RE/MAX Agents Share Ten Ways to Get the Best of Winter When Selling Your Home

If your home will be for sale this winter, it is important to master certain seasonal issues that are less significant or even non-existent at other times of the year. Here are 10 bits of sage advice from RE/MAX agents that can help put a “Sold” sticker on that yard sign.

Let Those Lights Shine: The best way to combat winter’s short and frequently cloudy days is to turn on your house lights. For a showing, every single light in the house must be on, even in the closets and utility/mechanical rooms, according to Marlene Granacki of RE/MAX Exclusive Properties, Chicago.

“Make sure all the bulbs are working, and stock up on all the right bulbs for lamps and fixtures so burned out bulbs can be replaced immediately,” she advises. “Also, it’s a great idea to keep the lights on in the front of the house even if no showings are scheduled. People are always driving past the house, and keeping it lighted makes it look happy and welcoming.”

Provide Convenient Parking: It’s vital that buyers have a convenient place to park. They won’t want to walk very far in cold weather or be forced to climb over a snow bank to exit their vehicle. Because parking is often more restricted around condominiums, sellers should make sure their agent can pass along parking details to buyers.

Make It Easy to Enter: Winter showings can get off to an awkward start if prospective buyers arrive with snow or salt on their shoes.

“Make it easy for buyers to deal with their shoes when they arrive,” recommends Barbara Hibnick of RE/MAX Showcase, Long Grove, Ill. “Put a festive area rug at the front door for a great first impression and so visitors can wipe their feet. Have slippers or disposable booties available, along with a bench or chair, if there is room for one, where a visitor can sit and easily remove or put on their boots.”

Keep Odors Under Control: Any home tends to be stuffy in winter when windows are opened rarely. That can allow odors to build up, which can be a turn-off to buyers.

“Pet odors can be especially worrisome in winter,” says Mike Mondello of RE/MAX Synergy in Orland Park, Ill. “Use a room fragrance if needed, but nothing too strong, and I recommend that in winter sellers clean more often.” For example, change the cat litter daily, rather than every third or fourth day, or even consider using an air purifier.

If pets are in the house, consider setting the thermostat control so that the furnace fan runs constantly during the day to keep air moving through the house and dissipate odors. Also try to avoid strong cooking odors, especially if a showing is scheduled that day.

Cultivate a Festive Look: Appropriate decorations for Thanksgiving, Christmas and even St. Valentine’s Day help give a home a cheerful look during the winter months.

“I really believe that holiday decorations can help homes sell, but don’t go to excess,” suggests Starr Zook of RE/MAX On Track in Aledo, Ill. “Keeping small, decorative white lights on trees and bushes pretty much through the winter season is fine, but other decorations should be taken down quickly once the holiday passes.”

Don’t Ignore the Outdoors: Make a good first impression on buyers with a neatly maintained yard. Walks and steps should be kept clear, especially of snow and ice.

Don’t Roast Buyers: We all tend to prefer a specific temperature for our homes during the winter, but don’t blast buyers with hot air. Keep the temperature at a comfortable 65 degrees for all showings. Remember, buyers are likely to be wearing their coats even as they walk through the house.

Keep Seasonal Clothing under Control: “One major challenge of selling a home during the winter months is the overabundance of cold weather gear that must be stored,” says Mike Mondello. “A buyer doesn’t want to find the mudroom filled with boots or the hall closet overflowing with heavy coats. Shift some winter coats to another closet and put anything not needed in the closet into storage.”

Encourage Day Time Showings: A home shows to its best advantage during daylight hours, which are relatively scarce in winter.

“Encourage your agent to show your home before 3 p.m. and have it ready to show by 9 a.m. if you want the best results,” Granacki recommends.

Despite the special challenges of marketing a home during winter, there also are benefits, notes Laura Ortoleva, a spokesperson for the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.

“Buyers out looking at homes in December or January are, as a group, quite serious about buying. Therefore, sellers tend to benefit because each showing is more productive, and fewer showings are needed to sell the property,” she said.

Wildfire Survivors Have Choices With Recovery Grants

"How can I spend the money?" That question is being asked by many Texas wildfire survivors who have received recovery grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency .

More than 80 percent of the nearly $12.6 million in grants FEMA has provided since the wildfires have been aimed at getting survivors into permanent safe, sanitary and functional housing — in the best way they see fit. Instead of using a grant to repair or rebuild a damaged home, for example, recipients may apply the funds toward the purchase of alternate housing.

“In the information packet we send to eligible survivors, FEMA provides guidelines on how to use the money,” said Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin L. Hannes. “However, we want to empower Texans to take charge of their recovery by providing options.”

FEMA’s Individual and Household Program includes grants for temporary housing, home repair or replacement, and other disaster-related needs.

Temporary housing grants allow homeowners and renters to lease a dwelling for a limited period of time when the disaster has made their home uninhabitable. Survivors can choose to rent an apartment or a home. In Bastrop and other wildfire-damaged Texas counties with a shortage of rental properties, FEMA has provided temporary housing units while survivors work on a permanent housing solution.

Survivors receiving temporary housing grants will successfully manage the money when they: Use it for rent and not for home repairs, personal property or other items. Save receipts, as these will be required if a survivor wishes to request additional rental assistance.

Housing repair or replacement grants help eligible homeowners get back into a safe, sanitary and functional home. The funds are not intended to bring a home to its predisaster condition. A grant can be used to help purchase a new home, to purchase materials or to hire contractors or skilled trades workers to complete essential repairs in such areas as: The foundation, outside walls or roof Windows, doors, floors, walls, ceilings and cabinetry Septic or sewage system Well or other water system Heating, ventilating and air conditioning system Utilities — electrical, plumbing, and gas systems Blocking, leveling, and anchoring a mobile home and reconnecting or resetting its sewer, water, electrical, fuel lines and tanks

Other Needs Assistance grants are given to eligible homeowners and renters for a wide variety of losses, including self-employed workers’ lost tools or protective gear, students’ damaged educational materials, household items, furniture, appliances, fuel to heat a home, vehicle damage, clean-up tools such as a wet/dry vacuum or air purifiers, moving and storage expenses or medical and dental expenses caused by the disaster, including lost medications or medical equipment.

Survivors can preserve peace of mind by spending the money on disaster recovery, keeping good records of their spending and saving receipts for three years. If specific receipts are missing, a credit card statement or other evidence can show the grant money was spent on wildfire recovery. As with many other federal programs, the government audits a percentage of grants to assure the money was spent as intended.

HEPA Air Purifiers AirInstinct Monitors Air at its Smart Sensor

Oreck Corporation, a leading manufacturer of quality products in the homecare industry, introduces two new HEPA air purifiers to its lineup with AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200. Both models feature a three-year HEPA filter and are ENERGY STAR qualified.

Unlike most air purifiers that offer different speeds but leave users wondering when to turn it on and at what speed, Oreck’s AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200 continuously monitor particles in the air passing through its Smart Air Sensors and adjust airflow speed accordingly. Both models utilize Oreck’s unique PATH (Pre-filter, Anti-odor,True HEPA) filtration system that enables users to “turn it on and walk away.” A four-color lighting system lets users know when the unit is working and at what speed.

“With AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200, Oreck has merged advanced technology, superior design and HEPA filtration into smart air purifiers that take the guesswork out of the process for the user,” says Scott Vogel, Chief Marketing Officer, Oreck.

The Oreck AirInstinct 100 comes with a three-year HEPA filter and a one-year odor filter installed. The Oreck AirInstinct 200 comes with a three-year HEPA filter and a three-year odor filter installed. Filter life on both the HEPA and odor filters will vary with usage and environment. Additionally, AirInstinct 200 has two extra features, a power saving and a sleep mode, both of which minimize energy consumption.

Airflow speed is adjusted automatically when unit is set on automode. Particle reduction and air circulation depend on many factors. All air in a room may not pass through the filter.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Oreck Corporation is a leading manufacturer in the homecare industry, offering a variety of vacuum, air purification and other cleaning products. Oreck sells its products in hundreds of Oreck Clean Home Centers, as well as through phone and online direct sales.

Honeywell True HEPA Air Filter Review

Raise your hand if you’re skeptical about Hepa filters? Since you can’t see what I’m doing, I’m literally raising my hand, or use to.  That is until I had the chance to test out Honeywell’s True HEPA Compact Tower air purifier.

In terms of the gadgets we review it’s relatively unremarkable.  It’s body is crafted from plastic, there is a dial on the top to control 3 fans speeds and the back flap opens up allowing you to change out the HEPA filters, which needs to happen once a year.  Honeywell includes a carbon filter in the box that is designed to filter out odors and smells.  Since my bedroom has a scented oil therapy thingee – the chicks dig it – I opted to not use this.

So why am I now a card carrying HEPA air filter fan?  Before I tested out Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter I vacuumed my room once a week.  And every week I collected a fair amount of dust.  Now, keep in mind that I leaving my windows closed 90% of the year, if not more.  Crazy, I know, but since I have a fairly strong allergy to mold I figure better to play it safe  than not (plus I live in Santa Monica and it doesn’t get above 75 degrees even during the summer).  After installing Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter and letting it run for a week’s time I could notice not only a reduction in dust on my nightstands and the edge of my LED TV, but even in the vacuum after completing a solid sweep.  But it gets better than that.  I also noticed that I now wake up feeling far less congested, which leads me to the only logical conclusion; the Honeywell Hepa filter actually does work to improve the air quality of a room.

In terms of effectiveness, my room is about 15×15 at the most and that doesn’t include my bathroom or closets.  Nonetheless, it’s designed to work in room’s up to 300 sq feet, but since I can only attest to my room and my experience I can stay it’s effective.  Throughout my testing I kept the fan at 1, which is the lowest setting, though on certain days, say after I had the windows open, I’d crank it to the highest setting, 3, and let it filter out all the toxins that had been collected in my room’s air.  However, at this setting the fan can be a bit intrusive, especially if you watch TV or listen to music close by, but the lowest setting didn’t impede upon my movie watching experience.

So what more can I say.  The Honeywell True HEPA  works.  It cleans the air, isn’t too loud and is easy to setup.  It’s not the coolest looking of Hepafilters, but it’s not the worst.

Cyrus Mistry and the $5 bn brand consumers cannot avoid

Can you remember the last time you watched a programme on TV for a couple of hours and did not see a commercial for any Tata brand?

Today, it’s difficult for an average consumer to avoid a Tata brand in his or her normal consumption pattern. For air-conditioners, water coolers, water dispensers  and water purifiers, there’s Voltas. In cars, you have the Indica, Indigo, Manza, Sumo and, of course, the Nano. In beverages, you have Tata Café, Tata Tea, Tetley Tea and Himalaya water. In entertainment, you have Tata Sky services. In the hotel business, you have the Taj, Vivanta and Ginger. In jewellery, there’s Tanishq. In watches, you have Titan and the brand extension, Titan Eye, for spectacles. In retail, there’s Westside, Landmark, Croma and Tashi. In telecom, Tata Indicom and Tata DoCoMo are major players.

“I think the world over realisation has dawned that as economies develop and consumers have more spending power, people don’t buy products, they buy a promise. A brand is nothing but a way of expressing a promise.

“Today, the Tatas represent assurance, reliability, a sense of nationalism, value for money, and such other attributes that have been built over several decades. Irrespective of the product you are making, those are the attributes you would like to be known for, whether it is through a wrist watch, a piece of software or a car. It is for this reason that the Tata name goes well with a diversity of products — from tea and salt to an Indica car, software development and steel,” Gopalakrishnan had said in the same interview.

What does all this mean for Cyrus Mistry? “He also spoke about how the Tata brand has evolved over the years. From $300 million in 1998 it has gone and become a $.5 billion brand. They are also expecting this number to double by the end of 2011-12 when they do the next assessment of the brand valuation,” moneycontrol reported.

The adjectives that one didn’t see before Ratan Tata took charge as chairman in 1981  are adjectives that very easily come to mind now — aggressive, vibrant, exciting, multinational, risk-taking.

It’s in the businesses and geographies that Ratan Tata has led the group into in the past decade that makes us think differently about what the Tata brand represents. In the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, for example, the ‘value-for-money’ tag that the Tata brand name has stood for is pushed into the background, but world-class and multinational come to the fore.

“Tata Motors on Wednesday announced its entry into the international luxury car market with some style as the company snapped up two of Britain’s most famous names in automobile manufacturing, Jaguar and Land Rover, in a $2.3 billion deal with Ford, their American owners. “Ford says Tata to Jaguar” declared a front-page headline in a British newspaper as the country woke up to the loss of a bit of its motoring history in a classic case of the empire striking back,” The Hindu had gushed.

The Corus buy instantly made Tata a risk-taker — and a global player.

“The Tata Group is celebrating its acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus, and the catapulting of Tata Steel into world steel’s big-five status . It should. The $11 billion deal is a marker in the ground….But Tata-Corus is the largest out of India, and is done by a private sector entity of its own volition, away from the shadow of state influence. For these reasons, it bears noticing,” said Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge.

When this commercial — We also make steel — was made, there weren’t many products in the Tata stable which were consumer-facing and exciting, save for Titan watches. What else did Tata make? They made salt, soap (Tata OK, for example), airconditioners , tea, trucks, and they ran hotels under the Taj umbrella. Except for the Taj, which had a few properties abroad, most of their consumer-facing brands were India focused, and, with the exception of Titan, and, to an extent, Voltas, hardly exciting.

Now, there’s a launch or an acquisition every few months. And every brand that is launched or bought has to pay royalty to Tata Sons for the use of  ‘the group mark and logo’ thanks to the Brand Equity and Business Promotion Agreement, which is signed by Tata Sons and individual group companies.

That’s an addition to the bottom-line of Tata Sons even as there’s appreciation in the brand valuation.

The brand has become so much more than it was when Ratan Tata ‘inherited’ it. In addition to Tata standing for assurance, reliability, a sense of nationalism, value for money and similar attributes before Ratan Tata took over, attributes like exciting, vibrant, diversified, international, aggressive and risk-taking have been added —together handing Cyrus Mistry a $5.5 billion brand to manage.

Thankfully, there’s one attribute that Mistry has which should be of immense help to him as Ratan Tata hands over the baton. It’s an adjective that none associates with the Tatas – young.

“My only regret is that I am not 20 years younger because I think India’s going through a very exciting period in its history,” Ratan Tata had said earlier this year in an interview with CNN.

Singapore-listed direct-selling company opens in the Philippines

Best World Lifesyle (BWL) founder and chief executive Dora Hoan said the company’s operations in the Philippines is part of its regional expansion activities.

BWL, which was founded in Singapore in 1990, currently has operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Australia and China. It has also started operations in Korea earlier this year.

Ms. Hoan said the Philippines is a “missing link” in the company’s operations in the region. “We are very aware how big is the direct-selling business here in the Philippines. We know that there is a lot of opportunities here,” Ms. Hoan told BusinessWorld in an interview last week.

The company officially opened its offices at the Robinsons Equitable Tower in Ortigas Center last Saturday. BWL’s parent firm, Best World International, is listed as the only direct-selling company on the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2004.

BWL sells all-natural skin care and personal care products, health care equipment like water and air purifiers, and plant-based nutritional supplements, among others.

In March last year, Best World International disclosed to the Singapore Stock Exchange that it has established a joint-venture company in the Philippines called BWL Health & Sciences, Inc. for its direct- selling operations in the country.

Best World International owns 80% of the joint venture, while the remaining 20% is held by Bestworld Capital Ventures Corp., a private limited company incorporated in the Philippines.

The joint vernture was incorporated with an initial paid-up capital of P11.7 million.

Ms. Hoan, who is currently the chairperson of the Association Services Committee for the World Federation of Direct Selling Association, said BWL is looking at having 3,000 sales agents in the Philippines in the coming months.

These agents will bring BWL’s products closer to consumers. “We are confident that our products will find their markets here in the Philippines,” Ms. Hoan said.

For its initial rollout in the Philippines, BWL will be selling its Avance line of nutrional supplements, the Optrimax brand of slimming products, and the Aestier and Dr’s Secret skin care brands.

Ms. Hoan said the company will bring in more of its products in the coming months, as Filipinos become more aware of BWL.

Airpura And Austin Air Purifiers Offer Industry Leading Air Purification

Stop breathing contaminated air when you get an Austin Air purifier that is made from the highest quality material and are designed from the inside out. The primary focus of Austin Air purifiers is the filter. Austin Air purifiers are designed to take in air from every side at the same time. The purifier then processes the air into each of these four distinct filter stages that very effectively removes all contaminants.

What this does is create the maximum in efficiency of airflow, as well as a significantly longer than average filter life. Commonly, the filters last for five years under normal residential use. For an air purifier to produce the ultimate in clean, healthy air, it must eliminate all gases, submicron particles, and noxious chemicals. In addition, air purifiers should not produce any dangerous byproducts such as ozone.

Austin Air only uses the best, highest quality medical grade HEPA and activated carbon filters. This is the only filter technology is allowed and trusted for use in both hospitals and operating rooms. Unlike ion generators and electrostatic precipitators, none of Austin Air’s cleaners produce any byproducts. Austin Air’s HEPA filters are 99.97 percent efficient at capturing all airborne particles that are as small as 0.3 microns. They are also 95 percent efficient for airborne particles that are small as 0.1 microns. This is truly the most effective particle filter that you can purchase.

All of Austin Air’s activated carbon filters are manufactured to be highly porous, which leaves the surface area of the carbon more exposed which allows it to capture and chemically bind more contaminants like VOCs and noxious gases. Austin Air purifier bodies are all made of solid steel and, as a powder coated, non-toxic paint that is reliable, strong and supplies superior longevity. Because all of these air filters are made of the highest quality and a reliable, every Austin Air purifier comes with a five-year warranty, including a five-year prorated warranty on all filters.

In addition to Austin Air’s exemplary air purifiers, you can also purchase an AirPura air purifier that offers specific purifying qualities for every need. Regardless of your surrounding air, you can choose an Airpura air purifier. Is excellent for people with allergies, to purify tobacco smoke, to eliminate germs, eliminate VOC’s, or an air purifier that provides you with photo catalytic oxidation.

All of Airpura’s air purifiers are extremely simple, powerful, effective and provide the cleanest air possible. Airpura offers the simplest yet most effective airflow, for maximum efficiency and noise reduction. They all come with a powerful, variable speed fan motor, which you can choose the rate at which you clean your air, from a super quiet setting to the premium power filtering setting that provides you with 560 CFM capacity.

It took me two years to quit smoking

My relationship with cigarettes began long before I adopted the habit. I was born in the eighties, when the restrictions on tobacco that we see today were merely a gleam in the Surgeon General’s eye, and all over town people were lighting up in eateries and indoor shopping centres.

My mother told me smoking was a “filthy habit” but I found it glamorous and grown-up. I used to mimic the adults I saw in restaurants. In between sips of imaginary wine, I’d bring a white Popeye cigarette candy to my lips and pretend to inhale, feeling like a very sophisticated six-year-old.

It was inevitable that I would try smoking – I just needed an opportunity. When I was in Grade 8, I got my chance. My best friend’s mother was a heavy smoker and left cigarettes around her house in various drawers. Our curiosity got the better of us and we borrowed a few from a pack we found in the living room. Which led to borrowing more. Regularly.

When I was 14, most of my evenings were spent in my friend’s smoke-filled bathroom. With an open window and a towel under the door, we’d watch ourselves in the mirror, perfecting our technique. We spoke with elaborate hand gestures, enjoying the added drama of holding a cigarette. We practised blowing Os. At 10 p.m., I would drown myself in perfume and walk home with my secret safely masked under a barrier of coconut and floral aromas. The whole thing felt taboo.

Smoking was my first act of teenage rebellion. It brought excitement into my otherwise mundane, predrinking-age life. It was the nineties and the health implications of tobacco use had become apparent. But the well-meaning anti-smoking campaigns aimed at young people inadvertently sensationalized the habit. Smoking was now legitimately “bad,” and it had never been cooler. My friends and I would unapologetically light up in the bus station, in doorways and right outside the movie theatre.

Like a burning ember that retreats into the soggy end of a filter, the shock value eventually fizzled out. I was aware that my smoking habit had become more of a necessity than a novelty, but I truly believed I could stop any time I wanted. I based this on an inflated sense of self-control and the fact that I had never pictured myself as an adult smoker. The millennium celebration came and went and I resolved to work out more and eat less pizza. I puffed away in my party dress and sparkly gold New Year’s tiara, unaware of the changes to come.

Smoking bans were introduced and even in bars and nightclubs, smokers were forced outdoors. There was nothing glamorous about sucking down a cigarette through chattering teeth on a below-freezing winter night. But still this did not dissuade me. I began chain-smoking at home, which turned my one-bedroom condo into an interior disaster.

My countertops were cluttered with overflowing ashtrays. Small round burns dotted the couch and carpet. The stench of hundreds of cigarettes stubbornly clung to the walls, despite my air purifier and ornamental potpourri. I was disgusted by these conditions and too ashamed of the mess to invite people over. My once social habit was ostracizing me, yet I lived like this for several years.

Over time I began to see smoking for what it really was: a pointless habit that was ruining my health and draining my finances. All the things that had initially drawn me to it were childish notions, adolescent fantasies. The honeymoon was over. I wanted out.

Coughing a sign of feline asthma

Like many cat owners, I no longer need to use an alarm clock. My cats keep time perfectly and wake me up every morning at 5:30 sharp for breakfast. As the time comes, one of the cats (Appomattox) will lie on the pillow, purring in my ear. Another cat (Kitty) likes to sit on the bedside table, systematically knocking everything off. The third cat (Clara Barton) runs back and forth across the bed. One morning, however, I was awakened much earlier by a horrible, almost indescribable noise. It was a combination of a cough, a hack and a wheeze, and it was coming out of Appomattox.

This noise is frequently called “coughing up a hairball” and that it is a sign of feline lower airway disease, also called feline asthma. Asthma in cats is a condition caused by inflammation and constriction of the airways in the lungs. Mucus forms in the respiratory tract and the airway walls spasm. The result is coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Many cats will have a mild form of asthma that is manifested only by an occasional cough. Other cats will have life-threatening asthma attacks that require hospitalization.

There are several diseases that can mimic asthma, including heartworm, heart failure and lungworms. Diagnosing asthma in cats starts with a chest X-ray to evaluate the heart and lungs. The inflamed airways cause a classic pattern in the lungs although some asthmatic cats can have normal X-rays. Other tests that help confirm a diagnosis of asthma include taking a fluid sample from the lungs to look for elevated numbers of eosinophils, a white blood cell that fights allergens. Testing to rule out the look-alike diseases is important before starting a treatment protocol.

It is currently believed that allergens are at least part of the cause of feline asthma. It is important to consider possible allergens in your home if you have an asthmatic cat. Exposure to cigarette smoke is a common cause. Dust and dust mites are common household allergens as are air fresheners. If your cat has seasonal signs, pollen may be the cause.

Treatment for asthma can require lifetime therapy. It usually involves a combination of a medication that dilates the airways and a steroid medication to suppress the inflammation. These medications are traditionally given orally; however, inhalers can also be used to decrease the amount of oral medications. Since cats won’t take a deep breath on command, use of inhalers requires patience, persistence and training. Removing any possible allergens in your home, trying low-dust kitty litter, and purchasing an air purifier may also minimize medication requirements. It is also possible to do allergy testing and use allergy shots for asthmatic cats.

As a side note, a cat can’t actually cough up a hairball. When your cat produces a hairball for you, it is a result of vomiting. However, if you have heard your cat cough or your cat has had a previous asthma attack, it is important to realize that there is a lot going on beneath the surface inside the lungs. In my case, Appomattox was lucky. We moved from a carpeted apartment to an apartment with hardwood floors, and her cough vanished. Having your cat evaluated for asthma, making lifestyle changes and adding treatments can go a long way to making your cat feel a lot better!

Dr. Natalee Holt is originally from the Washington, D.C., area. She received her doctorate of veterinary medicine from the Kansas State College of Veterinary Medicine. She became board-certified in Internal Medicine in 2011, completed a one-year internship at the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a three-year residency at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Holt loves all aspects of internal medicine, but has a special interest in gastrointestinal diseases and immune mediated diseases. She and her husband Jonathan share their home with Becca the dog, Jasmine the rabbit, and their three cats, Kitty, Clara, and Appomattox.

Destiny’ – Shallow Gameplay Mars this Mutey Release

Shallow. That’s one way to describe X-Men: Destiny. It’s a game that you want to love. Conceptually, it sets itself apart from mutant adventures of the past. Instead of fighting as one of Marvel’s legendary cache of mutants, you get to build one up from scratch. However, the monotonous gameplay screams lazy design. The lackluster AI feels ripped out of the world of 8-bit gaming (16-bit would be a stretch). It plays out more like a game adapted from a movie property rather than a standalone title – the latter of which is something you would hope for after Activision’s 2010 Marvel title Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Unfortunately, Beenox isn’t the developer on this one. If it weren’t for the rich roster of guest-mutey appearances in X-Men: Destiny and a comic book inspired story arc, there would be little enjoyment at all to be found in this game. As at it stands, the Destiny of this X-Men title is grim at best.

The game starts off with Cyclops and Emma Frost (The White Queen) establishing the X-Men’s new home in San Francisco. The setup is taken directly from the comic books. Cyclops and the Mutant Response Division (MRD) are ready to setup a peaceful environment for mutants in SF. In the crowd, three new mutants are lurking around waiting to be chosen. Adrian Luca is the child of a Purifier, an anti-mutant militia group. Aima Yoshida is smuggled out of Japan by her mutant father. Grant Alexander is a college freshman with no relation to the mutant issue. Your best options for story are to choose either Aima or Adrian. Once you pick your character, the game begins and the peaceful, mutant loving rally is attack. All fingers point to Magneto. However, the Purifiers are also there to show the world how evil mutants are.

The story focuses on trying to figure out who started the mutant attack. You also realize that there is some kind of dissension in the Purifiers, some simply want to kill mutants while others are taking mutants hostage. Hold on to the story for dear life because that’s the only thing that’s intriguing about this game. Several known mutants show up, terrifically characterized but not terrifically used. It’s great to see Northstar make his video game debut and of course it’s always a joy to see Gambit. The swamp rat’s characterization and voicing are spot on. However, these comic characters tend to attack the air. Known mutants who attack with or against you might as well be holograms. That’s how ineffective they are in battle. When I went up against Gambit, he was too busy attacking the wall to notice me attacking him from the side.

There are three types of powers your mutant can have: Density Control, Energy Projection or Shadow Matter. Density Control is more or less your Colossus type power, you can control your body mass and you have super human stamina and durability. Energy projection is for attacking enemies at a distance. Shadow Matter allows you to control dark matter; it also gives you modifiers to movement speed so that you can attack multiple enemies or deal severe damage to a single enemy.

Truthfully, it doesn’t matter which power you choose. The AI enemies move like dumb robots, often in a straight line. You can literally keep tapping the attack button and look away. It feels like you’re fighting through one long succession of Arena battles. The game actually lets you know how many enemies are left in the area. Coincidentally, there are also Challenge Arenas, which are timed battles.

There is some rudimentary RPG gaming in X-Men Destiny. You will often have to choose between helping the X-Men or the Brotherhood. You gain faction points when you do, which slightly modify the in-game dialogue. Regardless of which faction you choose, the action will always be the same. Slay several enemies and walk away. Still, it is amusing to choose between helping Nightcrawler or Mystique.

Probably the coolest thing in this game is seeing the guest-mutants appear. A comic panel tear-out appears on the screen showing their name. Seeing abstract characters like Caliban and Pixie show up will delight hardcore comics fans if they are able to suffer through the monotonous gameplay. I should also note that there is some platforming in this game, but it’s an appalling waste of time that feels tacked on.

Throughout the game, you can pick up various passive mutant abilities that give you offensive and defensive multipliers. Most of them are abstractly tied to known mutants. For instance Avalanche’s powers reduces damage, while Northstar’s X-gene lets you anticipate attacks.

Although the settings are different, like San Francisco’s Chinatown, the colors are drab and tend to run into one another. Most importantly, each enemy fights exactly the same way. Whether you are fighting Purifiers or Gambit’s Externals, you still feel like you’re fending off rodents from an Atari 2600 game.

Laporan wartawan Tribun Medan/Wiwi

Dalam memenuhi kebutuhan masyarakat dan memudahkan masyarakat dalam memperoleh produk Hannochs, maka stand Hannochs kini hadir di Plaza Medan Fair, Medan.

Stand Hannochs yang terdapat diatrium utara Plaza medan Fair ini menyediakan pelayanan bagi anda yang ingin memperoleh produk Hannochs yaitu water purifier. Pada stand ini, Hannochs hanya memajangkan beberapa jenis produknya. Namun, bila anda menginginkan produk lainnya, anda juga bisa memesannya di satand ini.

Salah satu produk yang ditawarkan adalah HPD 818 Everest. Dengan bentuknya yang kokoh dan elegan, HPD 818 ini  adalah salah satu jenis dispenser air yang sangat sesuai untuk ditempatkan di ruangan anda.

Bentuknya yang elegan akan menyatu dengan interior rumah anda. Desain compact built up RO system ini akan membantu anda untuk mendapatkan jaminan air minum yang sehat dan berkualitas  setiap saat tanpa harus menambah biaya untuk membeli air minum galonan.

“Anda tinggal mengubungkannya dengan saluran air PAM anda dan air ini akan disaring di dalam dispenser ini. Dispenser ini dilengkapi dengan saluran air panas dan dingin” ujar Ridwan, Marketing Hannochs.

Terdapat empat tahapan penyaringan dari HPD 818 yang berteknologi Reserve Osmosis  yang mampu menyaring kotoran kasar, kotoran kecil, virus dan bakteri dan juga polutan-polutan dalam air.

Air yang dihasilkan pun benar-benar terjaga kualitasnya. HPD 818 ini saat ini mendapatkan diskon 50 persen dimana anda hanya perlu membayar Rp 11.380.000 dimana harga sebelumnya adalah Rp 22. 760.000.

Produk Hannochs lainnya yang mendapatkan harga special yaitu R0C 228 yang dirancang dengan model compact Build dan sangat dinamis dengan sistem instalasi sangat mudah dan dimensinya yang tidak membutuhkan tempat khusus dalam peletakannya.

Produk ini memang dibuat khusus untuk keluarga anda yang konsumsi air minumnya sedikit dan juga untuk anda yang tinggal di apartemen.

The Dog Odor Answer

After you've figured out the cause of your dogs odor and address the problem, the next step is to get your home

smelling good, too.

No one knows how to tackle tough indoor doggie odor better than business owners and purebred hobbyists.

George Bernard, owner of Silver Trails: The Animal Inn, washes the floors and walls of his Westbrook, Conn. kennel

with a food-handling product that kills bacteria and odors on contact.

It's the same thing that's used on butcher blocks in butcher shops, so its edible, says Bernard, whose boarding

facility houses up to 150 animals. You can actually have a dog lick the floor and he won't get sick.

Booth, a groomer for 26 years, doesn't use any special cleaning liquids. Instead, she plugs in an ionic air purifier

to help freshen her 300 square-foot shop.

Dalmatian breeder Elaine Gewirtz tries to prevent odors before they start by cleaning her Southern California home on

a regular basis. Every week she vacuums carpets and washes floors. Each of her three dogs beds has removable covers,

making them easy to launder. She also opens windows frequently to air out the home.

Gewirtz has noticed that dogs left outside during the day while their owners are at work pick up unpleasant odors,

which they then bring indoors. She recommends brushing or wiping down dogs with a damp cloth before letting them in

the house.

By tackling odors in your home and on your pet, it won't be long before you not only love just your dog, but how he

smells too. 

Sharp tweaks China strategy, will sell appliances

Japan's home appliance giant Sharp Corporation recently announced the restructuring of its business in China. While maintaining its focus on mobile phones and LCD televisions, the company will unveil a series of eco-friendly white goods in China, including refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and air purifiers.

The home appliance maker disclosed that Sharp (China) Investment Company began operations in Beijing last month to replace its previous China head office in Shanghai. The eco-friendly white goods to be sold in China, including four models of refrigerators as well as two models of washing machines, air conditioners and air purifiers, are all from Sharp's newly established healthy environment department.

Sharp's business in the Chinese mainland used to be homogenous, and about 70 percent of its income came from LCD TVs, followed by mobile phones and electronic components. The contribution from white home appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners was relatively low.

Given the slow pace of growth in the LCD TV market, home appliance producers are all making efforts to diversify its operations to avert market risks. For foreign brands like Sharp, it means breaking into the home appliances that used to be only available at home markets to China. Furthermore, after establishing the information and communications department, Sharp also plans to introduce products including e-book readers, calculators and electronic dictionaries into the Chinese market.

Nobuyuki Kanno, Sharp's CEO of the greater China region, said that the proportion of the corporation's sales revenue from the greater China region to the total sales revenue of all the other non-Japan regions is increasing year by year and currently has exceeded that of the U.S. market. The greater China region has turned into the largest overseas market of the corporation.

Purified Air at Zhongnanhai Sparks Controversy

A major Chinese manufacturing company of air purifying equipment inadvertently revealed in an online advertisement that China’s ruling communist party officials are treated to fresh, clean air at their luxury compound of Zhongnanhai. Meanwhile the rest of Beijing citizens are treated to misleading daily air quality reports.

Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and for years Chinese have asked themselves why the Chinese communist party (CCP) leaders haven’t done something to improve Beijing’s air quality–don’t they have to breathe the same dirty air? It turns out, they don’t.

According to an ad posted by Changsha based air purifier company Yuanda Group, it didn’t take much effort to convince the CCP leaders to install over 200 of their US$2,000-per-unit air purifiers at Zhongnanhai. They first installed one unit in the meeting room of the Politburo Standing Committee. Not long after, the company received the order, it said.

“From living quarters and meeting rooms to swimming pools and fitness centers, everywhere at Zhongnanhai air purifiers have been installed,” Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post quoted from Yuanda’s website.

“When cleaning the air purifier, after seeing the dirty ink-like water, Yuanda air purifier soon became the chosen air purifier of national leaders,” the website said.

It also assured the public that “providing clean and healthy air for the national leaders is of great benefit to the people.”

Although the ad has been removed, the commotion it stirred up has spread through Chinese cyberspace and beyond.

A Nov. 4 New York Times article titled “The Privileges of China’s Elite Include Purified Air” said, according to Yuanda Group’s vice-president Zhang Zhong, the company installed over 200 air-purifiers in the Great Hall of the People, Hu Jintao’s office, and offices and homes of high ranking CCP officials.

The article drew a rebuke from the CCP’s mouthpiece Global Times on Nov. 7 saying, “A normal government purchase suddenly turns into privileges for the Chinese elite under the pen of an American correspondent who lacks in knowledge.”

The Beijing Evening News also came to the Party’s defense in a Nov. 8 article: “The New York Times links air quality to special privileges most hated by Chinese people, shows the reporter’s political sensitivity… But only citing the Yuanda website promotion about air purifiers in the report shows that the American reporter lacks professionalism.”

But the Chinese general public seems to have a different view. They wrote sarcastic, and sometimes scathing, messages on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular micro-blog.

One post said: “I think this is very believable. I always thought air quality in Beijing is so bad, those in Zhongnanhai must have taken some measures so they can breathe clean air, otherwise they would have moved by now. Whether it was the Yuanda company or not, I believe the special clean air [story] is definitely true.”

Another post said: “Everyone at CCP central needs to install a human conscience purifier. If they could purifier away a pot-full of black water from their soul, all of China’s problems would be solved.”

Another said: “It’s better the citizens don’t know, so they won’t be mentally polluted. It’s like with food safety that’s kept secret from people.”

Yuanda did not verify the installation of air purifiers in the offices and homes of CCP leaders, but the company spokesperson replied during an interview with Deutsche Presse, “Our customers do include many government agencies.”

Recently, Beijing’s air has been highly contaminated by brown smog. Air quality detector instruments at the U.S. embassy in Beijing have consistently displayed dangerous levels. Many well-known Chinese personalities post the air quality index published by the U.S. embassy on their Weibo blogs, and this value is much higher than the one published by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, according to a Beijing Morning News report on Nov. 1.

For example, on Oct. 31, the U.S. embassy air quality index was 307, and the PM 2.5 (a particle matter size standard) was 257 for particles less than 0.25 micrometers in diameter.

But the index announced by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau was only 132.

According to the PM 2.5 standard, 201-300 is considered very unhealthy, and above 300 is considered hazardous.

On Nov. 8, the U.S. embassy published an article on its official microblog, explaining how the American air quality index is measured.

The U.S. embassy uses the PM 2.5 standard of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which measures the presence of particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameters. It said these particles are the most dangerous for the human body.

The Chinese regime, however, only publishes data for particles greater than 10 micrometers in diameter.

Responding to questions about the discrepancy between the two air quality indexes, She Shaozhong, vice-director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau said, they don’t care what other countries’ embassies do.

According to documents leaked by Wikileaks, the air quality measurements published by the U.S. embassy are being considered as interfering with China’s internal affairs. An official from the CCP’s Foreign Affairs Office has already requested that the U.S. stop releasing the data.

Half of China's millionaires want to emigrate

It surveyed 2,600 "high net worth individuals" and found that nearly 60 per cent of interviewees were either considering emigration through investment overseas or had already completed the process.

Now, another study has been released that broadly confirms the earlier findings. This one, conducted by the Hurun Research Institute and the Bank of China, interviewed 980 wealthy individuals between May and September. It reported that 46 per cent of respondents, all of whom had personal assets over 10 million yuan, or about US$1.5 million (RM4.6 million), said they intended to emigrate. Of those, 14 per cent had completed emigration procedures. There are about a million such millionaires in China.

The study found that a third of such high net worth individuals already own assets overseas, mostly in real estate. Another 30 per cent are considering acquiring such assets within three years. Acquiring overseas assets is a step towards applying for investment immigration.

As to why wealthy people want to leave China, mostly for the United States and Canada, the reasons given often are that they want their children to have access to better education overseas, concerns about the security of their assets on the mainland and better living conditions.

The fact that such a high proportion of its most successful citizens want to leave the country clearly suggests that they perceive problems in China. Their departure will also inevitably be accompanied by a massive outflow of funds.

This is a wake-up call for the Chinese government. Almost a decade ago, under President Jiang Zemin, the Communist Party decided to admit capitalists into the party to give business people a bigger voice in decision-making. That was a step in the right direction.

Evidently, however, more needs to be done. Concerns expressed about the security of assets reflect continuing apprehension about changes in the party's policies. For example, although private property is now enshrined in the constitution, state-owned enterprises are favoured when banks give out loans. This is something within the government's control to change.

The attraction of a better standard of living overseas is understandable, especially when major Chinese cities are regularly enveloped in a haze and the drinking water is unsafe.

The government is not even honestly reporting the gravity of the polluted air that everyone must breathe every day. For example, in recent days, the American embassy, which measures air quality, has disclosed that it is hazardous to breathe the air in Beijing but the municipal authorities say that the air is only slightly polluted. In fact, China does not even measure fine particulates known as PM 2.5, which are so small that they can penetrate deep into the lungs.

Chinese leaders, it turns out, benefit from special air purifiers in their offices and homes. This is in addition to receiving organic foods grown on government-run farms that do not use synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilisers.

Although China proudly proclaims that it has a "people-centred government", it does not look so good for those people to find out that the government is giving itself the best of everything, including housing, schools, food -- and even air.

Most Chinese people do not have the means to leave, but the rich do and, if the government wants to halt the stampede out of the country by some of its most talented and wealthiest citizens, it will have to respond to their demands.

Some things should not be hard to do. To ease apprehension over changes in policy, the government should increase transparency of the decision-making process and allow the free flow of information.

Allowing more international schools with high educational standards without interference by the Communist Party should also be possible. If parents feel that their children are getting as good an education in China as they would overseas, there would be less reason for them to want to leave.

Another step may be harder: dismantle the system of privileges for party leaders. By doing so, the leaders will show that they are not living in a cocoon but are really sharing weal and woe with the people and understand what they are going through.

If the Chinese government takes such steps, it will show that it has confidence in itself, which, in turn, will lead to greater confidence in it on the part of the people. If it doesn't, the haemorrhage in wealth and talent will continue.

New cigar store, club opens up doors in Medford

It’s a place for men to go instead of hiding out in the garage or the back deck. It’s actually the men’s version of a tea room.

Main Street Cigars has opened on Main Street in Medford.

It is a sophisticated business, with the largest humidor in the region. Cigars sell from $4 to $20 and patrons can become members in a private lounge with leather chairs and big screen televisions all while smoking a cigar and maybe talking sports or politics with other cigar smokers.

Owner Deborah Rulli, who lives in the downtown district in Medford, is no stranger to operating a business on Main Street. For 12 years, she ran For the Senses, a popular store that became a victim of a bad economy.

“People just stopped shopping,” she said.

Looking for another business to open because she needed the income, Rulli began talking to people in the cigar business. She went to Las Vegas to meet some of the vendors. She sought out mentors to teach her the finer points of cigar smoking.

“Even in a bad economy, cigars are a small luxury. People will buy a good cigar.”

Honeywell True HEPA Air Filter Review

Raise your hand if you’re skeptical about Hepa filters? Since you can’t see what I’m doing, I’m literally raising my hand, or use to.  That is until I had the chance to test out Honeywell’s True HEPA Compact Tower air purifier.

In terms of the gadgets we review it’s relatively unremarkable.  It’s body is crafted from plastic, there is a dial on the top to control 3 fans speeds and the back flap opens up allowing you to change out the HEPA filters, which needs to happen once a year.  Honeywell includes a carbon filter in the box that is designed to filter out odors and smells.  Since my bedroom has a scented oil therapy thingee – the chicks dig it – I opted to not use this.

So why am I now a card carrying HEPA air filter fan?  Before I tested out Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter I vacuumed my room once a week.  And every week I collected a fair amount of dust.  Now, keep in mind that I leaving my windows closed 90% of the year, if not more.  Crazy, I know, but since I have a fairly strong allergy to mold I figure better to play it safe  than not (plus I live in Santa Monica and it doesn’t get above 75 degrees even during the summer).  After installing Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter and letting it run for a week’s time I could notice not only a reduction in dust on my nightstands and the edge of my LED TV, but even in the vacuum after completing a solid sweep.  But it gets better than that.  I also noticed that I now wake up feeling far less congested, which leads me to the only logical conclusion; the Honeywell Hepa filter actually does work to improve the air quality of a room.

In terms of effectiveness, my room is about 15×15 at the most and that doesn’t include my bathroom or closets.  Nonetheless, it’s designed to work in room’s up to 300 sq feet, but since I can only attest to my room and my experience I can stay it’s effective.  Throughout my testing I kept the fan at 1, which is the lowest setting, though on certain days, say after I had the windows open, I’d crank it to the highest setting, 3, and let it filter out all the toxins that had been collected in my room’s air.  However, at this setting the fan can be a bit intrusive, especially if you watch TV or listen to music close by, but the lowest setting didn’t impede upon my movie watching experience.

So what more can I say.  The Honeywell True HEPA  works.  It cleans the air, isn’t too loud and is easy to setup.  It’s not the coolest looking of Hepafilters, but it’s not the worst.

Does Technology Insulate Elites Dangerously?

A piece in the New York Times calls attention to the widespread use of air purifiers by the Chinese political elite to avoid much of the pollution affecting other citizens. Of course these devices can presumably be bought by other Chinese citizens who can afford the $2,000 price.

 According to the Broad Group's Web site, it did not take much to convince the nation's Communist Party leaders that they would do well to acquire the firm's air purifiers, some of which cost $2,000. To make their case, company executives installed one in a meeting room used by members of the Politburo Standing Committee. The deal was apparently sealed a short while later, when technicians made a show of cleaning out the soot-laden filters. "After they saw the inklike dirty water, Broad air purifier became the national leaders' appointed air purifier!" the Web site said.

But are workarounds for social ills only Chinese? Of course the wealthy have always had advantages against urban hazards. The west end of many though not all cities, from Los Angeles to Berlin, is usually more fashionable than the east because it's generally upwind of atmospheric pollution sources. But it was once harder to avoid the ills that affected poorer neighbors. Those Victorian doorknob units had little flaps over their keyholes not just to decorate but to keep out soot that could be a problem even from so small an aperture. And Londoners all used the same water and sewer systems, a powerful incentive for Victorian engineering triumphs of sanitation. (The Great Stink of 1858, penetrating the Houses of Parliament, helped prompt the construction of Joseph Bazalgette's sewer network.) New York's magnificent reservoir and aqueduct system was similarly motivated.

The bottled-water industry, air and water purifiers, electronic security systems, residential backup electric generators, (possibly revived) paid  "trusted traveler" programs at airports, and congestion charges, road pricing, and sale of passes for previous high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes -- all use advanced technology to insulate those who can pay from everyone else. In the 20th century executives might commute to Westchester or the North Shore of Chicago, but in Manhattan or the Loop they breathed the same air as their clerks. In fact, it was common for industrialists to live near the factory to keep an eye on things, even at personal risk. (One of the most beautiful parks in my area, with a beloved azalea garden, was originally home to a rubber factory owner, who apparently raised his family as toxic waste from the nearby plant polluted the property.)

Privilege in place of cash-based inequality has of course long been a hallmark of many nominally egalitarian regimes. When I visited Moscow in 1988 during perestroika there were still special lanes for official cars. The fall of the Soviet Union a few years later, far from extinguishing the flashing blue lights of the old regime, extended driving privilege from the nomenklatura to an even larger oligarchy; even Moscow authorities have been cracking down, even if they aren't questioning the principle but only exposing false credentials.Privilege through the technological marketplace is more subtle but it also promotes dangerous complacency.

Breath of fresh air for leader

Many may have wondered how top Communist Party leaders cope with the dense smog that frequently chokes the capital, with air quality recently plunging to the worst levels since before the 2008 Olympics.

The answer turns out to be simple: mainland leaders, keenly aware of the health hazards of air pollution, have been enjoying a special supply of clean air for years.

While it is no secret that the top officials and senior cadres have had the privileges of using tegong, special supplies of all sorts of things, from food to cigarettes, stationery and electronic appliances for decades, it is the first time secrets about the air quality in prestigious government buildings have been made public.

The revelation, by a mainland manufacturer of air purifiers, has fuelled bitterness and resentment among Beijingers, increasingly frustrated about the almost unbearable dirty air and the lack of progress in the hugely expensive government-led campaign to clean up pollution.

According to the Broad Group, a Hunan-based air-conditioner maker, at least 200 air purifiers are installed inside Zhongnanhai, the top leadership compound where President Hu Jintao , Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders work and live.

"They are everywhere in Zhongnanhai, from living rooms and meeting rooms to swimming pools and gyms," the website of one of the company's Beijing dealers said. "It is a blessing for the people that our purifiers have created a healthy and clean environment for state leaders."

Top leaders began to use Broad's air purifiers in Zhongnanhai from December 2008, just three months after the Olympics.

The webpage also explains in detail how leaders were convinced of the necessity of using air purifiers when they saw proof of Beijing's filth - "ink-coloured dirty water" from dust and pollution-covered filters - at the end of a test in a meeting room used by Politburo Standing Committee members.

Air purifiers have not only made their way into Hu's office, the Great Hall of the People, the Diaoyutai State Guest House and many other government buildings. They have also become an essential luggage item whenever state leaders travel outside the compound, according to Qi Zhiwang , a Beijing-based sales manager of the equipment. Qi said air purifiers had also become a popular gift for a long list of foreign leaders and dignitaries, including Bill Gates, Tony Blair and Ban Ki-moon.

Long Yongtu, former secretary general of the Boao Forum for Asia and chief negotiator for China's accession to the World Trade Organisation, said in a video clip posted on the company's website that he carried a portable purifier wherever he travelled on the mainland. "Air pollution has become so bad that I have to use the purifier in my car and even hotel rooms," he said.

Beijingers have voiced outrage at the leaders' failure to curb pollution while finding their own solution to the city's persistent smog. "No wonder they don't care about food safety and air quality, while the grass roots are drinking melamine-tainted milk, eating gutter cooking oil and breathing deeply polluted air," remarked a microblogger on Sina Weibo.

Professor Zhou Xiaozheng , of Renmin University, agreed. "Thanks to the over-concentration of power and one-party rule, the special privileges enjoyed by special-interest groups have become the root cause of China's political, social and environmental woes," he said.

Combat Indoor Air Pollution With A HEPA Air Purifier

My Air Purifier Reviews has revealed some new benefits of using an air purifier in the home. These include the ability to ward off illnesses that are either airborne or originate through bacteria, causing infection and wreaking havoc in the home. While air purifiers are generally used to get rid of contaminants such as dander, pollen and even smoke, the benefits of using this type of system are becoming increasingly apparent for users, many of whom are reporting less colds and illnesses upon using the product.

"We do the research and provide air purifier reviews and ratings" said Bill Rowe, editor of My Air Purifiers. "We want our site to educate people on the right purifier to use as well as discuss the benefits of using one of these products in the home. Not everyone has the time to investigate every model they are interested in, and that is why our service exists"

HEPA air purifier reviews discuss the use of a HEPA air purifier which can prevent even the tiniest particles from contaminating the air. According to the EPA, the air inside a home is actually five times more polluted than the air outside. Even for those who do not have smoking or pets in their home, the pollutants range from airborne contaminants that enter the home from people as well as cleaning products that linger in the air.

"We want to give people an overview of air purifiers but the health benefits are still coming in" said Bill Rowe. "Not only are they beneficial to children in possibly preventing allergies and viruses, but they have also shown promise when it comes to helping adults, especially those who may have lung conditions"

Poor air quality is something that most people want to avoid in the home and often take steps to do so. However, lighting candles, spraying scents and even using some cleaning products can sometimes add to the poor air quality. Using an air purifier eliminates odors from the air and causes the home to have quality air for breathing as it is used.

Those who start to use air purifiers in their homes will generally see the results in two or three days as the air that they breathe becomes more comfortable and odors are eliminated from their home. These products have been used in a myriad of health facilities but are now available to homeowners who want to improve the quality of the air that they breathe.

At My Air Purifier Reviews, anyone who is in the market for one of these products can get all the information they need, including which models are both the most efficient as well as the most affordable for them. The site includes air purifier reviews of all the different brands and models that are on the market and has a full range of HEPA air purifiers, which are the most commonly used in homes today.

Freecycle network grows globally in bad economy

With those three words, Deron Beal of Tucson, Ariz., helped move the yard sale online, only with no money changing hands.

Beal is the founder of The Freecycle Network, or Freecycle.org. It's a grassroots gifting network that — thanks to the sour economy and a growing commitment to the environment — has transformed into a global movement of millions offering, wanting and taking all manner of stuff.

Staffed by volunteer moderators and loosely overseen by Beal, Freecycle aims to let you share your old TVs, clothes, broken blenders, tire chains and moving boxes with people nearby, using e-mail groups at Yahoo! and on the network's website.

There are nearly 5,000 Freecycle groups with about 9 million members in more than 70 countries. Not bad for a guy who was simply trying to keep perfectly good stuff out of landfills, or find homes for stuff charities don't take, in his own community.

"It's a win, win, win, win," Beal said. "Everybody feels good."

Freecycle can be effortless for people who can leave their old magazines, kitchenware or larger items on a porch for pick up, but it can generate a lot of e-mail and suck up more time in larger locales as giver and taker try to untangle their schedules and decide where and when to make an exchange.

There's no real navigation at Freecycle. You sign up, wait in some cases to be approved by a moderator, and decide whether to take individual e-mails, daily digests of offerings or read the list online only.

Beal got the idea for Freecycle while working as a recycling coordinator for a nonprofit in Tucson. The organization offered jobs to men in shelters to do concierge recycling by picking up things like old computers and office tables at shops, restaurants and other companies, then trying to find homes for them at other nonprofits.

"We had this old beat-up pickup truck, and would load up the pickup and drive from one nonprofit to the next to see who could use this stuff. It was crazy, and taking way too much work to find new homes for perfectly good stuff," he said. "So I set up an e-mail group, where anybody interested could join and they could pick it up themselves."

Beal clearly struck a nerve. On the New York list, in e-mail after e-mail, posters are following the network's instructions and carefully writing subject fields providing their locations and the words "offer," ''wanted" and — hopefully — "taken" for things like "2 very broken laptops: Bronx Morris Park and Hering" or "Kraft Grated Romano Cheese (East Harlem)."

And there's the recent: "OFFER: 21" Sony Trinitron TV - UWS," for Manhattan's Upper West Side, in an e-mail that promises the set is in "fine working condition. Picture quality is excellent."

Beds, garment bags, hangers, aquarium pumps, coffee makers, bicycles, toys, cribs, toasters, those paper wrappers for coins, air purifiers — the variety is endless. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Some of it goes quickly and some might not go at all.

Alexandria Tristram, 42, in Manhattan had no luck with a box of old computer cables during her first attempt at freecycling, thinking "someone who tinkers with old computer parts will want it." She ended up recycling them herself.

Donna Goodhue, a moderator of the Freecycle group in St. Johnsbury, Vt., got involved in 2004 after seeing a TV news story about the network. At the time, there was a Vermont group near Burlington, but none in her area.

While browsing through the list of a nearby county about three years ago, Goodhue found a car that didn't run, at a time when she really needed one.

"My son drove over and got it. We boosted the battery and it started right up. It needed brakes and the sun roof leaked, so I would drive down the road with this umbrella open in my car when it rained. I didn't have a car at the time. It got me to work for eight months and it cost about $300 to fix the brakes."

It was a little black Saturn that she traded in for a second-hand Mercury when the time came for a new car, she said.

Other finds for Goodhue: a nearly brand-new sewing machine, when somebody upgraded to a digital model. "And my son got an 18-foot boat. It was somebody in New York, because the seat cushions were ripped and they didn't want to bother repairing them. He drove there and got it. They just didn't want it anymore."

That would be the point, Beal noted.

While some people never get rid of their stuff, "If you post an item today you'll usually have 10 responses within a minute" on any given list, he said.

Beal encourages people to wait a day before choosing a recipient to be fair to those who don't hover over e-mail moment to moment. He also thinks it's nice when people "pick their stories," seeing how the giftee approaches the moneyless transaction.

Are they brusque, businesslike, friendly? Do they plan to distribute your bag of clothes to homeless shelters?

"Pick the story you like best," he said. "'My son's going off to college.' 'We're helping with a nonprofit and could use that bed.' It's just people helping people."