Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The other day, in Manila living a Travelife, I had lunch at the Mandarin Oriental Manila with the feng shui master himself, Master Joseph Chau.

Of course, I peppered him with questions about what people should do for better luck in business, health, wealth, love and other things.

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THE FAMOUS MASTER CHAU

So for those who aren't attending the fabulous Chinese New Year's dinner at the Mandarin Oriental ballroom on February 10, I'm posting some guidelines.

I'm going to be one those absent for this auspicious event, by the way, as I'll be sitting on a golden beach in Colombo at exactly this time, waiting for my flight back to Manila.

Living a Travelife and having a wonderful time, of course, but missing a great event all the same.

2013 is the year of the YIN WATER SNAKE

Official start

February 10, 2013 at 00:01 hrs

The rest is here:
Feng shui and what to do for good luck this Chinese New Year 2013

MANILA, Philippines -- On February 10, the Chinese community will usher in the Lunar New Year and the "Year of the Water Snake."

Feng shui expert Master Joseph Chau said 2013 is a year of challenges and conflicts. Tensions may also escalate as election day draws near.

But candidates in the May 13 elections who are under the zodiac animal signs dragon, dog, rabbit, monkey, and snake are luckier.

Couples planning a wedding this year may want to postpone the date to next year. Chau said 2013 is a blind year because spring will come earlier on February 4 than the Chinese New Year. In the Chinese tradition, this is bad luck for weddings.

But, Chau added, money will be easier to earn this year.

Some good business opportunities are in the tourism sector, hotel and restaurant, transportation and even the stock market.

According to the 2013 feng shui chart, there are areas in the house or office that are luckier, such as the northeast where the wealth star is located, and south, for the prosperity star.

To start the year right, place five kinds of fruits like pineapple, apple, banana and orange at the dining table on the eve of New Year's day.

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Feng shui expert cites 'luckier' bets in 2013

Arts & Leisure

Posted on January 29, 2013 09:32:45 PM

By Jasmine T. Cruz

One of the results of these stolen hours is a mixed-media piece called Empress II. The empresss ears are made of jade circles from an antique shop. Bronze with hints of sky blue is draped over her shoulders and is decorated with swirling auspicious Chinese patterns. The jade tones are complemented by a blazing red textured background, the lucky color for the Chinese.

FENG SHUI ART PROCESS If there are artists who only paint in the morning or paint at night, Ms. Uychaco only paints when the Chinese calendar deems it a good day. Its a symbolic start, she said.

Her layering of colors is guided by feng shuis five elements. Its like a cycle, a production cycle, Ms. Uychaco said. Water is good for wood because wood will not grow without water. Wood is good for fire because it feeds the fire. The fire turns to ashes which is earth. In the earth, you have metals.

Thus, she paints wooden brown tones over blue tones, which in turn can be covered by red tones, then earthen tones, and then metal tones.

Through this method, a rich texture emerges.

Another way to infuse the elements is to use different palettes. I have a palette made of clay for earth. I also have a glass palette for water. I also have a jade palette. She mixes her paints on these palettes, and I transfer their (the palettes) energy to the canvas.

COIN OF GOOD HEALTH Ms. Uychaco said she is not a feng shui expert, but simply an enthusiast.

Read more:
Feng Shui Art: good fortune and good taste

Ten days to go before the Year of the Water Snake comes crawling in, and feng shui master Joseph Chau is gung ho! He sees the economy doing "better than Hong Kong," kung hei fat choi! "Money comes from everywhere!"

But particularly for those in tourism, real estate, hotels and restaurants. "Casinos will make money, always," he proclaimed with total confidence, "and especially this year very good."

Master Chau, Mandarin Oriental's feng shui man from Hong Kong with an international list of clients as long as his golden robes, presided over a prosperity meal at the hotel's Tin Hau restaurant and was amused at the questions thrown at him by a predominantly female crowd of journalists. They demanded instant answers to questions about the President's chances of marriage ("There's a wedding star in his horoscope, and if he forces himself to get married, of course he can do it") as well as the likelihood of a bloody or peaceful election ("It will be a struggle").

The good news is that all the signs can increase their luck by simply turning on an electric fan and keeping it blowing 24/7 in the northeast, which is where the wealth star shines. Other lucky stars are travel (NW), romance (N), prosperity (S), and promotion (SE). West, east and center are the unfavorable directions. Dragon and Dog are the luckiest signs. At the risk of being "killed" by the Chinese who love red, Mr. Chau warned that it is not necessarily the luckiest color for now.

Among Snakes, those born in 1977 are the luckiest, although they should be careful from September to November.

To President Aquino Mr. Chau offers a priceless tip: Build a new building in Malacaang "and I will guarantee 100 percent good for Philippines!" The catch is, "he must follow my instructions, and mine alone."

More here:
Feng Shui Time at Mandarin

GQ Schooling over fences
8 yr old TB gelding, schooling on 1/26/2013 For sale Contact ginny@goodriders.com

By: Ginny Harrison

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GQ Schooling over fences - Video

Topics: 2013 floods, flood damaged farms, oswald

FLOOD fencing is in full swing in the Mackay hinterland as rainfall from 177mm to 400mm and more brought an end to near-drought conditions.

Property owners with large frontages to roads have braved floodwaters to get their fences up and keep motorists and stock safe.

It's essential to get the floodway fences fixed immediately, as cattle will find a broken wire and get out if you don't fix it.

Throughout Queensland, property owners will be out flood fencing boundaries with roads and highways a priority.

Flood run-off from creeks in the Nebo-Valkyrie area are joining other floodwaters to raise the height of the Fitzroy River and affect roads around Rockhampton.

In the Valkyrie Access Rd area and properties further down the Fitzroy catchment, beef producers had to shift cattle from flood-prone country up to high ground which did not have sufficient feed due to the extended conditions.

Rainfall varied on properties from 150mm upwards within short distances.

"Five men went out this morning with two Toyotas and two ATVs to start repairing the Codrilla fences on the Fitzroy Development Road," Di Pullen said on Friday morning. Codrilla, 55km from Nebo, has 38km of boundary fence with the Fitzroy Development Rd and 14km with Valkyrie Access Rd.

"It's essential to get the floodway fences fixed immediately, as cattle will find a broken wire and get out if you don't fix it," she said.

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Repairing flood-damaged fences a priority

Public release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: EPSRC Press Office pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk 01-793-444-404 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Simple 'blast' fences called baffles could deliver improvements in air quality for people living near airports, new research has found.

Placed behind a runway, the baffles could serve as a 'virtual chimney', funnelling emissions from aircraft engines upwards where they can disperse more effectively, thereby reducing the environmental impact on people living nearby.

Prototype baffles have been tested by a team of researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University, Cranfield University, University of Southampton and the University of Cambridge, with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

After preliminary wind tunnel testing of various baffle shapes carried out by Cranfield University, an array of three rows of baffles was tested using laser scanning (Lidar, which is the optical equivalent of Radar) and chemical sensor techniques at Cranfield Airport in Bedfordshire. This demonstrated that the aircraft exhaust plume could be made to leave the ground within the airport's boundary fence, using prototype baffles of less than a man's height and constructed out of low-cost agricultural windbreak netting on lightweight frames.

Dr Mike Bennett, who led the project, says: "Airfield surfaces are typically covered with grass, over which the wind can blow freely. An array of baffles makes the surface rough in an aerodynamic sense. This sucks the momentum out of the exhaust jet, allowing its natural buoyancy to come into play. By suitably angling the baffles, we can also give the exhaust an upwards push, encouraging it to rise away from the ground.

"The baffles we tested were tilted at angles between 40 and 60 in order to optimise this vertical flow and to ensure the baffles didn't blow over! Although the exhaust will still disperse to the ground eventually, it will do so at a lower concentration. We might hope to see a reduction in surface concentrations of around 50 per cent at the perimeter fence behind the place where aircraft are taking off."

Long-term ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations around many major airports in Europe already exceed the legal limit enforced by the EU.

The aim of the trial was essentially to test the baffles' aerodynamics. As the prototype installation was temporary, it was constructed very differently from how a permanent installation might be made. Each baffle must be sufficiently robust to withstand the 80-90 knot blast from a jet engine, but flimsy enough to collapse harmlessly if an aircraft were to hit it. In the trial, this was achieved by restricting the prototype baffle widths to about two metres but it would be feasible to make them much narrower in a permanent installation. For full-scale use an area of baffles in the order of a thousand square metres would need to be erected behind a runway.

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The humble 'virtual chimney' fences that could reduce the impact of airport pollution

DES MOINES | To reduce the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease being transmitted in Iowas deer herd, legislation has been introduced to require double fencing of deer farms and shooting preserves where white-tail deer are kept.

Senate File 59, recently introduced by Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, would increase the height requirement for fences around deer farms and preserves from 8 feet to 10 feet and add a requirement for 10-foot secondary fence. He wants to make sure the captive deer are kept in as well as prevent transmission of the disease by nose-to-nose contact between the captive deer and wild deer.

Dale Garner, Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife bureau chief, said the double-fencing would help.

Its easy for me to recommend that because I dont have to pay for it, he said after briefing the House Natural Resources Committee on Chronic Wasting Disease.

Dearden isnt worried about the cost of the fences as much as the cost of the disease in the wild deer herd.

Look at the cost to the Iowa economy if thediseasespread into the wild deer herd, he said. How expensive would it be if we lost our (wild) herd?

The DNR says deer hunting annually generates $137 million, has a $214 million economic impact and supports 2,838 jobs in Iowa. It also generates $15 million in federal tax revenue and another $14.7 million in state taxes, the department said.

In Wisconsin, Garner said, the lethal neurological disease has reduced deer numbers by 40 percent, Garner said.

The DNR spends more than $300,000 a year testing deer carcasses for Chronic Wasting Disease. There is no live test. Dearden said 42,000 tests of wild deer have not found one case of the disease. In tests of 4,000 captive deer, 17 returned positive.

Although fences will help reduce the risk of spreading Chronic Wasting Diseaseto the wild herd, there are no easy answers, Garner said.

The rest is here:
Fences seen as solution for deadly deer disease

Published: Jan. 31, 2013 at 4:38 PM

MANCHESTER, England, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Simple blast fences called baffles could act as "virtual chimneys" to improve air quality for people living near airports, British researchers say.

Placed behind a runway where aircraft are taking off, the baffles could funnel emissions from aircraft engines upwards where they can disperse more effectively, reducing the environmental impact on people living nearby, they said.

Researchers from several British universities have created and tested prototype baffles using funding from the country's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

After preliminary wind tunnel testing, an array of three rows of baffles was installed at Cranfield Airport in Bedfordshire, an EPSRC release reported Thursday.

The testing proved aircraft exhaust plumes could be made to leave the ground within the airport's boundary fence, researches said.

"Airfield surfaces are typically covered with grass, over which the wind can blow freely," project leader Mike Bennett said. "An array of baffles makes the surface rough in an aerodynamic sense. This sucks the momentum out of the exhaust jet, allowing its natural buoyancy to come into play. By suitably angling the baffles, we can also give the exhaust an upward push, encouraging it to rise away from the ground."

Long-term ground-level nitrogen dioxide concentrations around many major airports in Europe have already exceed the legal limit enforced by the European Union, the researchers said.

The baffles could be a low-cost solution that could be ready soon, Bennett said.

"There's no reason why baffles couldn't start to be installed at airports within two or three years."

See more here:
Simple fences combat airport air pollution

Ravenswood Hospital Demolition

By: Dustin Walker

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Ravenswood Hospital Demolition - Video