Feeding a two-wheeled addiction on the beaten path

The muted constant crunch of rubber on gravel is serenely meditative, a white noise massaging the senses like the sun on a silent backyard deck.

On a bike every pedal stroke, every spin of the tire allows the stresses of the mind to melt away, leaving time to tune in to the immediacy of each bump, each rut,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. each bend and bow of the subtle grade carrying you through an intimate experience with nature.

By bike or foot, or even horse, the wending trails on historical rail corridors of commerce give an experience unparalleled — one well worth attempting, no matter your fitness level.

It wasn’t long ago that a bike ride from the Glenora trailhead to Marie Canyon along the old CN railbed would be an exercise in solitude,Welcome to projectorlamp. where you’d be more likely to trade sideways stares with bears than you would another person.

The majority of paths in Cowichan were like this — over-grown, over-looked and under-used.

Now more than 120 kilometres of pathway stretch throughout Cowichan, and users of all makes and molds are discovering the benefits of walking, running or riding in the fresh air of their own backyard.

From the southern tip of Shawnigan Lake across the Kinsol Trestle to Lake Cowichan and back to Duncan, and from Chemainus to the Nanaimo Regional District, maintained trails are increasing the health and well-being of the community at large.

Perched atop our bike saddles, we’ve witnessed a diversity of people parading along the paths.

With a thick concentration of houses mere steps away, the meandering trail from Sherman Road to Tansor has become a destination for new moms armed with their offroading strollers. North Cowichan’s pipeline trail running parallel to Somenos Road is a haven for families and walkers, too.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking.

Both routes have become thouroughfares for downtown workers looking to stretch their legs with an afternoon run.

Further along, heading out along the old E&N line toward Lake Cowichan we’ve seen every type of cyclist imaginable.

The new hardpacked trail has opened the door for Sahtlam commuters to enjoy the fast downhill into work in the mornings, and get a workout clearing their minds from the day on the way home.

There’s been the weary but smiling first-time-in-a-long-time cyclists pushing their bikes along the path waving hello to the lycra-clad race packs blurring by on their left.

Sunday cruisers in sandals share the trails with tots kicking up rocks with their training wheels. Youth with their backsides hanging out of low-slung jeans rip by on BMX’s while yellow-jacketed touring cyclists trudge along, laden down with camping gear,Proxense's advanced handsfreeaccess technology. headed to Stoltz Pools and beyond.

And then there are the horses.

From the skittish riders who ask us to walk our bikes and speak loudly, to the renegade cowboys barreling past on galloping steeds at heart-stopping speeds, the horses are numerous and seem to relish the space.

For downtown Duncan dwellers and Cowichan Common commuters, the newly appointed Friendship Trail has proven popular. The early morning dog walkers proudly packing their sacks of pooch poop and the health conscientious step counters getting in their daily quota of fitness are all awed by the stunning views of Somenos Marsh.Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside,

From the multitudes of users we’ve seen on the trails, it’s apparent you don’t need to be a fitness nut to enjoy these paths.

First hint of Majorana fermions spotted in nanowires

As well as backing Majorana's original prediction, the discovery also agrees with more recent theoretical work that the particle could be lurking within solid-state devices. The latter could be important for the development of quantum computers because Majorana fermions – unlike more familiar "Dirac" fermions, such as electrons – obey "non-Abelian statistics" and so should be resistant to environmental noise. Majorana fermions could, therefore,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? be able to store and transmit quantum information without being perturbed by the outside world,Shop for trim and crown moulding, which is the bane of anyone trying to build a practical quantum computer.

The new evidence for Majorana fermions has been obtained by a team led by Leo Kouwenhoven at the Delft University of Technology and thA wireless indoortracking system is described in this paper.e Eindhoven University of Technology that has studied materials known as "topological insulators". These are materials that are insulating in the bulk but can conduct electricity on their surface via special surface electronic states. Theory predicts that quasiparticle Majorana fermions could be made by combining an ordinary superconductor with a topological insulator.Silicone moldmaking Rubber,

If a superconductor is placed in contact with a topological insulator, the surface states become superconducting. Since the surface states are "half" an ordinary 2D electron system, their superconducting state is "half" an ordinary superconductor. This is the situation that physicists believe will lead to the emergence of quasipartcle Majorana fermions.

For its topological insulator the team used a nanowire of indium strontium, which bridged the gap between a superconducting electrode made of niobium titanium nitride and a normal electrode made of gold. The device is cooled to temperatures of tens of millikelvin and a magnetic field is applied along the direction of the nanowire.

The team then meaThe best rubbersheets products on sale,sured the current flowing through the nanowire as a function of voltage – and, in particular, how the current changed in response to changes in voltage. At zero applied magnetic field, two small peaks were observed on either side of zero applied voltage. When the applied magnetic field was increased, the position of these peaks remained in the same position. This also occurred when an electric field was applied to the nanowire.

According to the team, this lack of response by the peaks to magnetic and electric fields can only be explained by the presence of pairs of Majorana fermions at one end of the nanowire. "What is magical about quantum mechanics is that a Majorana particle created in this way is similar to the ones that may be observed in a particle accelerator, although that is very difficult to comprehend," says Kouwenhoven.

The team acknowledges that its measurements do not confirm the expected topological properties of the Majorana fermions that it has seen – something that would make the particles useful for quantum-computing applications. To do so, the team suggests a number of new experiments to measure other properties of the quasiparticles to establish their non-Abelian nature.

Process modeling ready to advance use of long-fiber composites

In conjunction with several universities and testing labs, the plastics industry has developed process modeling for long glass fiber injection molded composite plastic parts.

The technology may open the door to greater use of such materials in semi-structural automotive applications and other areas where strength and stiffness are critical.

“This will allow you to use plastics in places that companies have never thought of using plastics before,” said Marianne Morgan, automotive industry manager for engineering plastics for BASF Corp. Such long fiber applications are growing, but still limited today because of the necessity to develop tooling to produce prototypes of parts to assess the potential part’s mechanical properties.

The new process modeling, and the research data backing it up, will enable companies to bypass “the make it and break it” trial-and-error testing on plastic parts that would have delayed or inhibited the adoption of long glass fiber filled plastics for years, said Mike Wyzgoski, a consultant to the American Chemistry Council’s automotive team.

“I think all of the properties — the stiffness, the strength, the impact resistance and the toughness of the parts — will improve” with the use of long fibers, “because of the way the fibers are oriented,” Wyzgoski said in advance of his April 24 presentation on predictive engineering at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit.

Wyzgoski is a former research and development group leader at General Motors Corp. and former polymers group manager for Delphi Research.Stone Source offers a variety of Natural stonemosaic Tiles.

The process modeling is now available, in a drop-down menu, to product development engineers through the Moldflow simulation software from Autodesk Inc., for example.

Engineers can use data from the research to see how glass fibers are affected by the molding process, and how the molding will affect the finished part. That is critical information because the flow of long fibers is very different from the flow of short fibers through the gate and mold, Wyzgoski said.

With the software, toolmakers will be able to determine, for example, where to position the gate.

Long fiber composites offer improved properties compared to the short fiber composites,Dimensional Mailing magiccubes for Promotional Advertising, he said.

“Stiffness and strength increase by a factor of two, and impact resistance by a factor of five to 10,” Wyzgoski said. “With fatigue or creep,The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good ， you could be looking at orders of magnitude of improvement of 1,000 to 10,000.”

That could open the door to replacement of short fiber composites in some applications, and metal replacement in others.

Mercedes, for example, already has a carbon fiber wheel rim.

Another European car-maker, Audi, plans to roll by the end of the year fiberglass-reinforced epoxy road springs for its electrically propelled Audi R8 e-tron model.Overview description of rapid tooling processes. The springs match the performance of steel coils for load-bearing, but are around 40 percent lighter. The core of the spring consists of long glass fibers twisted together and impregnated with epoxy resin. A machine wraps additional fibers around the core--which is only a few millimeters in diameter—at alternating angles of plus and minus 45° to the longitudinal axis.

The FRP suspension springs will also be introduced on some 2013 Audi midsize and large luxury models.

Some of the other potential automotive applications, Wyzgoski said, are front-end modules,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. instrument panel retainers, sub-structural components and body panels, and car jacks.

“They can be used for many semi-structural applications and will help reduce weight as opposed to using metals,” he said.

In addition, Morgan said there is “a lot of focus to develop crash-absorbing automotive parts and crash-resistant seat structures” from such composites. They could also be used for battery trays in hybrid and electric vehicles, she said.

Beyond autos, such long fiber composites could be used in sports and recreation applications, casings for power tools and outdoor equipment such as lawn movers, farm equipment, tractor hoods on farm equipment, and seating and sub-structure applications in boating, Wyzgoski said.

“A lot of companies don’t want to build a tool because it is a pain,” “This allows you to do that predictive modeling on a computer and put in the needed geometries,” he said. “This is the key and the first step to properly predict the properties” of the potential application.

“The ability of automotive engineers to dependably predict the modulus, impact, strength, fatigue and stiffness of various-sized long glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastics depends on reliably modeling the fiber sizes, the fiber orientations and the relative fiber positioning with each part,” he said. “Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have validated that these three vital components can be predicted by process models for long glass fiber reinforced plastics.

The other long fiber research partners include Michigan State University, Virginia Tech, the University of Dayton Research Institute and the University of Illinois. The research was funded by the Department of Energy.

“Without knowing these three crucial components, we cannot move on to create models that predict mechanical performing modeling,” Wyzgoski said. “This allows accurate mechanical performance predictive modeling to occur for the first time” for long glass fibers in the plastics industry.

Gardening: The big cover up

It's sad but true that when the hard landscaping and land-sculpting of a new garden have been done, the result is generally a large amount of dirt. So unfair, you think, that you've paid so many tradespeople and ended up with a whole lot of bare earth that needs to be covered up. But don't despair - just about everything you do to your land from this point on will help to turn bare earth into, well, something else.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking.

Cut the job down to size by dividing your section into the areas that need to be covered for practical reasons, and the areas you want to cover for aesthetic reasons.

Practical areas may include the driveway, car parking area, paths, steps, and even the few square feet of concrete under the clothesline.

Aesthetic areas may be an outdoor eating area, a terrace, courtyard, pool area or a zany bit of mosaic paving for the sundial.A Plastic injectionmoulding company,

Practical areas have to work well alongside decorative areas, so try to develop a master plan and match your materials to one another. A mishmash of asphalt, concrete, pavers, timber decking and river stones is not going to give you the well-planned cohesive look that landscapers so cleverly achieve.

You also need to match the materials to the design of the house. If, for instance,Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia. your home is a square plastered building in the classic style, hunks of driftwood used as edging may not work. Although skilled landscapers and designers often mix and match materials to excellent effect.

Driveways and car parking areas are usually the largest and most difficult to cover creatively. It's easy to rush in and end up with a vast expanse of dark grey asphalt that dominates the entire landscape.

If your main material is going to be concrete or asphalt, you can introduce a second material to break up the expanse and give you smaller, more defined areas. Channels of chips or stones can be used - but not where they will be constantly driven over - to create an interesting pattern, and insets of timber will have the same effect. Concrete can be cut or stamped to provide patterns, ground down to expose other colours and textures, or coloured.

If you're happy with a zany look you can add a koru or any meaningful design to the middle of your driveway or parking area - it will become quite a conversation piece.

Once you've gone down a particular road in terms of materials, marry it with other landscape elements.

If you've used a specific design in the carpark, perhaps introduce a smaller version to paths, porches or other areas.

Apply the same rule to materials - the stones edging the driveway can be used down the edge of the garden steps.

The same applies in reverse - the mosaic design under the sundial can be repeated in a different format along the front of the garage, or to define parking spaces in the car-park area.

If your budget allows, you may choose pavers, cobblestones,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. slate or tiles as a paving material. And although any of these can look fantastic in defined spaces, acres of them laid in uniform style may not. If you have a large area to cover, don't choose small pavers laid in a busy pattern or your guests will be dizzy before they get to the door. Try to find the right proportions of pavers to the overall space.

If you can't make it work, you may be better to use a plain cover-up, like concrete, for the major part of the driveway/carpark area, and use your small pavers as accents.

When it comes to using gardens to cover up the dirt, lawn will be your best friend, especially if you have large areas to deal with.

A really good lawn is not beyond the abilities of anyone with half a brain who can read. There's a mountain of information on the internet and at garden centres and hardware outlets on how to prepare the soil, what kind of seed to use, and how to look after it while it grows.

You can get away with just a few tools - a shovel, a rake and a roller (it is not expensive to hire a roller).Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? There are grass seeds available that will have your space looking green in just a few days - yes, honestly - and you'll be mowing before you know it. Ground covers are also very useful for turning awkward or unattractive areas into, at the very least, tidy spaces. Check out whether the area is going to be sunny or shady, wet or dry, and buy plants accordingly. Again, if you have large areas, choose varieties that grow speedily.

Dead Sara — Dead Sara

Between their recent Rolling Stone write-up and a high-profile spot on this year’s Warped Tour — not to mention some glowing SXSW coverage from yours truly — Dead Sara is one of the more buzzed-about bands to emerge from the rock clubs of Los Angeles in some time. More impressive yet is that the quartet has achieved their recognition not as part of any contemporary trend but by playing straight up, ballsy rock done right.

Frontwoman Emily Armstrong sported a vintage Tom Petty tour shirt when I first saw the band in Austin, and that old-school influence is immediately apparent in the band’s music.GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. Produced by Noah Shain — whose resume includes records by Atreyu and Skrillex — Dead Sara’s self-titled debut boasts a organic garage-rock aesthetic married to aggressive musicianship. This is an album with the potential to unite Paramore-worshipping teens and their Fleetwood Mac-loving parents.

Armstrong’s vocal range — in particular her ability to flip the switch from a folksy croon to a gruff caterwaul at a moment’s notice — is fairly astounding and plays an equal role with the pummelling riffage of guitarist Siouxsie Medley in defining the band’s sound. It’s perhaps worth mentioning at this point that it is refreshing to see a rock band fronted by two women — neither of whom is hard on the eyes — that doesn’t feel the need to ramp up the sex appeal to attract an audience.

Rather, the vibe projected both live and on record is one of defiance and self-assertion, presumably informed by both personal struggle and the challenges of making an impact in a traditionally male-dominated scene. For their part, the masculine contingent of Dead Sara — bassist Chris Null and drummer Sean Friday — ably anchor the tight selection of 11 songs that comprises the band’s self-titled debut.Silicone moldmaking Rubber,

Null ushers in the album’s opening track, “Whispers & Ashes,” with a staccato bass rhythm before an impassioned yelp from Armstrong announces the arrival of the rest of the band. The song itself isn’t breaking any molds, adhering to a tried-and-true formula of aggressive verses married to a chorus that ably captures the slightly ethereal beauty implied by the title. It nevertheless makes for a fine introduction to the album, which from there maintains a breakneck pace and rarely pauses for breath — just as well, since the band is at its best with all pistons firing in unison.Learn all about solarpanel.

To wit, lead single “Weatherman,” which bursts out of the gate with a Tom Morello-esque riff that is irresistible in its driving simplicity and backed by a earth-shaking beat from Friday. By the time the chorus hits, Armstrong’s screamed entreaty to “Go for the kill” might just have the listener looking around frantically for a throat to tear out. Medley’s cascade of feedback-drenched harmonics in the bridge recall Nirvana at their most discordant and are emblematic of the grunge-era proclivities that run throughout the entirety of the record.

The band’s heaviest tendencies are also on display in “Monumental Holiday,Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.” which at 2:41 is the album’s shortest track and also its most concentrated burst of aggression — featuring Armstrong at her most throat-shredding — and “Lemon Scent,” which proves that Dead Sara understands that old jazz adage that the notes you don’t play are as important as the ones you do. When Medley drops out of the chorus for a measure at a time, her guitar rebounds with twice the impact when it rejoins the fray.

The band’s rootsier tendencies bubble to the surface in the aptly-titled “Timed Blues,” which features a Dust Bowl folk riff that roves under and around Armstrong’s vocals before diving back into Kim Thayil territory. When Dead Sara branches out into ballad mode, the songs don’t have quite the impact of the group’s straight-up rockers, though truthfully these ballads are pretty rocking in their own right. What unites “Weatherman” and slower numbers like “Face to Face” are the band’s pet themes of resilience and self-actualization, espousing the value of fighting for one’s dreams and refusing to kowtow to the desires of others. It’s only on “Dear Love” and the album’s closing track, “Sorry For It All,” that Armstrong softens her tone, admitting to a share of blame for past tragedies and reaching out for reconciliation. If this record wins the band as many fans as it should, there will be many a lighter-waving singalong to these tracks in the years to come. But the mosh pits will be where it’s at at a Dead Sara show.

Artistic license set loose at the All About Art exhibit

Art lovers will have a heyday this weekend when the All About Art Club hosts its annual art show and sale in the Yemassee Craft Center Art Room. Original oils, acrylics, ceramics, watercolors, pastels, photography and more will be on display, all from the eyes and hands of Sun City’s vast corps of talented artists.

Among the many artists preparing to hang their work are three who depict their vision in different media.

Pat Everson, who has worked in different formats, from oil to acrylic paints, now focuses on PanPastels, a palette-style method of creating paintings with chalk.

Denis Reshetar works on a very large scale, building wooden frames in various shapes around which he stretches canvas he then paints.

Mary Ann Putzier works in watercolor and porcelain, learning each time she prepares to teach a new class.

“Teaching always gets me going because if I am going to teach floral painting, then I have to paint fresh ones. I can’t bring up old paintings as examples,” Putzier said in her well-lighted studio.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. Among the classes she has taught at the community’s art room are “Saving your Whites” and making a watercolor canvas. Next year, she expects to teach how to paint reflections and possibly portraits, her favorite subject.

“Portraits are the most satisfying. Not only to capture the likeness but the personality,” she said.

Her mother and grandmother were quite artistic, Putzier said, and she and her eight siblings were raised on drawing.

“All of us have some kind of artistic skills, especially the girls,” she said. It taught her to see, to observe. “If you can’t see it,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, you can’t draw it and you can’t paint it. Of course, once you see it, you can take liberties like Picasso and others. They weren’t copyists.Buy high quality bedding and bed linen from Yorkshire Linen. They took the truth and bent it.”

Reshetar thinks in the summer and then creates in the fall and winter.

“I usually have thoughts on paper — the shapes I want to do and the designs I want to paint on them,” he said. He builds his own wooden frames, sometimes taking one completely apart after the design fails to come together.

“It usually takes me a week of 10-12 hours when I get going,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside,” he said. “I like big stuff, different shapes. Big or narrow, horizontal or vertical. And usually difficult to put into a house.”

He said he repainted one square vision four or five times until he finally started all over from scratch, scrapping the canvas and rebuilding the canvas frame into a different shape.

“I usually spend as much time making the frame as doing the painting,” he said. Originally a ceramicist and sculptor in college, Reshetar has taken some of those skills and reapplied them to both his frames and his painting technique.

One painting has a 3D effect as one side seems to pull away from the wall.Dimensional Mailing magiccubes for Promotional Advertising, A few paintings Reshetar has hanging in his home were created by what he calls the “lost wax” technique, a process used in making molds. Across the surface of the painting — a blending of colors that graduate to more intense hues from the center out — he adds the finishing touch, a deliberate splash or dripline of black paint.

“When it has dried enough that the edges are hard, I take it outside and hose it off,” he said. What remains behind is an outline of the splash, the painting’s colors popping back out.

Everson began attending the Silvermine Guild of Art in Connecticut when she was 12 and studied art through high school. An argument she no longer recalls with an art instructor turned her against her training and she earned a degree in psychology in college.

“Art was always with me. I couldn’t get away from it,” Everson said. “Even in the two 10-year stretches I abandoned it, it was always behind me, nagging me.”

Now concentrating on the use of pastels, she finds that keeping up with the ever-evolving techniques and resources is just a small part of being an artist.

“You have to keep current,” she said. Originally an oil painter, Everson acquired adult asthma and found that being in the presence of the chemicals used was unhealthy. She had to change her medium and moved to acrylic and has taught the subject to Sun City students.

That, too, became a problem with her asthma and now she has moved to pastels, a medium that uses no chemicals with which to create. In the process of researching these tools, Everson discovered a whole new concept in the use of PanPastels, a set of colored chalk discs that have low dust issues, one of the challenges of using chalk.

Rather than create the painting with pastel sticks, Everson is able to apply the chalk with sponge-tipped applicators. The different shaped heads allow for various results on the paper and stick pastels may still be used to provide an opaque sharp line, if desired.

It’s all part of Everson’s pursuit of perfection through practice.

Proto Labs makes a play

As the market maker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange decided on an opening day share price for Proto Labs in February, traders on the floor yelled and screamed out prices.

The specialist took it all in and yelled back that Proto Labs would start trading on its first day as a public company at $25. Then all was quiet as the computers took over the task of matching buyers to sellers.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?

Just as noisy trades were soon taken over by quiet computers on the trading floor, Proto Labs is using the Internet and its technology to refashion the highly fragmented world of making prototype parts - relieving stressed product developers and design engineers who face increasingly aggressive development deadlines.

Proto Labs stock may not have had the buzz of a Facebook before its initial public offering, but the Maple Plain-based parts and components maker got off to a splashy start. Its shares closed on that first day at $29. From its initial price of $16 per share, the stock soared 81 percent, making its opening day performance one of the most successful IPOs of the year.

Within weeks, Proto's share price doubled, pushing its market cap up to about $750 million before the market's recent slide.

Now the company, which makes prototypes for products in a wide range of industries, has the means to acquire new companies and the technology to grow. On its own, it hasn't done too badly. Just a decade ago, it was a startup with 10 employees working out of a leased building. With a business model of making "real parts really fast," it has grown to $100 million in revenue, with a nice profit margin,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. worldwide operations and 560 workers.

The firm operates today on a three-building campus in Maple Plain, west of the Twin Cities, including a sleek headquarters building and manufacturing facilities.

A 128,000-square-foot plant in Rosemount just opened to make room for growth, and a couple hundred new workers worldwide will be hired this year.

In a mature industry littered with mom-and-pop parts shops, Proto Labs touts its proprietary software and automated manufacturing that allow the company to turn around plastic and metal parts fast, with low labor costs.

It churns out prototypes in as little as a day.

But can the company attract new business with competitors around every corner, especially now that Wall Street is paying attention?

"In order for the company to sustain this kind of share price, it has to perform," said board member and private equity investor Brian Smith. "That means there has to be revenue growth."

So far,Grey Pneumatic is a world supplier of impactsockets for the heavy duty, that hasn't been a problem. Since tech veteran Larry Lukis founded the company in 1999, Proto Labs has experienced significant growth. Lukis, now the chief technology officer, declined an interview. He remains the largest shareholder, owning 30 percent of the company.

Revenue has nearly tripled from $36 million in 2007 to $99 million in 2011. Since its start, Proto Labs has filled orders for 20,000 product developers. But that number has to multiply.

"They're just starting to scratch the surface," said Steven Dyer, an analyst for Craig-Hallum Capital Group in Minneapolis,The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good ， one of the investment banks on the initial public offering. Catching the attention of many more developers is key.

Dyer expects good growth. "We're modeling 25 percent revenue growth this year compared to 2011,A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders." he said. Last year, revenue jumped 52 percent. "We think they'll be a very healthy, above-average grower for quite some time."

Proto Labs' client list is diverse, with no one customer accounting for more than 1 percent of revenue. The company caters to some big-name businesses including Boston Scientific, John Deere, Bose, Xerox, Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

Amherst substation key in power delivery

There’s an awful lot of very cool stuff at PSNH’s huge substation in south Amherst, which handles much of the electrical load for Nashua, but maybe the coolest thing can’t even be seen: Coronas.

These electrical discharges occur when there’s so much electricity around that it ionizes air molecules, creating dancing colored lights. Think of St. Elmo’s fire appearing around sailing-ship masts during lightning storms.

Coronas don’t appear in the PSNH substation despite the staggering amounts of current flowing through it because of “corona rings.” Metal doughnuts hanging from the top of many components; these spread the electric field gradient so it isn’t potent enough to ionize the air.

It is still potent enough to create a sort of crackling sound as a background soundtrack.

You’ll have to take my word for that, however, because you’ll never get close enough to hear it.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

Electric power substations are the sort of critical infrastructure that is becoming more secure each year. Merely approaching the barbed-wire-topped fencing that surrounds the several-acre substation, which is south of the railroad tracks a few hundred yards from Route 101A, raises a silent alarm.

“As soon as you showed up outside the fence, somebody knew you were here,” said Chuck Christensen, supervisor of substation engineering for PSNH, before giving me and photographer Don Himsel a recent tour of the site.

It took weeks of discussion through PSNH spokesman Martin Murray to set up a tour, due to concerns about safety and security at substations. The situation will only get tighter in this post-9/11 world.

“In five years, this tour might not be possible at all,” said Christensen after giving us a long safety talk (“don’t touch anything; don’t even wave your arms around”), handing over hard hats, goggles and fire-resistant Nomex coveralls, and unlocking the gate.

We visited the site because – well, for no particular reason,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, really, except curiosity.

Electric substations are “hidden in plain sight” structures, a necessary but overlooked step between power plants like Seabrook Station on the one hand, and the endless power lines that decorate every aspect of modern life on the other.

PSNH has more than 50 substations throughout the state, yet few of us know about them or even notice them – some are right on heavily travelled roads like Broad Street near the Nashua Mall or Canal Street near the Merrimack River.

I’ve driven within a few hundreds yards of the Amherst substation at least a thousand times, but didn’t know it existed.

“That’s the way we like it,” Christensen said.

So what do all these substations do? In a nutshell, they make power usable.

After electricity is produced by power plants using all sorts of fuel – like Seabrook Station (nuclear), Granite Ridge Energy (natural gas),External hemorrhoids are those that occur below the dentate line. Merrimack Station (coal), Mine Falls (hydropower) and Lempster Mountain (wind) – the electricity gets sent all around New England over high-voltage transmission lines.

The power’s voltage is boosted for the trip because that makes the electricity travel more efficiently.

The power that comes to the Amherst substation, for example, is at 345,000 volts (345 kV, or kilovolts). Nobody can use electricity at that voltage because it would make our homes melt, or something like that, so the voltage has to be damped down. This is where substations come in.

Inside the fence, the power is carried in aluminum tubes (which don’t sway like wires) to enormous circuit breakers, that perform the same role as the switches in the circuit-breaker box in your basement or the surge arrestors next to your computer. If something goes wrong, they try to contain it.

These two parallel sets of equipment – redundancy is good – aren’t little switches,Get information on airpurifier from the unbiased, independent experts. though. Each is the size of a garage, topped by monstrous insulated towers that would be right at home in a Frankenstein movie. The towers have one delightfully low-tech touch: the insulation disks are made of porcelain, just as they have been since the earliest days of the telegraph. “We haven’t found anything better,” Christensen said.

For how long will anal health and hygiene be neglected?

“It is high time that anal health [and hygiene] comes out of the closet” said Dr Ross Cranston, Assistant Professor, and University of Pittsburgh, USA. Dr Cranston was referring to the multitude of anal health complications people practicing receptive anal intercourse are likely to be dealing with in their lives and very little quality care and products that exist to relieve them.

Dr Cranston was speaking at the International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia. According to the UNAIDS, United Nations joint programme on HIV/AIDS, men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) are at a high risk of HIV around the world.

Many countries such as those in Africa who had earlier reported no significant HIV rates in people with same sex behaviour, have reported alarming HIV rates in recent past.

Although ‘anal’ and ‘rectal’ words are used as synonyms,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. but they aren’t same – and rather refer to different parts biologically.This page provides information about 'werkzeugbaus;Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside, Anal canal is distinct from rectal canal with a unique set of diagnosis. Rectal canal is made up of columnar epithelial cells and anal canal is made up of stratified epithelial cells. Anal canal is also a high pressure environment with about 77 mmHg pressure when sphincters are resting and 180 mmHg pressure when sphincters constrict. In contrast, pressure in human vagina is 0 mmHg in resting phase.

Anal canal is very sensitive to hot, cold, wet, dry, light touch, pin prick, distension, pleasure or pain, however rectal canal is only sensitive to distension,Learn all about solarpanel. pleasure or pain.

The incidence of adverse events in rectal microbicides studies is quite high with 11% symptoms and signs of anal adverse events in anal canal and 13% in rectal canal. These adverse events include prolapsing hemorrhoids (piles), anal fissure, anal fistula, anal abscess, anal warts, anal or rectal canal cancers, fungal infections, herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, or sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The need for right awareness in healthcare providers and their appropriate training is acute as often anal adverse events are misdiagnosed or ill-treated.

The awareness level in people (men and women) who reported to practice receptive anal intercourse was abysmally low.A wireless indoortracking system is described in this paper. Zero per cent of such respondents had knowledge related to their anal cancer risk, and just half of them knew about HSV. Awareness certainly needs to be upped in people practicing receptive anal sex.

One of the desired products for anal health and hygiene is the one which can protect people who have receptive anal sex from contracting STIs including HIV, such as rectal microbicides.

Rectal microbicides are products that could take the form of gels or lubricants – being developed to reduce a person’s risk of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) through anal receptive sex.

Currently under development, rectal microbicides research sadly began much later than that of vaginal microbicides. However now, not only vaginal microbicides are being tested for rectal safety and efficacy but some researchers are even exploring potent candidates for rectal microbicides research.

Jim Pickett, who co-founded the International Rectal Microbicides Advocacy (IRMA) and is the Director of Advocacy, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, agrees: "We have to recognize that these are human needs of people and they must be able to connect to these products [anal health and hygiene products, including rectal microbicides when available after research]." Jim strongly articulated that these anal health and hygiene products must not be medically projected instead should be marketed and made available in a manner so as to be able to connect to the people for whom they are made.

Dr Cranston made a strong case to raise awareness about anal health and hygiene among people practicing receptive anal sex, and develop safe and effective products that can serve the need too. He cited the example of products that line the shelves in shopping malls on vaginal health and hygiene, and similarly it should become acceptable one day in near future to have anal health and hygiene products, said Dr Cranston.

Journey into the heart of North Korea

On the top floor of the maternity hospital in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, I was shown two sets of triplets lined up in a row of metal cots. "Ahh," I cooed, then asked where the worn- out mothers were. "Oh, they are not necessary," was the reply.

The regime claims it venerates triplets. And they do, but not in a way you or I might celebrate. They send a helicopter to pick up the pregnant mother and take her to hospital for the birth. When triplets are born, the state takes them away. In exchange, parents are given gifts, a ring for girls and a silver knife for boys. They say the state looks after them for the first four years but there's no way of checking that – it could be for ever.

While I was there the hospital was celebrating its 415th set of triplets. They had even drawn up a poster, complete with pictures of triplets in the state orphanage, where the Kim dynasty provides for them. They say it is voluntary, but in a country where you face public execution for making an international phone call,External Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line. if the state suggests you do something, you do it.

The logic behind this bizarre behaviour is that triplets are expensive so that state eases the parents' burden by looking after them. But remember this is a communist country where the state provides houses for free and feeds every mouth. I asked why the state couldn't ease the burden by providing a larger house and more food, but got no answer.

I asked if the parents can't afford to feed them as babies how would they be able to afford three growing four-year-olds when they are supposed to get them back? Again, no answer. There may be a darker reason behind the state's removal of triplets. Kim Jong-il, whose death in December caused millions in the world's last Stalinist state to weep openly, is reported to have feared an astrologer's prediction that a triplet would assassinate him. The regime tells its people that they live in a paradise, they have nothing to envy and with no access to the outside world they believe it. The disconnect between the state's mass brainwashing and the dysfunctional reality is at its darkest in the maternity hospital, a huge Stalinist concrete block. It smelled, not of disinfectant, but of musty neglect.

All North Koreans are allowed to have their first born in the hospital, a privilege that seemed like a curse. It was a living museum. They gave us a demonstration of a 1960s machine which,Promat solid RUBBER MATS are the softest mats on the market! our guides told us,Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes. could cure infertility. It looked like a bad confidence trick. The hospital's take on patient choice was medieval. Mothers have to give birth alone and aren't allowed to meet with any family or even their husbands for at least a week after. The only contact they have is through little booths with phones like the ones in American prison dramas except the mothers aren't behind glass but on a TV screen. The explanation for this isolation is to prevent infection, yet rubber gloves, disinfectant or hand soap did not seem to be deemed necessary.

In the maternity hospital I saw no disabled children. They told me they are cared for in special homes. Six years ago Dr Ri Kwang-Chol, who defected from the North to the South, claimed that babies that were born with physical defects were put to death and buried. I had no way of verifying that but in five days in Pyongyang and three in the countryside no one in our party of 15 (all students, on a 'fact finding trip') – Britons, Italians and others – saw a disabled person. Where are they? Dr Ri's claim of state infanticide does not seem far-fetched.

The buildings in this city can be divided into three types of architecture: sixties Bond-film villain buildings, Soviet-style housing blocks and buildings that would look at home in Thunderbirds. Individual action does not exist. Everybody moves in blocs. We saw clusters of hundreds of people huddled together raking the mud or on their knees combing scraps of grass.How is TMJ pain treated?Ekahau RTLS is the only Wi-Fi based real time Location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. Even visits to the war museum, where residents learn how the "American imperial aggressors" bowed down in front of the Korean people, are arranged by factory.

In regular cities the bulk of the people are on the road, in cars, taxis or on buses. In Pyongyang, it's the pavements that are full of people, who hurry away from you like a shoal of fish from a swimmer. The people of this city are especially selected to live there. Everyone looks the same; the women, with jet-black hair swept back, all share the same hairstyle. They all dress in dark colours and pre-war fabrics. In Pyongyang, no one wears jeans. But there is the odd puncture of colour, the female traffic cops, rumoured to have been chosen by Kim Il-sung himself for their beauty, stand out in the their blue coats, painted faces and knee-high boots flashing a rare sight of leg.

Keeping an eye on car's exterior is important

When Tony Stewart races in the Sprint Cup Series,How is TMJ pain treated? he's alone in the cockpit of the No. 14 Chevrolet.

But he's really not alone.

He has a top-notch pit crew to perform a four-tire stop and add fuel, and a great crew chief in Steve Addington to make needed adjustments to the race car.

He also has Bob Jeffrey, otherwise known as the Eye In The Sky.

Jeffrey is Stewart's spotter. He stands high above the track from more than a half-a-mile away, able to see what Stewart can't in front of him. Quite simply, Jeffrey's job is one of the most invaluable at the track during race weekends.

It's Jeffrey's reassuring voice in Stewart's ear from Friday's first practice through Sunday's checkered flag, helping him tiptoe through traffic and, oftentimes, sensing trouble before it happens.

When the fur starts to fly, it's Jeffrey's voice the three-time champion trusts in all things.

Prior to spotting for Stewart, Jeffrey spent three seasons as spotter for Matt Kenseth and, prior to that, spent more than 10 years as spotter for Dale Jarrett. He's also spotted in Nationwide Series events for Bobby Labonte, David Green, Dale Earnhardt, and Kevin Harvick.

While Jeffrey has many years of experience calling races from atop the spotter's stand, he has even more experience at recognizing what the car should look like when it zips past him at 190 mph. Jeffrey keeps a very close eye on the car's outward appearance, and for a very good reason.

"Just as much as Tony relies on me to make sure he's got room to race, he relies on me to see what's going on with the car," explained Jeffrey, whose hometown is Bristol, Tenn. "I can see the right side, where the pit crew can't, and I can see if there are pieces missing or falling off, damage to the fenders or wells, things like that.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent.Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes."

Of course, race cars don't perform as well if pieces are missing. That's true of passenger cars as well.

Race cars, like passenger cars,Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction. are made of folded pieces of metal, and the edges are often sharp. This is especially true around the fenders and wheel wells, which are near the tires.

Jagged pieces of metal or trim can puncture a tire, and then you've got more problems than you likely bargained for when you got up that morning.

That's why a quick walk-around is always a good idea when you're driving, especially before taking a summer vacation or trip of any distance with the family aboard.

April is National Car Care Month and the perfect time to perform an inspection on your vehicle.

Before you get into the car, or while it's warming up (about 30-45 seconds is a good interval), take a quick walk around the car and see that all is right with your folded-metal chariot.

Besides your normal items, like air pressure in the tires, take good stock of the overall outer appearance of your vehicle. Is there a cracked tail light? Are there unexplained dings, dents or scrapes? It might look benign on the surface, but could be more serious once the sheet metal is peeled away.

As you back the car out of the driveway, take a good look at the area where your car was parked, too. If there's a puddle, you need to check it out. Could be oil, could be antifreeze.

Are the headlights cracked? Is a turn-signal lens gone? Does the front of the car appear to be listing one way or the other? All these things can get you in trouble not only on the road but with the law.

It's a good idea to know what needs to be fixed before you rely on it. The weather could change, and your windshield wipers might be torn or, worse, have no rubber between the clip and the windshield.

A windshield is easy to replace, if you have the cash. A car or your health is not.

One thing Jeffrey does as a matter of course is look at the way the No. 14 handles.

If you find your car crab-walking while at speed, there's an alignment or suspension problem. Look at your tires and check that the tread is in good shape. If one side is worn down to the cords and other looks brand-new, you need an alignment in the worst way. Take your car to a trusted repair shop in your area.

It will take longer than 14 seconds, too.

"It just makes good sense to keep an eye on the outside of your car," Jeffrey said. "You never know what happens to your car when you leave it unattended in a parking lot, for instance, and it could be more serious than a ding in the door.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI."

Barco Projection for 3D Musical Art Installation

Barco recently supplied its FLM HD20 projectors to create a spectacular visual journey enlivening electronica artist Amon Tobin's latest international tour, ISAM Live. The centerpiece of the show was a 25' x 14' x 8' multi-dimensional, shape-shifting 3D art installation in which the world-renowned DJ performed his electronic music show from a control booth centrally located within the structure. See the photos here.

Combining 3D projection mapping and generative/audio reactive real-time and pre-rendered elements, the producers used Barco's FLM HD20 projectors to display the kaleidoscope of visual elements in concert with Tobin's music. The artist recently described the integration of projection mapping and music as a “reverse score,” alluding to the cinematic parallels he sought to achieve in creating the show.

The dynamic stage featured the joint efforts of industry heavy-weights, Vello Virkhaus, Founder of V Squared Labs responsible for creating the visual imagery and projection mapping effects, Alex Lazarus of blasthaus serving as executive producer, and Heather Shaw, CEO of Vita Motus Design Studio responsible for conceptualizing and creating the stage as production and set designer – these masterminds combined forces to create the seamlessly 3D-mapped sculpture featuring digital video projection on a giant cubic array surrounding the artist. “The Barco projectors are the most rugged, and the perfect 'go to' workhorse for this kind of show. Because the projection is the focal point, diligence and reliability is key,” commented Lazarus.Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction. “Another advantage is the software interface, which enables us to conveniently control settings for the projectors from our laptops. Bottom line, we always know the show will go on with Barco; it's why I've used them for years.”

“The HD20s give us so many creative options, with the ability to easily control and reveal content to achieve dramatic effects,” commented Vello Virkhaus,The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges and be used for future applications beyond asset tracking. founder of V Squared Labs,My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. which developed the show's visual content. The show was designed to use just one FLM HD20 projector positioned directly in front of the structure, with one available for backup. “We can completely map the structure with a single projector with the lens focused on-center for maximum resolution. I'm recommending Barco on everything. With Barco,How is TMJ pain treated? it's 'two and the toolset' – that's the ticket!”

Barco's FLM HD20 is a native HD 20,000 lumens three-chip DLP projector designed for large venues, delivering extra brightness and high contrast to show clear, crisp images, even in a luminous environment. Extremely quiet, easy to use and maintain,Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes. the HD20 ensures consistently high image quality over a long time, thanks to fully sealed optics and extended lamp life.

“Artistic luminaries of this century are increasingly relying on Barco to make their visions a reality,” commented Chris Colpaert, Strategic Marketing Director Pro AV for Barco. “Our FLM HD20s continue to be a popular touring projector, bringing all of Barco's best technologies to bear to fulfill the demanding circumstances of live events: exceptional brightness and contrast, rugged reliability, flexible remote control, and ease of operation.”

NORTH COAST GARDENING: April spring

We expect too much of spring. It should be pretty, our gardens tidy. The weather should behave. The mornings should be cool and dewy, and the sun is supposed to rise above the hills promising us afternoons warm and toasty. The Kwanzan flowering cherry trees must bloom fully with abandon now. Morning song birds should announce spring with glee.Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes.

The soil is supposed to be warm so the carrot seeds can sprout. We want spring to satisfy us after a winter. Don't we deserve it? And then a weather forecaster's accurate prediction causes us to want not what spring is determined to do.How is TMJ pain treated? Storm.

So now spring is heavy rain. It is flood. It is messy. We scrape the muck off our boots after pawing about the garden to check on drowned seedlings.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. We wipe down the dog's dirty belly before allowing it in the house.

In the fullness of a spring storm, water spills from wild streams and flows its mocha brown abundance onto grassy cow fields electric with green. The flood drowns pools of English daisies and wide swathes of yellow-flowered mustard. Yet in the midst of swirling waters, clouds break to sun and little blue butterflies flit to the flowers. They care not for flood. The sky becomes as azure and tentative as the jittery little butterflies.

Fat robins find the abundance of a spring flood delicious. They pull earthworms from the sodden grass and pack gobs of them in their beaks. Above, a savvy kestrel perches on the high wire waiting for its quarry to surface, perhaps a semi-drowned meadow mouse escaping its flooded home.

The wild garden in a damp redwood forest, where molds, mildew and banana slugs are most welcome, suffers not from any spring storm. The floor is a sponge welcoming all the rain that falls on a carpet of fern, wild ginger and oxalis. Long-stemmed flowers of the trillium nod gently in countless raindrops falling.

After a spring storm our domesticated gardens become too soft for digging, for mowing, for allowing the dog to tear across the lawn chasing the frisbee. We made them that way. Now in our inconvenienced state of not being able to plant we learn to sit and abide, browsing a seed catalog or gazing out the window.

Outside the window is a big pond as pregnant with desire as it is with murky waters of spring's flood. On flood nights it is filled with the songs of boy frogs purring, croaking, chirping on and on in a great rain shower of love song. By day the pond lies still with a pair of mallard ducks floating without purpose, it seems. The female rests in a tangle of vegetation. The drake, 15 feet away,The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges and be used for future applications beyond asset tracking. watches over her. She moves where she desires,Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction. and when she paddles away to another site her worried mate follows.

The urgency of spring becomes a storm of rain that makes rivers so full and restless afterwards we suddenly realize there is no raft that can ever carry us across if a cleverly engineered bridge is not available. And the flower buds of the Kwanzan cherry are held tight-fisted, coldly defiant to opening. How spurious the belief that spring is to supposed to be pretty and nice, they seem to say.

Pilgrimage site shows how NKorea founder shaped personal history

It was in a rustic log cabin at the foot of Mt. Paektu where Kim Il Sung, the founder of modern North Korea, led the fight for his country's independence from Japanese imperialism more than 70 years ago, according to state-sanctioned accounts. Nearby is the lodge where his son and eventual heir Kim Jong Il was born, the accounts claim.

The story of Kim's exploits at Mount Paektu is seen as the genesis of the official history of North Korea, a legend that borrows heavily from the methods and symbols of religion in a largely atheistic country.

As North Korea celebrates the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth,Credit Card Processing and Merchant Services from merchantaccountes. his past, like the misty peaks of Mount Paektu, remains veiled in myth. Some foreign historians dispute parts of Kim's eight-volume memoirs as well as the official biography published by North Korea in 2001, and many details are impossible to verify.

However, the prodigiously detailed memoirs do suggest that he drew from a wide range of early influences,There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle, including Christianity, Confucianism, communism and a native movement called Chondoism, to craft the mythology used to justify and enshrine his family's rule.

"Kim turned his whole family into a divine entity," said historian Song Bong-sun at Korea University in South Korea. "He knew theocracies last longer than any type of regime."

Though Kim's ancestral roots were in the southern city of Jeonju, he was born outside Pyongyang in 1912 to a poor but devout Christian family of tenant farmers. He was named Kim Song Ju, or "pillar of the country."

Years before his birth, American missionaries had arrived in Pyongyang, the nation's capital, with books, medicine and bibles. They were so successful in converting locals that by 1907 the city became known as the "Jerusalem of the East," according to missionary accounts.

Kim writes in his memoirs that he often accompanied his mother to church, although he later downplays her devotion by saying she mainly considered church a place of rest and respite. Kim also insists that his father, born to a church elder and schooled by missionaries, urged him to "believe in your own country and in your own people rather than in Jesus Christ."

Despite his later efforts as president to restrict religion, Kim readily acknowledges the presence of Christians and Christianity in his early life.Proxense's advanced handsfreeaccess technology. Its influence is clear: The 10 Principles of Kim's ideological philosophy hint at the 10 Commandments of Christianity, and all three Kim rulers are referred to as "heaven sent."

At the time of Kim Il Sung's birth,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? Korea was two years into colonial rule by Japan, a period Kim describes in his memoirs as a "living hell" for Koreans. Koreans were ordered to take Japanese names and speak only Japanese, in a bid to obliterate their language and culture.

The fight for Korea's independence is a dominant theme in Kim's memoirs, called "With the Century," apparently written in 1992 at age 80. Kim places himself in a long line of patriots, claiming that his great-grandfather played a key role in a famous attack on a U.S. ship, the General Sherman, as it sailed up the Taedong River in 1866.

When Kim was 6, the Japanese threw his father into prison, and he recalls the shock of seeing his father covered with scars and wounds. Kim writes that when his father died at age 31,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. he left his son at his deathbed with two pistols and a mission to win back their country.

Growing Fancy in Berkshires For Backyard Chickens

They were dyeing eggs in the Alvarez household this Easter.

They just were not using the eggs the family normally eats.

"Well ...Choose from our large selection of cableties, we dyed some store-bought ones," 12-year-old Kyle explains.

That is because the egg of choice for the Alvarez family has a brown shell, sometimes one with dark speckles — the kind of egg laid by one of five hens in the family's backyard chicken coop.

Kyle, his sisters and his parents are not alone.

The backyard chicken movement is turning suburban homeowners into part-time subsistence farmers nationwide. And the trend has plenty of practitioners in Berkshire County.

"Chickens are our biggest subject as far as interlibrary loans are concerned," said Pat McLeod, director of the David and Joyce Milne Public Library. "We've bought maybe 10 books in the last six months. It's that and goats."

At Pittsfield's Hancock Shaker Village, they have a four-hour workshop scheduled for Saturday, June 2.

"This is our second year of offering a backyard poultry workshop," HSV Marketing Director Laura Wolf said. "Prior to that, we had offered a poultry session as one of our 'Return and Learn' presentations on Saturday afternoons, and attendance for that particular topic was so high that we decided to convert that into a more thorough, hands-on workshop in which participants come away with more information,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction,A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. experience and some supplies."

Kyle's mom, Monica, said the Mount Greylock High Regional student was responsible for sparking the family's interest in residential livestock.

"I was at a friend's house, and they had chickens, and I thought it was pretty cool,Learn all about solarpanel." Kyle said. "I went home that day, went on the computer and started researching chickens because I really wanted to get 'em. Then I forgot for a while. But then another one of my friends got chickens, so that got me back into it."

That often is how it is with chickens: The idea spreads from friend to friend or neighbor to neighbor. Or, in the case of local author Jennifer Trainer Thompson, from one end of the commonwealth to the other.

"My parents lived down by Cape Cod in a sort of suburban neighborhood ... and one of my father's neighbors had chickens, and I remember thinking it was quite unusual," Trainer Thompson said. "I went over and looked at them and found them to be quite enchanting."

That was 10 years ago. Today, that "unusual" idea is the norm in Trainer Thompson's household, where her eight hens supply anywhere from five to eight eggs each day and inspired their owner's latest book, "The Fresh Egg Cookbook."

Trainer Thompson, a chef and author of several cookbooks, said that store-bought eggs can ship to the supermarket more than a month after they're laid, and it can stay on store shelves for weeks at a time. Fresh eggs, she said, are better for you.

"It's almost a perfect source of nutrition, full of protein and all the vitamins and minerals, except Vitamin C," she said. "The leading cause of blindness among people 65 and older is macular degeneration, and one way to stave it off is by eating certain foods rich in a chemical called lutein. A fresh egg has more lutein than spinach."

They also taste better, according to a pair of local experts.

"They're really good," Kyle said. "They're a lot better than store-bought ones. You can taste it. You can always tell because the yolks are golden."

That may be in part because the Alvarez family, like a lot of backyard chicken keepers, supplement their bird's diet of pellets and cracked corn with table scraps and fresh grass.

"A chicken who is allowed to eat your scraps, grass, grubs and insects has a diet that is more varied than the commercial hen," Trainer Thompson said. "That is where the taste difference comes. The yolk is much, much darker. It's almost a marigold color, like an orange."

And keeping egg-laying chickens can be less expensive than buying eggs at the supermarket — after you recoup the cost of a chicken coop, which can run up to $1,External hemorrhoids are those that occur below the dentate line.500 when kits are purchased online. On the other hand, one of many websites devoted to backyard chickens, urbanchickencoop.net, reports that a coop built from scratch can cost as little as $300.

Groton Town Council wants panel to oversee school projects

When the Town Council authorized the Board of Education to apply for several grants Tuesday, it also followed up on sentiments several councilors expressed in a work meeting last month. It put oversight of the projects in the hands of the Permanent School Building Committee rather than the school board.

The four grant applications to the state Department of Education include two that seek funds for three portable buildings for West Side and Cutler middle schools. Each portable has two classrooms. The six classrooms will help accommodate students from Fitch Middle School,Proxense's advanced handsfreeaccess technology. which closes in June. The cost of the portable buildings is estimated at just over $1 million.

Another grant would offset the $280,000 cost of removal of asbestos floor tiles at Mary Morrisson Elementary School.

And another grant would provide funds to repair 28,000 square feet of roof at Fitch High School, estimated at $625,000.

Funding for the portables already has been approved by the council and Representative Town Meeting.GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts. Capital improvement money has been earmarked for preliminary work at Fitch and Mary Morrisson.

Wes Greenleaf, the school district's facilities director, said the grants could cover as much as 57 percent of the costs of the three projects.

He also told the council at its work meeting last month that projects this size generally are managed by the school board.

"The Permanent School Building Committee usually has oversight when there are more complicated projects," Greenleaf said.

Councilor Bruce Flax said he did not want these projects to encounter problems such as those that occurred when the Fitch baseball field was renovated, a project overseen by the Board of Education. More than $140,000 in invoices from that project are the subject of a dispute between the town and the Mystic Schooners, a team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

"In light of the perception ... of what happened with the ball field, I think it's safer to have the Permanent School Building Committee do it," Flax said.

The baseball field project began when an anonymous benefactor donated $500,000 to upgrade Fitch High School's playing field dugouts and to build a press box and bleachers to meet the league's facilities requirements so the Mystic Schooners could play there.Grey Pneumatic is a world supplier of impactsockets for the heavy duty, The team was expected to pay an additional $80,000 to install lights.

When the bidding was complete last fall,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production.TBC help you confidently buymosaic from factories in China. the work came in at $560,000. It later grew to $640,000 when the lighting was added.

Schools Superintendent Paul Kadri said that when he learned the team was in no position to borrow money to cover the costs above the $500,000 donation, he proposed using money the district receives from the U.S. Department of Defense to cover the overage.

Ultimately, in December, the council spent $139,000 to pay four vendors who had done the work on the field but had gone unpaid for more than four months.

Last month, the council voted to try to negotiate an amendment to the Schooners' contract in an attempt to be reimbursed by the team.

Mayor Heather Bond Somers made it clear in last month's work meeting that she has more confidence in Greenleaf than she has in the school board.

Steve Jobs's Lesson for Solar-Power Bulls

The birth of the mouse is a famous cautionary tale from Silicon Valley. In it, Xerox develops an early version of the now-ubiquitous PC pointer, but Steve Jobs and Apple actually make it ubiquitous. The warning—first movers don't always end up dominating a particular field—applies to another hot technology: solar power.

In June 2008, solar-panel manufacturers looked poised to conquer the world. The 12 largest had a combined market value of about $70 billion, according to Sanford C.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? Bernstein. Today, they are worth about $6.4 billion. One of them, Germany's Q-Cells, QCE.XE +4.86% filed for bankruptcy last week. On the same day First Solar, which alone was worth more than $20 billion in 2008, saw its stock slump by almost 8%. The company is now worth less than $2 billion.

First Solar has suffered several setbacks recently, not least having to make higher warranty provisions because its solar modules may suffer "increased failure rates in hot climates" (think about that one for a second.)

The bigger issue for First Solar and peers is a structural shift in the industry.Get information on airpurifier from the unbiased, independent experts. In 2008, governments, particularly in Europe, offered generous subsidies to boost solar power; carbon caps in the U.S. seemed not far off; and financing flowed easily. Equipment manufacturers were expanding quickly and driving down costs to make solar power competitive with rival sources like coal and natural gas.

One financial crisis later, public subsidies and private financing are far tighter. In the U.S., shale gas has upended the economics of electricity. Citigroup C -0.71% reckons that even at an installed cost of $1.50 per watt for new projects, even in the sunniest regions, solar can't compete with efficient plants burning natural gas at a cost of $5 per million British thermal units. Right now, gas costs less than half that and even utility-scale U.S. solar projects cost well north of $2 per watt.

Still, the solar-power industry has successfully cut the cost of equipment. The problem is how it has done it. All those juicy subsidies attracted competitors, particularly from China. The result is an industry that will likely end the year with the capacity to build 40 gigawatts of solar modules, according to Citi—which also estimates demand this year of just 24GW. The bank doesn't expect annual demand to hit 40GW anytime this decade.

This oversupply is driving down prices for solar panels.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services. Bernstein puts the compound annual decline at 32% between 2007 and 2011, noting the eerie similarity with the price of computer memory, which has fallen at an annual compound rate of 33.4% since 1974.

Such falls are great for the technology concerned as it expands the available market. But the resulting commoditization, with competition focused increasingly on price, isn't great for the firms involved as the economic benefits leak away to others. Falling profit margins and share prices—as well as bankruptcies—are the unfortunate result.

Another analogy can be drawn with the U.S. exploration and production sector, which did very well to develop lots of natural-gas reserves.A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. But the resulting oversupply has damaged the economics of the business. Value is accruing instead to those who transport and use the fuel. Increasingly, the likes of Exxon Mobil XOM -0.19% are muscling in. These bigger companies are willing and able to absorb the near-term pain of low prices in anticipation of a coming age of gas.

The bull case for solar power is that when prices drop low enough to compete without the aid of government subsidies, the resulting expansion of demand will boost the industry's fortunes.

Indeed it will. But the winners won't necessarily be the pioneers we are familiar with today. Rather, they will likely be companies with the scale to compete on price and absorb the inevitable cyclical losses that afflict most manufacturing industries prone to bouts of oversupply. A smaller group of large companies like General Electric, GE -1.Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside,27% for example, look more like the long-term winners as solar power eventually finds its place in the sun.

Separating the good eggs from the bad

Happy Easter! As we celebrate the most important day of the Christian calendar, we also welcome the Easter Bunny and engage in the time-honored tradition of Easter egg hunts and as any good farmer can tell you, it’s also important to separate the good eggs from the bad.

And it’s good advice in the sports world too. So, let’s acknowledge some of the good and bad eggs from this past week.

Clint Chelf. The Oklahoma State quarterback and former Enid High School standout is in a spirited battle to become the successor to Brandon Weeden.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? The battle for the starting role for one of last season’s most prolific, and successful,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. offenses has attention squarely focused on Stillwater and Chelf in particular.

The junior signal-caller, despite being the only returning QB with game-experience,A culture af Mizukabi molds. albeit limited, is not being handed the position. The coaches also are looking at redshirt freshman J.W. Walsh and true freshman Wes Lunt during spring practice, but Chelf is maintaining a positive attitude.

“That’s why you come to a program like this,” Chelf said this past week in discussing his competiton for the QB spot.3rd minigame series of magiccube! “You know they are always going to bring someone in behind you that will be coming for your job. There’s definitely not any bad blood between us.”

It’s an incredibly mature and reasoned reaction that many pros would have a hard time exhibiting and shows Chelf, whether he earns the starting role or it falls to someone else, has the potential to be a leader on this year’s team.

Texas Rangers. Last season, in a terrible tragedy, Shannon Stone fell to his death trying to retrieve a souvenir baseball tossed to him by Josh Hamilton for his son Cooper. He fell 20 feet onto the concrete head first with his son watching.

The Rangers unveiled a life-size bronze statue Thursday depicting Stone and his son Cooper wearing baseball caps, holding hands and looking at each as if engaged in conversation. A very touching tribute, made even more touching when the statue was unveiled with the help of 7-year-old Cooper.

Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino. Petrino is in a whole cauldron of hot water after crashing his motorcyle last Sunday during what he initially told everyone was a solo “pleasure jaunt.”

Well, it may have been a pleasure jaunt, but it wasn’t solo as Petrino, despite telling reporters he was by himself,Buy high quality bedding and bed linen from Yorkshire Linen. was actually tooling around with 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell, who was hired by Petrino in March as the student-athlete development coordinator. No big deal, except for the fact Petrino is a married 51-year-old father of four. If it was all so innocent, why the denials? And didn’t he think the police report, which had the details, would become public?

Petrino now is on administrative leave for lying about the wreck, which landed him briefly in the hospital with four cracked ribs and a cracked vertebra in his neck. A wreck he blamed on the sun and wind.

While administrative leave may seem mild, it’s really a pretty tough punishment since it means Petrino can’t hang around the Arkansas football offices and is stuck at home. With his wife. Those cracked ribs may seem pretty mild compared to what lies ahead at home.

Solar dishes with rare technology to be auctioned

People searching for 60 massive satellite-looking solar dishes and willing to move the entire facility and reassemble it without instructions are in luck.

An April 17 online auction thought to be one of the first of its kind will offer the bankrupt Maricopa Solar power plant in Peoria,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. which uses a rare solar-thermal technology.

Solar equipment frequently is auctioned from bankruptcies, but not this type, said auctioneer David Barkoff of Heritage Global Partners, which is handling the sale for the bankruptcy trustee.

"Power plants or power-generation equipment, yes, (we auction) lots of it," he said. "But I don't think a solar-thermal power plant has come online for sale ever."

The company that was running the power plant with a license to the technology from Stirling Energy, Maricopa Solar LLC, also declared bankruptcy and now is liquidating the power plant. But not the intellectual property to build and run it.Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia.

Stirling used a complex technology with mirrors focusing the sun's heat on an engine in the middle of each dish. The engines converted the heat energy into motion, and the motion was used to make electricity.

Stirling built six of its so-called SunCatchers in New Mexico at Sandia National Laboratories, and then the larger demonstration plant in Peoria. Stirling's plans to build tens of thousands of SunCatchers in California and Texas never were fulfilled.

Other companies use similar "dish-Stirling" technology, but they are far less popular than flat, black solar panels now common on rooftops. And Stirling's competitors' dishes are not identical to those in Peoria.

Maricopa Solar's assets were listed at between $50,000 and $100,000 in its petition for bankruptcy. Barkoff said that the opening bid would not be disclosed until the auction, and he declined to estimate what a buyer might pay for the equipment.

Bidders must pay $25,000 just to register for the sale, but that's only the beginning of the complications they will face if they buy the power plant.

The plant took about four months to build, but the buyer must sign a contract agreeing to remove all of the equipment no later than April 26, within nine days of the auction, according to the bankruptcy court order authorizing the sale.

Each of the solar dishes stands nearly 40 feet tall,Broken chinamosaic Table. meaning potential bidders need lots of vacant land, a crane and plenty of transportation to move the dishes.

The dishes are connected to the power grid, so the buyer must also coordinate with Salt River Project to safely de-energize the facility and take the equipment,This page provides information about 'werkzeugbaus; separating it from SRP's transformers and other equipment.

The power plant also is connected to a small pipeline of flammable hydrogen gas compressed to 3,000 pounds per square inch, and the gas lines must be purged with nitrogen before removal, according to the 42-page decommissioning plan buyers will be required to follow.

And there's another catch: The plant's instruction manual will be sold separately.

On March 15, the bankruptcy trustee for Stirling Energy Systems filed an objection to the sale of any "confidential information" in the upcoming auction, stating that those assets belonged to Stirling, not the Maricopa Solar affiliate auctioning the power plant.

The bankruptcy judge approved the objection, apparently preventing the sale of any documents that would explain how the complex machines work, including operation and maintenance manuals, specifications for the power plant's weather stations, hydrogen stations, communications, computer hard drives and even the SunCatcher product descriptions.

Angela Abreu, a lawyer in New Jersey representing the Stirling trustee, confirmed that Stirling considers the intellectual property from the company to be assets owned by Stirling.

She said the company is working on a plan to sell those assets, but she would not say how or to whom.

Lothar Goernitz, the trustee for Maricopa Solar, said he would prefer that Stirling offer the intellectual property along with the solar equipment, which he is responsible for liquidating. But he said Stirling's bankruptcy trustee did not want to sell the information along with the equipment.

"If (a buyer) wants to use the intellectual property and copyrights and whatnot, yes, they are going to have to deal with Stirling Energy Systems," he said. "But I have not come to the conclusion that there is no way that someone will come and buy this, disassemble it and use it."

He said he has been contacted by a variety of interested buyers, including some from overseas that could use the power system in remote areas. He also said that because other companies use similar dish-Stirling technology, that a buyer might not need the manuals to use the plant or parts of it.

"If you had 20 of these dishes in Sudan ... this would be a much more proficient way of generating electricity," he said. "There are places in the world where this technology makes some sense. The obvious economic concern is how to disassemble it, relocate it and set it up that is cost productive."

Barkoff said 16 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements, which allows them to see details of the equipment.

Barkoff would not say how many have paid the $25,000 to become registered bidders, but he said he has had interest from educational institutions, technical colleges,Welcome to projectorlamp. utilities and scrap-metal dealers.

Crunch Time

Never have so many things conspired to make design so difficult—at least not at the same time.

At the center of this cornucopia of challenges is power, because more functions and more things now have to fit into a power budget that remains fixed. While some components in a complex SoC may run at lower voltages,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? you can be assured that others will run hotter and at higher voltages—at least during peak demand for a logic subsystem or a processor core.The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good ， And the spikes that result still have to be taken into consideration and modeled effectively enough so they don’t burn a hole in the chip or otherwise render it inoperable.

So what’s different? Power is no longer just a factor in design. It has become a starting point that is every bit as important as function. The two are intertwined like some Gordian knot. And whatever is considered the maximum voltage is probably already too high at advanced nodes and inside of stacked die. More area has reduced the opportunity to solve some problems with guard-banding because the overhead is unacceptable, both from a cost and performance standpoint.

There are some exotic solutions being considered. Microfluidics pulsing liquid through a chip really can cool it effectively.Silicone moldmaking Rubber, But designing this kind of mechanical microchannel architecture where liquid is propelled through tiny chambers isn’t isn’t in the budget for most chips–and possibly not any chips.External hemorrhoids are those that occur below the dentate line. And, of course, it’s not very convenient to carry around a container of liquid nitrogen with your portable device.

The more realistic solutions will come in two places. One is from the design side, where stacking and Wide I/O have the ability to dramatically reduce the amount of power needed to drive signals by reducing the distances and widening the channels. The EDA industry is just beginning to take this approach very seriously.

A second solution will come on the manufacturing side in a couple of areas. One is new structures—FinFETs, carbon-nanotube FETs, tunneling FETs—which control leakage much more effectively than planar FETs. It remains uncertain whether EUV will ever become commercially viable or whether self-assembly—using a template that allows finFETs to literally set up automatically on a substrate—will replace it. The second part of this comes from new materials, such as fully depleted silicon on insulator and new gate oxides and insulating strategies, such as air gap, which can better control leakage.Dimensional Mailing magiccubes for Promotional Advertising,

But in all cases power will remain one of the key components of design, from the initial architecture stage to final manufacturing signoff and test, and touching everything in between from ESL models to RTL and verification.

Former Harbor View Teacher Creates Rubik’s Cube Curriculum

When Amber Baur taught at Harbor View Elementary School, Rubik’s Cubes were a daily part of classroom activities.

“Children like their fingers and hands moving,” she said. “So I said, ‘You are more than welcome to keep your hands moving during lessons, as long as it’s with a Rubik’s Cube.’ My whole class was doing it”

And if you’re going to play with the brightly colored cube puzzle, why not solve it — and if you’re going to solve it, why not learn math and algebra skills at the same time?

Baur, who left Harbor View two years ago after budget cuts led to teacher layoffs, has written a 354-page curriculum called “How to Solve the Rubik’s Cube” that was officially launched in March. Seven Towns, Ltd., worldwide licensor of the Rubik’s Cube, contracted with Baur to create the curriculum, which includes eight to ten lessons with names like “Meeting the Cube” and “The Middle Layer.”

Earlier this year, the California After School Resource Center approved the curriculum — one of just 68 math resources in the center’s library.Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside, The curriculum also has been featured at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s GATE conference and the California Association for the Gifted conference.

Baur said she grew up with Rubik’s cubes, which arrived in the United States in her birth year, and that she always appreciated the math concepts behind the solutions.Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore.

At Harbor View,Choose from our large selection of cableties, she began to use Rubik’s Cubes with members of the Math Team.

“I just wanted the math team to be working their brains all the time,” she said. “Rubik’s Cubes were good for problem solving, taking things step by step.”

She soon purchased a few Rubik’s Cubes solution kits that included cubes for her regular classroom students along with a guide to solving the puzzle. By the end of the year, most of her students could solve the cube. Baur, who is president of the Orange County Math Council, began to talk about adding a Rubik’s cube competition to that group’s annual Math Field Day, and she began to discuss other cube educational possibilities with a Seven Towns representative.

“Amber was always an excellent resource for questions I had regarding teaching,” said Susan Seider, a company representative, in an email. “We often discussed that the Solution Guide was an excellent resource but required significant work on the part of a teacher to be able to develop lessons plans to actually solve the cube as opposed to utilizing our free lessons that used the cube as a manipulative.”

Seider said she presented the idea of a Rubik’s Cube curriculum to Seven Towns management,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? and when they approved it, Baur was her first choice to write it.

“We both probably underestimated the complexity of the undertaking but are thrilled with the result,” she said.

Baur spent about six months working on lesson plans, then writing a chapter at a time. The final curriculum comes with PowerPoint presentations, options for all levels including gifted students as well as vocabulary lessons and trivia.

“It’s a series of algorithms. They’re are different ways to solve it. I’ve known students who can create their own methods. But anyone can learn.A wireless indoorpositioning is described in this paper, It just takes patience.”

The You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube classroom kit with cubes and a solution guide — which Baur used years ago in her classroom — has been available since 2009 and is being used by more than 3,000 schools across the country, Seider said. The new curriculum has just been launched but already appears to be a hit with educators, she said.

“We conducted a survey and received very positive feedback,” she said, adding that one instructor called it a great classroom motivator.

“I have more students asking when the next session will begin,” the teacher said, according to an email from Seider.