The dilemma of creating and cutting solar jobs

Both job creation and layoffs are particularly sensitive topics during a weak economy, let alone an election year when candidates all claim to have the best antidotes to put people back to work. So the layoffs of about 200 out of roughly 300 workers at Amonix’s North Las Vegas solar equipment factory this month raised questions not just about the company’s well being but also its promise to bring lots of jobs to the local economy.

Through its manufacturing service provider, Flextronics, Amonix cut its staffing at the factory by two-thirds so that it could modify the production equipment for making a new product later this year. From Amonix’s point view, the company, backed by Kleiner Perkins, is doing what is necessary to make a new product that it plans to launch later this year, said Carla Pihowich, vice president of marketing and government affairs, on Tuesday.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists. The plan is to start hiring more people in the second half of this year, she said. “It’s really a temporary scale-down only to scale back up,” she said.

The California-based company designs giant solar panels mounted on a mechanical arm to track the sun’s movement throughout the day. Inside each panel is a series of modules that contain lenses that concentrate the sunlight up to 500 times onto solar cells to produce power. The current panel runs 77-foot by 49-foot and produces 60 KW. Amonix won’t provide details about its new system until it’s ready to launch it,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes.Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber, Pihowich said.

Factory re-tooling is a common step for any manufacturer who wants to roll out new products, cut manufacturing costs or both. The changes at Amonix’s plan will include “a bit more automation” to make solar energy equipment that will be more efficient at converting sunlight into electricity and cost less, Pihowich said.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

She also noted that the time is right to make the transition partly because it has completed delivery for a major project – a 30 MW solar farm being built in Colorado by Cogentrix that received a $90.6 million federal loan guarantee.

Amonix held an opening ceremony for its $18 million factory only in May last year. So it’s making a big change in staff and machinery only after having operated for a relatively short period of time. That certainly doesn’t look good, particularly when many local and state political leaders who, along with the company, were eager to tout the jobs the new factory would provide less than a year ago. Its then CEO, Brian Robertson,A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, who died during an airplane crash right before Christmas, said at the time that the company had committed to creating 278 jobs but ended up hiring roughly 300 workers for the factory.

But will the company re-fill the job count back to around 300? That’s not for certain. Amonix promises to re-hire more people starting in the second half of this year. The number of new hires will depend on sales and shipment demand from customers, but Pihowich declined to give an estimate on how many.

For those who felt fortunate to have lined up work at the factory, the layoff announcement was crushing. As Las Vegas Sun reported, some workers felt blindsided by how short-term their employment turned out to be. A local official told the paper that workers were brought on to handle a major project, so the positions were supposed to be temporary.

Amonix will need many more large orders to keep its factory going for the long run. The company declined to talk about the status of other projects and contracts, however. It’s worth noting that the company opened the factory during a year when the solar market experienced a glut of conventional solar panels and saw wholesale prices for them falling by 40-50 percent. That affected the sales of other types of solar technologies as well.

So if re-tooling the factory and reducing payrolls are necessary to maintain the company’s health and its growth, then they certainly need to be done. But the process comes at the expense of those who were counting on Amonix for more, not fewer, job.

Olympic torch deal for castings specialist Alucast

Olympic success is heading to the Black Country after a local foundry secured a deal to cast parts for the iconic London 2012 Olympic torch.

Alucast, which employs over 100 people at its Wednesbury base, has been chosen by Coventry-based Premier Group to manufacture the top and bottom caps after impressing with its technical expertise.

The company is responsible for tooling,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. machining and polishing using gravity casting technology to produce the aluminium components that hold in place the inner and outer skin of the torch.

More than 15 employees are involved in the contract, ranging from design and technical staff to the quality department and experienced casters.

A number of prototypes have already been provided, with full production now underway.

Tony Sartorius, Managing Director of Alucast, was delighted to bring this high-profile order to the region:

“This is fantastic news for everyone involved in our business and underlines our ability to work on complex and demanding projects that require flexibility, world class quality and technical expertise.”

He continued: “It also shows the manufacturing capabilities we have in the West Midlands and is a great example of the positive impact the Olympics can have on all areas of the UK.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic,”

Designed by East Londoners Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby,Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists. the torch is 800mm high and features 8000 perforated circles to represent each one of the inspirational runners on the Olympic Relay planned to mark the opening of London 2012.

The Premier Group, which specialises in turnkey engineering and associated services, beat off international competition to secure the contract to manufacture the torch and has been responsible for setting up a supply chain to deliver the project on time, on budget and to the exacting design and quality standards expected by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Premier Group approached Alucast after it was recommended by a business partner and was immediately impressed with the foundry’s passion for the project, its flexibility in supplying prototypes for testing and its track record in engineering solutions.

“The parts supplied by Alucast are two of the most important components of the torch and we needed to work with a company that understood the design and could deliver the parts to the required finish and importantly, on time.

“After the first meeting,Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber, we knew we had found the right partner and the fact they are based locally helps with project management and in ensuring the London 2012 Olympic Torch is a truly Great British product.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,”

This latest contract marks an impressive period for Alucast and follows on from an existing order to supply complex components to the resurgent Norton Motorcycles.

The company, which is a founder member of the Midlands Assembly Network (MAN), offers customers in the automotive, construction, hydraulics, vacuum and medical sectors access to world class, fully machined high pressure, gravity and sand casting and has the capability to supply low, medium and high volume products.

Investment in a new machining shop has seen it take on a host of new customers and the firm expects to reach nearly ￡8m of annual sales by the end of the year.

With Square card reader, T-Mobile lets ‘cash-only’ shops take plastic

T-Mobile USA is teaming up with Square Inc. to offer a mobile payment device for small businesses that have not in the past accepted credit card payments from customers.

T-Mobile is the first wireless carrier to offer the Square credit card reader from San Francisco-based Square in its stores. The readers are already available at retailers such as Target,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. Best Buy and Apple stores, and T-Mobile has previously been selling the readers in 4G smartphone bundles for businesses, according to The Washington Post

T-Mobile says the reader will be a bonus for small businesses because it can make it easier and faster to get paid from shoppers using their credit cards. The Square reader lets small businesses take credit card payments using the mobile card reader attached to their iPhones, iPads or Android devices, with the money from the transaction sent for deposit into the bank account of the small business the next business day.

“The success of our small business customers is important to us. Formerly 'cash only' small businesses can now simply and cost-effectively accept credit cards with their smartphone using Square, giving them an easy path to growth,” said Matt Millen, vice president of small and medium business sales at T-Mobile. “As these businesses evaluate their wireless needs, T-Mobile is committed to providing quality of service, cost savings and connectivity that are a requirement for their success.”

According to Investment bank Barclays Capital,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, U.S.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, mobile commerce sales hit $5.3 billion in 2011, up 83 percent from 2010. Despite the widespread adoption, more than 26 million small businesses still do not accept credit card payments.

The Square card reader is part of T-Mobile's small business services that include business applications such as DropBox, Evernote, Square,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, TripIt, Camscanner and LinkedIn that can be preloaded on smartphones and tablets. T-Mobile’s small business plans also offer cloud services.

The credit card reader is available at limited stores in several states including California, Florida, New York and Virginia. In Washington, the readers are available at T-Mobile locations at the Everett Mall and Loehmann’s Plaza in Bellevue.

The readers are already available at retailers such as Target, Best Buy and Apple stores,Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists. and T-Mobile has previously been selling the readers in 4G smartphone bundles for businesses, according to The Washington Post. The Post also notes that Verizon has a similar bundled deal for the rival Intuit card reader.

State gets carded for tax refunds

The state of Connecticut said no to paper and is going with plastic when it comes to some tax refunds.

On Monday, the Department of Revenue Services announced it will no longer issue refund checks, but instead will be sending out Chase debit cards, requiring people to activate them before use. People who would rather not receive a debit card can opt to have their refunds direct deposited into their bank accounts.

"Issuing tax refunds as debit cards provides a security and convenience not available with paper checks," DRS Commissioner Kevin B. Sullivan said in a release. "Couple that with the elimination of check cashing fees and the refund debit cards are a benefit for taxpayers and the state."

The plastic cards will come in the mail and people will have to contact Chase to activate them. They can be used to access the money at ATMs or at retailers that accept them.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

Louisiana is also going to a debit card refund. In New York, the comptroller balked at going to a debit card only system last year, so this year,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, New Yorkers have the choice of getting a check or receiving the card.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, Bank of America runs the program in New York.

While Sullivan emphasized convenience, the DRS move follows a similar one made by the state Labor Department which began issuing unemployment insurance benefits on debit cards in 2011 and also allowed for direct deposit of benefits. The Labor Department, which also selected Chase for its program, said the move was expected to save about $200,000 a month in printing and postage costs.

Sullivan noted Revenue Services already allows for direct deposit and nearly 55 percent of the 1 million refunds issued last year were direct deposited.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic,

Sarah Kaufman, a Revenues Services spokeswoman,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. said the department said it expects to save a similar amount of money, though not on a monthly basis.

One of the goals of shifting to debit cards is to spur more people to sign up for direct deposit, she said, but it's also aimed at helping Connecticut residents who do not have bank accounts avoid check-cashing fees.

The percentage of Connecticut refund recipients who do no have bank accounts was not immediately known.

The new program is another win for JP Morgan Chase, which also handles the unemployment benefits program for Connecticut. Chase declined to comment on how it makes money on the program.

Like its Labor Department deal, Chase has agreed to limit fees and people can avoid being charged if they use a Chase or People's United Bank ATM.

However, fees can be charged if other ATMs are used, or if users leave money on the card for more than one year.

People with refunds in excess of $10,000, collecting refunds on behalf of the deceased or who have offshore bank accounts will still receive checks.

Scientists demonstrate silicone rubber has self-healing ability

Using a mechanism discovered in the 1950s, known as ‘siloxane equilibration’,China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. the team cut a silicone rubber shape in half with a razor blade and found that it completely repaired itself when it was heated up.

Peiwen Zheng, a researcher at Massachusetts University and co-author of the paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, said: ‘When we rediscovered the forgotten unusual properties of silicones and combined them with today’s research interests, we found that the silicone material with the siloxane equilibration was an obvious candidate for a self-healing material.’

According to a report in PhyOrg, the researchers performed several experiments to test the theoretical predictions from papers published more than half a century ago and to extend some of the experiments carried out at that time.

In one experiment, the team prepared a siloxane-based mixture containing a cross-linking agent and a catalyst.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, The scientists then poured the solution into moulds of various shapes and heated them at 90°C for four hours. After removing the clear, rubbery silicone shapes from the moulds, the scientists described the silicone samples as ‘living polymer networks’.

According to Zheng, this means the silicone network is at a chemically anionic equilibrium, where the reactive centre will split and reform a covalent siloxane bond.FIRMAR is a Malaysia Injection Moulding Manufacturer and Plastic Injections Components Manufacturer,

These bonds are reversible, which enables the two sides of a crack to reconnect under the right conditions.

To demonstrate the self-healing ability, the researchers cut a 1cm-long cylindrical sample in half. The two halves were rejoined by wrapping them together with Teflon plumbing tape and heating them in an oven at 90°C for 24 hours.

When the researchers retrieved the sample and removed the tape, they found that the silicone cylinder had completely healed.

When they bent the cylinder by hand until it broke again, they found it broke in a different location to where it had previously been cut.Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, The scientists repeated this experiment on different-shaped objects with the same results.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

In another experiment, the researchers moulded a silicone dog bone, which they cut into multiple pieces. Then they rearranged the pieces to fit into a mould of a dog. Heating the sample resulted in a silicone dog with no visible fractures or weak spots where the pieces had been fitted together.

The researchers also quantified the strength of the healed samples in comparison with the original samples using fracture toughness measurements. The data for the two types of samples was indistinguishable, indicating exceptional self healing.

Zheng explained that self-healing materials, with some improvements, could lead to a variety of applications.

‘It [silicone rubber] can be developed into self-healing coatings on auto vehicles or countertops,‘ she said. ‘It is also a “plastic” elastomer, which can be used in moulding to form desired shapes and patterns. The concept of a self-healing silicone can be used to guide the preparation of elastomers with gradient modulus, Janus elastomers, reversible surface patterns when filled with magnetic particles and super-tough materials that can chemically relax stress.’

A brief Remedy To get Hemorrhoids Puffiness

This fix for hemorrhoids is generally very good to lessen the swelling because of the hemorrhoidal inflammation. How can it This is all solid information you are getting here today on the subject of Hemorrhoids Relief. More than anything else, analyze what all the main points are in terms of applicability. It goes without saying that we have no real idea about how this is playing out for you, so we just try to present solid information. If you get too bogged down with the minute details, you can easily get lost in the haze. That is would be the ideal scenario, here, but you will not always have the time to do what is necessary for that to happen. If that describes you, then you know that you need to make the very most of your time.FIRMAR is a Malaysia Injection Moulding Manufacturer and Plastic Injections Components Manufacturer, At least until your knowledge is broader, try to determine what directly applies to you if possible. work? The issue that any spinach has across the Hemorrhoids is without a doubt decongestant and really relaxing.

The difficulty with preventing doctors and also self checking out any affliction including a specific thing as innocent as hemorrhoidal inflammation is that you may possibly not are aware that typical pile symptoms could perhaps indicate even more serious health concerns. Not to be able to cause a person concern, but so that you can educate, you ought to know that soreness, swelling and also anal bleeding could perhaps indicate colorectal cancer, polyps, bacterial infections, and fissures. This runs specifically true of anal hemorrhage. All rate of anal bleeding must be immediately discussed using a doctor. While it is actually true in which hemorrhoids could be the most likely root cause of your problems,China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. do not even skip receiving a correct healthcare diagnoses by reason of laziness as well as embarrassment.

Colon many forms of cancer is curable and survivable should caught and also treated throughout its beginning. The in all likelihood exam a medical expert will take advantage of to spot your hemorrhoids is mostly a colonoscopy. This can be used diagnostically for all those conditions on the colon district including hemorrhoidal inflammation and colorectal cancer. It’s one small bendable scope so that your doctor to buy a good view with the overall colon/rectal health and wellbeing. It’s significantly less bad considering that it sounds and the majority of people actually discover preparation before the exam for being much a lot more unpleasant. The groundwork part involves robust laxatives plus a day spent around a bath room.

For the purpose of external models, all you would like is some treatments and you will definitely most almost certainly recover a few weeks. Being rigorous about any hygiene is without a doubt imperative.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, Use wet toilet report and softly swipe the software off any anus after by eliminating your toxins. Then please take a bath with trouble to rinse out away filth.

For irritated and intensive pain, use ointments that may be snagged which are non-prescription. Also utilize cold compress on the affected area so the veins would definitely somehow dissove and gradually go back to standard.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic,

Heat sitz bath is usually widely known as the hemorrhoidal inflammation home treatment plan. You are capable of doing this means for three times each day and about fifteen minutes per each time. It may get shrinking any inflamed areas.Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased,

Thrust it back again: Many families have tried this and for some reason helped. Having said that, you just can’t permanently reduce your hemorrhoid employing this method. After finish supplementing with bath or aided by the toilet, you will use any fingers and attempt to gently touch your hemorrhoid in to where the software belongs. Having said that, don’t touch it which means that hard. Should you be in soreness when this process, then one should stop and also leave the software alone.

The above information was put together with great care because we know the value of accurate and timely material.

Picking strawberries on the Cape's Garden Route

STANDING in a beer tent outside George with strawberry-coloured cocktail in my hand listening to a one-man-band covering I'm On My Way To Amarillo, I wondered if following my instincts had been such a good idea after all.

My obsession with strawberries could be directly linked to my entering a nondescript corrugated- iron structure at Buffalo Hills game reserve near Plettenberg Bay one afternoon some days earlier.

We were herded through the dark doorway by bush-survival expert Kurdt Greenwood. Moments before he had been rubbing noses with a boomslang from his pet collection and I was curious to see what he had in mind next.

It turned out to be an attitude-shifting experience. As my eyes grew used to the dark, I could make out a battered copper urn complete with pigtail piping befitting any self-disrespecting hillbilly household.

Formerly the abode of infamous Garden Route adventurer and wildlife champion Jack Mudd, who secretly served citrus-mampoer as Jacks Jungle Juice from the bush still, it was now a more respectable, legalised venture under the banner of Nyati mampoer-liqueurs.

And Greenwood was dishing them out ice-cold. The buchu-and-apricot blend was pretty enticing. So was the whiff of naartjie emanating from the Van der Hum. The plum was good too. But I was smitten with the very first sip of the smooth strawberry-chilli combo. With a surprisingly delicate after-bite, it was everything a high-end mampoer-based bush liqueur should be.

The strawberry, much more so than the apple, is heaven sent. But, as I found out, it should not be taken lightly. And it is prone to deception.

For a start, it's not a berry. In the same way we are asked to believe that the dassie is most closely related to the elephant, we are expected to accept that the strawberry belongs to the rose family.

With a name derived from the wild woodland version first cultivated in early 17th-century England - which appeared to be randomly "strewn" across the Earth's surface - the strawberry is the Scarlet Pimpernel of the fruit world.

It was created inside-out with its most intimate sexual organs on prominent display. Unlike most fruit, the fleshy part is not derived from the ovaries, but rather acts as receptacle for many little ones (the myriad of tiny yellow knobs on the outside), each with its own seeds.

The flower itself is downright deviant. It can function as either male or female when the time is ripe.

Even the pests that attack strawberries sound inelegant enough to feel at home in any garden's red-light patch, with more than 200 regular irritants including varying sorts of slime mould (not my term),Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, the dreaded verticilum wilt .Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased,.. and, God forbid, rhizopus rot.

There is a reason the strawberry is so commonly mixed with legendary sex-accessories such as chocolate, cream and other dairy products that can be languidly licked off a willing surface.

But the strawberry is not all sweaty concupiscence. Its heart shape, passionate hue and close relationship to the rose all provide romantic credentials to counter any excess appetence.

With all this fresh in mind, I started seeing strawberries everywhere.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, And one evening, as I was telling anyone who didn't want to hear that in parts of Bavaria country folk still tie baskets of strawberries to cow's horns - as an offering to the elves who will ensure the farmers have healthy calves and milk in return - my partner yelped and pointed to the paper she was reading.China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. "Strawberry Festival - Redberry Farm," it said.

Redberry Farm to the west of George lies in the heart of the Garden Route strawberry industry.The magic cube is an ultra-portable, A drive around the area shows strawberry fields stretching to forever.

Redberry itself is open to the public and was started some 10 years ago by one Mark Miller as a commercial venture. On a regular day you can pick your own berries, wander through the third-largest hedge-maze on earth, ride through the fields on a pony, or stick you kids in a huge big bubble-ball that churns around on the dam.

But on this day there was much more. It was hot in berry-land with the mercury rising to 28°C.

Hundreds of people were having strawberry-related munchies, browsing the stalls or watching the owner, sporting a sun-burned complexion not all that different from the fruit he promotes, raising his voice on the walkie talkie over a version of Black Magic Woman.

In the shop you can buy everything from strawberry body butter, jelly soap, hand lotion and bath jelly to strawberry-patterned bookmarks, candles, dishcloths, necklaces and earrings.

Everywhere strawberry icecreams, slush, yoghurts, syrups and sorbets, as well as jams, condiments and salad-splashes, line the shelves alongside fridge magnets, baby-slippers, greeting cards, faux strawberry lips and the obligatory strawberry T-shirts. There's even a basket filled with strawberry rugby balls.

And of course Redberry's very own strawberry liqueur, which you can purchase in large or small quantities and consume while wading through the strawberry overload. I chose the former option.

A while later, the world looks considerably different from when I first entered the shop. Everybody is friendlier and well, redder. The competitors in the strawberry-eating competition resemble an audition line for a vampire movie.

At one of the stalls I meet Bob and Ina van der Westhuizen. They have given their strawberry liqueur a combo-name without the Van der Westhuizen part: Bobina. They ply their trade on a farm across the (Outeniqua) berg, they tell me. I buy a bottle while the one-man-band launches into Living Next Door to Alice.

I end up on the little choo-choo train that runs through the strawberry fields. It's a pretty sight - people merrily picking their berries in the sprawling fields with the blue-green Outeniqua mountains as backdrop.

Edsel Ford Graduate's Art Installation Spreads Hope to Sick Children

At the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, young patients are often facing frightening health issues. But this month, many of those children found an escape from illness, provided by 22-year-old Matthew Lambert, aChina yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development.n alumnus of Edsel Ford High School and the force behind the Communal Experience Project.

Made up of 132 small tiles individually painted by patients, a mural was installed Jan. 18 at the hospital by Lambert, with help from volunteers working for public arts project ArtCorps, and the hospital’s Healing Arts Program, which promotes well-being by using art.

For Lambert, the road to creating the mural began when he was looking for a service project at Wayne State University, where he’s majoring in both art and psychology.

“I wanted to explore the idea of creating a collective work art out of smaller pieces,” said Lambert, who graduated from Edsel in 2007.

"The Communal Experience Project was a chance to allow the children to create something without restrictions. For a while, it was an opportunity for them to express themselves without having to think about why they are in the hospital.”

To bring the project to life, patients were not given any specific directions,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, but were assigned a color. Lambert oversaw the young people as they and their parents painted the tiles, which were made of clay donated by Wayne State.

The final product depicts a human reaching for the sky.

“The real art is not the mural itself,” Lambert explained. “It’s art acting by transformative action. The mural is a bi-product of the experience, which will never end by virtue of its location and the people who might be inspired by it going forward.”

Arts Service Learning courses at Wayne are part of the community-based ArtCorps, which is modeled on the national Peace Corps, said Mame Jackson, a professor emerita of art history at Wayne that teaches the course, “Art in the Community: Art as a Social Process.”

“(ArtCorps) puts students and volunteers in different parts of the community in arts-related projects, (which) brings a vibrancy and vitality back to our community,” she said.

Lambert, who will graduate from Wayne this year with a double major of art and psychology, developed an interest in the arts when he was very young. Homeschooled until the sixth grade,A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, Lambert said he learned most of what he knows about art from his mother.

At Stout Middle School, his talents were further honed by art teacher Kate Blair, with whom he still corresponds. By the time Lambert started classes at Edsel, he was spending most of his time at Henry Ford Community College taking psychology courses.

Now at WSU, Lambert focuses mainly on jewelry design, and is planning to work and study in Amsterdam later this year before heading to grad school.

But this month, it was all about working with kids. Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,And while the children had fun creating art, Lambert knew it was about much more than that.

“Many of the children had visible signs of being ill,” he said.Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, “That made this experience more important for them because it’s something that had nothing to do with their illness.”

Dare to be kind

FOR most of us, it’s not second nature to be kind. We are, whether we admit it or not, all selfish -- in varying degrees. But there are some of us who are kind. There are some of us who fight valiantly to subdue our innate selfishness. There are some of us who DARE to be kind. And one of the kindest people I know is my husband. Many people tell me the same thing.

My husband turned 60 last September. Five years ago, while he was giving a talk, he suffered a stroke. But by God’s grace, he wasn’t paralyzed. His motor skills were intact. All his five senses were preserved. He didn’t slur. He didn’t drool. His face didn’t wilt to one side. But what got affected was his word retrieval system. He couldn’t find the right words for things -- for example, if you asked him what he was drinking, he would say "citrus" instead of "kalamansi." (The stroke re-wired his brain from Pinoy to Continental! That was our private joke.) But his physical recovery was fast. In six months, he was able to play tennis again.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

Dr. Alran Bengzon, my husband’s neurologist at the time, was so kind to my husband. Both Ateneans, they somehow spoke a kindred language. They shared this wry, Ateneo sense of humor that was both cerebral and homespun. When Dr. Bengzon asked my husband some diagnostic questions, I couldn’t help but laugh:

The way Dr. Bengzon handled that first interview was crucial to my husband, to me, to our family. From a deep, dark abyss of uncertainty, foreboding and dread, he gave us hope. He was just so kind. His bedside manner was perfect -- paternal, professional, warm -- with just enough humor to lighten up a very tense situation. After talking to my husband and sharing a few more laughs with him, the good doctor gently led me to one side.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, He showed me Ito’s brain scans. He patiently and unhurriedly explained what had happened inside my husband’s brain, and what probably caused the stroke. All of a sudden, my fears died down. I felt this doctor’s kindness, his concern for my husband was palpable and real.

To all the doctors out there, I make this plea: Dare to be kind to your patients. Your sincere concern makes a whole world of difference to our emotional well-being in the midst of a medical crisis. Treat your patients as people, not just numbers or "cases." Don’t be cold or curt. Don’t be in such a hurry when you talk to us, skipping important details that you think we might not understand. I can’t forget how Dr. Bengzon explained things to me patiently, unhurriedly, in word pictures I could understand. Just as a father would to his daughter. And you know what? It was his first time to meet Ito and me. We weren’t VIPs. But he treated us like we were. A very dear friend, Tess, called Dr. Bengzon and asked him to be Ito’s attending physician. Our family will never, ever forget their kindness to us -- at a time when we needed it most. They dared to be kind.

When my husband was cleared to go back to work, I bought him a new office ref so he could have fruits within easy reach whenever he got hungry. One of our friends filled his ref with fresh fruits and juices. She did that for some time, so I didn’t even have to restock my husband’s ref. She dared to be kind. Another person put an air purifier right in front of my husband’s desk, and asked if there was anything else he needed. That person dared to be kind. Friends sent lots of food, books, DVDs, lent their drivers, offered to get our test results, recommended their doctors, texted me incessantly to ask how Ito was, prayed without ceasing for his fast recovery. We were inundated with kindness in all forms, shapes and sizes.

I particularly remember a dear friend who gave Ito six huge workbooks . She ordered the books from abroad. When we showed the workbooks to Ito’s therapist, she was in AWE. She said that these were very expensive, state-of-the-art workbooks which any therapist would die to have in her library! Along with the workbooks were two video iPods which our friend also gave us -- she had loaded it with Ito’s favorite TV series so that he wouldn’t get bored while waiting in doctors’ offices. She also gave me a video iPod for myself, to keep me entertained while waiting with Ito. Mine was loaded with thousands of songs, a couple of movies, and lots of TV shows that will probably last me till I’m 90! How thoughtful of her. How kind. Our friend knew that Ito and I are Jurassic, so she took the trouble of loading the iPods for us. She DARED to be kind.

When my husband went back to work,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, one of the things I was observing was how his colleagues would treat him when he went back to the office. Well,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, there were people who were kind (God bless their hearts.) And there were people who were very, very unkind. It was a shock to me how some stayed away from him like he was a social pariah. Before his stroke, my husband held a responsible position, so people would often crowd around his office, waiting to talk to him with documents and checks and what-nots that needed his perusal or approval. But all of a sudden, after his stroke, Ito’s office was like a barren, desolate wasteland. In his absence, his things were transferred. He was relocated to a smaller space. When I checked what he was going back to, I was flabbergasted: his things were in boxes, in total disarray. So I fixed my husband’s office to make it look presentable,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, welcoming, a pleasant work environment for him.

Unfortunately, more bad things were waiting for him at work. Much worse than the stroke, a series of "unfortunate incidents" hit him from left field. My husband was slowly but surely stripped of his responsibilities, his authority, and people were removed from his supervision without any explanation. Never mind about showing kindness. All that the situation called for was a semblance of professionalism -- especially since my husband had served with a sterling record for more than a decade. All it took was a modicum of decency to tell him, "Hey, Ito, we don’t want to stress you out with lots of work right now. We want you to rest for a while. You deserve a good rest, after all your hard work. So we decided to divide your work among us. Hope you won’t mind if we come to you for advice now and then!" (Or words to that effect.) It would’ve taken only 20 minutes to sit down with him in a meeting, to show him a little kindness. But, alas, no such kindness was shown to him.

By God’s grace, my husband is a fighter by nature. Maybe it’s because he has played in tennis tournaments since he was twelve. That way, he developed nerves of steel. He was one of Ateneo’s youngest varsity tennis captains. He was trained to show grace under pressure, to hang tough, to keep on playing against all odds, and not to choke when it was finally Match Point. It’s one of the reasons why I really look up to him.

So, when my husband was summarily shelved aside with no explanation, his nerves of steel and innate calmness surfaced . Instead of wallowing in self-pity or bitterness or frustration, he thought of other things to do for the organization -- without being asked. In a way, he reinvented himself. He said, "Well, I will do what I can do to contribute whatever good I can. There’s always something useful to do." Fighting words, all right. And a lot of it, I believe, comes from an Atenean’s indomitable spirit. After all, every blue-blooded Atenean’s rallying cry is "ONE BIG FIGHT!!!" But more than that, I know that Ito’s vast reserve of strength, his tenacity to overcome, came from one limitless source of hope, strength, and kindness: GOD.

I am writing this not because I’m bitter. Not to pillory those people who were unkind to my husband in his time of need. Maybe they just weren’t equipped to respond with compassion. Maybe they grew up not receiving any kindness. Maybe they were going through their own trials at the time. Or maybe they were just too dense and insensitive (as I am at times). At the end of the day, whatever our reasons are for being unkind, we are all answerable to God.

I’m writing this to remind myself (and you, as you’re reading this) that it takes so little to be kind. It takes so little to prop up someone’s sagging spirits. It takes so little to make people feel they’re valuable human beings. It takes so little to assure a person: "Hey, it’s going to be okay. We can do this together. We’re right here with you!" Well, thank goodness, there were many people who rallied around us and constantly showed us kindness, over the long haul. Many of our friends surprised us that way!

Now that our lives have gone back to normal, it doesn’t hurt anymore to recall such a disturbing lack of compassion. In fact, one of my best life lessons came out of that traumatic situation: in any circumstance, each of us has a choice -- to be kind, or to be unkind. Our family survived one of the worst crises in our lives because many, many people dared to be kind.

Pikas like it cold and make hay

Pikas are one of the cutest of our mountain animals. How do they survive life in the high talus slopes, in steep piles of jumbled rock and beneath cliffs in the high mountains in the winter? These bare rocks seem like very inhospitable habitats, yet it is their home, pantry and shelter.

The talus fields which pika colonies inhabit are generally fringed by suitable vegetation. Pikas usually have their den and nest sites below rocks, but often sit on larger and more prominent rocks. They generally reside in scree near or above the tree line.

American pikas live at very high altitudes because they cannot tolerate heat. They avoid hot weather by seeking out the cool crevices under boulders, and by remaining inactive during warm periods. During the cold, snowy winters at high elevations, they are protected by their dense coat of fur. The dorsal fur of the pika ranges from grayish to cinnamon-brown, with tawny hues during the summer. During winter, the fur becomes grayer and longer. The dense under-fur is usually slate-gray or lead colored.

The closest relative to the Pika, is the rabbit, and they run a little like rabbits, but they have small, round ears and no tail. While their marmot neighbors are hibernating, these little creatures remain active beneath the snow in the talus slope. A deep layer of snow protects pikas from high winds, and temperatures below –20 F, but if the snow is shallow, pikas may die of exposure. I hope this winter was not too harsh on our local pikas.

In preparing for winter, pikas dig tunnels in the snow from their den areas to the hay piles. On bright sunny days when the weather is bitterly cold and other animals are either hibernating or hiding in dens, pikas can be found sunning themselves on exposed rocks.

Summer,Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists. spring and fall are only a few months long in the high-alpine environment. In that time pikas are furiously busy cutting grass and flowers and adding them to their hay stacks. To survive seven months of winter, pikas cache summer vegetation in a hay pile sheltered beneath a large rock within their territory.

A pika makes an estimated 14,000 collecting trips during the short mountain summer to accumulate the hay pile. When the hay pile is gone, a pika will gnaw lichens from the rocks.

Some pika hay piles can be spotted easily, others are hard to find.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, Pikas often tuck their loads under large overhanging rocks or sometimes make huge bushel piles of hay right on the talus surface. Other pikas wedge their hay between rocks,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, so very little of even a large hay pile is visible on the surface.

Pikas save their winter larder in a very methodical way in a stack that often measures several feet thick and contains some 60 pounds of vegetation. Pikas first gather fresh vegetation and lay it in stacks to dry. Once the plants and grasses dry out,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, the pikas take this hay back to the burrows for storage. They must literally make hay while the sun shines, storing vegetation for winter feeding.

After cutting a columbine stalk with its teeth, a pika grips the plant between its jaws and runs to add it to a hay pile. Earlier in the season pikas eat the columbine's flowers but ignore the rest of the plant which is toxic. Pikas choose some plants for their anti-bacterial properties which keeps the hay pile from rotting.Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker,

Pikas can literally mow down plants, turning their heads to the side to bite off stems as close to the ground as possible. They have been observed harvesting and carrying off 4-foot-tall stalks of mountain bluebells, only to have their scampering retreat across the talus abruptly halted as the long stems wedge between rocks.

The hay piles also form the basis of interesting social interactions with the rest of the colony. For much of the year pikas are very territorial, and their territories are centered on their hay piles. There is an endless turf battle. Pikas throughout the colony are constantly running others off from their territory. Frequently pikas must cross other pika's home areas to get to spots where plants grow, so it is a never ending skirmish.

The protection of territory continues into the winter when pikas guard their hay stacks. In the spring there seems to be a truce and pikas are suddenly open to sharing their hay stacks. Coincidentally, it is about the same time that pikas are starting to look for mates. This hospitality ends at about the time that mates are selected.

Pikas are in a constant race with winter. Babies are born in spring, weaned in three weeks, and then immediately kicked out of mom's territory. In order to survive they must then hurry to establish their own territories and accumulate a hay pile for the impending winter.

Fresh eggs and a view

Many would love to wake up each morning to the view outside Steve Dix and Marnie Vail's guest house.

And don't forget the sound of the chickens.

The small, one-bedroom guest house is just a few hundred yards from the walking trails at the foot of Mount Elden, and the dense thicket of trees backing up to their property regularly provides glimpses of deer, elk, foxes, raccoons and other wildlife.

Coupled with Vail's massive inventory of healthy, home-cooked meals sourced from their backyard garden and chicken coop, it is a ready-made vacation.

The retired pilot and doctor are both betting that ecotourists will be willing to spend a little more to stay in their new bed and breakfast after a long day of hiking and biking rather than a hotel.

The couple have spent several months and roughly $2,000 converting the former den in Elden Trails Bed and Breakfast.

The decision to turn their home into A bed and breakfast was in part a financial decision, Dix said.

"When you are over 60, there are not an abundance of jobs out there in the job market," Dix said. "So if you decide you want some income, well then you need to create a job."

Not that either are new to the industry.

"We lived in Vermont for three years and we have good friends there that had a B & B and we started taking overflow from their B & B," Vail said.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992,

Still there were challenges to opening the business.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

A massive 11-foot climbing wall behind the main house had to be torn down,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, primarily out of liability concerns. Vail had a hard time seeing it go.

"I loved the climbing wall. It was one of the perks of buying this place," Vail said.

Despite having the chickens as well as two dogs and a cat, the B&B allows their guests to bring their dogs. Dix said it just made good business sense.

"It is best to be pet-friendly rather than turning business away," Dix said.

In their backyard is a greenhouse and chicken coop where roughly a dozen chickens provide fresh eggs, along with a small outdoor garden.

"It doesn't look like much now, but this summer we'll have a ton of things growing here," Dix said.

A partial list includes: Carrots, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, peas, green beans and some types of herbs.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

Using foods from their "mountain micro-farm" is important to Vail.

"One of my big issues is food. What people are eating is not really helping them these days," the retired physician says. "What they sell in the grocery stores isn't very healthy."

She picks a piece of home-baked dessert bread on the kitchen table. The soft bread is coated in powdered sugar, but Vail has baked the bread from scratch, using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible.

"This might not be very healthy, but it won't hurt you," she adds.

Vail is still looking for local food growers in order to cut back even further on trips to the grocery store.

She concedes she has had trouble finding local sources of organic cow milk, pork and handmade soaps.

Tony Vagneur: Saddle Sore

It's always been about staying warm in the winter, I reckon. We don't think about it much what with thermostats, natural gas, electricity and solar energy taking care of us, almost behind our backs, but it is a concern.

In the summer of 1879, a total of 23 men arrived in Aspen, at various times and from over Hunter's (Independence) and Taylor passes. A lot of prospecting occurred, but also a lot of time was spent preparing a winter camp and collecting firewood. They knew it would get cold. Ironically, only two stayed through the early winter; irrational fear of the Utes thinned them out, it seems.

In those days,Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop. wood was the only fuel of choice, until the coal mines at Marion began to make coke for processing ore. Such coke was an excellent heating fuel for homes and businesses, but the expense kept such use to a minimum. No doubt, some of that same, smoky bituminous coal that was being coked got freighted to Aspen by mule team, but until the railroads arrived, wood remained the main source of heat.

Almost every house had a coal or wood bin, either attached to the house or located in a shed or carriage house along the alley. Depending on when you lived in Aspen, your coal storage might have been filled by Judge William R. Shaw's father, or by the judge himself. Other coal dealers were Ed Teideman, who kept a ready stash in the West End and who also ran a general store on what is now the Hyman Avenue mall. Pat Hemann, proprietor of the gravel pit alongside Stillwater, delivered coal in the winter, and United Lumber and Mercantile, a long-ago Aspen institution, could be counted on to supply the necessary fossil fuel.

It takes a lot of work, and money, to heat an entire house with coal or wood, and since the beginning in Aspen, frugal folks saw the sense in closing off portions of their houses during the winter months. They quickly learned to live around the kitchen stove during the day and to make a mad dash for the bed covers at night.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, The comfort zone of indoor bathrooms,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, if there were any, always seemed to be kept at a level just above freezing.

Unlike heating systems of today, coal (or wood) stoves needed to be manually stoked or replenished on a regular basis to keep the fire alive. During long winter nights, such stoves would generally be allowed to burn themselves cold, making early morning a rush to get the stove burning again.

Some of the fancier homes had thermostatically-controlled basement coal furnaces which generated steam heat, distributed throughout by the ever entrancing, always hissing heat radiators. The Red Brick School was warmed by such a system and it was always a thought, as the registers hissed and clanged into action, that perhaps an explosion might let us out of school for a day or two. It should be noted that directly inside the door of the “old” Red Onion, there was a working heat register, coveted by beer-addled raconteurs on cold nights.

Even at age 85, my great-aunt Mary Stapleton, severely stooped with age and genetics,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, who lived in a Bleeker Street Victorian with her two sisters and one brother, had a great knack for heating river rocks in the oven of their coal cook stove, to be wrapped in a towel and gently placed under the blankets at the foot of a freezing bed. The trick was to wait until the coal stove had died down enough that the rocks didn't overheat and split apart, making them worthless. She would walk the precious cargo the entire length of the large house, one large gem at a time, from the kitchen to the huge north bedroom, being very careful not to drop them or burn herself.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

Mitt Romney's 'Authenticity' 'Problem'

Jonah Goldberg's syndicated Tribune column "Romney's Authenticity Problem" has stuck in my craw for a few days, like a cold sore that I can't take care of but can't ignore. I think it's this:

Romney's claim that he's just a businessman called to serve -- Cincinnatus laying down his PowerPoint -- is nonsense. Romney, the son of a politician, has been running for office,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, holding office or thinking about running for office for more than two decades. "Just level with the American people," Gingrich growled. "You've been running ... at least since the 1990s."

For some reason Romney can't do that. Or at least it seems like he can't. His authentic inauthenticity problem isn't going away.

It's not the sentiment; Romney has been flopsweating presidential ambition since he stepped down as governor and national office for long before that. It's that word "authenticity." Luckily, the great local historian of the conservative movement, Rick Perlstein, just kicked off his new Rolling Stone series with a short, compelling psychobiography of Mitt Romney in relationship to his famous father that helps put it in context:

The truth was a dull weapon to take into a knife fight with Richard Nixon – who kicked Romney's ass with 79 percent of the vote. When people call his son the "Rombot," think about that: Mitt learned at an impressionable age that in politics, authenticity kills. Heeding the lesson of his father's fall, he became a virtual parody of an inauthentic politician. In 1994 he ran for senate to Ted Kennedy's left on gay rights; as governor, of course, he installed the dreaded individual mandate into Massachusetts' healthcare system. Then he raced to the right to run for president.

He's still inauthentic – but with, I think, an exception. Every time he opens his mouth on the subject of capitalism, he says what he sincerely believes, which happens to fit neatly with present-day Republican ideology: that rich people deserve every penny they have, and if people complain about anything rich people do, it's only because they're envious.

Perlstein uses the word to describe Romney's conscientious-capitalist father and his devotion to unwavering political principles, in contrast with his son's, um, fluid ones. This sheds some light on why Romney's authenticity problem may not be a problem, per se, in the context of the current GOP field. Jon Huntsman got killed, in part, because of his open, unwavering moderation; Santorum and Paul, Romney's most serious opponents, face something of a ceiling because of their open, unwavering immoderation.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, Romney's teflon ideology may not be a strength, but it's not exactly a liability in a divided party.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

Even still, Perlstein's use of the word authentic trips me up. It's appropriate in the sense of authenticity representing a devotion to a set of moral or ideological principles, but another way of reading the word is this:

In keeping my promise I act in accord with duty; and if I keep it because it is my duty, I also act morally (according to Kant) because I am acting for the sake of duty. But existentially there is still a further evaluation to be made. My moral act is inauthentic if, in keeping my promise for the sake of duty, I do so because that is what “one” does (what “moral people” do).

By Perlstein's reading, Romney's chameleon-like political persona was forged early in his life: "Then,Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of just over a year later, [George Romney] was humiliated with a suddenness and intensity unprecedented in modern American political history (of which more below). His son was 19 years old. What makes Mitt – né Willard – Romney, run? Much,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, I think, can be understood via that specific trauma." Further, it forged a man whose ideology was winning. And that happened to coincide with a shift in the business world from postwar American capitalism to contemporary American capitalism: "his vision of how capitalism should work was in every particular the exact opposite of the one pushed by the vulture capitalist he sired."

Plastic bags are a bane, so ban them

A beautiful 40-foot cottonwood tree in my neighbor's backyard has a problem. And it's not just the large leaHusky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of ves it sheds this time of year.

The towering tree has snagged a thin, white non-biodegradable plastic bag. The bag is stuck high in the tree's top branches.

Each of its two opening handles has twisted around a separate limb with little chance of freedom. The bag can't be reached with a normal ladder. It will probably require an electric company light pole lift, then maybe Jaws of Life to cut it loose.

I've seen it daily for months. On windy days it spins and flaps like a sheet on a clothesline. I feel its pain.

I need to just get over it, I've been told, and quit worrying or looking at it.Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, But I can't. I've had this issue with loose white plastic bags for years. They anger me to no end.

For several years I lived in a town home on Rodd Field Road.

Our unit fronted the high-traffic roadway. Across the street a long, vacant, grassy area attracted considerable debris blown by the southeast wind and passing autos whose drivers tossed out stuff. Every week or so I policed the litter with a large black bag and a five-foot metal "grabber" with a squeeze handle.

Most of the trash was white plastic bags, empty beer cans and soft drink cups. Once a motorist tossed a bag out and waved at me. After I filled my bag I deposited it in the town house complex Dumpster.

I felt elated and proud about my cleanup job. But it was a bittersweet emotion. I wasn't solving the real problem. I only shifted the waste from the street side to another trash collection point. Out of sight, out of mind. It eventually landed in a landfill probably to live everlasting. That bothered me.

Later in the Hill Country we bought a new home that adjoined a fenced longhorn cattle ranch.

Unfortunately it was directly downwind from the prevailing south winds and other subdivision houses. Before an approaching norther arrived I'd tell my wife "It's going to be a breezy bag day.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,"

Sure enough, with winds gusting 30 to 45 mph the bags rolled in like tumbleweeds.

Most bags pinned against the wire fence and were easy to collect. But others jumped the fence, landing in the ranch pasture where cows, deer and rattlesnakes roamed.

Some hooked on thorny weeds or prickly pear. Out of my reach but not my eyesight. After a few days I climbed the fence to disconnect them. My drifting bag problem was ongoing.

One time I was unloading groceries into my car trunk.

A young woman parked next to me was doing the same thing. Suddenly she jerked the plastic bag off a milk jug and let it fly into the air.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, A big gust of wind carried it up, up and away. She grinned.

"You know you're not supposed to do that," I said. She glared at me with a look that would kill crab grass.

She was about to tell me how the cow ate the cabbage. But instead she just shook her head, hopped into her car and burned rubber for 30 yards. Flat made my day.

Where we lived, civic, church, school and senior groups adopted portions of U.S. 281. These volunteers periodically clean their specific roadsides of eyesore trash. A quality exercise, I thought.

When we returned to Corpus Christi, we found the plastic bag waste problem was worse than when we left eight years earlier.

I see bags everywhere blowing wildly in the wind. In addition to polluting the land and bays, bags also clog sewer drains and choke marine and wildlife.

Several Texas cities have full or partial bag bans at retailers or strong promotions or reusable cloth bags.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992,

They include Brownsville, South Padre Island, San Antonio and Fort Stockton. Austin is considering a bag ban.

City officials claim Austin uses more than 263 million plastic bags a year, costing the city $850,000 in cleanup and disposal.

Environmentalists claim 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide annually and households tote home an average of 600 single-use bags each year.

Their particular Treatment As well as Prevention

Piles, also known as piles, are the dilatation, the particular stretching outside of normal size of radicles of anal veins inside anal channel. In this instance any radicle is the smallest branch of a blood abnormal vein hemorrhoids. Veins are weak compared to arteries because of the thin walls, therefore problematic veins can become drained and turned with any kind of great rear pressure. Veins have one-way valves to avoid back flow. The three anal veins are named appropriately superior, center and substandard rectal problematic veins. Obstructions or perhaps pressure boost in these problematic veins cause piles.

Piles, or perhaps hemorrhoids, appear in two types, bodily and mental. External piles are away from anus and so are skin protected. Their shade may be brown or black. Because anxiety are so loaded in the arschfick area a hemorrhoid is very painful.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

The next type, internal hemorrhoids come in the interior from the anal channel, internal to the anus. They may be purple or perhaps red and have a mucous membrane protecting.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, They are usually uncomplicated. It isn’t uncommon for a person to own both bodily and mental hemorrhoids as well.

Hemorrhoids, any familial ailment, tend to arise among people in a family, may also be blamed on genetics.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, The only wildlife that get piles are those in which stand on 2 legs. Almost certainly this is as a result of rectal abnormal vein congestion because of the pull of gravity. People who are chronically irregular often have piles problems. Fighting off the urge to move your bowels at your body’s indication can bring about constipation and then piles how to get rid of hemorrhoids.

A high ingestion of beef, chicken, shrimp,As a professional manufacturer of China ceramic tile, hot foods and more lead to piles. The people very least likely to get piles are the types who have an increased percentage of fruit and vegetables and fibrous food within their diet. Some women get hemorrhoids during pregnancy because of the womb compressing the particular rectal problematic veins. Rectal cancer lesions may well bring about piles through preventing blood flow.

With external hemorrhoids any protuberance can be seen and also felt throughout the anus. You will see pain and discomfort inside the anal location. While stressing to discharge a stool the anguish will be even worse.

Early on, internal hemorrhoids cannot be felt. Subsequently, in advancement of the disease, the particular hemorrhoids will certainly protrude being a stool can be expelled and then retreat independently. When the problem worsens the particular protruded hemorrhoids will not likely go back.

Blood loss isn’t uncommon for sometimes type hemorrhoid. However, whenever an internal hemorrhoid is rolled away it could hemorrhage internally,Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of into the rectum. Blood loss occurs in splashes whilst pushing in order to expel a stool. In some cases the particular bleeding may be quite bountiful. With equally types of piles there may be any mucus discharge and it will itch throughout the anus.

Home builder makes solar power standard in Apopka

Capitalizing on a federal renewable-energy tax credit, KB Homes expects to be the first production builder in Florida to include solar-energy panels as a standard feature on new houses in select communities.

The Los Angeles-based builder rolled out the photovoltaic cells as a standard feature in its Southern California communities last year and, on Thursday, began installing them on its model home at the Apopka-area Fisher Plantation community, which has about 52 lots left and prices starting in the low $200,000s.

"We rolled this out in Southern California,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. and buyers found it to be a no brainer," said George Glance, president of KB Homes Central Florida Division. "It doesn't cost them anything, and they get the savings."

Lake Mary-based SunHouse Solar Engery is providing the panels, which are attached to rooftops. Once installed, the base unit is expected to generate 1.4 kilowatts of power and shave about 30 percent off utility costs.

KB Homes has estimated that a homeowner will save more than $1,200 annually, compared with a typical resale home, in a solar-powered house with three bedrooms.

The base-model panels at the houses being built in Fisher Plantation retail for $10,800 and buyers qualify for a 30-percent tax break, worth $3,240, from the Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit.

KB sells larger, more powerful panels capable of generating greater savings – and larger tax credits.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, In addition to targeting photovoltaic solar panels, the tax rebate also covers solar thermal and small wind and geothermal heat pumps. Initially part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and expanded as art of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the credit expires in 2016.

Glance said that the units didn't add on that much to the price of the house because KB was able to purchase them in bulk. When you compare the price by square foot in nearby new communities, it doesn't reflect an upcharge for the solar, he added. He said the panels complement the homes' insulated windows, upgraded insulation and Energy Star appliances.

Stephen Barkaszi, a Florida Solar Energy Center program director for photovoltaic systems, said this is not a breakthrough as much as it is a step at reducing some of the barriers homeowners encounter when they want to install solar. Whether the base model generates $1,000 in utility savings a year depends on utility costs and other energy-efficient features in the house, he added.

"Something as small as 1.4 kilowatts is at least something," Barkaszi said. "It's a whole lot better than nothing. It's been tough for people to go out of their way to get it added on as an option."

Other builders in Central Florida,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, such as Rey Homes, have been offering solar water heaters and solar electric as an option for several years.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, But few, if any, mid- to large-size builders have been adding panels as a standard feature.Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of

Paper or plastic?

An irresponsible person with a credit card can equal disaster. When a credit card is used to purchase items, a person is promising to pay the credit card company back the money spent plus any interest. If payments are not made on time, the credit card holder's credit rating can be adversely affected.

"A lot of times having that credit available encourages people to buy things they really don't need because it's convenient and available," said Gary Shepherd, executive director of New Hope Financial Fitness Centers,Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop. Inc. "They may not have the money for the item, but they can afford the payment."

Having a good credit score is important. Employers are starting to look at credit scores to determine how responsible that person is. Many people need credit to buy a house or purchase a vehicle. Not only is a credit card useful to have in times of emergencies, it is also more convenient than carrying large amounts of cash.

"I use my credit card to buy things I know that I have money for so I can get my cash rebate," said Saad Kazmi, pharmacy manager over Sam's Club pharmacy.

Credit cards can sometimes be confusing for students and can mess up their future if used improperly.Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, Every credit card has a different interest rate and grace period, which is the time you have to pay it off with no interest charged.

Some tips for managing a credit card would be to pay all charges due on the monthly statement. Always check the monthly credit card statement for accuracy of charges. Usually the bank will have a website to check statements and manage money.

"With the economy the way it is now, people are using credit cards to supplement income rather than adjust their lifestyle. There's a real danger in that," said Shepherd.

"I've always heard to stay away from credit cards because I'm supposedly not mature enough to handle one yet and cash is always cheaper," said Clay Wadsworth,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, student at Tyler Junior College.

If a person has a checking account, a debit card can be used for purchasing items. However,Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of it is important to keep track of the account balance.

"Even debit cards have their downside because if you're not real careful and don't keep track you can overdraw your account quickly," said Shepherd.

Staying out of debt all boils down to simple math: do not charge more on a credit card than what can be paid off in a month.

"If you pay your balance off every month, there's nothing wrong with them at all," said Shepherd.

"I think that cash tends to let people see what they're actually spending as they're peeling off dollar bills to pay for stuff," said Shepherd.The magic cube is an ultra-portable,

Poor classroom air quality increases Medicaid costs

Poor classroom air quality may be a major factor driving children's respiratory illnesses which are costing Medicaid more than $27.1 billion annually.Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of Stan Brannan, President of Purifan, explained, "On January 14, 2012, CNN published a comprehensive news story written by David S. Martin titled 'Are schools making kids sick?,' and at Purifan we believe strongly that this headline is true. We also believe poor classroom air quality is a major contributor to state Medicaid budgets." Brannan continued, "Medicaid budget directors might breathe easier when school-age children do, too,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, because high levels of airborne particulates found in many classrooms are triggering a wide variety of costly health problems for many children, their parents and their parents' employers."

Purifan, Inc. is a Kansas-based company that manufactures a super quiet, ceiling mounted air purifier called a Purifan, which converts an ordinary ceiling fan into a powerful air purifier. Purifans have been used in more than 100 schools since 2001 to reduce high particulate levels by capturing airborne particles like mold, dust, decaying skin cells, paper dust, chalk dust and pet dander. Teachers in classrooms with Purifans installed have reported noticeable improvements in absenteeism, use of medications like inhalers and in tests scores. All of these outcomes have been proven in numerous other scientific studies around the world using a variety of air purifier technology.

One fully equipped elementary school in Leavenworth, KS reported absenteeism in 2004 that averaged 18.23 sick days per child. After Purifans were installed in 2005, the average days missed per student dropped to 6.99, a reduction of more than 11.The magic cube is an ultra-portable,2 missed school days per child. Teacher sick days were also cut in half and student inhaler use logged at the nurse's station declined by 70%. Parents missed fewer work days, spent less on health costs and the school's No Child Left Behind test results improved significantly. Teachers reported children used less medication, kept up with class work,Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop. were more alert in class and achieved much higher scores on standardized tests.

Rising Medicaid costs for children are a major budget problem in every state. Purifan management believes that over the first five years, by aggressively and continuously filtering classroom air, the health costs savings for Medicaid alone could exceed 400% of the total cost. When all of the real out-of-pocket savings and costs are considered, including private insurance costs, teacher health cost impact, substitute teacher costs and the cost of parents missing work to care for sick children,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, the total savings of cleaner classroom air is projected by Purifan to be 25 times the cost.

Cameroon diamond scandal snowballing

A snowballing stock price rigging scandal, involving a ranking diplomat and a Korean diamond developer in Cameroon, is snaring other diplomats and officials at non-diplomatic ministries, calling the morality of public servants into question.

Ambassador Kim Eun-seok has already been suspended for his alleged pivotal role in inflating the developer’s stock price with “unfounded” news that the company, CNK International, had hit the jackpot in the African country.

Kim is suspected of leaking information to his family members, relatives and friends before the public release of the news that the company had won a diamond mining contract so that they could earn huge illegal gains by purchasing shares of the listed firm.VulcanMold is a Injection mold and injection molding manufacturer in china.

Some staff member at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korea Resources Corporation also benefited from the alleged insider trading, according to media reports.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) said Tuesday it will not tolerate this and discipline those involved.

Kim has firmly denied all allegations against him. The Board of Audit and Inspection plans to make public the results of its investigation into the case later this month.

Against this backdrop, an incumbent lawmaker raised a fresh allegation Wednesday that a former South Korean ambassador to Cameroon was also involved in the scandal.

Independent lawmaker Jung Tae-geun said in a radio interview that Lee Ho-sung, the former ambassador, wired a diplomatic cable that overemphasized the business’s value to MOFAT while he was staying there as ambassador, despite opposition from other Korean diplomats.

The lawmaker claimed Lee even wrote the cable using the name of a subordinate diplomat, raising the possibility that he was trying to cover up his involvement.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

“Former ambassador Lee wrote the cable under the name of a first secretary at his embassy,” the lawmaker said. “The cable was written based on information from CNK International. MOFAT cited key information in the cable in its press release that caused the scandal.”

The politician said wiring a diplomatic cable under a borrowed name is “totally nonsense,” raising suspicions of unsavory ties forged between the former ambassador and the diamond developer. “My understanding is that the former ambassador then deeply colluded with the developer,” he said.Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop.

CNK’s stock price skyrocketed immediately after MOFAT issued the press release regarding the company’s project in Cameroon on Dec. 17, 2010.

MOFAT said in the release that CNK had won the right to develop a diamond mine in Yokadouma, 520 kilometers east of the African state’s capital Yaounde, which had an estimated 420 million carats worth of the precious stones. The reported amount is nearly 2.5 times actual diamond production worldwide in 2007.

The release highlighted the visit of high-ranking officials to the African state to play a supporting role in striking the deal, touting it a “model form of successful resource diplomacy.”

It cited two separate geological research reports on the mine ― one conducted by the United Nations Development Program between 1995 and 1997 and the other one by Korea’s Chungnam National University in 2007. But the authorities believe the estimation was based on wrong samples.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,

Among other alleged beneficiaries from the insider trading are Cho Joong-pyo, a former official at the Prime Minister’s Office, and an executive of a nationwide TV station.

Cho and his family members are believed to have made nearly 1 billion won in illegal gains through the insider trading.Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of The TV station executive was alleged to have bought stocks worth 1.27 billion in early 2009, whose current value is now around 20 billion won.

Five ways nanomanufacturing improves manufacturing today

Nanomanufacturing is no longer the next frontier. It's in action today, and it is improving products and processes and saving manufacturers money along the way.

This March, nanomanufacturing experts will be gathering in Boston to share their knowledge with other manufacturing professionals at the NanoManufacturing Conference and Exhibits organized by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In addition to discussions on mid- to long-term applications of this smallest of technologies, there will be information on how it is already impacting the industry as evidenced in these five ways.

Nanotechnology is creating exceptionally light, yet extremely tough, materials, such as graphene. Nano composites are uniquely customizable to adhere to other materials. They are currently used in golf clubs and tennis rackets, with expectations that they will transform the aerospace, defense and transportation industries in the not-too-distant future.

Nanotechnology is enabling coatings to have numerous beneficial properties that are proving very marketable. Nanocoatings are known to be a thermal barrier, flame retardant, ultraviolet resistance, self and easy cleaning, wear resistant, friction reducing, corrosion resistant, anti-scratch resistance, antibacterial and anti-fingerprint. They can even be self healing.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, Nanocoatings are used in myriad industries including automotive, defense, household cleaners, construction and exterior protection, with a very promising future in many more fields.

Energy Collection and Storage – Surface-to-volume ratios give nano particles most of their power. For example, a golf ball by volume equals the surface of a playing card. That same golf ball by nano particles has a surface area equivalent to four football fields. These particles use light more efficiently which is improving the efficiency and cost of solar panels.

Quantum dots are nanoparticles of a semiconductor material with unique optical and electrical properties. A manufacturer can precisely control the size of a quantum dot to determine the color of light emitted. In addition to enabling the manufacturing of LED lights, quantum dots are used in electroluminescent displays and solid-state lighting.

Self-assembly is a branch of nanotechnology in which objects,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, devices and systems form structures without external prodding.Husky Injection Mold Systems designs and manufactures a broad range of Biological systems use self-assembly to construct various molecules and structures.Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? Think of it as LEGOS that assemble themselves. This process is currently being used in computer chips, and has potential benefits for water purification, sanitation, agriculture, alternative energy and medicine.

"More than 1,300 products have already made it to market using nanotechnology, with many more in the pipeline," said Lauralyn McDaniel, the conference manager.Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, "This conference provides an opportunity for manufacturers from almost any industry to either be introduced to nanomanufacturing or discover the latest advances in the technology."

The NanoManufacturing conference is co-located with the MicroManufacturing Conference and Exhibits. Both events have been designed based on feedback attendees have given that the most valuable part of attending an SME conference is the people they meet and the resources they gain. To encourage the synchronistic collaboration, the sessions are shorter and breaks are longer, the exhibits have been arranged "in the round" to promote discussion, and the Conversation Connection areas are ideal for having in-depth conversations with colleagues. Attendees of either conference can go back and forth between the two and tailor this event to their own interests and needs.

The NanoManufacturing Conference sessions cover a broad range of topics including, metrology because "if you can't measure it, you can't make it," nanostructure manufacturing techniques, the future applications of graphene in every day products, occupational and environmental health and safety concerns and antimicrobial technologies for medical devices.

Additionally, a panel of nanomanufacturing leaders will address moving from the research and development phase and prototyping to the commercialization phase and volume production. The event concludes with the annual peek into the nanocrystal ball in an attempt to predict what the next five years will bring to nanotechnology.

For those who are new to the technology, need a refresher or just want to explore the topic in more depth, pre-conference workshops and tours to iRobot and the Center for High-rate Nanomanusturing/Kostas Nanomanufacturing Research Center are also available.

A look inside a yeast collection

Two freezers tucked behind a lab on the campus of the University of California, Davis, are kept humming at an icy-cold minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 80 degrees Celsius). White and unremarkable on the outside, inside they are packed with exotic living things, kept dormant by the blistering cold.

Each freezer contains more than 10,000 strains of microbes, most of them single-celled fungi called yeast, some collected more than a century ago. This is the world's fourth-largest public collection of wild yeast, and it has an enthusiastic ambassador in Kyria Boundy-Mills.

"I've got the greatest job in the world, because I get to play with yeast all day," Boundy-Mills, the collection's curator, said, laughing.

Yeasts are ubiquitous and diverse. Members of this collection have come from Antarctic seawater, the air, animal dung, the surfaces of fruits and vegetables, plants, insects, pickled foods and food-processing facilities. The list includes some strangely specific origins, such as macaroni, a horse's tumor, cerebrospinal fluid and dandruff.

The list of the ways we use and interact with yeast is just as far-ranging. They are the reason we have alcohol and leavened bread, they hold promise in producing biofuels and drugs, and they are used in nutritional supplements. And they can cause infections.

Boundy-Mills checks each vial from the thousands kept in the freezer every five years to make sure each one still has plenty of living cells inside. Her job description also includes sending out Petri dishes with colorful smears of yeast colonies to other researchers, and looking for new yeasts to add to the collection.

The oldest yeast in this collection,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, arrived in 1893 from a wine fermentation. Herman Phaff, the collection's namesake, built much of it, about 6,000 yeasts. Only about 7,000 yeast strains are in the public catalogue, where those looking to work with yeast go to order it.

The others include those that cause disease,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, like Candida albicans, the yeast in yeast infection; proprietary strains created for specific purposes, such as brewing a particular beer; or simply have not yet been identified.

New species continue to arrive. Boundy-Mills is leading a biodiversity survey in Indonesia, which includes a search for new microbes. These microbes, which can be yeasts, bacteria and molds,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, are examined for their potential to produce biofuel or pharmaceuticals.

Certain yeasts produce and accumulate oil — think biodiesel — when fed cheap sugar in the form of corn stalks or rice straw. Other yeasts break down the tough cellulose in plant material, including wood, to produce ethanol and similar substances that can be used as biofuels, according to Boundy-Mills.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.

As part of the biodiversity survey, the researchers are looking inside the guts of wood-eating beetle larvae to find microbes that break down cellulose or use those products to make other useful things, like vitamins.

Between the beetle larvae and samples taken from the soil and the dead wood itself, Boundy-Mills and others have found about 100 different species of yeasts, 37 of which are new to science, and several of which appear to accumulate oil. So far, they are still looking for species with the potential to improve the production of ethanol.

Some older inhabitants of the collection also show biofuel potential. She sees potential in one yeast, which grows into orangish colonies colored by the beta carotene (as in carrots) it produces. Collected by one of Phaff's students in 1967 from seawater off Point Reyes, Calif., this strain produces fairly large amounts of oil, making it a good candidate for biodiesel, she said.

Students use and contribute to the collection. Ryder Diaz, a graduate student in population ecology, is studying the microbes associated with solitary bees. He collects the microbes,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. both yeasts and bacteria, from the nectar of flowers and the pea-size mass of nectar and pollen that the mother bee provisions for her eggs.

Diaz is interested in figuring out which microbes show up with which bees. "I like to think of it as the Facebook for bees and microbes, How are these organisms connected to one another? Do they share the same network, or are they partitioning their communities," he said.

The information he collects will go into the collection database; it's not yet clear if new species have turned up.

Boundy-Mills has no favorite yeast: "That's like asking me which one of my children I like better," she told LiveScience. "'The world's favorite yeast is, of course, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, because we use it to make beer, bread and wine. My job is to get other yeasts to work making other wonderful things."

Man banned from insect infested flat after hoarding rotting food and rubbish

A MAN who put his neighbours through a 'living hell' has been kicked out of his flat by a court.

Anthony Drake, aged 54, filled his Efford home with rubbish and rotten food, leading to an infestation of cockroaches, flies and fleas.

Plymouth Magistrates' Court heard housing officials were even worried the floor could collapse in to the flat below because of the weight of his belongings.

Neighbours also said they had been kept up through the night by loud music.

Magistrates have given Drake an indefinite antisocial behaviour order banning him from his flat in Pike Road.

He must also not abuse or threaten any person in Plymouth.

Dylan Sadler, applying for the order for Plymouth City Council, said: "Allowing him to return to that flat would be condemning the neighbours to a living hell."

Drake contested the order, promising to clear some of the belongings from the flat and not to play loud music.

He added: "I am no threat to anyone."

The court heard Drake filled his flat with furniture, broken television sets,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, a bicycle and piles of food.

City council antisocial behaviour officer Debbie Goad told the court: "I have never seen anything like it in my life. He is a hoarder. The property was filled with all manner of things. There was an awful lot of food in there."

She said she could see cockroaches, flies and later found she was covered in flea bites.

Miss Goad said it was hardly possible to get through the flat, save for a small path between the piles of belongings. She added even his bed was piled high with belongings, forcing Drake to sleep underneath it with his dog.

Miss Goad said Drake had no underlying mental illness and had not co-operated with efforts to find another home.

Steven Didymus, from landlords Plymouth Community Homes, said nine lorry loads of rubbish were taken from the garden alone.

He added the flat had to be decontaminated three times by a specialist cleaning company.

Mr Didymus said: "There was a concern that the floor could have fallen into the flat below were it to get any worse."

He added that there had been no complaints of antisocial behaviour since an interim antisocial behaviour order was granted in August last year.

Neighbour Vivien Nevill said in one incident before the order her partner was threatened with a knife outside the flat.

She added: "I was petrified in my own property. I was scared to go out the door. It has been blissful since he left."

The college student said her work suffered because she was kept up at night by loud music, often finishing at midnight and starting again at 5am.

Ms Nevill also said Drake regularly left piles of stale food outside her door.

Miss Goad said another neighbour was forced to give up her job as a carer because she could not sleep at night.

The resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Drake had chased her son down the street.

PCSO Chris Kinski said Drake was an amphetamine user.The magic cube is an ultra-portable,

Drake will be allowed one visit, accompanied by a policeman or council officer,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, to the flat to collect his belongings.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists.