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 Hear the news that there is corruption in the oil industry and most well-read consumers would assume that the story relates to the “Black Gold” that is at the heart of most of the world’s industries and the source of political and environmental problems the world over. However, according to a new book, the world of olive oil is also beset by problems of corruption, smuggling and even poisoning attempts.
In his book “ Extra Virginity: The Sublime And Scandalous World of Olive Oil”, author Tom Mueller has explored the world of the lucrative olive oil industry, pointing out the truth that wherever there is money to be made some of those involved will turn to criminal acts in order to get one over on their competitors.
In the summer of 2011, Spanish police in the region of Murcia arrested one thief who is thought to have stolen over a million of litres of olive oil which he and his gang then shipped to Italy, where the product is in great demand. In fact, olive oil is so valuable in Italy that lorry drivers have been held up at gunpoint for their precious cargo and gangs of criminals have broken into bottling plants in the middle of the night to steal millions of pounds worth of the in-demand product.
Corruption in the olive groves is far from a modern phenomenon, however. Tablets dating from over 2,000 years ago have been found in Syria detailing the activities of a group of men who were responsible for ensuring the quality and purity of any olive oil sold at the local markets.
One expert told Mueller that only 2% of the olive oil labelled as “virgin” in shops around the world would actually pass the rigorous industry standards; these include making the oil with the best olives when they are almost over-ripe and only extracting the oil by hand, without the assistance of any technology.
With such strict controls and such a labour-intensive production method, any “virgin” olive oil which is priced at anything less than £6 or £7 is far too cheap to be genuine. Companies who care about their product enough to package it in dark glass bottles, to protect the contents from sunlight, have probably also taken more care over the production methods too.
Of course, it is almost impossible for consumers to be sure they are buying the real thing. Unscrupulous producers will often label other types of oil as “virgin olive oil” or dilute the real thing with other products, including lamp-oil which has a high acid content and is thought to be damaging to the health if consumed in large quantities.
Even those in the know can be fooled by olive oil fraudsters. Food giant Nestle, which makes the Buitoni and Bertolli brands of olive oil, once bought a large shipment of Turkish nut oil which was fraudulently labelled as the genuine article. In their factories it was mixed with real virgin olive oil and sold to customers around the world.
 “What is the difference between a label and a sticker?” At Avery, this is a common question we are asked and the answer is “nothing”. We classify “stickers” and “labels” as one and the same, to specify all varieties of products that are self-adhesive.
In both home and business settings, labels are a beneficial tool for a multitude of purposes. They could be used for addresses, inventories or stock counts, in education, for arts and crafts and other means of organisation.
We can supply Avery stickers that you can print from your printer in the office or at home or we can print them for you and have them sent ready to use. Whatever your needs, we can provide sticker dispensers for protected label rolls or label pads as an alternative. Both are designed for quick and easy use.
Your address labels can be customised by us to present all kinds of information such as name, address, email address, telephone number and fax number. You could even use your labels on promotional brochures to incorporate opening times or dates. Whatever your requirements, Avery is available to deliver a large selection of different address stickers.
We supply a wide assortment of label shapes – circular, oval or square – giving you the scope for a range of functions. Avery stickers commonly come in solid white but you may wish to make use of our yellow, green, blue and red label colours for important security labels.
Avery and the Avery Product Codes e.g. “Avery L7160” are trademarks of the Avery Dennison Corporation. These products are not made or endorsed by the Avery Dennison Corporation. We use the Avery product codes e.g. “Avery L7160” as these codes refer to the size formats that are found in most common software packages. Please refer to printer manufacturer’s instructions prior to use.
 Councils inEnglandare increasingly seeking to encourage people living within their regions to use “personal budgets” to pay for their own social care costs. Whether the person is elderly, physically or mentally handicapped, the personal budget allows them to choose care provider themselves, while the council merely supplies the funds.
Both central and local government are promoting this move towards giving the English public greater control over the services they use as well as increased choice when it comes to where to get those services from, and it is hoped that in just one year’s time everyone who is due some level of social care from their local council will be paying for it through their own personal budget.
Councils like the scheme as it cuts down on the number of care staff they have to employ while consumers like it as they can shop around not only for the best deal financially, but also the best in terms of service and convenience. It sounds like a win-win situation for all concerned, but as with any new scheme involving public funds there are always those looking to take advantage. Reportedly there were over 100 cases of social care fraud, most involving personal budgets, during 2011.
That figure came from the Audit Commission which was asked to monitor the provision of social care through personal budgets to ensure this kind of thing did not happen. Unfortunately, these 100 cases alone cost the public over £2 million – and those are just the ones who were caught.
Personal budget cash to pay for care services can either be paid to the individual themselves, or if this is not appropriate a family member or appointed carer. There seems to be three main types of fraud relating to the personal budget scheme and each one is listed in some detail in the Audit Commission’s recent report “Protecting the Public Purse”.
The first type is similar to many existing benefit frauds, in that the individual makes a false claim for cash that they are not entitled to. However, the other two ways that the system has been defrauded are particular to this type of scheme; firstly, unscrupulous relatives or friends make the claim on behalf of someone who is unable to take care of themselves and then keep some or all of the money and secondly, organisations which provide the social care services over-charge the individual or council for the help they are providing.
Councils are showing that they are keen to crack down on personal budget frauds, with Croydon Council having the dubious honour of being the first organisation to pursue a successful case in the courts. Croydon resident Sameer Hamidi had kept over £12,000 that he claimed from the council on behalf of his ageing mother, stating that the money was going to pay for care that he was actually providing himself.
A spokesperson for the charity Action on Elder Abuse is concerned by this case and many others, in which evidence has shown that the very people allowed to make claims on behalf of their relatives, their children, are also the ones who are most likely to abuse this privilege.
The cost of electricity has continued to rise for years, and many consumers feel that they have no choice but to pay it. After all, electricity in the home is something that no one can live without.
But these consumers are only half right. It is true that electricity is essential to a fully functioning and comfortable home; in our modern society, no one can live without it. However, there are alternatives to paying power companies that continue to burn fossil fuels that exist in limited supply. Not only can you solve this problem by taking your energy needs into your own hands, but you can even help save the environment whilst you do so.
The solution to growing electricity demands lies in renewable energy. Technology and green developments have become so advanced that it is completely possible for homeowners to purchase and install–or even build–their own renewable energy systems.
Solar energy is a more than viable alternative to getting all of your power from a traditional energy company. Homeowners who install solar panels on their roofs, although they front the initial costs for materials and installation, usually find that they save enough money on their energy bills to cover the cost of installation within the first decade after installation. And after they break even, these homeowners are at an advantage; solar panels can last for decades, which means that their energy will be completely free for just as long.
If you’re not into solar, you could also consider the emerging alternative of wind power. Small turbines can be installed on the roof of a house or in the garden and connected to your home’s electricity system so that energy is produced whenever they are hit by strong winds. This kind of system, although less developed than home solar systems, is quickly catching on amongst UK homeowners.
However, with the economy still in a recovery, you may know before even reviewing your finances that you cannot afford to front the cost of a renewable energy system for your home at the moment. Consumers in a tight spot can still do their part for the environment by using green electricity, even if they don’t have solar panels or wind turbines. This is because there are many renewable energy companies that provide electricity in the same way that traditional electricity providers do. The difference is that they get their power from renewable sources like industrial-sized wind turbines. So if you value green initiatives and clean energy, a simple phone call to switch energy providers can put you on the path to a renewable energy plan.
When it comes to sustainable energy, the important thing to remember is that not every dollar is equal. The money you spend in setting up a more sustainable energy plan and a healthier environment will ultimately be more powerful than any other investment you can in the future.
Article by Good Energy
 The question of whether the original Robin Hood was really in the business of giving the loot he stole from wealthy passers-by to poor hungry people is still under debate, but the latest version is even more questionable. OpRobinHood and TeaMpOisoN are allegedly stealing from banks and ‘giving’ to people who have suffered from banking policies and to selected charities, but in fact they are mostly just causing grief to everybody involved.
The ‘hacktivist’ groups are offshoots of Anonymous, the group that has been harassing perceived offenders for some time now. According to sources at various online security firms, both the National Bank of Long Island and the BCD Credit Union in the UK were targeted last week. The hackers are supposedly motivated by the crackdown on the growing Occupy movement that started on Wall Street and keeps expanding like a brush fire in the wind.
OpRobinHood made a statement saying that they would “. . .take credit cards and donate to the 99% . . .” and that “. . . banks will be forced to reimburse the people their money back”. If nothing else, their syntax leaves something to be desired, but that’s not the problem. The banks will not suffer much more than embarrassment and negative publicity, since they can issue a charge back to recover their funds.
The charities that are recipients of fraudulent use of credit card donations won’t be any better off; they will not only lose money they thought was donated legitimately when banks discover the fraud, but they could wind up with a net loss. Depending on the type of contract the non-profits have with their respective banks, those charities may have to absorb part of the liability, leaving them in worse shape than getting no donation at all.
The average consumer who falls victim to a credit card scam will not be liable for the money involved, but having a credit transaction declined due to unauthorised use is an inconvenience at the very least.
Besides creating an awkward situation if, just for example, you’re buying dinner for a big client or just taking your spouse for a romantic anniversary evening out, the time and paperwork necessary to clear up the issue can be a nightmare.
Unfortunately that’s not the worst outcome of this concerted hacking and financial identity theft; the loser in the long run is still the individual consumer, even it he or she isn’t personally a victim of fraud.
Banks and credit card companies raise their fees, and those fees apply to everyone who owns a credit card and/or does business with a bank, i.e. darn near everybody over the age of ‘maturity’.
Theoretically, OpRobinHood is meant to punish banks that are seen as transgressors against the general public. According to a statement quoted in The Register, they plan to ‘starve the banks’ and take ‘the people’s’ money back, and they aren’t afraid of police, FBI, SIS or anybody else. However, there have been several arrests of suspected hackers in the United States, the UK and Spain; but whether they will slow the Robin Hoods down or galvanize them remains to be seen.
 Millions of Britons are likely to take out a loan that has a high interest rate attached to it over the next six months in order to make it financially until payday, according to a group of insolvency experts.
The group, R3, stated that it came up with this figure after interviewing 2,000 people. However, Consumer Finance Association member John Lamidey, who works with payday loan businesses, disputes the figures that have been released. In the middle is Downing Street which is attempting to bring some type of industry code into being.
According to the figures from R3, 45% of those in the survey struggled to make their finances last until their payday and another 60% were worried about how much debt they held under their name. The group went on to say that the survey shows that money concerns are as high as they have ever seen and that this aligns with the fact that consumer bodies are now asking that payday loans be better regulated to stop people from making poor decisions due to a lack of understanding.
Payday loans are a large group of short term, small, unsecured loans that are designed to help people stretch out their finances until they reach their payday, but at the cost of a high interest rate that forces them to pay back a larger amount than they borrowed right away. In fact, the payday loans have become so popular that payday companies are now worth about two billion pounds a year according to Andrew Hosken, the BBC correspondent.
Sometimes, the loan can be cheaper than an overdraft or credit card penalty if it is paid promptly back on the next payday, however, if the loans are not paid off right away, with interest rates that are over 4000%, debts can start to increase rapidly and before long get out of control. One woman stated that she borrowed £300 and paid back small amounts and without realising it, even with regular payments, discovered she owed £720. It is this very cycle that the payday loan people count on.
 Figures released recently by Ofcom, the communications industry watchdog, show that the UK now leads the rest of Europe when it comes to shopping on the Internet; a habit that is encouraged by our widespread ownership of smartphones, thus allowing true shopaholics to make their purchases at any time of the day or night.
In the space of around 18 months, the number of people with iPhones or similar models has increased twofold, corresponding with a rise in online shopping purchases in Britain. Nearly half of all mobile phone owners in the country now possess a smartphone, with 80% of those having used their handsets to buy goods and services online. The UK clearly leads the rest of Europe when it comes to browsing shopping sites on the Internet, with Britons spending an average of an hour and a half each week looking at retail websites.
While the advantages of online shopping are obvious, consumer experts are concerned that smartphone users are becoming relaxed about security issues, in particular credit and debit card fraud. Shoppers should always make sure they use reputable shopping sites which offer secure methods of payment to avoid having their details stolen.
The National Fraud Authority warns that this is a problem which is on the increase, with almost 40% of those who have used online shopping sites being a victim of some kind of fraud. Michael Phillips, one of the directors at Broadbandchoices.co.uk, added that criminals are always particularly active around the festive period, when the number of online purchases increases dramatically and shoppers are less likely to be vigilant about checking the security of the shopping sites they use.
In a time of recession it’s important to keep your costs down and save money. Here are some useful tips on how to stop wasting energy for the short term and long term considering the future of energy:
1. Turn your lights off – This one really isn’t too hard to remember. When you leave a room, flick the switch! Turning lights off can be a plus in summer as it keeps the room cooler!
2. Do NOT leave appliances and electrical on standby when they are not in use, this constantly requires electricity! It can also damage appliances such as a laptop, the battery should not be charged at all times, let it run out occasionally – the same goes for mobile phones.
3. Consider switching your energy supply to a renewable energy source. Green Electricity is on the rise nowadays with electricity being sourced from renewable generators – basically getting natural power from the wind, water & sun. Good Energy supplies green electricity to homes and businesses across the UK using only renewable sources which means no fossil fuels, nuclear or carbon!
4. Use energy saving light bulbs – Simple!
5. Turn your thermostat down – Even reducing it by 1°C could reduce your heating bills dramatically.
6. Fill up your dishwasher before turning it on, don’t use it half empty – it’s a waste!
7. Turn off taps properly; make sure the tap isn’t dripping as this can waste thousands of litres of water per year!
8. Get on draught patrol! It’s important not to let too much heat out of your home and let too much cold air get in, this can often be the route to a damp home! Make your home draught proof – start by closing your curtains in the evenings to prevent heat escaping.
9. Refrain from using a tumble dryer too often in the home, especially in the summer months where you can hang clothes outside. The tumble dryer is the second biggest energy user in the home!
10. Use rechargeable batteries! These save energy and prevent us from polluting the environment with our throw away batteries. Rechargeable batteries are cost effective in the long term and recharging costs are minimal.
Article courtesy of Goodenergy.co.uk
 A potentially lucrative and volatile market, forex trading sees large sums of moneys exchanged regularly for financial benefit. Understanding the nature of this market can be difficult and there are a number of things which traders will need to consider when undertaking business on the market.
Forex trading is therefore something which often comes with a number of rules designed to help newcomers navigate the tempestuous market. Of course, creating an exhaustive list would be impossible but there are a few rules which forex traders should abide by in order to increase their chances of success.
Here are just five of them:
1. Be aware of the risks that are involved
It would be naive to think that there are no risks associated with this type of business and identifying these early on is a good way to ensure you get off to a good start. Always make sure you are aware of what changes can affect stock markets and how this will impact your forex trading. Understanding what you stand to gain and loose from trading on the forex market is the best way to ensure you make the best decisions.
2. Develop your strategy over time
No forex trader will have had their winning strategy from the start and it is therefore important that you develop your own strategy over time. Make sure you use all of the information and resources you have at hand to help you development and always learn from your mistakes.
3. Utilise modern forms of trading
Nowadays, forex trading has entered the modern world by becoming available across a number of different platforms. The internet and the use of social media have enabled this market to become widely accessible and utilising these modern forms is the best way for you to begin trading successfully.
In particular, social traders and copy traders exist in these realms – utilising new platforms to the best of their ability. These traders will imitate the actions of others in order to achieve similar levels of success and can therefore be an easy way for you to begin trading successfully.
4. Understand the details and techniques
Forex trading is a minefield of technical vocabulary and techniques. Position sizing and a range of other aspects are all things which you will need to understand before being able to trade successfully. It is therefore important that you take the time to research these beforehand so that you are aware of exactly what this trading will involve.
5. Keep growing
Lastly, the golden rule of forex trading is to continue growing and developing. As forex and stock markets are continually trading so will the nature of trading on it and it is therefore vital that you are receptive to change. Using professional forex services or being part of forex affiliate programs is one easy way to do this and will give you access to varied news and information about the forex market as it arrives.
 Staying in villas whilst on holiday is a great experience and one that is continuing to grow in popularity. These self catered holidays offer tourists a great range of benefits and advantages, but what are they? And why should you consider staying in villas whilst on holiday?
1. More privacy
One of the main benefits of villa accommodation is that it offers guests increased privacy. This is because a number of villas can be individually rented. This allows you to treat your holiday accommodation as if it is your home, thus allowing you to have a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday experience.
2. More independence
Alongside this benefit, villa accommodation also provides holidaymakers with greater independence. This is because you treat the area as your home, meaning that you are able to come and go as you please. This means that your holiday is less disruptive and allows you to experience the different attractions of the area at your own convenience.
3. Range of choice
This sort of accommodation will also offer you a range of choice when it comes to your destination, making it a great option. Villas in Majorca are one of the most popular options for individuals after this sort of holiday but are not the only place where it is available. Villas can be found across the world, with Florida villas being another favourite with tourists.
4. Better locations
Aside from the range in general, the actual location of villas within a specific region is also often found to be better than some other forms of accommodation. This is because villas are often located in more secluded locations whilst still being close to the main tourist areas. This will ensure that holidaymakers get the benefit of stunning locations whilst also having greater levels of privacy and a good level of accessibility to key areas.
5. Additional features
Lastly, villas and self catered accommodation also provide tourists with a range of other benefits. A number of these places will come with personalised swimming pools as well as other common amenities. This means that tourists are able to enjoy the range of activities and attractions on offer from the area whilst enjoying luxury and comfort within their accommodation.
Villas are known for their luxury and the vast majority of them will be decorated to enhance this feature. This ensures that holidaymakers get the best of both worlds – the comfort and luxury of hotel accommodation but with more convenience and privacy.
Villa accommodation
Villa accommodation is therefore a great solution for all types of tourists, including families and couples. This is because it provides them with the freedom to enjoy their holiday as they see fit, ensuring that they are able to enjoy their holiday to its maximum.
When looking for villas to stay in it is therefore important that you consider the area in which it is located as well as the features which are on offer and the price.
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Hear the news that there is corruption in the oil industry and most well-read consumers would assume that the story relates to the “Black Gold” that is at the heart of most of the world’s industries and the source of political and environmental problems the world over. However, according to a new book, the world of olive oil is also beset by problems of corruption, smuggling and even poisoning attempts.
