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Spurred by the boom in the regional construction industry, landscaping projects in the region comprising commercial and residential landscaping design and maintenance are set to double in volume to exceed AED 60 billion by 2010 according to UK’s CMPi, organizers of Gulf Landscaping. The event is scheduled to take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from 17th to 18th November 2008.

Landscaping in the GCC is a competitive business fraught with high competition, shrinking profits and high capital expense. “With the advent of international players, regional landscape designers and builders are realizing that there’s more to growth than sunshine, soil and water,” said CMPi Group Director, Chris Fountain.

Spurred by the boom in the regional construction industry, landscaping projects in the region comprising commercial and residential landscaping design and maintenance are set to double in volume to exceed AED 60 billion by 2010 according to UK’s CMPi, organizers of Gulf Landscaping. The event is scheduled to take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from 17th to 18th November 2008.

Landscaping in the GCC is a competitive business fraught with high competition, shrinking profits and high capital expense. “With the advent of international players, regional landscape designers and builders are realizing that there’s more to growth than sunshine, soil and water,” said CMPi Group Director, Chris Fountain.

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Mr. Fountain noted that the GCC is beginning to value the outdoors and landscaping professionals are now in big demand. “Driven by the construction boom, many households have increasingly turned to landscaping services to design, develop and maintain their investments while landscaping contractors are learning how to grab their share of this high growth market,” he said.

Gulf Landscaping is an exhibition for the booming Middle East outdoor design and landscaping architecture industries. The event is designed to generate business leads for companies in the landscaping business.

The exhibition will serve as a sourcing platform and networking event for the regions landscape architects, developers, contractors and other key buyers, to enable them to select products, services and solutions for the huge number of major developments in the commercial, retail, leisure and residential sectors, as well as city parks and highways.

The event will be co-located with Working Buildings Middle East and Fit-Out Middle East to enable those involved in the development and delivery of this major growth industry to meet their landscaping and outdoor architecture needs in one visit.

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Abu Dhabi, June 2 (IANS) Driven by a construction boom, the market for landscape designing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to grow to well over 60 billion UAE dirhams (about $16 billion) in the next two years, WAM news agency reported Monday. The commercial and residential designing projects in the Arab federation are set to exceed 60 billion UAE dirhams by 2010, the news agency quoted Britain’s CMPi, a leading landscaping firm, as saying.

“With the advent of international players in the sector, the local landscape designers and builders realise that there’s more to growth than sunshine, soil and water,” CMPi group director, Chris Fountain, said.

He said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is beginning to value the outdoors, and landscaping professionals are now in big demand.

“Many households have turned to landscaping services to design, develop and maintain their investments, while landscaping contractors are learning how to grab their share of this high growth market,” he said.

CMPi will organise an exhibition Nov 17-18 on outdoor design and architecture in the Middle East. The event is being organised to generate business ideas for the landscape designing companies.

Tags: abu dhabi, advent, andscaping Contractor, business ideas, cmpi, construction boom, director chris, exhibition, gcc, group director, gulf cooperation council, households, investments, landscape, Landscape Design, landscape designer, landscape designers, Landscaping, Landscaping Contractor, landscaping service, Landscaping Services, news agency, Services, soil, soil and water, sunshine, uae dirhams, united arab emirates
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As the nation’s housing market swoons, lenders are tightening their grip on their money. Last month Hillside Landscaping, that credit crunch reached Brent Meyers.

To all appearances, he’s an unlikely victim. A well-paid chief executive of a small consulting firm, he owns a substantial investment portfolio and a million-dollar house in Moraga. He pays his bills on time and has no credit card debt. His credit score, he says, is around 800, Hillside Landscaping a rating more or less in the stratosphere.

But in mid-March, Bank of America cut off his home equity credit line of a little more than $180,000, citing a decline in the value of his property. Meyers, 40, is now scrambling to come up with $75,000 to pay for a major landscaping project and is canceling other big spending plans.

“My wife would like a new car, but that’s going to have to wait,” he said. “We’re taking a $75,000 cash-flow hit, and I want to boost savings.”

The credit crunch made big news last month when brokerage giant Bear Stearns Cos. was forced to sell itself on the cheap after it was unable to borrow money to cover losses in its portfolio of mortgage securities. But the chill in the credit markets is not something that’s hitting just big banks and securities firms.

In thousands of ways big and small, across the Bay Area and the nation, lenders are retreating after booking losses in the mortgage market. Households and businesses are suffering the consequences as money becomes tougher to get and more expensive to borrow.

That in turn spells bad news for the economy. Credit is the grease that lubricates the economic engine by giving individuals and businesses the means to spend.

Borrowed money pays for everything from new outfits at the clothing store to house purchases and major home improvement projects. When individuals and entrepreneurs can’t get loans at interest rates they can afford, they spend and hire less. Tight credit ripples through the economy. The result is a slowdown, and, if severe enough, a contraction of economic activity, in other words, a recession.

Households, which gorged themselves on easy credit for most of the past decade, Hillside Landscaping are bearing the brunt of lender caution. In a wide variety of consumer loan categories, particularly those backed by real estate, lenders are cutting back on loan amounts, charging higher interest and stiffening qualifications.

Take home equity loans. In the past decade, borrowing against the value of their homes became the money source of choice for homeowners who wanted large sums to pay for such items as home improvements, college tuition or luxury spending.

By 2004, Americans were taking out $180.5 billion in home equity loans, according to the Federal Reserve. Much of that cash was pumped right back into the economy, buying cars and furniture, renovated bathrooms and kitchens, airline tickets and hotel rooms.

Tags: Hillside Landscaping, households, Landscaping, money
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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — If you’re looking for cavity-free pearly whites, search anywhere but Lubbock. A new study in next month’s Men’s Health magazine says this West Texas city has the worst teeth of the 100 large U.S. cities examined. El Paso (No. 95), San Antonio (89) and Dallas (87) weren’t far ahead. The magazine said the best teeth could be found in Madison, Wis.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Raleigh, N.C. The study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the number of annual dentist visits, canceled appointments, regular flossers and households using flouride. Some blame the high level of fluoride in Lubbock’s well water. Dentists say too much fluoride in the water may cause the enamel on teeth to become rough, leaving brown or white stains. Others say the high cost of dental care is to blame, leaving poor people without proper checkups or education. Some people questioned the study. John Epperson, a longtime Lubbock dentist, said some people take excellent care of their teeth and some don’t. “My expectation is people in Lubbock are like people around the country,” he said. — Information from: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: http://www.lubbockonline.com — On the Web: Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/metrogrades/08-apr-teeth/ %26copy; 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

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TOKYO –Natural hair used for extensions is imported in great quantities from China, but a surge in the popularity of extensions has created a dearth in supply, causing a surge in the price of hair from China.

The root of the problem is the quick discarding of these extensions by their users - young women - after short periods of use, though it takes years for Chinese women to grow the hair.

Tetsuya Oura, a 29-year-old executive of a trading company in Osaka that imports such hair, recalled a scene he once saw in a village in rural China.

The village is nestled in a mountainous region about an eight-hour drive from Qingdao, on the Shandong Peninsula. A small, beat-up truck trundled between poor households, blasting out warbling music. Suddenly a girl jumped in front of the truck, shouting, “Stop!” She wore no makeup and looked very young. On her head stood a great mass of black hair, arranged in a shape reminiscent of soft-serve ice cream. Her hair, when undone, almost reached the ground.

The driver got out of the truck and began to cut the girl’s hair with scissors. When he was done, he gave the girl a small amount of money. She was left with a rather masculine-looking hairstyle.

These hair cutters visit villages in China and hand collected hair to brokers. The hair is then bleached, dyed black or brown at processing facilities and then exported to Japan.

According to Finance Ministry trade statistics, Japan imported 178 tons of dyed hair from China in 2007. In 2002, the figure was only 26 tons. With about 50 grams of hair needed for one extension, enough hair was imported in 2007 to make 3.56 million extensions.

This surge in hair imports follows a spike in the popularity of hair extensions among young women, which can give a short-haired woman the look of years of growth in hours. The impact of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki’s use of such extensions also has been cited as a reason for the surge.

More and more beauty salons tout hair extensions and the wide variety of hair styles possible with them.

A 24-year-old woman who works at a boutique visited a salon that specializes in extension services in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, where she got her hair extended down to her waist. “This will get my boyfriend’s attention,” she said.

She came from Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, traveling 90 minutes by train to come to this salon. Though her real hair comes down to her chest, “He’s always telling me it would be better if my hair was much longer.” The bill came to more nearly $100 in U.S. dollars.

Oura said the price of hair from China has gone up 50 percent from a year ago. “It’s completely a seller’s market. And prices are likely to keep going up,” he said.

The amount of hair that can be procured in China has already reached its limit, and supply has not been able to catch demand.

Hair grows about two centimeters a month on average. This means 65-centimeter-long extensions, the standard minimum, take nearly three years to grow. But fashion does not usually wait that long.

Natural hair extensions begin to deteriorate after about three months of use, meaning users have to dispose of them after a short while, resulting in a shortage of hair for extensions.

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SAN MATEO, Calif. –With dog treats spilling out of her black canvas bag, Maria Skorobogatov proceeded through the Peninsula Humane Society’s kennels as classical music played from overhead speakers.

The occupants barked their hellos and stood on their hind legs to be noticed. But the animal behaviorist walked past the chatty ones on a recent Tuesday and awarded those who remained quiet and still.

“Hello sweetheart,” Skorobogatov said softly to one well-behaved dog.

Throughout her brief visit, music played.

“We want to see if it’s having any type of effect,” Skorobogatov said of the music. “We use sounds and visual aids to keep them mentally and physically stimulated. It also helps them relax and that gets them adopted.”

The music played that morning originated on the other side of San Mateo County, Calif., with Half Moon Bay resident Lisa Spector. The Juilliard School graduate and concert pianist collaborated with Joshua Leeds, a sound researcher in Marin, Calif., to study the impact classical music has on dogs.

Two years of research and clinical demonstrations produced a book, “Through a Dog’s Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health %26 Behavior of your Canine Companion,” written by Leeds and Susan Wagner, a board-certified veterinary neurologist.

Spector is the pianist on a 45-minute CD that Leeds produced to go with the book.

It’s been Spector’s experience that when she tickled the ivories, dogs she took care of would move closer to her and fall asleep. No more doggy angst - just peace and quiet.

“What calms people, calms dogs,” Spector said on a recent Monday as her dog Sanchez slept at her feet.

On the CD, she plays music by Bach, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, among other composers. But she simplified the composition and slowed the tempo to between 40 and 60 beats per minute to create simpler sounds.

“A dog’s hearing is so much more sensitive than ours,” Spector said. “We have tools to deal with sound, but dogs don’t always have that.”

One out of seven dogs has behavioral issues that stem from an overwhelmed nervous system, said Leeds.

“There’s too much noise and too much input,” he said. “Our dogs are indicators of the stressed environment we live in.”

For more than 20 years, Leeds has specialized in psychoacoustics, the study of music and sound on the human nervous system.

Four-and-a-half-years ago, Spector approached Leeds after one of his seminars and told him about her dogs falling asleep when she played the piano. She hoped that he would want to work with her on a CD for dogs.

Leeds was apprehensive.

“I spent all these years establishing a certain level of authority and credibility,” he said, laughing. “For me to produce music for dogs, I thought I would become the laughingstock of my profession.”

But after speaking with Spector, he did some research and found there was nothing documented about the effects of music on dogs, except for one study conducted by Deborah Wells, a psychologist and animal behaviorist.

She played various kinds of music in dog shelters in San Francisco and learned that classical music - not rock music or jazz - had a calming effect on dogs, Leeds said.

His only caveat before teaming up with Spector was to make sure the music went through clinical research before it was released.

Four different CDs were cut and tested on 150 dogs in homes and shelters. The one that had an overwhelming response from dogs was the simplified classical music performed on piano.

Seventy percent of dogs in kennels showed a reduction in stress, while 85 percent in households were calmed.

Leeds’ book looks at the effect of the human soundscape on canine companions and offers ways to make life easier for them. Leeds said dogs are often inundated with sounds of helicopters flying overhead, police sirens, car alarms, loud music from cars driving by - and then there’s the answering machine.

“All of a sudden there’s a voice in an empty home,” Leeds said.

Spector said the CD is not a cure-all and suggested that it be combined with training.

Sounds True, the publisher, is donating a thousand CDs to shelters across the country. Spector dropped one off at the Peninsula Humane Society on Airport Boulevard.

For close to two years, the humane society has played classical music and tapes that consist of breathing and heart beats. Since dogs don’t typically stay very long at the shelter, however, there is no control group to determine how effective the music is, Skorobogatov said.

“I do notice when I’m walking through the kennels these guys seem to be more sedate and certainly not as loud,” she said. “Music is beneficial in terms of helping animals become less anxious.”

Spector and Leeds are happy to be able to bring comfort to dogs addled with anxiety and stress.

“We live in (a) world that is pretty over-the-top with all kinds of environmental stressors,” Leeds said. “We have to be conscious with what we are surrounding ourselves with.”

The book and CD are available on www.throughadogsear.com.

Some tips for soothing a dog:

-Keep the volume of the radio and television at a level that can’t be heard from another room.

-Lower the volume on your cell phone and change the ring tone to something soothing.

-Don’t slam doors and drawers; avoid clanging pots, pans and dishes.

-Instead of yelling to people in other rooms, walk over and talk to them in a normal tone of voice.

-If you become overly enthusiastic during television sporting events, put your dog in a calm place, or outside if possible.

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According to 2005 Census figures, just 49.7 percent of the nation’s households have married couples. Five years earlier, that figure was 52 percent. That means lots of single men.

Torrance, Calif., author Carl Weisman has heard from a lot of them.

He surveyed more than 1,500 unmarried, heterosexual men over 40 to gain insight into why they’ve stayed bachelors. His unscientific findings are published in a new book, “So Why Have You Never Been Married?”

“If there is one overriding theme to their beliefs, it is this: Marriage is good for some people and not so good for others. They especially see the utilitarian purposes for marriage, such as child-rearing and certain financial reasons. … A significant portion would like to get married someday,” he writes.

Some of the results from Weisman’s survey:

- Just one-third of these bachelors have divorced parents.

- 68 percent of them have lived with a woman, and one in seven has lived with at least four different women;

- 69 percent have never been engaged.

- 44 percent fear “ending up alone.”

- 40 percent have a positive view of marriage, and 42 percent say they’re neutral.

- 67 percent believe in “soul mates,” but only 35 percent are waiting for theirs.

- 37 percent regret never marrying.

- And only 8 percent say they’re certain they don’t want to get married someday.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Nervous homeowners and economic analysts have been wondering how much worse the housing market could get. On Thursday they got an answer: Plenty. Foreclosures are at a record high. Home equity is at a record low. The housing market is spiraling down with no end in sight - and taking people’s sense of economic security with it. For the first time since the Federal Reserve started tracking the data in 1945, the amount of debt tied up in American homes now exceeds the equity homeowners have built. The Fed reported Thursday that homeowner equity actually slipped below 50 percent in the second quarter of last year, and fell to just below 48 percent in the fourth quarter. And that was just one example in a day of dismal housing reports. The Mortgage Bankers Association said foreclosures hit an all-time high in the final quarter of last year. And pending U.S. home sales - those in the gap between when a buyer signs a contract and when the deal closes - came in below analyst expectations for January and remained at the second-lowest reading on record. “There is no sign that we’re near the bottom in the housing market,” said Douglas Elmendorf, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Fed economist. “Housing prices will probably fall for a year, two or three to come.” The trifecta of reports illustrates a housing market caught up in a “very negative, reinforcing downward spiral,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. Home equity, the percentage of a home’s market value minus mortgage-related debt, has steadily decreased even as home prices and homeownership rates jumped earlier this decade. That was due to a surge in cash-out refinancings, home equity loans and lines of credit and an increase in no-down-payment mortgages. Now declining home prices are eating into equity, and economists expect the figure to drop even more. Economy.com estimates 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10 percent of homes, will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. Even more disturbing, about 13.8 million households will be “upside down” if prices fall 20 percent from their peak. The latest Standard %26 Poor’s/Case-Shiller index showed U.S. home prices plunging 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007 compared with a year earlier. Experts believe foreclosures will rise as more homeowners struggle with monthly payments as the interest rates on their mortgages adjust higher. Problems in the credit markets and eroding home values are making it harder for people to refinance their way out of unmanageable loans. The threat of so-called “mortgage walkers,” or homeowners who can afford their payments but decide not to pay, also increases as home values depreciate and equity diminishes. Banks and credit-rating agencies already are seeing early evidence of it. “If you’re struggling with payments and you have negative equity in your home, your struggling isn’t getting you very far,” Elmendorf said. “It’s very likely you want to stop and walk away.” Even for those who retain some equity, the effect on consumer sentiment and spending will be profound. Homeowners, who once happily tapped home equity for expenditures and home improvements, may instead save money as they watch their total net worth wither. Those who are willing to spend their home equity will find lenders reluctant to give out home equity loans or lines of credit. “People were relying on home equity to maintain consumption. They can’t keep doing that once the equity’s gone,” said Dean Baker, co-director at the Center of Economic Policy Research. “Undoubtedly, this is one reason for the falloff in consumption in last couple of months.” Economists worry that the prolonged housing downturn has put the economy on the brink of recession. The economy grew an anemic 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter. A massive loss in home equity could even mean some Americans won’t have enough money to retire. On average, housing is Americans’ single largest asset, representing 39 percent of a household’s total net worth. Melba Dumay, 44, worries that higher costs for insurance and other expenses will outpace any growth in value of the home she’s owned in Tampa, Fla., for about 10 years. She was depending on her home equity for retirement and as something she could pass on to her high-school-aged daughter. “It’s your legacy to your children and everything else, and if that’s not worth anything then you got to start all over again,” Dumay said. So far, the government has stepped in with a number of measures to contain the housing fallout. Last month, Congress passed a $168 billion economic stimulus package with provisions aimed at helping homeowners refinance into more affordable loans. The Federal Reserve has also slashed interest rates to in hopes of spurring growth. On Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested lenders reduce loan amounts to provide relief to beleaguered homeowners. But some experts think more help is needed. “At the end of the day, these efforts will be insufficient,” Zandi said. “Policymakers will need to be more aggressive and put taxpayer money on the line to stem this. Ultimately, we will find a bottom, but it would be a mistake to let the market run its course.” — Associated Press Writers Jeannine Aversa and Alan Zibel in Washington and Anthony McCartney in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report. %26copy; 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

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MINNEAPOLIS –Here, kitty kitty….

A new study suggests cat owners are less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than people who, well, don’t own cats.

And no, dogs don’t do the same trick.

The study, by researchers at the University of Minnesota, found that feline-less people were 30 to 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those with cats.

Yet dog owners had the same rate as non-owners. “No protective effect of dogs as domestic pets was observed,” said the study, which was presented Thursday at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans.

Dr. Adnan Qureshi, a stroke expert at the university, said he decided to raise the question because other studies have suggested pets can help reduce stress. He and his team analyzed a group of 4,435 people who had answered questionnaires about pet ownership and other risk factors.

But the cat-dog differential came as a surprise. “We don’t understand this completely,” he said, but “it’s probably not a coincidence.”

Asked if he owns a cat, Qureshi replied: “No. Maybe I should get one, though. With this new research, I think the time has come to change.”

CATS VS. DOGS

-90 million cats are owned in the United States

-36 percent of U.S. households (or 38.4 million) own at least one cat

-56 percent own more than one cat

-74.8 million dogs are owned in the United States

-39 percent of U.S. households own at least one dog

Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Assoc.

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Wednesday’s BYU-Utah game in the Marriott Center is prime evidence of failure by the Mountain West TV partners to do their job.

Big game, great atmosphere, traditional rivalry that goes back to 1909. It’s generally always exciting and only a few games separate the two schools after nearly a century. Good programming right?

Wrong, according to MWC’s contractual TV buddies.

If the lawyer representing BYU and Utah (and the Mountain West) needs something for his files, it would be Wednesday night. He ought to take the programming schedule, clips, tapes and testimony and file it away.

An argument that the MWC partners fail to deliver national coverage?

In breach of the contract?

Perhaps.

Wednesday game aired on The mtn. network, the pack mule broadcasting partner of the league where the majority of events are seen. The mtn. has the possibility of reaching 1.4 million households.

The other two partners represent the national clout of the league’s new contract since MWC presidents decided to abandon ESPN for more money and convenient timing in broadcasts.

Versus, available on cable and satellite to more than 70 million homes, passed on this game. CSTV, the other MWC partner with national capabilities (co-owner of The mtn. with cable giant Comcast) also has satellite ties and can reach more than $40 million subscribers and they decided not to get involve, toss it to the little mtn.
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Versus and CSTV chose not to air BYU-Utah.

With partners like these, who needs enemies?

Instead …

Versus showed “Wildcats,” a 1986 movie staring Goldie Hawn and Nipsey Russell from 7 to 9 p.m. After that, Versus chose to show Stage 3 of the “Tour of California, which may have been a repeat.

CSTV %26#151; which chose to air a fine blowout of Utah’s over BYU women’s basketball on Tuesday night to a national audience %26#151; on Wednesday aired a One2One sports highlight show on the career of Doug Williams from 8 to 8:30 p.m.

From 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., right in the critical part of the Ute-Cougar battle, CSTV aired a repeat of a Memphis-Tulane basketball that aired earlier. By the way, Memphis won the game 97-71 the second time around also.

Ignoring BYU-Utah basketball as a national ticket Wednesday night is an act that one would think a broadcasting company would have to go out of its way to hide., almost on purpose.

Folks nationally missed out on a gallant battle by Utah to bust up BYU’s school record 45th straight win. Big shots by Johnnie Bryant, Shaun Green down the stretch. They missed seeing BYU freshman Jimmer Fredette make huge plays in crunch time, trying to hold off Ute rallies in the second half.

They missed BYU forward Jonathan Tavernari take an ill-advised, long 3-point shot with a minute left, then come back and score five straight points with key rebounds to seal the game.

They missed Jim Boylen’s fire and passion that was almost good enough to get a leg up on the Cougars in the second half.

BYU’s 67-59 win over Utah narrowed the Utes lead in the series to two games, 124 to 122. Drama.

The Mountain West cries out for exposure since leaving ESPN, a TV sports giant that doesn’t mind hiding MWC scores and highlights.

The Mountain West begs for coverage that will enhance recruiting, help in national rankings and possibly lead to more than one or two NCAA Tournament berths.

That’s why Wednesday’s hidden stage by partners who should care and apparently didn’t is so puzzling if not frustrating.

Failure to deliver a national audience in this, the 246th meeting of Utah and BYU is an insult to both schools, respected institutions of higher learning, their coaches and players. It is a slap in the face of basketball in this part of the country.

Welcome to the league’s new motto: Why hide your light under a bushel basket when a thimble will do?

Wow, I love Goldie Hawn.

Tags: households, money, second time
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