Space to Retire

Artist?s impression of De Velde?Lifestyle Estate in Somerset West, designed by dhk Architects.

Having successfully raised a family, invested decades of working hours in a chosen career and established some assets and personal wealth, your retirement should be a time of reflection and new beginnings.

For most retired people this means downsizing their family homes and freeing up capital to buy smaller homes and do the things they have always wanted with the remainder.

?Selling your family home and investing in a property for your retirement means that you are effectively buying a way of life, which is why buying a home in an estate makes sense,? says Steven Brookes, chief executive of Balwin Properties.

The company has established a portfolio of sectional title developments and has helped many retired people to find homes in which to enjoy their golden years.

?Many retirement villages and sectional title developments are not designed with the space and privacy from neighbours that their residents are accustomed to and are more concerned with economic use of area. However there are some that have been designed with the proper architecture and orientation of the buildings as well as the optimisation of natural elements to create homes that are generous in space while offering privacy, along with a host of features that can enhance your new lifestyle.?

He suggests the following to look for when buying a retirement property:

?Your most important consideration should be security. Older people are often seen as soft-targets for criminals, and with South Africa?s soaring crime rates, security is an unquestionable necessity. You need to feel safe in your home and the environment in which you live, so pick an estate that offers an array of physical and electronic security features that will enable you to take a stroll or enjoy a picnic with your grandchildren at any time of the day or night. A complete security system can give peace of mind if you are planning to travel and looking for a lock-up-and-go to suit your needs.

?The estate should also offer elements that suit your lifestyle. For example, our most recent development, De Velde Somerset West, offers residents full access to the world-class De Velde Lifestyle Centre which has a fitness area, a cinema room, a library, a herb garden, a wine cellar, two swimming pools and much more.

?Retirement should be a time for relaxation and socialising with your friends and family. As you shop around for your new home, look for estates that are close to places such as beaches, shopping centres or attractions that will enable you to enjoy your new laid-back lifestyle to the full.?

The one, two and three-bedroomed homes on the De Velde Somerset West Lifestyle Estate were designed by Derrick Henstra of dhk Architects. One-bedroomed homes are priced from R499 900 and three-bedroomed homes from R899 900. Visit the show units between 2pm and 6pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

For more information, see www.develde.co.za.

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Source: http://www.sapropertynews.com/space-to-retire/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=space-to-retire

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Nervous parents send kids back to school in Newtown

Funeral directors from throughout Connecticut have come forward to help the grieving town, another example of support that's so desperately needed. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

David Friedman / NBC News

Easton police officer J. Sollazzo greets parents and students returning to Hawley Elementary School on Tuesday in Newtown, Conn.

By Tracy Connor and Alexandra Moe, NBC News

With heavy hearts and amid high security, thousands of children in Newtown, Conn., returned to school Tuesday for the first time since a gunman killed 20 students and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary.

It was a tiny glimmer of normalcy in a town that was also burying two more youngsters, but officials made it clear this will be no ordinary school day.

?This is a day to start healing,? Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais wrote in an e-mail to parents before six schools opened two hours later than usual, with police officers and counselors on hand.

Sandy Hook, where a rifle-toting Adam Lanza turned two classrooms into a shooting gallery on Friday, remains a crime scene, with no indication if its 600 students will ever return to the building. Preparations are being made for them to use a school building in a neighboring town in the interim.

At Hawley Elementary, Keith Muckell said he felt ?deep sadness? as he dropped off his 8-year-old daughter, Shannon, but he knew he couldn?t keep her ?in a bubble.?

?I told her I loved her, kissed her, told the teacher to just take care of these guys. And he was like, ?We got it,?? Muckell said.

More victims of the mass shooting last week at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., will be laid to rest Tuesday. Meanwhile, more details emerge about the gunman. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

He said that as Newtown?s children head back to school, he hopes the nation learns a gun-control lesson from the horrific tragedy that rocked the quiet bedroom community.

?I just hope that this is sort of a tipping point in some way to really do something meaningful," he said. "I am a hunter, a bow hunter just so you know, but I can't imagine why anybody would want these assault rifles. It just doesn't seem to me to make any sense."

Newtown Police Lt. George Sinko said the students? collective sense of security has been shattered.

"Obviously, there's going to be a lot of apprehension. We just had a horrific tragedy. We had babies sent to school that should be safe and they weren't," Sinko said. "You can't help but think... if this could happen again."

Full coverage: Tragedy at Sandy Hook

Even as schools were reopening, two more kids ? 6-year-olds Jessica Rekos and James Mattioli -- were being laid to rest.

Wakes also were scheduled Tuesday for Charlotte Bacon and Daniel Barden and for teacher Victoria Soto, 27, hailed as a hero for shielding her students in a closet.

On Monday, the first two funerals for shooting victims were held, with Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6, laid to rest in tiny coffins.

The slain children?s parents have been releasing statements praising school staffers and emergency responders.

The family of 6-year-old Dylan Hockley, a special needs student, said they chose Newtown for its excellent schools and ?shall never regret this choice.?

?Dylan's teacher, Vicki Soto, was warm and funny and Dylan loved her dearly.? We take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died, but was wrapped in the arms of his amazing aide, Anne Marie Murphy,? they added.

New details emerge on private lives of Adam Lanza, his mother

The father of Emilie Parker, 6, said he hoped her memory would inspire Americans to do good.

?Remember these beautiful children; keep them close to our hearts. Do not let their bright shining faces become extinguished,? he wrote.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has called for a moment of silence on Friday at 9:30 a.m., exactly one week after massacre, one of the deadliest school schootings in U.S. history. Twenty-six church bells would be rung, one for each life lost.

David Friedman / NBC News

A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15990432-nervous-parents-send-kids-back-to-school-in-newtown?lite

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Instagram says users' photos won't appear in ads

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Instagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service now owned by Facebook, said Tuesday that it will remove language from its new terms of service suggesting that users' photos could appear in advertisements.

The language in question had appeared in updated policies announced Monday and scheduled to take effect Jan. 16. After an outcry on social media and privacy rights blogs, the company clarified that it has no plans to put users' photos in ads.

That said, Instagram maintains that it was created to become a business and would like to experiment with various forms of advertisements to make money. Instagram doesn't currently run any ads. As of now, the free service has no way to make money and brings in no revenue to Facebook.

"Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience," Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

What had riled users and privacy advocates was Instagram's new assertion that it may now receive payments from businesses to use its members' photos, user name and other data "in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation" to them.

Instagram didn't offer many details at the time. Its blog post on Monday made no mention of ads or other commercial activities, though it offered links to the new privacy policy and terms of service. Those documents spell out what the service could do, but say little about actual plans.

Instead, Instagram merely said the changes will help its service "function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups." Facebook Inc. also recently updated its privacy policy to allow for more integration with Instagram.

"This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used," the earlier blog post said, adding that the updates also "help protect you, and prevent spam and abuse as we grow."

Facebook bought Instagram in September for $715.3 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock.

Instagram's new policy, which takes effect Jan. 16, suggests that Facebook wants to integrate Instagram into its ad-serving system.

"These services are publicly advertised as 'free,' but the free label masks costs to privacy, which include the responsibility of monitoring how these companies sell data, and even how they change policies over time," said Chris Hoofnagle, director of Information Privacy Programs at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

The fast-growing service has become a popular way to share photos from cellphones. The Instagram app, available for the iPhone and Android devices, offers a variety of filters to give photos a retro feel or other look. Although many other apps also offer filters for enhancing photos, they don't offer the sharing features and community aspects of Instagram.

Instagram has had a loyal following since before Facebook bought it. The purchase worried some of the earliest fans of the service, who feared Facebook would swallow up their beloved community.

Users must accept the new terms when they go into effect or leave the Instagram.

Twitter users were vowing to cancel their Instagram accounts. They complained that the new terms would essentially let the service sell people's photos for ads ? something Instagram said Tuesday it doesn't plan to do.

Facebook's stock price increased nearly 4 percent on Tuesday amid the Instagram ads chatter, to close at $27.71.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/instagram-says-users-photos-wont-223021262.html

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Nielsen's top programs for Dec. 10-16

(AP) ? Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 10-16. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.

1. NFL Football: San Francisco at New England, NBC, 23.23 million.

2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 19.63 million.

3. "NCIS," CBS, 17.65 million.

4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 16.74 million.

5. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.12 million.

6. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.62 million.

7. "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.08 million.

8. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.34 million.

9. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 12.33 million.

10. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.01 million.

11. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 11.52 million.

12. "Survivor: Philippines" (Sunday), CBS, 11.46 million.

13. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 11.04 million.

14. "Modern Family," ABC, 10.94 million.

15. "2 Broke Girls" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 10.78 million.

16. "Football Night in America," NBC, 10.47 million.

17. "Elementary," CBS, 10.46 million.

18. "Survivor: Philippines," CBS, 10.37 million.

19. "Vegas," CBS, 10.33 million.

20. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9.84 million.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is a unit of News Corp.; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-18-US-Nielsens-List/id-963ad948d9eb402eb35b01efd75577cd

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Loans and Finance: Cyprus To Default

According to Cyprus Finance Ministry Secretary Christos Patsalides Cyprus is going to default within days unless it receives Euro300BN.

Oddly enough there are some people who have been taken by surprise by this development.

I don't understand why, in August I wrote the following:

"Cyprus has barely managed to sell Euro23.1M of government bonds.

It achieved a "bid to cover ratio" of 1 (ie there were only just enough "punters" prepared to buy them), at a yield of 7% (the last auction in June achieved a yield of 6.25%).

A yield of 7% is "the point of no return"; it is the level at which Greece, Portugal and Ireland went with their begging bowls to others asking for a bailout.

Why is Cyprus having problems?

Around 40% of its largest banks' exposures are to Greece."

Therefore this should come as no surprise to anyone.

Source: http://loanbuster.blogspot.com/2012/12/cyprus-to-default.html

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After Florida trip, Winooski mayor talks F-35

WINOOSKI, Vt. ?

Mayor Michael O?Brien, D-Winooski, provided a summary of his trip to Valparaiso, Fla., to hear the F-35 in action, but stopped short of saying whether he supports basing the planes in Chittenden County.

O?Brien joined Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vt., and Mayor Miro Weinberger, D-Burlington, on the chartered flight last Wednesday. The trip was paid for by the Greater Burlington Industrial Corp., which has endorsed bringing the jets to the Vermont Air Guard.

According to the draft of the Air Force?s Environmental Impact Statement, nearly 2,000 homes in Winooski could be deemed uninhabitable because of noise produced by the new planes.

According to the dEIS, 1,578 homes already lie within the 65 DNL contour. That number could grow to as high as 2,944 under an Air Force scenario, the document said.

A Winooski resident said the numbers crunched by the military are from 2000 Census data. Horace Shaw said with the 2010 Census, 4,200 housing units would be within the 65 day-night average sound level (DNL) area.

?I'm reluctant to start building and remodeling a house here, because I feel that a designation that's unsuitable for residential use will adversely affect my ability to sell these properties,? said contractor and Winooski resident Brock Richardson.

To try to get a sense of the noise, since the F-35 will not test-fly over Vermont, O?Brien accepted an invitation for a seat on the GBIC flight.

He even brought his iPad and downloaded an application to measure sound. He admits his tests are unscientific, but said the trip provided an opportunity to see the planes in action.

?To my ear, there wasn't a big difference in noise volume,? O?Brien said.

He said he was positioned on the air field similar to where Winooski lies in relation to the air guard base.

Source: http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/After-Florida-trip-Winooski-Mayor-O-Brien-talks-F-35/-/8869880/17811204/-/c1y3bj/-/index.html?absolute=true

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Asian shares inch higher on "fiscal cliff" hopes

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares crept higher on Tuesday, tracking the overnight gains in U.S. stocks on optimism for progress in resolving the U.S. budget crisis before the year-end deadline.

Expectations of more monetary easing kept the yen soft.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 percent, after ending an eight-day winning streak on Monday as investors took profits from last week's rally.

Australian shares rose 0.6 percent, lifted by a rise in iron ore prices to a five-month high and by gains on Wall Street. South Korean shares opened up 0.4 percent.

Global shares advanced on Monday, supported by signs of tentative progress on negotiations to avert the U.S. "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts due to set in at the start of next year.

While the fiscal cliff remains a major focus for markets, prices may become unlikely to rise with players taking profits to close their books before leaving for the holidays, traders said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and top Republican John Boehner met at the White House on Monday, with simple evidence of ongoing communication keeping alive hopes that Washington will be able to resolve the budget crisis.

"There was no meaningful breakthrough in the negotiations, but the high-level meetings do improve investor sentiment," said Kim Soon-young, an analyst at IBK Securities.

The dollar steadied around 83.91 yen, off a 20-month high of 84.48 yen hit on Monday but well above its late New York levels on Friday.

The yen slumped broadly on Monday after the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's election triumph opened the way for a cabinet headed by LDP leader Shinzo Abe, who is calling for far more aggressive monetary stimulus and huge public works spending to rescue Japan out of decades-long deflation.

Abe, who is due to be confirmed as Japan's next premier on December 26, applied fresh pressure on the Bank of Japan on Monday, saying that the election result reflected strong public support for his views, which he hoped the BOJ would take into account at its two-day policy meeting starting on Wednesday.

"The dollar has more upside against the yen ahead of the BOJ's meeting, with expectations for some additional easing steps being strengthened after Abe's comments yesterday," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

"The corrective fall in the dollar/yen after the election was small and it's crawling up because the yen weakening trend is still intact. But after the BOJ meeting, there will likely be pre-holiday profit-taking, pushing the dollar/yen down by 1-2 yen," he said.

By putting pressure on the yen, Abe's election win was also seen as supportive for Japanese stocks as a weak yen improves prospects for Japanese corporate export earnings.

After closing Monday at a 8-1/2-month peak on the yen's slide, Japan's Nikkei stock average was likely to pause for now. The Nikkei opened 0.2 percent higher.

"The so-called Abe trade is likely to be over. I think the market will see some sell-off but will be supported by dip buying," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Inc.

Asset returns in 2012: http://link.reuters.com/nyw85s

Japan economic snapshot: http://link.reuters.com/jyc64t

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U.S. crude rose 0.3 percent to $87.44 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in Tokyo and Somang Yang in Seoul; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-inch-higher-fiscal-cliff-hopes-005448351--finance.html

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Tedesco Home Improvement and Remodeling Brigantine NJ serving ...

http://www.tedescoremodeling.com ?

Tedesco Home Improvvement and Remodeling Brigantine NJ serving Atlantic County. We specialize in kitchen and bath remodels, room additions, tile work and handyman jobs in Atlantic City.With over 30 years in the industry, an exceptional eye for detail, insistence on the highest-quality materials, and constant communication with our clients, we at Michael Tedesco Building & Renovations, LLC have built a reputation as the area?s premier home improvement and renovation specialists.

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Source: http://www.humansthink.com/content/tedesco-home-improvement-and-remodeling-brigantine-nj-serving-atlantic-county

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