and profits.

1. Pulls Customers like a Magnet

Merchants are bound to pull potential customers like a magnet with ATM's placed in retail locations and advertised properly. Many customers today prefer cash transactions over credit cards mostly because of the increasing number of cyber-crime cases. However, carrying cash all the time is often not feasible. So, many buyers prefer to draw money through ATM at the time of purchase. Having an ATM inside a store, can attract as well as facilitate cash buyers.

Studies show that when prospects enter the store to use the ATM machine, they are most likely to spend up to 25 percent of the cash withdrawal at the same store where the ATM is placed. This means that ATM placement will not only increase foot traffic but will also increase sales.

2. More Revenues and Profits

Another great benefit of installing an ATM in a retail store is that it acts as a revenue driver. Not only through sales but, through many other ways too. For example, a merchant would already know the fees that the customer has to pay for credit or debit card purchases. This fee is variable on total purchase price. Although it is small, it adds up. However, cash only transactions with an installed ATM would eliminate card fees thereby improving profit margin.

The merchant can set a transaction fee on the ATM to charge customers when they draw money. This fee goes directly to the retail owner, providing an additional stream of revenues.

3. Gain a Competitive Edge

The retail industry is booming and growing overly competitive. To stay ahead of the competition, retail must deliver excellent shopping experiences and services to customers. With an ATM placement, retail can cater to more customers as some may want to use the ATM as they may not have cash in hand to make purchase. So, instead of leaving the store to draw money, they can easily make transaction within the store and buy their desired products with ease.

4. No Risk to Customers

The increasing number of cases related to money snatching from ATM users and even ATM thefts is alarming. However, an ATM inside a store, customers can easily withdraw money from the machine without any risk. This most certainly contributes to a great customer shopping experience as customers get to make cash transactions and shop without any worries, stress or risk. They have the peace of mind that they will not be robbed. And that is what customers want. They want to enjoy a stress-free shopping experience which gives them the flexibility, the power, and the convenience to select their choice of payment mode.

5. Happy Customers Means More Business

Having an ATM installed in retail, business are giving customers the convenience to select their choice of payment mode. This convenience translates into happy customers. And statistics show that on average, happy customers tell approximately 9 people about their experiences with a company. This helps find new customers and sell more to existing customers.

Good customer experience further helps in creating buzz. Studies show that most people would like to share their good and bad experiences with a business online through tweets, Facebook and online reviews. This exposure is great for a retail business because 81 percent of the US population uses social networks translating into 207 million people.

A Brief Introduction To Blockchain - For Normal People

Crypto-what?
If you've attempted to dive into this mysterious thing called blockchain, you'd be forgiven for recoiling in horror at the sheer opaqueness of the technical jargon that is often used to frame it. So before we get into what a crytpocurrency is and how blockchain technology might change the world, let's discuss what blockchain actually is.

In the simplest terms, a blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions, not unlike the ledgers we have been using for hundreds of years to record sales and purchases. The function of this digital ledger is, in fact, pretty much identical to a traditional ledger in that it records debts and credits between people. That is the core concept behind blockchain; the difference is who holds the ledger and who verifies the transactions.

With traditional transactions, a payment from one person to another involves some kind of intermediary to facilitate the transaction. Let's say Rob wants to transfer £ 20 to Melanie. He can either give her cash in the form of a £ 20 note, or he can use some kind of banking app to transfer the money directly to her bank account. In both cases, a bank is the intermediary verifying the transaction: Rob's funds are verified when it takes the money out of a cash machine, or they are verified by the app when it makes the digital transfer. The bank decides if the transaction should go ahead. The bank also holds the record of all transactions made by Rob, and is solely responsible for updating it whenever Rob pays someone or receives money into his account. In other words, the bank holds and controls the ledger, and everything flows through the bank.

That's a lot of responsibility, so it's important that Rob feels he can trust his bank otherwise he would not risk his money with them. He needs to feel confident that the bank will not defraud him, will not lose his money, and will not disappear overnight. This need for trust has underpinned pretty much every major behavior and facet of the monolithic finance industry, to the extent that even when it was discovered that banks were being irresponsible with our money during the financial crisis of 2008, the government (another intermediate) chose to bail them out rather than risk destroying the final fragments of trust by letting them collapse.

Blockchains operate differently in one key respect: they are absolutely decentralized. There is no central clearing house like a bank, and there is no central ledger held by one entity. Instead, the ledger is distributed across a vast network of computers, called nodes, each of which holds a copy of the entire ledger on their relative hard drives. These nodes are connected to one another via a piece of software called a peer-to-peer (P2P) client, which synchronises data across the network of nodes and makes sure that everyone has the same version of the ledger at any given point in time .

When a new transaction is entered into a blockchain, it is first encrypted using state-of-the-art cryptographic technology. Once encrypted, the transaction is converted to something called a block, which is basically the term used for an encrypted group of new transactions. That block is then sent (or broadcast) into the network of computer nodes, where it is verified by the nodes and, once verified, passed on through the network so that the block can be added to the end of the ledger on everyone's computer, under the list of all previous blocks. This is called the chain, since the tech is referred to as a blockchain.

Once approved and recorded into the ledger, the transaction can be completed. This is how cryptocurrency like Bitcoin work.

Accountability and the removal of trust
What are the advantages of this system over a banking or central clearing system? Why would Rob use Bitcoin instead of normal currency?

The answer is trust. As mentioned before, with the banking system it is critical that Rob trusts his bank to protect his money and handle it properly. To ensure this happens, strict regulatory systems exist to verify the actions of the banks and ensure they are fit for purpose. Governments then regulate the regulators, creating a sort of tiered system of checks which sole purpose is to help prevent mistakes and bad behavior. In other words, organizations like the Financial Services Authority exist precisely because banks can not be trusted on their own. And banks frequently make mistakes and misbehave, as we have seen too many times. When you have a single source of authority, power tend to get abused or misused. The trust relationship between people and banks is awkward and precarious: we do not really trust them but we do not feel there is much alternative.

Blockchain systems, on the other hand, do not need you to trust them at all. All transactions (or blocks) in a blockchain are verified by the nodes in the network before being added to the ledger, which means there is no single point of failure and no single approval channel. If a hacker wanted to successfully tamper with the ledger on a blockchain, they would have to simultaneously hack millions of computers, which is almost impossible. A hacker would also be pretty much unable to bring a blockchain network down, as, again, they would need to be able to shut down every single computer in a network of computers distributed around the world.

The encryption process itself is also a key factor. Blockchains like the Bitcoin one use separately difficulties procedures for their verification procedure. In the case of Bitcoin, blocks are verified by nodes performing a delicate processor- and time-intensive series of calculations, often in the form of puzzles or complex mathematical problems, which means that verification is either instant nor accessible. Nodes that do commit the resource to verification of blocks are rewarded with a transaction fee and a bounty of newly-minted Bitcoins. This has the function of both incentiving people to become nodes (because processing blocks like this requires pretty powerful computers and a lot of electricity), while also handling the process of generating - or minting - units of the currency. This is referred to as mining, because it involves a significant amount of effort (by a computer, in this case) to produce a new commodity. It also means that transactions are verified by the most independent way possible, more independent than a government-regulated organization like the FSA.

This decentralized, democratic and highly secure nature of blockchains means that they can function without the need for regulation (they are self-regulating), government or other opaque intermediary. They work because people do not trust each other, rather than in spite of.

Let the significance of that sink sink in for a while and the excitement around blockchain starts to make sense.

Smart contracts
Where things get really interesting is the applications of blockchain beyond cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Given that one of the underlying principles of the blockchain system is the secure, independent verification of a transaction, it's easy to imagine other ways in which this type of process can be valuable. Unsurprisingly, many such applications are already in use or development. Some of the best ones are:

• Smart contracts (Ethereum): probably the most exciting blockchain development after Bitcoin, smart contracts are blocks that contain code that must be executed in order for the contract to be fulfilled. The code can be anything, as long as a computer can execute it, but in simple terms it means that you can use blockchain technology (with its independent verification, trustless architecture and security) to create a kind of escrow system for any kind of transaction . As an example, if you're a web designer you could create a contract that verifies if a new client's website is launched or not, and then automatically release the funds to you once it is. No more chasing or invoicing. Smart contracts are also being used to prove ownership of an asset such as property or art. The potential for reducing fraud with this approach is intense.


• Cloud storage (Storj): cloud computing has revolutionized the web and thought about the advent of Big Data which has, in turn, kick started the new AI revolution. But most cloud-based systems are run on servers stored in single-location server farms, owned by a single entity (Amazon, Rackspace, Google etc). This presents all the same problems as the banking system, in that you data is controlled by a single, opaque organization which represents a single point of failure. Distributing data on a blockchain removes the trust issue entirely and also promises to increase reliability as it is so much harder to take a blockchain network down.


• Digital identification (ShoCard): two of the largest issues of our time are identify theft and data protection. With vast centralized services such as Facebook holding so much data about us, and efforts by various developed-world governments to store digital information about their citizens in a central database, the potential for abuse of our personal data is terrifying. Blockchain technology offers a potential solution to this by wrapping your key data up into an encrypted block that can be verified by the blockchain network whenever you need to prove your identity. The applications of this range from the obvious replacement of passports and ID cards to other areas such as replacing passwords. It could be huge.


• Digitaloting: highly topical in the wake of the investigation into Russia's influence on the recent US election, digitaloting has long been suspected of being both unreliable and highly vulnerable to tampering. Blockchain technology offers a way of verifying that a voter's vote was successfully sent while retaining their anonymity. It promises not only to reduce fraud in elections but also to increase general voter turnout as people will be able to vote on their mobile phones.

Blockchain technology is still very much in its infancy and most of the applications are a long way from general use. Even Bitcoin, the most established blockchain platform, is subject to huge volatility indicative of its relative newcomer status. However, the potential for blockchain to solve some of the major problems we face today makes it an extraordinarily exciting and seductive technology to follow. I will certainly be keeping an eye out.

The Role of Co-Operatives and the Government in Distributive Trade

A co-operative society is defined as a voluntary business organization in which a group of individuals with common interest pool their resources together to promote the economic and welfare of their members in production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. The producers and consumers' cooperative societies engage in the distribution of products either directly from the manufacturer or wholesalers and sell to their members (consumers0 at reduced prices.

The government on the other hand-whether federal, state or local level has a mjor role to play in the distribution of goods or commodities. Government is able to participate in the distribution of commodities through the establishment of distributive agencies. The role of the government is the distribution of commodities are the basic responsibilities a government should carry out such as: Provision of transport system, provision of storage facilities, control of prices, price stabilization, prevention of artificial scarcity, importation of essential commodities and establishment of communication system.

The role of co-operative societies are as follows:


1. Stock variety of goods: The consumers co-operative societies buy variety of goods from the manufacturer or wholesaler hence they are exposed to a wide range of goods.


2. Sell in small quantity to members: The co-operative societies buy in reasonable quantity from wholesaler and sell in bits to the members.


3. grant credit facilities to members: The co-operative society can grant facilities to members so as to enable them enjoy goods without payment immediately.


4. Give advice: The co-operative society also gives advice tot heir members (consumers) as well as the manufacturers/wholesalers.


5. Bring products closer to members: They also ensure that products are brought to the door step of the consumers (members).


6. Fight hoarding: They fight against hoarding by wholesalers and retainers by ensuring that they stock lots of the products for use by members (consumers).


7. Stabilize prices: They also help in stabilizing the prices of goods by selling them at affordable prices to members.


8. Elimination of middlemen: They can eliminate the activities of middlemen by buying their goods directly from manufacturers and selling them directly to the consumers (members).


9. Marketing of members' products: They also assist their members in marketing their products (i.e producers' cooperative society) by ensuring fair prices for their products.

African countries and other developing nations face the challenges of benefiting from the government's role. Especially in countries where the government is corrupt. They enact policies and form agencies but do not function properly to achieve their goals. Take for instance, in Nigeria. The Nigerian National Supply Company Limited (N.N.S.C) was set up in 1972 to supplement private efforts in product distributions. It is now moribund and as good as not been created. Several marketing boards for various products were set up to enhance the marketing of products in the country and the River Basin Authorities were also set up to encourage large production and distribution of agricultural products. Are these agencies functioning now? If yes, Nigeria would have been lots better than its present state.