Boulder's STEELIE gets a grip on smart phones, tablets

In a world increasingly defined by technology, smart phones and tablets have become all the rage.

Many people are virtually inseparable from their devices, burrowing their heads and spending hours upon hours of time consumed by such electronics. In fact, it's been projected that businesses alone will buy $12 billion worth of tablets in 2012.

While these devices may make our lives easier, they contain one notable pitfall: They aren't hands-free.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

That's where Boulder-based Blackglass LLC's STEELIE comes in. Launched in November, STEELIE is a magnetic ball-and-socket system that connects your electronic device to different mounts.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

The system works by attaching a slim magnetic ring socket to the back of a phone or tablet, which then connects to a steel ball on a mount, allowing the device to be rotated in virtually any position. It is the steel ball that gives STEELIE its name.

"Everyone loves their phones so much and we wanted to provide a home for them," said Rich Garcia, a partner in STEELIE.

Users can purchase the Phone Kit that comes with a mount to place on their cars' dashboards, giving them easy access to their phones' GPS. There's also the Table Top Kit, which includes an easily transportable stand to place devices on for while on the go. Another option is the Hobknob, which provides a non-slip surface, functioning as both a stand and handle for a tablet.

But it's the manufacturing process that makes STEELIE unique, company officials say.

Under the mantra "four guys, four walls," Blackglass manufactures nearly all of its parts by hand in Boulder, taking out the middle man and providing quality products to consumers directly.

"Everything seems so disposable in today's society, so we wanted to make something that would last,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists." Garcia said.

Garcia, Frank Vogel, Paul Turner and Andy Emanuel make up the four guys who design and manufacture up to 500 STEELIEs a week . Aluminum rods are manually fed into a 25-year-old machine called Mazak that produces nearly all of STEELIE's various parts.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, While Mazak works well, it still has its hiccups.

The team tries to outsource labor as little as possible, doing nearly everything in their shop, from assembling to tooling to labeling to packaging.

"The design is such that we make everything so you know that is what I really wanted to prove that you can be profitable and you can get into the customers' hands directly," Vogel said.

Available in an "everything you need" kits or individual parts, users can mix and match any of the pieces to come up with their own ways of using STEELIE.

The rare-earth neodymium magnet that STEELIE uses is strong enough to securely hold a phone or tablet to any metal surface. In fact, once you place the ring socket on the back of your device, you can place it on anything that is metal, such as refrigerators or lockers. Also, the ring socket that you place on your phone contains a silicone friction pad,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, preventing any unwanted movement.

"Bottom line, we use the best materials and the best craftsmanship which we think keeps us ahead of everyone else," Garcia said.

STEELIE's success attests to this belief. The company has been successful selling its products on an international level, with orders coming in from places all over the world, including Russia, Austria, Hungary and Italy to name a few. STEELIE products are available online, at McGuckin Hardware in Boulder and at select retail outlets.

On Feb. 17, STEELIE will launch its Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter is one of the world's largest funding platforms for creative products. As an online threshold pledge system, the site gives creatives the opportunity to expose their ideas to the public.

Red giants reveal sun’s future

Scientists have made a new discovery about how old stars called 'red giants' rotate, giving an insight into what our sun will look like in five billion years.

The international team of scientists, including University of Sydney astronomers Professor Tim Bedding and Dr Dennis Stello, has discovered red giants have slowed down on the outside, while their cores spin at least 10 times faster than their outer layers.

The finding, just published in the prestigious journal Nature, tells us what the sun will look like in five billion years when it develops into a red giant.

"The heart of a star determines how it evolves, and understanding how a star rotates deep inside helps us to understand how stars like our sun will grow old," said Professor Tim Bedding from the University of Sydney's School of Physics.

Using NASA's Kepler space telescope, the team observed deep inside ageing red giants to make their discovery of the difference in rotation rate between the core and outer layers of the stars.

The team, led by Paul Beck from Leuven University in Belgium, analysed waves inside the stars, which appear as rhythmic variations in the surface brightness of the stars. The effect of rotation on the frequencies of the waves is so small it took the team nearly two years of almost continuous data gathering from the Kepler satellite to make their discovery.

"Red giants were once stars like our sun, but as they age their outer layers expand to more than five times their original size and cool down significantly, so they look red," explained Dr Dennis Stello, from the University of Sydney's School of Physics.

"The opposite actually happens to the cores of red giants, as the core contracts and becomes extremely hot and dense," said Dr Stello.

"We've just discovered that the core spins much faster than the outer layers in these old stars, which makes sense when you consider what happens to other spinning things like, say, an ice skater performing pirouettes.

"A spinning ice skater will slow down if their arms are stretched far out, like the expanded outer layers of the red giants. The ice skater will spin faster if their arms are pulled tightly to the body, like the fast spinning contracted core of red giants."

The Kepler space telescope - one of NASA's most successful space missions - is searching in the constellation Cygnus for potentially habitable planets by focussing on those similar in size to Earth.

"Kepler is able to detect variations in a star's brightness of only a few parts in a million, so its measurements are ideally suited to detect the tiny brightness fluctuations of stars," explained Dr Stello.

"We study these variations in brightness to work out what's going on deep inside stars. It's called asteroseismology - just as geologists use earthquakes to explore Earth's interior, we use star quakes to explore the interiors of stars," said Dr Stello.

Different waves probe different parts of the star, and by a detailed comparison of the depth to which these waves travel inside the star the team found the rotation rate dramatically increased towards the stellar core.

In addition to helping us understand how stars age, asteroseismology will help Kepler's mission of discovering Earth-sized planets outside our solar system by characterising the host stars around which these planets orbit.

The Aids Gestapo has lost the plot

Woman “A” has been in a steady relationship for a few years.They take the China Porcelain tile to the local co-op market. One day, her partner forces her to have sex against her will.

She goes to the police station and lays a charge of rape. She immediately finds support from a range of organisations for her courageous determination to “break the silence”.

The media comment favourably. She is feted for facing the stigma and becomes a role model for rape survivors. In short, she is a hero.

Woman “B” has also been in a steady relationship. One day she goes for an Aids test, and learns she is positive. She finds out that she contracted the virus from her partner who chose to remain silent about his status. She would never have consented to unprotected sex had she known.

Betrayed and violated, she also knows if she takes a stand, she will stand alone. If she lays a charge or sues for the violation of her physical integrity, she will be accused of “stigmatising HIV”, “driving the pandemic underground” and “violating” her partner’s “right to privacy”. In short, unless she meekly accepts her situation, she is a villain.

In fact,Your Partner in Precision Precision injection molds. under South African law, if her partner refused to reveal his status, she would only be able to force him to test for HIV if he raped her.

This is a consequence of the “progressive” line on HIV/Aids, touted by people who have much in common with religious fanatics or fascists. In their blinkered focus on a free-floating single issue, they lose sight of the broader public good. Of course, they believe they are motivated by a commitment to “human rights”. But they are very selective in whose “rights” they promote. They claim to “own” the moral high ground, but they hunt in a vicious pack to prevent anyone questioning their assumptions. Slacktivists is too gentle a word to describe them. They are more like an Aids Gestapo.

That is why I am interested in a matter that is scheduled to come before a Durban court soon. In the first case of its kind in SA, a Cape Town woman is suing a Durban man for R2.56 million for infecting her with genital herpes which, like Aids, is an incurable, sexually transmitted disease. Herpes is typically dormant in the system, with intermittent, painful flare-ups, similar to a cold sore on the lip.

In Britain recently, a young man was controversially sentenced to 14 months in jail for passing on genital herpes to his partner.

Although this is the first case of its kind in South Africa, the press reports of the Durban matter have passed almost unnoticed. There has been no outcry about stigmatising genital herpes or driving it “underground”.

But then, this woman is middle-class and white. And her former partner is rich and white – a chief executive of a large company.

“So what?”, you ask. “Why bring race into it? Surely the sexual transmission of diseases is primarily an issue of behaviour, not race?”

I thought so too. I thought we had, at last, got over the racial stereotyping that characterised Aids denialism under Thabo Mbeki, who was determined to prevent the debate focusing on the need for behaviour change.

Anyone who dared venture into this territory was accused of perpetuating the racist myth that African men are “rampant sexual beasts, unable to control our urges, unable to keep our legs crossed, unable to keep it in our pants”, as he once memorably told Parliament. That accusation was intended to shut down the debate.Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, And it did.

There is no irony like a South African irony, but this one beats them all – during the Mbeki era, anyone who dared argue that Aids was a function of sexual behaviour and not of race was labelled a racist!!

The election of President Jacob Zuma, whose lifestyle reinforced the stereotype Mbeki wished to eschew,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . inevitably meant that the denial would deepen.

As the Durban court case illustrates, it is publicly acceptable for a white man to be called to account for infecting his partner with a sexually transmitted disease. But,This page contains information about molds, not vice versa, according to the Aids Gestapo. Who is being racist, actually?

The Gestapo approach is riddled with such contradictions. But it still comes as a surprise to find traces of Gestapo logic in the writings of an eminent and respected scientist like Dr Helen Epstein who has written by far the most compelling and rational treatise on Aids. Her book, The Invisible Cure, explains so many things about the disease that once seemed inexplicable to me, and there has not yet been a credible rebuttal.

East Peoria man wants to scratch new ground

Usually, it gets tiring to hear locals whine with Chicago envy.

You know the drill. Little Brother Syndrome. We need to strive to be like a big city.

Indeed,It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line. David Moechnig wants East Peoria to be more like Chicago, but not in an urban way. Exactly the opposite.

He wants chickens. Backyard chickens.

Moechnig has been pecking at city officials to allow residential chicken coops. He's not talking about a chicken farm, just a dozen eggs or so a week.

"It's about having fresh food and knowing where it's from,Your Partner in Precision Precision injection molds." he says.

Moechnig, 30, is a field systems engineer at Caterpillar Inc. He lives within city limits with his fiancee and their four kids. Their house sits smack-dab in a residential area,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. though he has a double-size lot. They use half of that as a garden, raising just about any vegetable you can think of.

"It's about being self-sustainable," he says. "We can a lot of what we grow."

Recently, with room out back to spare, Moechnig wondered how to expand the operation. That's when he read about backyard chickens.

"It seemed like a logical extension," he says.

Indeed, urban farming is a burgeoning industry. In size, the movement ranges from bees (in honey-sweet Portland, Ore.) to goats (in milk-guzzling Oakland).

But Moechnig, who grew up on a farm in Minnesota, just wants chickens. A few years ago, Chicago followed New York City and allowed backyard chickens. Aside from the Chicago area, Moechnig can't find other Illinois municipalities that allow chickens. An effort in Normal failed in June, mostly because city council members got an earful from the knee-jerk, anti-clucker crowd.

"It seems backwards," he says. "You can have chickens in Chicago. But if you go to downstate (municipalities), you can't."

He realizes that most people bristle at the notion of sharing their neighborhoods with the egg-bearing birds. "They think they'll be woken up at 4 a.m.," Moechnig says.

But roosters would not be allowed, just hens. And they're relatively quiet.

"You might get an excited cluck when they lay an egg, but that's about it,ceramic magic cube for the medical," he says. "But you'd be that way, too, if you could do that."

Still, to keep things in check, Moechnig suggests a limit of just four chickens per home. And pet-nuisance laws can take over from there.

For instance, chicken poop can be a stinky problem. But portable coops - known as tractors or arks - allow owners to move their birds around the yard. That way,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, waste is less lightly to accumulate in one spot. Plus, if the fowl turn a yard foul, owners could be cited - just as when dogs similarly become a nuisance.

Chances are, only responsible residents will want to get into this kind of venture. It's not worth the effort, unless you're dedicated. A hen pops out fewer than 300 eggs a year. So, with four hens, expect 12 to 18 eggs a week. Though a chick costs less than $2, feed, coops and other costs make it a zero-sum venture, at best.

"You don't save money doing this," Moechnig says.

Rather, beyond the fresh eggs, he values teaching his kids (ages 3 through 8) a sense of responsibility by tending to the birds.

"They could have a dog, but you don't learn much by just letting it out in the yard," Moechnig says.

He says several friends in town also are interested in hosting hens. But they are quiet types, leaving him alone to rally city officials toward embracing chickens.

The city thus far allows no livestock, just dogs and cats. But City Administrator Tom Brimberry says staffers have been looking at the idea of expanding the approved animal roster.

"If they don't impose a problem on surrounding properties, we could consider chickens," he says.

That would make for an interesting city. It's already burgeoning with Bass Pro Shops and other newcomers. Plus there's a pending, massive project that could include Costco and Target. That's a lot of concrete and steel.

To that, maybe add backyard chickens. That's an intriguing mix. That's a city with a can-do attitude - or, more aptly, a cock-a-doodle-doo attitude.

E. Africa's first solar-panel plant supports Kenya's clean energy push

Africa may be a continent blessed with large amounts of sunshine, but for most of its rural inhabitants, once the day ends,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . so does the light. Families spend their evenings in the dark or turn to polluting oil lamps, simply because they have no access to electricity.

In Naivasha, a town 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Haijo Kuper is trying to change that.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards,

Netherlands-born Kuper is managing director of Ubbink East Africa, the first solar-panel manufacturing plant in East Africa. The firm, which recently began operating in Naivasha, is a joint venture between Dutch company Ubbink, which works on energy efficiency and solar power, and Kenya’s Chloride Exide, which produces solar and power back-up equipment and batteries.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners.

As with many African countries, Kenya’s progress in expanding its national power grid has been slow, in part because of the expense.

Solar power has long been viewed as part of the solution – but,This page contains information about molds, here too, cost has been an obstacle. The equipment that converts the sun’s free energy into electric power requires an investment that is still out of reach for the more than one-third of Africans who live on less than two dollars a day.Your Partner in Precision Precision injection molds.

The Kenyan government - concerned about power shortages and the effects of climate change - has moved to spur growth in the renewable energy sector with a feed-in tariff that pays producers a set rate for electricity they want to sell. It has also mandated the use of solar power in new-build homes, as well as cutting taxes on imports of solar-power materials and equipment.

The East African nation has one of the highest rates of solar panel systems installed per capita in the world, and uptake of solar panels is outpacing connections to the traditional electrical grid.

The price of solar energy systems has dropped 75 percent in the past decade, while demand has gone up 15 percent a year over the same period. Experts expect this trend of lower costs and spreading use to continue.

It is certainly proving beneficial for small farmers and rural residents, many of whom are beyond the reach of the national grid.

A growing number of rural farmhouses across Kenya now have a small solar panel on their thatched or corrugated iron roofs. Even the smallest panel can charge a mobile phone and power two light bulbs simultaneously, helping families save on the expense of buying kerosene for lamps. What’s more, the light from a solar-powered bulb is about 15 times brighter.

Farmer Frederick Kaveta, 34, has a solar panel on the corrugated roof of his home in Ukumbani, southwest of Nairobi. For him, it brings both economic and health benefits.

“We used oil lamps in the past at night for the children to do their homework. (But) the price of the oil has gone up, and the lamps smoke badly and make us cough,” he explains. “The solar light is healthier and I save some 500 shillings ($5) a month because I don’t need to buy oil. With 500 shillings, I can buy two or three meals for my family of four.”

Consumer advocates ring alarm over robocalls to cellphones

Consumer advocates, including the Illinois and Indiana attorneys general, are sounding the alarm over proposed federal legislation that would allow companies to place robotic calls — using automated dialers to call and play recorded messages — to consumers' wireless mobile phones.

"It would open the floodgates to telemarketers and debt collectors to call at all hours of the day," said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Since 1991, autodialers and artificial or prerecorded voice messages to cellphones have generally been outlawed unless the consumer gave express consent, with few exceptions. The bill, introduced in September, would change that.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. It would allow use of "assistive technologies" — including machines that call 10,000 numbers a minute and sometimes leave dead air on the line — for calling cellphones without permission.

Supporters say "robocalling" could be used for such consumer-friendly features as reminding patients about a doctor appointment, alerting them to a flight delay or notifying them of a suspicion that their credit card has been compromised.

Still, consumer groups are lining up against the bill, saying companies already alert consumers with such calls by getting their permission first or using a human to place the call.

"It's something that drives consumers crazy — to pick up the phone and hear a recorded message," said Linda Sherry, spokeswoman for advocacy group Consumer Action. "It's just a bad idea from the get-go, and it should really be stopped."

Besides being annoying and an invasion of privacy, Madigan said, the change would hurt consumers who pay for wireless service by the minute, the payment method for many prepaid cellphones.There is good integration with PayPal and most TMJ providers, For those who pay for buckets of monthly minutes, unwanted calls could exhaust those minutes.

"Those consumers would essentially have to use their minutes — their money — to be inundated with calls from not just debt collectors but any business, even if (the consumer has) not given them express consent to call their phone," said Madigan, who held a news conference Wednesday in conjunction with Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller.

"What we really want is greater protection for consumers at the very time they're proposing a bill that would unleash the floodgates of robocalls … to our cellphones," said Zoeller, who testified Friday against the bill at a House subcommittee meeting in Washington.

The bill, dubbed The Mobile Informational Call Act, "reflects the reality of the day," which sees 40 percent of Americans using mobile phones as their primary or exclusive communications device, according to Rep. Lee Terry, R-Nebraska, one of the sponsors of the bill. "The essence of this bill is to ride the fine line between unwanted and wanted communications from people that choose to have the communication occur," Terry said during a hearing on his bill Friday.the impact socket pain and pain radiating from the arms or legs. "This bill's intent is to never allow an unsolicited, unwanted call. That is the goal here." Terry quickly conceded during the hearing that the bill's language may not be perfect.

A coalition of consumer advocates called the bill "a wolf in sheep's clothing.he believes the fire started after the lift's Bedding blew," "The real purpose of (the bill) is to open up everyone's cell phones, land lines, and business phone numbers,When the stone sits in the Cable Ties, without their consent, to a flood of commercial, marketing and debt collection calls," says an Oct. 27 letter from consumer groups to the House subcommittee that's considering the bill. The letter said the bill would gut the "widely popular statute that protects Americans from the proliferation of intrusive, nuisance calls from telemarketers and others."

Inflation? What's that, asks KBC woman crorepati

She could well be the only housewife in India who is not bothered by price rise.A-One Wholesale Glass Mixed Mosaics For Floor From China Manufacturers is the manufacturer of 'MIKI' Rahat Taslim, who won the Rs 1 crore jackpot in last year's 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC), is today a content homemaker who is following the show's host Amitabh Bachchan's advice of spending her money wisely.

To know how life has changed for the 38-year-old mother of two, this correspondent visited her home here and found that while she is surrounded by telltale signs of prosperity, she still remains a simple middle-class housewife at heart.

"I still buy the vegetables myself...but the tension of inflation has gone forever," she beams.

Taslim,We have our own Wholesale Crystal For Countertops From China Manufacturers gallery whose husband Imtiaz Ahmad earned Rs.8,000 per month in his government job, created history last year by becoming the first woman to win the biggest prize in the game show.

After deducting the necessary taxes, she was gifted a cheque of Rs.70 lakh.

"One should go high but should not leave the ground," she says about the heady days.

Taslim still lives in her old home in Gaddi Mohalla, ignoring suggestions that she shift to a more upscale neighbourhood.

"Several people came with several suggestions on how to spend the money, but we followed Amitabh Bachchan and (show producer) Siddartha Basu's advice on spending money very sensibly,Big pool of Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers." Rahat said.

"We are constructing the first floor of our house and have renovated the ground floor," she said.

She has furnished her home with marble and tiles, and also bought a sofa set and a dining table.

"We did not buy a car as there is no space in our house, and also because we do not feel the need. But when we find it is necessary, we will buy one as it is not a big deal now," she smiled.

Taslim is still doing the household chores herself and has not hired a maid.

Her husband Imtiyaz, meanwhile, has left his job at MMTC (Mineral and Metals Trading Corporation).

"I will soon start a textile business along with my husband," she explains.

Her children, Faisal Muazzam, Class 11 student, and Tazim Rahat, who is in Class 8, are still enrolled at their old BNS DAV School.

"This school is already the best one in Giridih and they are doing very well in their studies. My daughter especially has been an excellent student throughout her school life," a proud Taslim said.

Taslim, who badly wanted to be a doctor but could not pursue her dream for want of money, is focussed on being a teacher.

"I will do a B.Ed (bachelor in education) course and join the teaching profession. That apart, the tailoring and embroidery training, which I used to impart to the girls of my neighbourhood to earn money, now I will do it for free for needy women," she adds.

After her win,A-One Wholesale Linen For Floor is the manufacturer of 'MIKI' Taslim got at least three endorsement offers, but she turned them down. "If I had run after success, my family would have been ruined. All wishes of my life are getting fulfilled now, what more could I want," she said.

And what advice would she give to KBC aspirants?

"My father used to say, never follow the crowd and have faith in yourself," she said.

Rahat, whose name literally means contentment, has proved to be true to her name.

"Earlier, my family and friends called me by my nickname Rumi, but now they call me 'Rahat'. Even, my husband calls me Rahat now," she chuckled.

Recently, Sushil Kumar, a 27-year-old computer operator and tutor in Bihar, who earns Rs.,Wholesale Micro For Countertops From China Manufacturers for sale oil paintings buy paintings original painting art6,000 per month, won Rs.5 crore in the fifth edition of the show.

Social Media Hot Topic At Schwab Conference

The integration of social media into the financial services industry turned out to be one of the hottest topics at the Charles Schwab Impact Conference in San Francisco last week.

“As an industry overall, we are late to this game,” said Kathleen Pritchard, director and head of Advisor Business Development at Legg Mason Global Asset Management. In a presentation on how to leverage the Internet in marketing, she said that the fervor with which businesses are engaging in social media is reminiscent of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.Futurism Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers here

“Social media has literally transformed the world,” Pritchard said. “If you want to be relevant, you have to make decisions on how to engage in social media.Shuffle the Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Floor and solve it by making turns in any direction”

“People are researching online first. It is your footprint,The Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers causes include food” Pritchard said. “It is not one-and-done marketing. Someone has to be responsible for making the Web site dynamic.”

That means paying for quality Web site vendor services, stocking the site with photos taken by a professional and updating the Web site on a regular basis, she said. “Do this at least monthly. Keep it fresh,” she added.

Pritchard recommends walking clients through the Web site and providing them with the ability to make referrals on every page. She suggested doing a home visit and bookmarking the site on their home computers—a task that could be carried out by a junior staff member.

Advisors should strive to be at the top of search lists generated by sites such as Google, Pritchard said. She said advisors should try to get their name out on the Internet, but cautioned against being too aggressive. “It is not to be a place to rant and rave about everything,” she noted. Advisors need to be careful about what type of information they release on the Internet,Profile of the Canadian artist wih an online gallery of Wholesale Skirtting Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers, noting that all political contributions are Web searchable. “Clients might disagree with your political views,” she said.

Social networks are not just for kids, she noted. “Baby boomers are hitting social media in waves. If clients are there, you need to be there,Provides treatment for Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers,” Pritchard said.

LinkedIn is a great place to start making your firm visible, she said. It has over 100 million members and it is built for business people to network. “It is all business. It is a great way to build credibility,” Pritchard said. “Turn this into a networking machine.”

Facebook is the single most powerful social media network, she said. The average user is on Facebook 55 minutes a day, she said. That means it’s important to build a company Facebook page, she said, adding that one advisor told her, “I thought I knew my clients well until I connected with them on Facebook.”

Urban students are getting dirty on campus

This past September, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University held an event unprecedented in its 172-year-long history: a you-pick potato harvest. For the first five Saturdays of the new school year, students and Sackville residents were able to pick Russet and Superior potatoes from a boggy, 9.7-hectare farm in the heart of the campus.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. The rest of the spud harvest—a yield of 30,000 pounds—was transformed, to the delight of many ravenous undergrads, into fresh, hand-cut french fries and mashed potatoes in the kitchen at Jennings Hall.

The Mount Allison Farm had lain fallow for half a century before Michelle Strain, a gardener and the university’s director of administrative services, revived it this past spring in response to student demand for more fresh, local produce. Strain and her small team sought advice and borrowed equipment from nearby farmers, and received a guarantee from chef Tom Burrell, who runs the dining hall, to buy as much “homegrown”—as the chef calls it with a wink—produce as they could. Third-year anthropology student Heidi Goodine was one of two Mount A students who spent the past summer amending the soil,This patent infringement case relates to retractable RUBBER MATS , planting, watering and weeding—all by hand. Menaced by switchgrass, ferocious mosquitoes and relentless rain,he believes the fire started after the lift's Bedding blew, the small crew (along with about 100 volunteers) produced a surprisingly large bounty—not just potatoes, but lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and green beans. “It was really exciting to see everything blooming and coming out of the ground,” Goodine says. “The weather was so poor we didn’t know if anything would grow.”

Mount A’s farm is just one of many agricultural projects sprouting on Canadian university campuses, often in unexpected places and reflective of a growing cultural obsession with knowing where our food comes from.Prior to Cold Sore I leaned toward the former, The University of Manitoba recently opened the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, the first such facility in Western Canada, and the University of Windsor’s Campus Community Garden Project,Great Rubber offers rubber hose keychains, which began in January 2010, nurtures connections between school and city through several communal garden plots. Concordia’s Loyola City Farm School Project, a pilot project now in its final phase, is a hands-on urban agriculture training program.

In Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America, a collection of essays out this fall, co-editor Laura Sayre argues that student farms “may be essential in preparing our nation and our planet to become part of the food revolution of the 21st century.” As climate change, food-safety fears and declining natural resources make large-scale industrial agriculture increasingly unsustainable, smaller, more nimble and often experimental operations—precisely the kind of farms found on university campuses—and the experience and knowledge to run them, have become even more vital.

Fields of Learning devotes a full chapter to the University of British Columbia Farm, an enterprise founded in 1910 when the school’s commissioners counted on an inevitable agricultural future. While such a future didn’t quite pan out, the 80.9-hectare, student-driven model farm has remained an important educational laboratory. Part of UBC’s faculty of land and food systems, it serves as an outdoor classroom comprised of cultivated field areas, greenhouses, a heritage orchard, teaching gardens and chicken coops, all ringed by 90-year-old coastal hemlock forest. More than 2,500 students participate in farm activities each year, with 1,500 obtaining academic credit for their work in 60 different courses, from evolutionary biology to neuroscience. The UBC Farm Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture, which launched in 2008, is an eight-month experiential learning program designed for aspiring farmers. It accepts 10 students a year, and receives five times that number of applicants.

Rustling can cost ranchers millions in a poor economy

Even with cattle theft rampant in much of the nation's midsection, Oklahoma rancher Ryan Payne wasn't worried about anyone messing with his cows and calves. By his estimation, his pasture is so far off the beaten path “you need a helicopter to see it.”

That changed last month when Payne, 37, checked on his livestock and found a ghoulish scene: Piles of entrails from two Black Angus calves he says thieves gutted “like they were deer.” They made off with the meat and another 400-pound calf in a heist he estimated cost him $1,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles .800.

“Gosh, times are tough, and maybe people are truly starving and just need the meat,” he said. “But it's shocking. I can't believe people can stoop that low.”

While the brazenness may be unusual, the theft isn't. High beef prices have made cattle attractive as a quick score for people struggling in the sluggish economy, and other livestock are being taken, too.This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop . Six thousand lambs were stolen from a feedlot in Texas,Traditional Cold Sore claim to clean all the air in a room. and nearly 1,000 hogs have been stolen in recent weeks from farms in Iowa and Minnesota. The thefts add up to millions of dollars in losses for U.S.Unlike traditional Hemroids , ranches.

Authorities say today's thieves are sophisticated compared to the horseback bandits of the rugged Old West. They pull up livestock trailers in the middle of the night and know how to coax the animals inside. Investigators suspect it's then a quick trip across state lines to sell the animals at auction barns.

“It almost has to be someone who knows about the business, including just knowing where to take the cattle,” said Carmen Fenton, a spokeswoman for the 15,000-member Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, formed in the 1870s specifically to combat cattle rustlers. “It's crazy to think we're still in business.”

Thefts also are happening in places once spared. In southwestern Missouri's Jasper County, not far from a regional stockyard, about 100 of the nearly 180 head of cattle stolen this year were snatched during a recent six-week stretch, sheriff's Lt.ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, Ron Thomas said.

“Occasionally one or two have gotten stolen (over the years), but not this many in such a short time. They've gotten us big time,” he said, figuring the stolen livestock have been whisked off to another state. “These guys are not your typical fly-by-night, let's-steal-a-cow kinda people. They know exactly what they're doing. They're pretty slick, and they're bold.”

Investigators have found clues to be elusive, partly because thieves often artfully conceal their crimes by replacing pasture fences they've cut to get to the animals, Thomas said. Ranchers unaccustomed to counting their cattle each day may not realize any are missing for a week or more, and by then, any tire tracks or other evidence may be gone.

Maison Giraud, Starbucks and Subway Face the DRB

When the new Subway franchisee moves west on Sunset from his second-floor space in the post office/Chabad building to the space next to Starbucks,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , he wants permission to remove two historic green-and-white awnings over the windows. The DRB wants them replaced.

Subway owner David Askari and his father Bruce, a nuclear engineer on sabbatical from NASA Ames Research Center, received permission in their lease from building owner TOPA Management Corporation to take down the awnings.

'Why hide such a beautiful transom?' Bruce asked the DRB at its meeting.the worldwide rubber hose market is over $56 billion annually. The window in the historical 1924 building is a half-moon shape, with several different-sized panes of glass. It is about 14 feet above sidewalk level.

'You could almost go without any artificial light,' Bruce said, noting that that by using less artificial light, the store would use less energy.

Rick Mills, who chaired the meeting, took an informal poll of the five board members,Do not use cleaners with Wholesale pet supplies , steel wool or thinners. who were not convinced by the energy-saving argument. One said, 'I can't approve of a sign without the awnings going back up.'

Mills noted, 'The use of awnings on all arches having windows or glass doors [in the Business Block Building] was supposedly approved years ago, per Susan Oakley, a past Board chair. This is consistent with the fact that all 38 such arches have awnings except for Tivoli, which has been there for 23 years. Per Susan, they should have had an awning,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, but it is not clear what happened.'

When Bruce Askari asked why there couldn't be a change, he was told, 'Individual tenants have to go with the precedent.' Another member added that if Bruce wanted to remove the awning, 'TOPA would have to take all the awnings off the building because we look at the building as a whole.'

'I don't want to be a bad neighbor,' Askari said. 'But I also don't think we should be trapped in what we did 80 years ago, especially with energy issues.'

DRB members also objected to the Subway sign because they felt it was too large and too colorful. The Askaris noted that other businesses on the block have colored signs, such as Bank of America with red and blue, but one member said, 'This sign has yellow.'

Mills was queried after the meeting about Subway's logo, which is green, yellow and white. 'In most cases, corporations have variations on logos and colors to accommodate local community design standards,' he wrote in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post. 'Where a corporation is firm on it, the DRB has limited power, but we still can impact size, placement and lighting.'

After it was apparent the board was not going to approve awning removal or signage, both parties agreed to work together in order not to delay the opening (scheduled in six weeks). The DRB will review Subway's amended application on Wednesday, October 26, at 7 p.Traditional Cold Sore claim to clean all the air in a room.m. in the Chamber of Commerce office on Antioch. The meeting is open to the public.

Starbucks designer Elizabeth Hughes presented a professional rendering of new patio furniture, faux 12' by 12' tiles and a moveable trellis box that will be placed on the patio between Starbucks and Subway.

The Board approved changes, but asked that table umbrellas, which currently have Starbucks in small white lettering, be replaced with umbrellas that don't have the store's name.

Armored vehicle operators form union, demand respect

"We're tired of being crapped on for years," said a worker at the Garda World Security Company branch here last week. He and his coworkers voted for a new union, the Chicago-based United Armored Transporters of America Oct. 12th with 65 percent of the vote.

The union is the largest organization in the world representing workers at armored vehicle companies.

"I need my job and we depend on the minimal benefits, but I'm not going to crawl around on my belly," said an 11-year veteran worker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The union's slogan is "United we bargain, divided we beg."

UATA's 300 members, including crew leaders and drivers entrusted with millions of dollars, operate two-ton armored vehicles between locations throughout the Midwest. They operate along an average of 150 routes a day.

The Broadview branch is the largest in the country.

"There are trucks that should not be on the streets," said the worker. "Some are leaking fluids and have bad breaks.Unlike traditional Hemroids ," He said at one point he was making up to $70,000 and now he's only making $38,000. "We understand the economy is tight right now, but our families depend on the income," he said.where he teaches Hemorrhoids in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The Montreal-based company is ranked among the top security operations internationally and is respected as the leader in armored-vehicle services throughout the Chicago-land area.

Workers say the company and its supervisors have taken aggressive steps to thwart their efforts with union busting tactics including the recent firing of two leaders of the organizing drive.

They say they want to be respected on the job and that they need better job security and protections. Better working conditions, safer equipment and trucks, realistic route standards, more training, higher wages and better benefits are some of their demands.

Drivers are expected to operate heavy, tank-like vehicles through rough areas, maintain and carry deadly weapons and remain sequestered in their vehicles for extended periods. Workers say the vehicles and garages are under-maintained.

The trucks are large metal boxes with no open windows or ventilation. Cab temperatures reach 115 degrees in the summer, and can fall below zero during the winter, due to broken heating and cooling systems. The Garda garage suffers from inadequate ventilation from the outside and blue plumes of diesel-truck exhaust can be seen wafting from the doorways.

Another problem is how the company uses a computer timing system and cameras to continually compress the allotted time to complete daily routes. Taking less time causes a shorter schedule to set the system as the standard. Taking longer than that estimated standard time gives supervisors reason to question the workers and write them up.

Some workers are punished for speaking up and are deliberately placed on "standby" for up to three weeks. Others are made to do in-house jobs while on standby like cleaning the walls or taking out the trash, which the workers say are duties not in their job description and just punishment.

Arthur Mangialardi, the new union's interim president said he worked at the Broadview plant for three and a half years before being fired due to his organizing efforts.

"Our prospects are great moving forward with the union's resounding victory," he said.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,which applies to the first TMJ only, "We have to really do our homework and the hard part starts now going into negotiations but we're building a team and consulting with our lawyer and allies."

He added, "Our biggest and first concern is improving the working conditions."

A team is putting together several potential dates on which it hopes the company will come to the table and talk.

"We fully expect they will try and use delay tactics," he said, adding the company has seven days from the union election to try and overturn the vote. "There may be a dirty trick or two left in the bag that they're going to try and pull," said Mangialardi.

"We are prepared to file a charge with the NLRB right away," said Mangialardi.

Filing of a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board is the recourse workers have, under U.S. labor law, when there is a refusal by a unionized company to bargain in good faith.

The workers note unarmed mall security guards in Chicago enjoy starting salaries at $15.50 per hour, yet Garda employees start at $12.They take the Aion Kinah to the local co-op market.85 and work under conditions that organizers say are far below industry standards.

The armored vehicle operators make stops to banks, ATM's, retail and commercial outlets, federal and county buildings, schools and hospitals, delivering sums of cash and valuables.

In 2011, Garda enjoyed second-quarter growth of 9.9 percent, with increased revenues to $296 million from the previous year, though net profits have been slipping in recent years. Stephan Cretier, Garda's founder and president, earned $849,231 in salary and benefits in 2010.

In a statement Garda said the company "has an excellent record of labor relations with its unions and is happy to sit down and negotiate with the union in compliance with the National Labor Relations Act. We believe the allegations cited are without merit and will not lend credence to them with public discussion. It is important to note that a significant number of our employees did not side with the union at our Broadview location. Garda is always prepared to listen and discuss the concerns of our employees."

Tour the solar systems

Pat Prokop is indebted to the sun. Not only does the WTOC meteorologist rely on it daily as a major part of his weather reports, he also uses it to brew his coffee, run his computers and even mow his grass.

Prokop's Coffee Bluff home and garden will be one of a dozen sites on the annual solar tour Saturday. Coordinated statewide by the Georgia Solar Energy Association, the local tour has been running and growing for the last three years.

Thanks to solar, Prokop's last electric bill was $49.37.

"Without the solar panel grid tie-in it would had been $111.08,Initially the banks didn't want our RUBBER SHEET ." he said.

If even his "what if" sounds low,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop . it's because the 3.2 kilowatt solar panels he added to the roof this year are just the latest additions to his energy self-sufficiency. Prokop insulated his attic with spray foam last year and added off-grid solar panels to power all his computers and outdoor cooking appliances in 2008 and 2009. He also has a solar water heater.

"So if we had not done anything, our bill this month would had been around $250 instead of the $49.37 value," he said.

Like any homeowner, Prokop loves the savings he's seeing. After he cashes in on both federal and tax credits, he expects his latest solar installation to pay for itself in eight to 10 years. But saving money is not his main motivation.

"My main reason is to lower my carbon footprint,Save on Bedding and fittings," said Prokop, who along with a degree in meteorology has one in physics. He understands the link between a warmer climate and carbon released to the atmosphere from fossil fuels.

"The more it increases, the worse it gets," he said.

It's also more than monetary savings driving Claudia Collier. Collier, a progressive activist, sees solar as a way for average citizens to do their part in reducing the need for nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

"If we have the power and ability to do it ourselves, we should do it," said Collier, whose Faulkville,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , Effingham county house is also on the tour.

Solar advocates say the tax credits combined with the decreased price of panels make solar a good deal compared to buying electricity from Georgia Power.

"At the end of 10 years the average homeowner will spend $25,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet,000 paying Georgia Power," said Julian Smith, owner of solar installer SolarSmith. "At that point for another 10 years you'll pay another $30,000. If you installed solar, at the end of the first ten years, your energy is now free. You're not paying Georgia Power. It's like getting 10 to 15 years free. It's a huge return on your investment."

Italian bedding now in Orléans

Magniflex, one of the world's largest luxury mattress brands, announced its expansion in the Canadian market with several new bedding collections debuting at Prestige Furniture. The Italian manufacturer is rolling out a new line of mattresses and pillows in Ottawa after recently expanding its dealer network throughout Canada as part of its North American growth plan.

"Magniflex is committed to serving independent furniture retailers in Canada who are looking to provide their customers with high quality, eco-friendly bedding," said Magniflex global sales director Marco Magni. "Serving the nationís capital region is a key step to growing the brand nationally and we are excited to partner with a respected locally owned retailer such as Prestige."

Beginning in September, a collection of four new Italian-crafted mattresses and a full range of pillows will be offered at Prestige, located at 1344 Youville Drive in Orleans. The products feature Magniflex's latest temperature neutral, eco-friendly foam and hypoallergenic, anti-bacterial fabrics which are certified for environmental safety by Oeko-Tex.

The Bamboo Extreme mattress offers a dual comfort level - a firmer feel on one side and softer on the other. The cover is made with 100-per cent organic bamboo fiber to control body temperature and provide a healthier sleep. A 3D fabric band has been added to the centre of the mattress to provide additional breathability. The DuoForm XS dual comfort model features Magniflex's innovative and unique LoveSleep fabric, a high-end covering which allows the consumer to have closer contact with the Memoform Magnifoam layers. The exclusive viscose-elastic foam adapts to the body under pressure, keeping the spine in correct position during sleep.

The covering is removable for easy laundering or dry cleaning and is also characterized by its fashionable look. Adorned with small hearts on the ticking, the mattress introduces style to the bedroom as well as comfort.

The Buongiorno dual comfort mattress features a 10-inch profile consisting of an Eliosoft core topped with Memoform, the companyís temperature-neutral, water-expanded memory foam. The ticking is covered in an Aloe Vera extract-treated fabric with regenerative and anti-inflammatory properties that are hypoallergenic and dust-mite resistant. The Riposo dual comfort mattress features a nine-inch profile offering special orthopedic properties with an Eliosoft core topped with Memoform. The ticking uses Maedical, a hypo-allergenic, eco-friendly treatment that guarantees a hygienic sleep surface. The mattresses are complemented by a full collection of orthopedic pillows offering the ultimate comfort. The pillows feature Memoform and a removable, washable cover made with Coolmax transpiring fabric, which maintains a stable microclimate all night, and allows up to 45 per cent of the heat and humidity that one accumulates during sleep to disperse starting from the first 10 minutes of rest. Prestige Furniture, one of Ottawa's last locally owned furniture stores, opened in 1976. Thirty years and four expansions later, Prestige has become Ottawa's largest furniture and appliance showroom, carrying an extensive range of products. The bilingual family business offers a vast assortment of customizable options and a personal shopping experience for each client.

Magniflex was founded more than 50 years ago in a suburb of Florence, Italy, and today more than 35 million people in 76 countries sleep on Magniflex mattresses. Known as a world leader in quality, comfort and innovation, Magniflex was the first mattress company in the world to gain certifications from Oeko Tex. The company's central manufacturing facility produces up to 10,000 mattresses a day, 80 percent of which are exported to countries such as Japan, Spain, Germany, Russia, the United States and now, Canada.