Log Homes Council Offers Free Report on Fire Performance of Log Walls

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 16, 2010 – Over the years, building code inspectors, fire officials, the insurance industry and prospective home buyers have been curious about the fire performance of solid log walls. Numerous scientific studies conducted by Log Homes Council have proven that solid log walls offer a solid protection against the threat of fire.
The tests conducted by members of the Log Homes Council, on a variety of log species and log diameters, prove that log walls pass the fire endurance test and hose stream test, as required by many building codes. In one test example, a log structure endured a two-and-a-half hours of fire without structural damage or transmitting enough heat through the log wall to ignite cotton. This illustrates that solid log walls provide a strong thermal barrier that enables occupants to escape a fire, as well as proving this building material meets or exceeds all building code fire protection rules.
This fascinating scientific data has long been some of the most requested information in the Log Homes Council library of information. This is why the Log Homes Council is offering this information on its website, in html or as a down-loadable 20-page .pdf of the study. This information is free to building code officials, fire officials, the insurance industry and prospective home buyers.
The Log Homes Council is an association of the most reputable log home companies in the United States, Canada and beyond. “While hundreds of companies offer log and timber homes, less than 60 qualify for membership in the Log Homes Council,” says Jim Murphy, chairman of the Log Homes Council and a log home manufacturer from Mauston, WI. “Members of the council offer consumers peace of mind during the buying and building process. Council members not only contribute to scientific studies that advance log building technologies, they also abide by a strict code of ethics, grade their logs and timbers to ensure quality materials, provide construction manuals to ensure homes are built correctly and provide free information to consumers.”

Looting Matters: Why Are Antiquities From Iraq Continuing To Appear On The Market?

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 07, 2010 – At the end of February a number of antiquities and other pieces of cultural property were handed over to Iraqi authorities. The objects had all been recovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A statement made by John Morton (ICE Assistant Secretary) affirmed the U.S. commitment to investigate those who seek to "rob a nation for personal gain".
For more details visit http://www.dubaicityinfo.com
Among the items was a pair of Neo-Assyrian gold earrings. They are reported to have been found in 1988 "under the floor of the Royal Palace of King Ashur-Nasir-Pal II at Nimrud (Iraq)". The earrings then surfaced in the December 9, 2008 catalogue for Christie's New York as lot 215. Their estimated value was between US$45,000 and US$65,000. They were seized by ICE at the request of the Iraqi authorities. It is not clear how the earrings were removed from Iraq. The Nimrud material had been stored in the Central Bank in Baghdad. These finds were documented by Paul Bremer on "The Secrets of Nimrud" after the vaults were opened in early June 2003.
Another returned object was a Babylonian clay foundation cone dating to ca. 2100 BC. The inscription on the cone indicates that it came from a temple at Girsu, modern Tell Telloh in southern Iraq. The item had been recovered as it arrived at Chicago.
Two other pieces, a Sumerian bronze foundation cone and a stone tablet, were intercepted at Newark, New Jersey after being dispatched from a dealer in London, England. It is reported that they had been found in Syria but the Sumerian texts indicated that they had been placed in a temple in Iraq. The use of 'Syria' as the place of origin on import documents has been reported before with antiquities from Iraq.
A further item that was handed over was an AK-47 bearing an image of Saddam Hussein. This had been removed from Iraq as a "war trophy".
A number of antiquities seized in New York auction-houses were returned to Italy last year. This suggests that elements of the antiquities market needs to develop a more rigorous "due diligence" process to ensure that recently looted or stolen antiquities do not surface in North America.

Matt Malouf Earns NAR Short Sales and Foreclosure

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 04, 2010 – Norwalk, CA February 28, 2010 — Matt Malouf with Prudential California Realty has earned the nationally recognized Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource certification. The National Association of REALTORS® offers the SFR certification to REALTORS® who want to help both buyers and sellers navigate these complicated transactions, as demand for professional expertise with distressed sales grows.
According to a recent NAR survey, nearly one-third of all existing homes sold recently were either short sales or foreclosures.  For many real estate professionals, short sales and foreclosures are the new “traditional” transaction.  REALTORS® who have earned the SFR certification know how to help sellers maneuver the complexities of short sales as well as help buyers pursue short sale and foreclosure opportunities.
“As leading advocates for homeownership, REALTORS® believe that any family that loses its home to foreclosure is one family too many, but unfortunately, there are situations in which people just cannot afford to keep their homes, and a foreclosure or a short sale results,” said 2009 NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Foreclosures and short sales can offer opportunities for home buyers and benefit the larger community, as well, but it’s extremely important to have the help of a real estate professional like a REALTOR® who has earned the SFR certification for these kinds of purchases.”
The certification program includes training on how to qualify sellers for short sales, negotiate with lenders, protect buyers, and limit risk, and provides resources to help REALTORS® stay current on national and state-specific information as the market for these distressed properties evolves. To earn the SFR certification, REALTORS are required to take one core course and three Webinars.  For more information about the SFR certification, visit www.REALTORSFR.org or call 1-877-510-7855.

Nightingale for Governor Website Generating Significant Attention

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 04, 2010 – California –
Nightingale for Governor website, operating on minimal funding, generates significant web visits in relation to the other three "big box" candidates.  According to Stat Brain.Com, a website that displays web visits to any website on the internet, listed www.nightingaleforgovernor.com ahead of Steve Poizner's website,  rivaling Jerry Brown's and pulling 21% of Meg Whitman's overall web traffic. The Nightingale for Governor  website generates 323 web visits per day; Steve Poizner approx: 263; Jerry Brown at 463 per day;  Whitman at 1934. http://www.statbrain.com/www.nightingaleforgovernor.com/
The Nightingale for Governor team attest this internet success to current voter temperament, as 44% of Californians are still undecided with respects to Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates. The California Public Policy Institute released this information in the 2010 quarterly report. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_110MBS.pdf

Get a Credit Report Online and Check Your Scores

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 25, 2010 – In reality, availability depends on the service you choose. The best services do provide instant access to ratings. These services are available for a reasonable cost and offer a wide range of options.
Paula de la Torre Editor of the "Best Credit Reporting Services" website -- http://www.CreditReportsAndScores.biz -- pointed out;
“… Free annual scores requested directly from the three large agencies are seldom quick, and do not provide scores. For a few dollars, you can avoid dealing with the three large agencies and obtain all three ratings from one source, quickly, and economically. Consider using a three-in-one service…”
You will save time, and the information provided is complete, current, and includes your scores from three largest agencies. This information is available online over secure internet connections.
Annual reviews are not sufficient. Information updates occur daily. Identity theft can ruin your rating within days. Errors occur, and even false information may creep into your file. You are the primary protector of your rating, and you should review your file frequently to insure it includes a fair and accurate history.
Do not rely on a search engine completely to choose top rated companies. Review companies using a variety of search terms, both general and specific. The best companies offer quality services, at a reasonable cost, promptly. To find the best companies, dig deep and ask any question you deem important.
“… Compare several services before you select the best one to satisfy your preferences. As a general guideline, you should pay no more that $15 to $25 per month to receive a monthly three-in-one report…” P. de la Torre added.
The real value you receive from online review is the opportunity to monitor your files. Review all changes. Changes should make sense. You have an absolute right to correct all errors. For example, you may find accounts listed as active that you closed years ago. You may notice your address is not current. You may discover even false information that you must remove. After correcting all errors, you cannot force an agency to remove accurate information from your file.
Further information about how to get a detailed credit report including scores and as often as you want by visiting; http://www.CreditReportsAndScores.biz

Renowned Utah sculptor ready to cast statues of French W.W. II “common” heroes

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 18, 2010 – Renowned Utah sculptor ready to cast statues of French W.W. II “common” heroes
By Christian Probasco
   KEARNS, UTAH—celebrated sculptor Stan Watts is ready to cast the molds and pour the bronze for statues honoring some unsung French heroes of World War II and the little-known but highly effective fighting unit of which they were a part.
   Watts, a man of deep faith who is perhaps best known for his work “To Lift a Nation”—three enormous statues of the firemen who raised the flag above the wreckage of the World Trade Center after 9/11--agreed to cast the statue soon after learning the story of the Free French, and he is selective about which projects he takes on.
   “This is an important piece,” he says. “I wanted it done right.”
   The piece consists of two statues which are one and a half times life size. On the left is a French national soldier modeled on Lieutenant Daniel Nevot, now a U.S. citizen residing in St. George, Utah, who fought for French General Phillippe Leclerc and his tiny but ferocious Free French Army from North Africa to Hitler’s mountain redoubt in Berchtesgaden.
   Standing beside Nevot is an unknown African ‘tirailleur’ or rifleman, one of the native troops which made up the bulk of the French forces, without which, as Nevot says, “we could not have achieved anything.” Recruited from Senegal, Morocco and Algeria, the tirailleurs helped turn the tide against the Axis forces in Europe. Tens of thousands of them died fighting for the French.
   Nevot had been intending for years to donate a work of art to the Chad Marine Infantry Regiment, formed from units which had fought in North Africa, but he hadn’t found an artist. A friend of his son-in-law mentioned the project to Watts in church one Sunday. The sculptor investigated the story and quickly decided he had found a worthy subject.  
   Watts and Nevot will officially present the statues to the regiment when it moves its headquarters to Colmar, France, in July of 2010.
   Nevot was just a teenager when the Wehrmacht overran France in 1940. He was one of approximately 600 men who initially answered General de Gaulle’s famous call for his countrymen to continue the fight against the Axis powers. As a soldier in Leclerc’s desert army, he commanded an armored car in an engagement against the Italian stronghold of Koufra, in Libya. Outgunned and out-numbered, the French nevertheless captured the fortress and then won a series of battles which crippled Axis supply lines and contributed significantly to the ultimate defeat of German General Erwin Rommel’s army in North Africa.
   Soon after that crucial early victory, which swelled his army with converts from the French army under the collaborationist Vichy government, Leclerc made his “serment de Koufra;” a pledge to cease fighting only “when our colors float over the Cathedral of Strasbourg.” Strasbourg was annexed by the Germans after the French capitulation. Having earlier liberated Paris, Leclerc’s forces captured the cathedral and fulfilled the pledge in November of 1944. Nevot, whom Leclerc called the “Corporal of Koufra,” accompanied the general the whole way.    
   Watts wanted to capture the spirit of the troops before the victory at Koufra, when the odds were clearly against them. His works often depict his subject’s uncertainty and vulnerability at the onset of a great task. A few years ago, he cast a bronze of General George Washington praying atop his horse at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
    “Valley Forge was the low point in the war,” explains Watts, “The soldiers didn’t have warm clothing or food, they hadn’t been paid…they were dying. When their terms ran out, they were going to quit. Washington assembled them and offered them several months pay to stay on. He told them he didn’t know where he was going to find the money but that he would. He asked for that volunteers who would continue the fight step forward. Nobody stepped forward.”
   Completely disheartened, Washington rode off into the woods.
   “He was telling himself, ‘I’ve done everything I can do and it isn’t enough,’” says Watts, “I believe at that point he appealed to a force greater than himself.”
   Washington returned from his cold sojourn an inspired man.
   “He told his soldiers, ‘You don’t know where we are. You don’t realize the opportunity that’s in front of us. Let me tell you: when we triumph over our enemy, it will be the greatest victory in the history of civilization.’”
   As even some British historians have conceded, Washington’s men went on to achieve great things.
   Leclerc must surely have experienced similar doubts after the fall of France. If Watts were doing a sculpture of him he might have been able to carry the theme across to the new work. The added dimension was that Nevot wanted Watts to cast a sculpture of the enlisted men who did most of the actual fighting and won the war.
   “There are too many statues of generals in France,” says Nevot, “and not enough statues of the common soldier.”
   The common soldier could do worse for a spokesman. Soon after Koufra, Nevot and two comrades captured the Italian garrison of Gatroun and its 150 defenders by themselves, sneaking past the perimeter disguised as Arabs, taking the commander prisoner in his own office and ordering him to assemble his men in the courtyard where the Frenchmen could hold them at bay with the fort’s machine guns until reinforcements arrived. He killed several enemy soldiers in close combat, was strafed by a Stuka dive bomber, liberated his hometown of Couprey on a Harley Davidson motorbike and survived the German landmine which shredded the bike soon after. And he never backed down from a dangerous mission.
   “I was young did whatever my commanders wanted,” he says, “I always raised my hand when they asked for volunteers.”
   Watts is clearly content to be portraying an extraordinary common man. He doesn’t ask that Nevot’s faith match his own, preferring to let the unlikely historical outcome of Leclerc’s war speak for its divine purpose. What he does ask in his daily prayers is that he be able to accurately render the moment of transcendence over deep pessimism that any soldier, or human being for that matter, must experience before achieving greatness.
   “Each of us,” says Watts “has a Valley Forge.”
For more information, please contact Stan Watts at Atlas Bronze Casting, (801) 967-0557 / atlasbronze@hotmail.com or Christian Probasco, press agent at (435) 851-6485 / eprobe2002@yahoo.com.
Captions for photographs
All photographs courtesy Pat Johnson
Watts working on clay model—Sculptor Stan Watts working on the tirailleur’s rifle. At the onset of the conflict, the Free French were equipped with weapons from the last war, or earlier, and whatever supplies they could scavenge. Leclerc’s column was often referred to as “Leclerc’s Homeless.”
Nevot statue close-up—The young Daniel Nevot commanded an armored car during the African campaign. When he wasn’t attacking enemy fortifications or being strafed by German planes, he would join with two or three other cars to reconnoiter for German or Italian encampments in what became known as ‘rat patrols.’

"Life Insurance in Norway" now available at Fast Market Research

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 11, 2010 – Datamonitor's Life Insurance in Norway industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the Life Insurance industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographic information.
Scope
* Contains an executive summary and data on value, volume and/or segmentation
* Provides textual analysis of the industry's recent performance and future prospects
* Incorporates in-depth five forces competitive environment analysis and scorecards
* Includes a five-year forecast of the industry
* The leading companies are profiled with supporting key financial metrics
* Supported by the key macroeconomic and demographic data affecting the market
Highlights
* Detailed information is included on market size, measured by value and/or volume
* Five forces scorecards provide an accessible yet in depth view of the market's competitive landscape
* Market shares are covered by manufacturer or brand
Why you should buy this report
* Spot future trends and developments
* Inform your business decisions
* Add weight to presentations and marketing materials
* Save time carrying out entry-level research
Market Definition
The value of the life insurance market is shown in terms of gross premium incomes from mortality protection and retirement savings plans. All currency conversions have been calculated using constant 2008 annual average exchange rates. The insurance market depends on a variety of economic and non-economic factors and future performance is difficult to predict.
The forecast given in this report is not based on a complex economic model, but is intended as a rough guide to the direction in which the market is likely to move. This forecast is based on a correlation between past market growth and growth of base drivers, such as GDP, population growth and long-term interest rates.
For the purpose of this report Europe is deemed to comprise of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
For more information or to purchase this report, go to:
- http://www.fastmr.com/prod/44556_life_insurance_in_norwa ...
Report Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
CHAPTER 1 Market Overview 7
1.1 Market Definition 7
1.2 Research Highlights 7
1.3 Market Analysis 8
CHAPTER 2 Market Value 9
CHAPTER 3 Market Segmentation I 10
CHAPTER 4 Market Segmentation II 11
CHAPTER 5 Market Share 12
CHAPTER 6 Five Forces Analysis 13
6.1 Summary 13
6.2 Buyer Power 15
6.3 Supplier Power 17
6.4 New Entrants 18
6.5 Substitutes 20
6.6 Rivalry 21
CHAPTER 7 Leading Companies 23
7.1 KLP 23
7.2 Storebrand Liv and Forsikring 25
7.3 Nordea Liv & Pension, Livsforsikringssel skab A/S 27
CHAPTER 8 Market Forecasts 29
8.1 Market Value Forecast 29
CHAPTER 9 Macroeconomic Indicators 30
CHAPTER 10 Appendix 32
10.1 Methodology 32
10.2 Industry Associations 33
10.3 Related Datamonitor Research 33
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Norway Life Insurance Market Value: $ billion, 2004-2008 9
Table 2: Norway Life Insurance Market Segmentation I: % Share, by Value, 2008 10
Table 3: Norway Life Insurance Market Segmentation II: % Share, by Value, 2008 11
Table 4: Norway Life Insurance Market Share: % Share, by Value, 2008 12
Table 5: Key Facts: KLP 23
Table 6: Key Financials: KLP 24
Table 7: Key Facts: Storebrand Liv and Forsikring 25
Table 8: Key Facts: Nordea Liv & Pension, Livsforsikringssel skab A/S 27
Table 9: Key Financials: Nordea Liv & Pension, Livsforsikringssel skab A/S 28
Table 10: Norway Life Insurance Market Value Forecast: $ billion, 2008-2013 29
Table 11: Norway Size of Population (million) , 2004-2008 30
Table 12: Norway GDP (Constant 2000 Prices, $ billion), 2004-2008 30
Table 13: Norway Inflation, 2004-2008 30
Table 14: Norway Exchange Rate, 2004-2008 31
About Datamonitor
The Datamonitor Group is a world-leading provider of premium global business information, delivering independent data, analysis and opinion across the Automotive, Consumer Markets, Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Logistics & Express, Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Retail, Technology and Telecoms industries. Datamonitor's market intelligence products and services ensure that you will achieve your desired commercial goals by giving you the insight you need to best respond to your competitive environment. View more research from Datamonitor at http://www.fastmr.com/catalog/publishers.aspx?pubid=1002
About Fast Market Research
Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.
For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.