Msart News

As we all know from school the earth’s water is constantly in movement, the water cycle or hydrologic cycle, describes the movement of water above, below, and under the earths surface. As the name ‘water cycle’ implies there is no beginning or end to this process and while water may change state from liquid, to vapour, to ice depending on the part of the water cycle that you are looking at, the amount of water on Earth remains constant over time. Unfortunately there are now more and more people on the planet to share this limited resource with, and the only way to deal with the growing shortage is to conserve as much water as possible by using what we have in the most responsible way.

Even when water seems abundant it’s important that we all do our bit to conserve as much as possible, aside from the obvious benefits of conserving water in an effort to reduce costs to you or your business, the widely publicised environmental concerns should also give us all a real incentive to conserve water. Many of the worlds people face serious water shortages, the BBC claim that “People in rich countries use 10 times more water than those in poor ones.” and that “water-borne diseases already kill one child every eight seconds” [1]

Conserving Tap Water

The average running tap uses approximately 10 litres of water every minute, and dripping taps can use up to 90 litres of water per week.

Top tips to conserve tap water:

» Mend any dripping taps with appropriate washers and ball-valves

» Don’t waste clean water on plants, put a bowl in your sink and use water from your washing up or cooled cooking water instead

» Don’t run tap water until it’s cold, use your fridge to chill water or purchase a specialist undersink chiller or water cooler

» Put a bowl in your sink or use the plug to avoid cleaning clothes etc under a running tap

» Don’t overfill your kettle; boiling unnecessary amounts of water is wasteful and will increase your bills

Conserving Water in the Bathroom

Flushing a toilet uses up to 10 litres of water every time and accounts for a third of the water used in the home. According to Cambridge Water “A standard shower uses 35 litres every 5 minutes… …An average depth bath uses 80 litres… and “A ‘Power Shower’ uses 80 litres” [2]

Top tips to conserve water in the Bathroom:

» Have a shower rather than a bath but don’t spend too long under the shower

» Don’t run water continuously when cleaning your teeth perhaps make use of a glass or mug

» Fit a Hippo in your cistern. A Hippo is a small plastic bag which retains water in the bag every time that you flush. For more information contact you local water authority (many offer these devices for free)

» Use a waste basket instead of your toilet to dispose of those small bits of rubbish that are often created in the bathroom

Conserving Water when using your Washing Machine

Washing machines use a massive amount of water, on each cycle this can amount to as much as 70 to 120 Litres of water at a time. A full load uses less water than 2 half loads.

Top tips to conserve water when using your Washing Machine:

» Make sure that you machine has a full load before turning it on, if you have to use your machine half full use the half load button

» When buying a new machine make sure it is efficient as possible

Conserving Water when using your Dishwasher

A Dishwasher uses up to 60 litres of water each time that it is used.

Top tips to conserve water when using your Dishwasher:

» Make sure that your machine is fully loaded prior to use

» Avoid pre-rinsing dishes and cutlery under a flowing tap, this is almost always unnecessary

Conserving Water with proper Maintenance

Maintaining your home or business premises can save you money and help conserve water.

Top tips to conserve water by maintaining your Home or Business Premises:

» Maintain your plumbing systems and fix all leaks as soon as possible

» Insulate venerable pipes to avoid them freezing and bursting in the cold weather

» Make sure you know where your stop tap is so that you can isolate any leaks as soon as possible

Conserving Water in the Garden

As a nation of garden lovers it’s important that we are all careful when tending our gardens in order to conserve as much of the mains water supply as possible.

Top tips to conserve water in the Garden:

» Install a water butt or similar to make use of all of that rain water that lands on your roof. Rainwater is a great natural resource which should be used where possible to fulfill some of the more basic requirements in the garden. Installing a water butt is the best way to harness this natural asset, and it’s a fact that rainwater is better for garden plants than tap water.

» Use waste kitchen water wherever possible to water your plants

» Water your garden during the evening or late afternoon when it’s cooler to help reduce evaporation

» Don’t use a garden sprinkler these devises are wasteful and unnecessary

» Reduce the size of your lawn and buy plants that require less moisture

» Water your lawn once a week only; this will help to preserve your water, it’s also better for your lawn as over watering can encourage roots to seek the surface

» Mulch your garden with tree bark, coconut compost etc to prevent evaporation

Conserving Water by limiting Hosepipe use

There’s a reason why UK homes have faced hosepipe bans in the past, hosepipes are an incredibly wasteful way of consuming water.

Top tips to limit Hosepipe use:

» Clean paths and driveways with a brush not a hose

» Clean your vehicles with a bucket and sponge rather than using a hose, or limit the hose to the removal of foam after the vehicle has been cleaned

» When only a hose will do you can avoid wasting water by fitting a shutoff valve on your hosepipe

» Fit a Water Butt (see above) as an alternative to watering your garden with a hosepipe

Conserving Water at Work

As well as ensuring that you follow some of the above measures most notably those that relate to maintenance, taps, hosepipes and toilet facilities businesses can also conduct audits and observe a few additional practices that will help them to conserve water.

Top tips to conserve water at Work:

» One of the best ways for a business to reduce the amount of waste that it produces is to conduct a waste audit; this audit will cover other factors as well as water wastage. For more information on how to conduct a waste audit visit the Business Link website or do a search on “waste audit” in Google

» The production of paper uses an incredible amount of water try to reduce your paper use by as much as possible

» Eliminate automatic flushing devices in toilet areas and replace with water efficient devices

» Consult a plumber for advice regarding the potential for pressure reducers and flow restrictors to reduce the use of water

» When replacing old equipment ensure that the new models use water efficiently

» Investigate ways in which your business can reuse cooling water for other purposes

» Only clean windows as required not on a periodic basis

» Involve your staff by offering awards and incentives and put a reporting procedure in place

Resources:

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2943946.stm

2. http://www.cambridge-water.co.uk/about_you/save_home.asp

Ways To watch BBC iPlayer abroad?

It is perhaps the most asked query of expats, but the answer is an easy YES.

For people who live overseas, like me, there comes a time when you miss a bit of good old Brit television. Ever since the BBC launched iPlayer there was a little hope out there for watching BBC iplayer abroad. However if you have attempted to attach while abroad all you get is ‘Currently BBC iPlayer television programs are available to play in the United Kingdom only…’ How annoying!

So its now possible Watch BBC iPlayer abroad?

Of course it is possible, if you search through Google you will find heaps of options. A lot of them are either expensive or just do not work. I’ll list them all, so you can decide for on your own, but in the end there are just a couple of true options to watch BBC iPlayer abroad. That is methods which will always work.

What you need to Do

The BBC restricts access to its iPlayer service by checking the physical location of the Internet provider you are using to connect to the Net. If it’s based in the UK you will be able to view, if it isn’t then they block you from viewing. It is as simple as that!

All you require to watch BBC iPlayer abroad is make it seem like you are located in the United Kingdom.

No Cost techniques to watch BBC iPlayer Abroad

If you’ve got access to a PC back in the United Kingdom you can make a virtual private network tunnel back to that PC and connect to the iPlayer web site thru that PC, this can cause it to look like you are in the United Kingdom.

So How Well Does It Work?

Not well to be honest, there are a number of issues. Firstly you must have a PC on in the United Kingdom all of the time, and if there is any technical problems with that computer you are going to be stuck till you get back to fix it. Second, and more importantly, while your download speed in the United Kingdom could be good you will find the upload speed is far to slow to allow consistent TV viewing.

Any other free methods to watch BBC iPlayer abroad?

Well you can look at TOR or Foxyproxy which both offer a free proxy service, which like a VPN makes it seem like your PC is in the United Kingdom. However all free proxies are too slow to watch BBC iPlayer abroad, they just do not have enough speed for all the free users. They are also quite hard to setup, without help.

The Best Option to watch BBC iPlayer Abroad

Firstly should you pick substitute or VPN options, well the neatest thing is to have BOTH! The software I use is Identity Cloaker which gives you a premium high speed United Kingdom proxy and United Kingdom VPN option. This will enable you to view iPlayer live and download programs to view when you want.

The software wasn’t originally made for television viewing, it is just a byproduct of what it does. As such they do not even state this use on their website!

There is a ten day trial available for a few euros (the free version is of no use if you’d like to watch iplayer abroad {as it is too restrictive|ass it only works for certain sites, as it does not work for TV sites). After that the software costs less than seven euros a month, so it is reallly a bargain for those among us who need to watch iPlayer abroad!

Have a look…

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Although English and Hindi are the official languages of India, the Indian news media do not publish all of their reports in either English or Hindi. Many of the Indian news media cater to the local states listeners/readers and to the language of theirs. Although individual mother tongues in India number several hundred only 29 languages are spoken by millions of Indians.

Some cater to the Telugu speaking residents of India. Some cater to those in India for whom Tamil has always been their mother tongue.

The Indian newspapers do differ only as to the language of their target audience. The focus for each of the newspapers falls into one of these four categories ie, general, business, sports, entertainment, and regional news.

Indian news in Newspapers are most often published on a daily or weekly basis. Some of the papers that come out only once a week have managed to gather a large number of readers. Indian news readers study carefully the content of any paper and also look for reports that reveal the opinion of a paper’s editor. Many Indian newspapers have online editions that help online readers get the latest news without having to subscribe to all of them.

Friday editions of each Indian newspaper are very popular in India. Readers have found both informative content and forthright opinions in these editions.

Among newspapers in India, The Times of India is the largest English newspaper, with 2.14 million copies daily. The Times of India was the first newspaper in India to start trivializing news and is thought of my many to be a sensationalist tabloid.

India has some 300 big newspapers, with a combined circulation of 157m last year—a rise of 12.9% on 2005. Only a few dozen of these rags, with a circulation of 35m, are in English, but they get about half of the advertising cash. More than 300 big papers are read by almost 160 mil lion people in India. In last few years literacy has improved by about 20 per cent and also Indians now have become hungrier for news and information. This has led to the rise of advertising and marketing media to take advantage of it.

Infant Indian newspapers especially English language ones have become the advertising pie in India and the advertising revenues are not only good but increasing. Even with the advent of the internet and television the readership of newspapers have not gone down but has kept on increasing. Advertisements on newspapers have more advantages over other modes of advertising and marketing as they not only cost less but have a better recall value.