Green is the new black at London's eco fashion event

Carbon-friendly couture will come under the spotlight today at a green fashion event organised by the University of East Anglia (UEA) with fashion students from London’s Kingston University.

Designers, scientists, branding experts and environmentalists will come together in the capital to exchange ideas about the future of fashion – and how the industry can reduce its carbon footprint.Silicone Mold Making Rubber,

The event has been organised by InCrops – a bio-renewables hub based at the University of East Anglia - with Kingston University and the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network (Materials KTN).

The fashion industry has a high environmental footprint and is responsible for a huge amount of waste. According to waste industry reports, more than one million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year, of which only 25 per cent are recycled.

The ‘Sustainable Luxury’ event has been organised to showcase new ‘bio-materials’ which can be used for making environmentally-friendly luxury goods - from clothes, shoes and accessories to home and car interiors.

A range of futuristic fabrics, garments, and designs will be unveiled at the industry-focused event. These include a pair of stilettos made from pistachio nuts and coffee beans by designer Julia Skergeth, and fabrics made from wood, food waste such as orange peel,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. fungi and mould.

Work on show comes from Kingston University’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and includes a wood-chip corset from British designer Stefanie Nieuwenhuyse, which made waves at London Fashion Week last September and was modelled by singer Pixie Lott in Vogue.

Other designers include Hoyan Ip, who works with organic materials, such as orange peel breaking down and decomposing, and Fay Gascoigne who has created award-winning scented jewellery from biodegradable plastic.

The event features the results of an InCrops-sponsored MA Fashion project at Kingston University, which encouraged students to explore the theme of ‘Sustainable Luxury’. The course was designed to introduce designers to low carbon principles in product manufacture, based on efficient use of natural and renewable products.

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Students were tasked with creating designs that show how crop-derived renewable raw materials can be used to create luxury goods that have a low or zero carbon life cycle – from manufacture through to distribution and disposal - and be attractive to consumers.

Liliya Serazetdinova from InCrops said: “We have long been interested in collaborating with the creative industries, designers and product developers.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles.

“Designs have the power to reduce the carbon footprint of products through material selection, development of energy-efficient processing, and improved end-of-life options, and to develop prototypes for using natural materials in mainstream products.

“This event has been designed to showcase the idea of integrating bio-based materials to the luxury sectors.”

Nancy Tilbury, MA Fashion course director at Kingston University, said: “Our MA programme sets out to challenge our students to think about the economical, ethical and technological and scientific changes in society and its application to the 21st Century body.

“When InCrops approached the MA Fashion course, we were delighted to partner them as they shared a unique set of values around the future of production, manufacturing, bio-materials and bio-cycles.

“Their interest in the luxury sector gave us a steep challenge as many fashion practitioners have failed to successfully communicate the relationship between fashion and bio-waste.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats,

“Our students rose to the challenge and produced excellent work that has been sought after by musical artists and the fashion press.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?”

House Hunting in ... Moscow

This two-bedroom apartment in a 35-story high-rise in Moscow has been renovated to include an architectural designer’s studio, with high-end furnishings and finishes covered in the asking price.

The entrance on the seventh floor has a stained-glass ceiling and panels designed by the owner, an architect who uses the apartment as her studio. Some of the foyer walls are covered with black-and-silver floral patterned wallpaper, others are overlaid with an Italian decorative coating made from silver leaf. The space also has chandeliers and wall sconces made with Swarovski crystals. Its polished wine-colored tile floor leads to the kitchen and the living room just beyond.

In the kitchen,Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. the ceiling is covered in mirrored mosaic tiles, and a countertop of black granite extends to form a small table for dining. Appliances are by the German company Miele International. The purple tempered-glass kitchen cabinets were manufactured in Italy, as were the ceramic wall tiles. Doors leading to the living room are made of tempered glass carved in a Moscow glasshouse.

The living room has a black granite wet bar and an Italian-made sofa upholstered in black leather and purple crushed velvet. A large fish tank is recessed into the wall and can be seen from both the living room and the adjacent study. The living room has views of the Ochakovka River.

Off the living room is the master bedroom, which looks out onto Troparevsky Forest Park. Its dark floor is made of wenge,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. a tropical wood. The walls are covered in decorative silver leaf; the adjoining dressing room is lined with striped zebra wood veneer. A second bedroom and sitting room are off of a hallway near the foyer, as are two bathrooms lined with Italian tiles. Bath fixtures were made by the German companies Villeroy & Boch and Miele, except for the American flower-shaped tub in one bath.

This apartment is in a high-rise complex called Mirax Park, in the Yugo-Zapad neighborhood of southwestern Moscow, which attracts young families and professionals who commute to work into central Moscow, said Elena Yurgeneva, the listing agent, who is a regional director with Knight Frank Russia & CIS. The complex has its own restaurant and cafe, fitness center, swimming pool, grocery store, and beauty salon. Buying the unit will also enable the purchase of a space in the parking garage, which can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000, depending on location, the agent said. Travel time to central Moscow varies widely, depending on traffic, from 10 minutes to 90. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is about 40 minutes away by car, Ms. Yurgeneva said.

The Russian real estate market was privatized with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when residents were given the homes that they had been living in. Prices increased steeply, then dipped sharply from 1998 to 2001 because of an economic crisis in Russia. In the seven-year-long boom following that decline, prices increased sixfold, according to Real Estate Market Indicators IRN.RU, a research and consulting firm.

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In 2008, with the global economic crisis, prices fell by about 30 percent, said Anya Levitov, a managing partner at Evans Property Services. Since then the market has been slow to recover — though the luxury sector has rebounded.

“Most expensive new luxury developments today cost more than in 2008,” Ms. Levitov said, “but that is probably the only segment where precrisis levels have been reached and exceeded.”

The average price per square meter for a Moscow home runs $6,000 to $9,000,What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment? but luxury homes can cost $25,000 to $35,000 a square meter, said Nadezhda Kot, the head of local sales at Moscow Sotheby’s International Realty. Many of these high-end homes are concentrated in a neighborhood called the Golden Mile, between the Moscow River and Ostozhenka Street, which has a number of new upscale residential developments alongside historic Art Nouveau mansions.

“Last year,” Ms. Kot said,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, “the maximum price paid was $40 million for a villa in Ostozhenka, the Golden Mile.”

In Mirax Park, apartments typically bring $10,000 to $13,000 a square meter, but this apartment is priced at $17,333 a square meter because it is being sold with all its furnishings and finishes, according to Ms.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Yurgeneva.

The Man Working To Reverse-Engineer Your Brain

Our brains are filled with billions of neurons, entangled like a dense canopy of tropical forest branches. When we think of a concept or a memory — or have a perception or feeling — our brain's neurons quickly fire and talk to each other across connections called synapses.

How these neurons interact with each other — and what the wiring is like between them — is key to understanding our identity, says Sebastian Seung, a professor of computational neuroscience at MIT.

Seung's new book,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are, explains how mapping out our neural connections in our brains might be the key to understanding the basis of things like personality, memory, perception and ideas, as well as illnesses that happen in the brain, like autism and schizophrenia.

"These kinds of disorders have been a puzzle for a long time," says Seung. "We can look at other brain diseases, like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and see clear evidence that there is something wrong in the brain."

But with schizophrenia and autism, there's no clear abnormality during autopsy dissections, says Seung.

"We believe these are brain disorders because of lots of indirect evidence,We are professional Plastic mould, but we can't look at the brain directly and see something is wrong," he says. "So the hypothesis is that the neurons are healthy, but they are simply connected together or organized in an abnormal way."

One current theory, says Seung,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile is that there's a connection between the wiring that develops between neurons during early infancy and developmental disorders like schizophrenia and autism.

"In autism, the development of the brain is hypothesized to go awry sometime before age 2, maybe in the womb," he says. "In schizophrenia, no one knows for sure when the development is going off course. We know that schizophrenia tends to emerge in early adulthood, so many people believe that something abnormal is happening during adolescence. Or it could be that something is happening much earlier and it's not revealed until you become an adult."

What scientists do know, he says, is that the wiring of the brain in the first three years is critical for development. Infants born with cataracts in poor countries that don't have the resources to restore their eyesight remain blind even after surgery is performed on them later in life.

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"No matter how much they practice seeing, they can never really see," says Seung. "They recover some visual function, but they are still blind by comparison to you and me. And one hypothesis is that the brain didn't wire up properly when they were babies, so by the time they become adults, there's no way for the brain to learn how to see properly."

At birth, he says, you are born with all of the neurons you will ever have in life, except for neurons that exist in two specific areas of the brain: the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, which is thought to help new memories form, and the olfactory bulb, which is involved in your sense of smell.

"The obvious hypothesis [is] that these two areas need to be highly plastic and need to learn more than other regions, and that's why new neurons have to be created — to give these regions more potential for learning," says Seung. "But we don't really have any proof of that hypothesis."

But not everything is set in stone from birth.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. The complex synaptic connections that allow neurons to communicate with one another develop after babies have left the womb.

"As far as we know, this is happening throughout your life," he says.What is a third party payment gateway ? "Part of the reason that we are lifelong learners — that no matter how old you get, you can still learn something new — may be due to the fact that synapse creation and elimination are both continuing into adulthood."

When Technophobia Becomes Toxic

During the late 1990’s, a singular phenomenon appeared in countries around the world. One after another, food and beverage companies capitulated to activists opposed to a promising new technology: the genetic engineering of plants to produce ingredients. They are still capitulating to this day.

The Japanese brewer Kirin and the Danish brewer Carlsberg eliminated genetically engineered ingredients from their beers. In the United States, the fast-food giant McDonald's banned them from its menu; food manufacturers Heinz and Gerber (then a division of Switzerland-based Novartis) dropped them from their baby-food lines; and Frito-Lay demanded that its growers stop planting corn engineered to contain a bacterial protein that confers resistance to insect predation.

These measures were rationalized in various ways, but the reality is that by yielding to the demands of a minuscule number of disingenuous activists, the companies opted to offer less safe products to consumers, thereby exposing themselves to legal jeopardy.

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Every year, innumerable packaged-food products worldwide are withheld or recalled from the market due to the presence of “all natural” contaminants like insect parts, toxic molds, bacteria, and viruses. Because farming takes place outdoors and in dirt, such contamination is a fact of life. Over the centuries, the main culprit in mass food poisoning often has been contamination of unprocessed crops by fungal toxins – a risk that is exacerbated when insects attack food crops, opening wounds that allow fungi (molds) to get a foothold.

For example,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile fumonisin and some other fungal toxins are highly toxic, causing esophageal cancer in humans and fatal diseases in livestock that eat infected corn. Fumonisin also interferes with the cellular uptake of folic acid, a vitamin that reduces the risk of neural tube defects in developing fetuses, and thus can cause folic acid deficiency – and defects such as spina bifida – even when one’s diet contains what otherwise would be sufficient amounts of the vitamin.

Many regulatory agencies have therefore established recommended maximum fumonisin levels permitted in food and feed products made from corn.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. The conventional way to meet those standards and prevent the consumption of fungal toxins is simply to test unprocessed and processed grains and discard those found to be contaminated – an approach that is both wasteful and failure-prone.

But modern technology – specifically, the genetic engineering of plants using recombinant DNA technology – offers a way to prevent the problem. Contrary to the claims of food-biotech critics, who insist that genetically modified crops pose risks of new allergens or toxins in the food supply, such products offer the food industry a proven and practical means of tackling the fungal contamination at its source.

An excellent example is corn that is crafted by splicing into commercial varieties a gene from a harmless bacterium. The bacterial genes express proteins that are toxic to corn-boring insects, but that are harmless to birds, fish, and mammals, including humans. As the modified corn fends off insect pests, it also reduces the levels of the mold Fusarium, thereby reducing the levels of fumonisin.Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties,

Indeed, researchers at Iowa State University and the US Department of Agriculture have found that the level of fumonisin in the modified corn is reduced by as much as 80% compared to conventional corn. Similarly,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. an Italian study of weaned piglets that were fed either conventional corn or the same variety modified to synthesize a bacterial protein that confers resistance to insect predation found that the modified variety contained lower levels of fumonisin. More importantly, the piglets that consumed the modified corn achieved a greater final weight, a measure of overall health, despite no difference in feed intake between the two groups.

Given the health benefits – to say nothing of the often higher and more reliable yields – governments should introduce incentives aimed at increasing use of such genetically engineered grains and other crops. In addition, one would expect public-health advocates to demand that such improved varieties be cultivated and used for food,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? not unlike requirements that drinking water be chlorinated and fluoridated. And food producers that are committed to offering the safest and best products to their customers should be competing to get genetically engineered products into the marketplace.

PET promises new option for handleware

Polyclear EBM PET, produced by Indorama-owned Invista Polymers, can be used to make containers boasting glass-like clarity, high gloss,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. and handles, said Frank Embs, director of business development for Indorama Polymers Public Co., to a crowd at The Packaging Conference.

The resin was developed for extrusion blow molding applications and can run on existing machines and molds. In one of Polyclear’s first commercial applications, Denver-based CCW Products Inc. used the resin to make wide-mouth jars for H.K. Anderson Pretzel’s peanut butter filled nuggets, Embs said.

Anderson was looking for a recyclable, high clarity, high-gloss container to replace its current PVC or glycol-modified PET jars. With some adjustments and alterations to equipment and processes, Polyclear fit that criteria, Embs said.

Polyclear is a semi-crystalline, high melt PET variation,What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment? and must be processed at a higher temperature than regular PET. In initial runs on a Bekum shuttle machine, containers had problems with poor melt strength, un-melts, runny sleeves, a lack of clarity and a weak finished product. By making alterations to machines and molds, the company was able to solve the problems, Embs said. Just Choose PTMS Plastic Mould Is Your Best Choice!

The material, like other polyesters, must be dried before processing, and must reach and maintain a moisture level less than 20 parts per million. To meet these requirements, the company installed a large dryer,We are professional Plastic mould, and attached a small hopper to the top of the machine that feeds the material into the extruder at the correct temperature and moisture level. The resulting containers were actually less brittle following the alterations, Embs said.

The materials high melting point, 230° C, led to the addition of 1,000-watt heater bands to the barrel. But, the hotter, stickier PET parison stuck to the existing blade knifes during cutting. A hot knife was used to cut the material at commercial speeds.

Along with reaching the correct temperature, the material must be processed in the correct time frame. Using PETG-type low-shear screws or PVC barrier screws led to unmelts, barrier screws also resulted in low melt strength. Regular PVC screws created too much shear and runny sleeves. To combat the problem, the company used a hybrid-barrier screw, and modified the temperature profile to increase back pressure and effectively mix the melted polymer and un-melted crystals, Embs said.

Polyclear crystallizes similar to PET, but it’s a stronger polymer with a higher parison temperature. To speed up cooling and avoid crystallization, cooling channels were added to existing molds. The creation of longer cooling belts and blowers prevented the containers from sticking to the trimmer. The original pinchers couldn’t cut through the polymer, so they were replaced with stronger stainless steel ones.

The new containers were required to meet top-load requirements, but the original designs failed crush tests, Embs said. After some alterations, like fixing the weight distribution to eliminate weak spots, the container had zero failures, Embs said.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, The product has also been available on store shelves for more than a year and has had no failures in use, he added.

The resulting container is recyclable and carries a PETE 1 designation. It can also be made using up to 60 percent internal regrind if the regrind is dried and crystallized, Embs said.

“The Anderson Peanut Butter jar is a great success,” he said.

Though the peanut butter jar doesn’t call for them, Polyclear PET containers can be made with handles, making them ideal for beverage packing,This page contains information about molds, Embs said.

Indorama plans to launch more commercial applications for the material this year, including one for orange juice, he said.

The company is currently conducting tests and trials with the material, he said.

UN Rights Council piles pressure on Syria

Senior diplomats at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday ramped up pressure on Syria to allow aid to civilians caught up in the bloodshed while warning the regime it will be held to account for "atrocities" against its people. Just Choose PTMS Injection Mold Is Your Best Choice!

Council president Laura Dupuy Lasserre told delegates meeting in Geneva that it hoped for a "positive response" from Syrian authorities so that help could be delivered to those affected by the violence.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, one of around 90 government ministers and senior officials at the gathering,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, said his country wanted to see the regime dragged before the International Criminal Court.

"The international community should prepare the conditions for a referral to the ICC," he said.

British Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne also warned that those responsible for rights abuses since President Bashar al-Assad's regime launched a brutal crackdown on protesters in March would be held to account.This page contains information about molds,

Browne called for "impartial, neutral access" for humanitarian groups and urged the council to pass a resolution proposing an extension of the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, established by the UN to investigate the situation there.

"Those responsible for the atrocities should be in no doubt -- they will be personally held to account for the appalling crimes they have committed," he said.

The Human Rights Council will on Tuesday hold a special debate on Syria after Russia -- which has angered the West over its vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions on the crisis -- gave its agreement.

Russia said the debate must take place in a "constructive and de-politicised manner," warning that any document produced at the meeting would be "counter-productive".

Russia and China hit back on Monday after US State Secretary Hillary Clinton last week criticised their stance on Syria as "despicable".

Iran, which is not a member of the rights council but holds observer status, had lodged a formal objection to the debate, the meeting was told.

The European Union welcomed the debate, saying the gravity of the situation called for an immediate response from the very beginning of the council's current session,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. which runs to March 23.

"The Human Rights Council must send a strong and clear message to the Syrian people that the international community supports their legitimate demand for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and that full and unimpeded access for humanitarian organisations and medical personnel must be guaranteed," said the EU delegation to the UN in a statement.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.Can't afford a third party merchant account right now?

"The Council must continuously put the situation in Syria on the top of its agenda throughout this session."

More than 7,600 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March last year, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said at a press conference on the fringes of the meeting that it hoped for an end to the "bloodbath."

"We hope that this bloodbath and killing will stop," said secretary general of the 57 member-state body Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

"Every day scores of people are killed, blood is shed ... and we don't see any signs of reconciliation," he said.

"We have from day one been calling on the Syrian regime to stop violence, to engage with the opposition in dialogue and accelerate the reform process."

The Commission of Inquiry last Thursday gave UN human rights chief Navi Pillay a list of Syrian military and political officials suspected of crimes against humanity that will be discussed on March 12.

The panel said it documented a widespread and systematic pattern of gross violations by Syrian forces.

How Solar Energy Can Save You Money

Solar energy is gradually becoming popular in Georgia as more and more companies offer equipment for its installation.

However solar equipment will eventually pay for itself in two to five years depending on how much sun a particular location receives.This page contains information about molds, At first glance this seems quite attractive, but the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia advises investing money in something else if one is looking for a quick and easy economic result.

There are two types of equipment for solar energy: solar collectors and solar panels. The first one is used for space heating and hot water. Meanwhile solar panels generate and supply electricity in commercial and residential applications.

“The price of a solar collector depends of the needs of the customer,” Zurab Mshvenieradze, Owner of Techenergo, told The FINANCIAL. “If a family of three uses a solar collector for 150 litres of water of 55 Celsius and heating for an apartment of 50 square meters daily, the cost of the equipment will be 2,200 USD.”  Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

In total its price will come to about 3,000 USD. Techenergo offers solar collectors with two year guarantees. The guarantee for a solar panel is 20 years.

“The price of solar panels also varies depending on the types of panels and totals approximately 4 USD per 1 watt. The supply voltage could be permanent or variable up to 1,000 volts,” Mshvenieradze explained.

“Installing solar collectors will pay for itself in about two years in the event of average use which means 50 litres of 55 Celsius water per person. The equipment of solar panels will pay for itself in five years time in the event of using 200-300 Kilowatt/hour per month.”

“In spite of the high cost of installation, solar energy is quite profitable and demand has increased since the utility bill for waste has been attached to the utility bill for electricity. The main demand is coming from the cities. But in reality solar energy is more profitable in the regions,” he stated.

The solar energy cost per Kilowatt/hour is about 0.40 USD according to international prices. One Kilowatt/hour of hydro electro energy is about 0.13 GEL in Georgia. The price difference is quite high, but after several years people will have free electricity in the case of solar energy.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia nowadays in Georgia solar energy collectors and panels are being installed in high mountainous regions including Tusheti, where hydro electro energy is not available. The first stage of this project has already been implemented and the second step will start in a short while. It is being funded by a grant.

“On the other hand people who have enough money to afford quite expensive equipment mainly install them in houses out of Tbilisi ,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.” said Mariam Valishvili, First deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, “Georgia isn’t ready for intensive use of solar energy. 3,000 USD is quite a significant amount of money for the majority of the Georgian population. Not many of them can afford it. In regards to solar energy development, the Government needs subsidies. This is almost impossible as our economy does not give us the possibility.”

“Here lies another problem. Solar energy equipment needs special care. Lots of users do not know about this and the equipment therefore experiences malfunctions frequently. So solar energy is associated with several problems and isn’t likely to be used intensively in Georgia in the near future. It comes down to additional comfort versus everyday needs,” Valishvili explained.

“If people are planning to invest money in solar energy, I’d advise them to invest in something else based on their situation. On the other hand, investors who are going to make capital in such projects will only get this money back in about 50 years. Such projects are generally funded by grants, she added.

Solar energy is being implemented in high mountainous regions where hydro electro energy is not available. As a result solar energy is helping the development of eco tourism as well.

The annual amount of sunshine that Georgia receives is quite high. It mainly depends on cloud cover, which is normal.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. The duration of sunshine varies from 250 to 280 days in Georgia. This is 1,360-2,500 hours of sunshine. This rate is highest in the Shiraki Valley,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. Gardabani Plains, Lower Achara and high Caucasus mountains.

Importance of Teeth’s Health for little ones

As we say, nothing can overcome a pure and white smile. We can constantly give good impressions by smiling. Your aura can reflect your real personality and if you are constantly smiling, you’ll be capable of attract a lot of individuals towards you. They will also get pleasure from being with your firm. When somebody smiles at you, it is awkward not to smile back. But though you are coping with your dental well being,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. you should also get your child to dentists phoenix.

Good oral well being is the most effective strategy to have fantastic and awe worthy smile. I’m confident that you simply want your kids to grow up with it.This page contains information about molds, God oral well being includes the teeth, tongue and gums. It is not sufficient that you simply obtain your kids top quality toothbrush and toothpaste items. Young children are pretty considerably prone to bacteria along with other microorganisms that cause cavities and gum challenges. You have to keep in mind that they nonetheless have a lot of years to live and if you’ll not be capable of look after their oral well being, it may possibly take its toll down the road.

Tooth decay is the main problem among school kids.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, You’re in all probability the very best and most keen parent when it comes to oral and dental well being but do you know what your kids are consuming when they’re in the school? Face it.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, You can’t be with them at all times. You can’t even check if they are properly brushing their teeth. It is actually one of the challenges of working parents. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

To guarantee that your kids are safe from tooth decay, toothache along with other a lot more serious challenges like the TMJ syndrome, you have to allot time to bring them to a credible dental clinic. In Arizona, a phoenix dentist is your top selection. It is actually imperative for kids to be brought to a dentist for common check ups for the reason that they have the tendency to take their teeth for granted. It is actually genuinely sad that right now, a lot more are a lot more parents appear to forget the importance of common dental check ups. Dentists have the capacity to assess oral challenges that kids suffer from along with other challenges which may arise anOur guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.ytime soon.

Construction to start for low income housing

At last word, there were two thousand people on the waiting list for Section 8 Housing in the Lake Charles area.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, As well, the difficulties for residents when Crestwood Trailer Park recently closed, show what a challenge it can be to find safe, affordable housing in the Lake Area.

Seventy two of 92 units at Booker T. Washington at 1901 Mill Street are to be torn down, though they will be replaced. In all 102 new units are being built at three locations which will provide an increase of 30 new residences

Today the Lake Charles Housing Authority is holding a ground breaking fo two new communities: Kingsley Court, at 2331 Cline Street and Bayou Bluff at 2228 Old Highway 171.

Bayou Bluff and Kingsley Court are being constructed on two parcels of previously vacant housing authority owned property. The planned development will offer two, three and four bedroom units with energy efficient appliances and lighting. The property will also offer dishwashers, washers and dryers in each unit, garbage disposals,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? ceramic tile, and a community center. 16% of all units will be fully accessible to people with disabilities and compliant with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 504 regulations.

When completed, the combined projects will consist of 54 single family units. Each residential unit will be reserved for residents whose incomes fall below 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI) for the Lake Charles area. The project is scheduled to open for occupancy in fall 2012. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

"Today,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. we break ground on the site of former vacant land that will be transformed to a vibrant, attractive residential community." said Lake Charles Housing Authority Executive Director S. Ben Taylor. "Bayou Bluff and Kingsley Court demonstrate the housing authority's ongoing commitment to build quality affordable housing that residents regardless of income would enjoy."

Bayou Bluff and Kingsley Court are being developed in collaboration with Lake Charles Non Profit Housing Development Corporation and Centerpointe Regional Housing Development. Bayou Bluff and Kingsley Court are the first phase of a large scale, multi-year initiative to replace aging and deteriorating public housing in the City of Lake Charles.

"We are once again pleased to partner with the Lake Charles Housing Authority in this important effort to develop much-needed affordable housing. We congratulate our partners from Capital One, Hudson Housing Capital, HUD, and the housing authority for making this public-private partnership such a huge success," said Art Schuldt, managing partner of Centerpointe Regional Housing Development.

HUD's Section 901 program, through the Lake Charles Housing Authority, will provide development funding assistance to support the 54-unit development. Additionally, HUD, through the Lake Charles Housing Authority, will provide operating financial support through public housing operating subsidy and Project Based Section 8 voucher programs.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles.

On the private sector funding side, Capital One Bank is providing construction financing and is also providing equity generated through the purchase of low-income housing tax credits. Hudson Housing Capital partnered with Capital One Bank as syndicator for the project. The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency awarded both projects Low Income Housing Tax Credit allocations in December 2010.

"At Capital One Bank, we recognize the tremendous impact that developments like this can have on the local community," said Greg Webb, Capital One Bank's Lake Charles Market President. "We are proud to partner with the Lake Charles Housing Authority and its nonprofit subsidiary Lake Charles Non Profit Housing Development Corporation to bring this worthwhile housing development to fruition."

The total cost of the two affordable housing developments is $14.4 million.We offer offshore merchant account, Funding sources include $10,622,938 of tax credit equity provided by Capital One Bank through Hudson Housing Capital and $3,780,471 of Section 901 funds provided by HUD.

Get some cash for those unused gift cards

If you're like 28-year-old Staci Jeffrey of Omaha and millions of other Americans, you're still sitting on a gift card or two that you received for your birthday or during the holidays.

It's one of the most requested gifts,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? but an estimated $2 billion in gift cards were not redeemed in 2011, according to CEB TowerGroup, a Boston-based financial research firm.

Since 2005, more than $41 billion in gift cards has gone unclaimed. And businesses — including some you might not expect — are taking advantage. United Airlines this month announced that it will trade frequent flier miles for unused gift cards from certain retailers and businesses, including Target and Starbucks.

Other businesses have set up systems to allow consumers to swap or cash in gift cards, sometimes at a steep discount.

The businesses' interest is not surprising, considering that gift card sales topped $100 billion in 2011, according to TowerGroup. The National Retail Federation estimated that consumers spent $27.8 billion on gift cards during the past holiday season, up from an estimated $24.78 billion in 2010.

Gift card spending has increased by an average of 6 percent a year since 2005, and it's expected to continue at that rate, according to TowerGroup.

Federal legislation passed in 2009 as the CARD Act was intended to protect consumers from hidden fees and expiration dates on gift cards. Since its passage, the amount that goes unspent on gift cards has been shrinking.

Still,Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. the average U.S. household has an estimated $300 in unredeemed gift cards, according to Plastic Jungle, an online marketplace where consumers sell, buy, exchange or donate gift cards. Just Choose PTMS Plastic Mould Is Your Best Choice!

Only an estimated 30 percent to 40 percent of gift cards given during the holidays were redeemed in January, leaving "a long tail on redemption" from here on out, said Michael Niemira, vice president, chief economist and director of research for the InternHandmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,ational Council of Shopping Centers.

For Jeffrey, who has four gift cards in her wallet, each about 2 years old and worth a total of $150, "It's a time thing."

"Even when I would have time, I would forget that I had them," she said.

She's not the only one. Heading into the 2011 holiday season, 25 percent of adults still had at least one unused gift card from the 2010 holiday season and 55 percent had two or more, according to a Consumer Reports survey.

Their reasons were similar to Jeffrey's. The majority said they didn't find anything they wanted to buy,We offer offshore merchant account, they didn't have time to use the gift card or they forgot about it. Some of the other reasons cited were that the card expired, the store went out of business or the card was lost.

TowerGroup said another way gift cards go unspent is that consumers spend the majority of the card's value but leave a small amount on the card.

Ten states have made it easier for consumers to get the full value of their cards by having cash-back laws that allow gift cards to be redeemed for cash if the balance is below a certain amount. Oregon's law, which went into effect last month, requires all gift cards used at least once to be redeemable for cash if the balance is $4.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.99 or less.

"The fact is, a consumer should not be required to spend more than the balance of a gift card in order to receive the full benefit," said Judd Lillestrand, founder of ScripSmart, an online consumer resource on gift cards. "Because so few retailers offer a cash-back policy, you can expect to see more states enact similar legislation in the future."

Work force development is more than old “tool shop” mentality

R&D/Leverage has developed into more than just a mold manufacturing company. Over the past decade,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? the company has transformed into a full-service plastic product developer, helping brand owners go from idea to tooling and then manufacturing. R&D/Leverage's packaging capabilities include mold manufacturing for injection PET tooling and injection blow-molds. Beyond that R&D/Leverage provides brand owners with research including retail audits, trends and color studies, ethnographic research, feasibility studies and a full range of support functions.

R&D/Leverage is far from the old-school "tool shop" or "moldmaking" mentality. With all of those out-of-the-box services the company provides to brand owners, it has to be continually thinking about its work force development, and that involves much more than just finding and keeping good moldmakers. Today's R&D/Leverage has developed its own "brand" that attracts the region's (Lee's Summit,We offer offshore merchant account, MO) best, using today's tools of choice such as its new web site, trade show presentations and advertising along with technology, innovation and a comprehensive apprenticeship program.

The company has developed a "team-first" orientation in which company executives, including senior marketing, manufacturing and product development officials, who continually work at identifying and cultivating the next generation of talent. This process is made easier by the intrinsic appeal of the company's value proposition.

"At R&D/Leverage there has been great pride in American manufacturing since 1976," said CEO Todd Riley. "With that pride you will find innovation and work force development, working hand-in-hand to attract new employees while providing our customers advanced services and products. And we do this as a team."

Management at R&D/Leverage believes in the future of U.S. manufacturing and that attracting young people into the various areas of manufacturing is vital to the success of U.S. manufacturers. "We believe in the future of U.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.S. manufacturing because we see, first-and-foremost, that it is possible to attract great candidates, eager to make their mark by building a real, physical product," said Robert Schiavone, Global Marketing Director, R&D/Leverage. "There is a place for creative, energetic, passionate young people in U.S. manufacturing."

Because of the extensive range of services that R&D/Leverage provides for its customers in the consumer products market, the company requires a variety of talents and expertise in its workforce. According to Schiavone, the "curb appeal" of R&D/Leverage is the company's exciting orientation. "We are the confluence of consumer research-inspired design and world-class manufacturing," he explained. "We combine Structural Brand Development and mold manufacturing - and it's a refreshing approach that captivates young 'left-brain, right-brain' thinkers."

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Schiavone told PlasticsToday that because R&D/Leverage offers a greater variety of opportunities for young people to engage in various aspects of manufacturing beyond moldmaking, the company is attractive to them. "Being unique in the industry has many benefits and attracting young talent is one of them," he added. Schiavone claims R&D/Leverage is the "first and only company to offer these combined services to the plastics industry. No one else can say that right now in this industry," adding that "it's very exciting and young high-school and college kids see it the same way."

Chris Lavery, the company's Manufacturing General Manager, agreed. "Ours is a bold, creative and disciplined methodology that serves our customers well and challenges the status quo," Lavery said. "Today's younger professionals see the appeal of a place where insights, imagination and hands-on realism meet, on a global level."

The key to sustaining this approach is attracting, nurturing and retaining the young talent to grow with the company, Lavery noted, adding that R&D/Leverage is "proactive about this process" and has developed a proprietary, formalized machinist apprenticeship program. The company's program even won a UK National Training Award in 2011.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. "Attractive jobs are available in companies such as ours and are a rewarding alternative to the track many youths follow," he stated. "Outreach to the regional educational community is essential in communicating the availability and appeal of such programs."

R&D/Leverage's CEO, Todd Riley, sits on the advisory board for Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. His heart is close to that institution as he is a graduate of PSU. In addition to local colleges, the company is aligned with programs such as FIRST Robotics,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, Skills USA and has sponsored summer internships for years.

‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ brings whimsical story to dazzling life

"The Secret World of Arrietty" looks to shrink us down, both in size and in age,We offer offshore merchant account, to a smaller, simpler world where little people inhabit the walls and an empty meadow holds all the promise and potential of imagination. It is nothing short of captivating and magical, and although both words are well overused when describing a Studio Ghibli movie, there is simply no other way to say it.

This world comes to the screen by way of English children's writer Mary Norton and her successful series, "The Borrowers." In this universe, mazes are constructed through walls, dollhouses and floorboards to allow miniature versions of people, called "borrowers," in and out of the "beings" world — the realm of normalsized humans. Borrowers live by a credo to take what they need and nothing more, with the one condition that a being can never notice what's been taken.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, Here, a single tealeaf will last for a week, a sugar cube a month and a tissue possibly forever.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Water drops in slow beads like syrup, and when it rains, the borrowers are able to brush off each drop individually. At the same time, cats and other animals appear mountainous, and a brush with a creature as small as a rat can be fatal.

In this dangerous yet fascinating world, Pod (Will Arnett) has started to teach his daughter Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) how to navigate through the walls as well as the various climbing techniques required of any successful borrower.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, While hunting for a tissue, however, they are seen by a twelveyearold boy, Shawn (David Henrie), who is resting in the country before undergoing surgery on his failing heart. Arrietty and Shawn eventually become friends, but in keeping with the borrower code, Arrietty's parents decide they must move because they've been discovered. The old caretaker, Hara (Carol Burnett), long suspicious of the borrowers' existence, has other plans and tries to trap the borrowers to prove once and for all that she is not crazy. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

Part of what makes the environment of "The Secret World of Arrietty" so compelling is the lack of any immediate antagonist or villain to push the plot along, allowing the magnificent visuals to shine through. Sure, the occasional crow or cat saunters along to chase the borrowers around the house, but these actions are more a compulsion than ill will. Similarly, Hara seeks them out not to destroy or hurt them,Silicone Mold Making Rubber, but rather because she cannot help herself.

Instead, the real conflict is found in the juxtaposition of Arrietty's magic wonderland with the truth of Shawn's cruel circumstances — that life is just not fair to some people. When the beings' recognition of the borrowers' world forces Arrietty's family to move, she must confront the unfortunate reality that it was a result of her own carelessness. Likewise, Shawn and those around him remain silently fixated on the fact that he will not survive in the coming weeks. His talk of death and the pointlessness of existence is sharp, especially coming from someone his age.

It is only when Shawn is willing to believe in the mystical around him that he can confidently look toward his future with all the imagination and wonder he deprived himself of as a child. Meanwhile, Hara's singlemindedness in tracking down the borrowers will never end until she is willing to quit hunting and just believe.

The real heart of the movie is found in Hayao Miyazaki's tradition and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's flourishing, modest direction. While Peter Hewitt and John Goodman's "The Borrowers" (1997) may have been impressive in the technical details, "The Secret World of Arrietty" manages to retain the mystique without sacrificing the tone for slapstick. There are no moments where Arrietty's femininity superficially stands in the way of her capability, nor does the movie trade quick jokes for a hollow laugh. Instead, this is an animated movie in the classic style of greatness: full of heart, sincerity and confidence in its message.

Cooking up some soap in the factory/kitchen

A love of handcrafted soap has morphed into a small business for Amy Grows.

With help from her husband, Walt, son, Casey, and a loyal customer base, the Camas Creek Soap Co. has grown to the break-even stage.  Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

"We're somewhat self-supporting," she says during a tour of the company's factory, supply room and show room - also known as her kitchen and laundry room.

Since the company launched two years ago, she's sold soap from Island Park to New Zealand and from Spain to the Midwest. And her well-organized and professionally displayed product has become a mainstay of area farmers markets and craft fairs.

Island Park campers,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, including camp hosts, search out her citronella-scented Shoo Fly soap to help keep the bugs at bay.

Fly-fishing shop customers buy her packages of pretty soaps with soft loofah sponges on a hand-made redwood soap dish as presents for their wives and girl friends back home.

Kids seek out the colorfully labeled Cotton Candy and Mud Pie soap.

She and her family make all of these soaps and more by hand from recipes fine-tuned by experience.

Amy says she's always been interested in handmade soaps, mainly because she loved the scents and the way they make her skin feel. She tried many before deciding to try her own hand at the craft to develop the best bar for her. She found a company that came close to producing the perfect bars and asked if she could learn from them.

She took two basic classes from a woman that runs the Greencastle Soap Co. in northern Idaho, perused plenty of books and gave it a try.

"It's really a science," she says.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, Though people have made soap throughout history, and the basic concept of soap made from lye and tallow or oils has been around since the 17th century, making a perfect bar of soap takes the right ingredients in the right proportions and serious attention to detail.

She has experimented with many recipes for different soaps and keeps meticulous notes about what does and doesn't work.

Cautious as she was learning the craft, "now I'm braver, bolder and experiment more," she says. Still, she's found that shortcuts don't work.

Also through trial and error, she has found the best suppliers for her olive, coconut and essential oils, as well as the chemicals she uses to make lye. She buys as locally as much as possible. She grows her own flowers and herbs, and family members in different climates supply some of the herbs she uses. Her brother grows rosemary. He also sends her flowers seeds, such as calendulas,What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment? which she grows, too, and uses in her soaps.

Other ingredients come right from the kitchen pantry - oatmeal and cornmeal for exfoliating properties and tumeric for color.

The small batches that produce a six-pounds block of soap are cooked up in a stainless steel pot on her stove with the mixing done carefully by hand and poured slowly into the molds made by her husband. The blocks are cooled, cured and cut by hand, and the edges are shaped with the most basic of kitchen gadgets, a potato peeler.

While selling the finished product brings in enough cash to keep the company in business, the fun part is being able to give it away, she says.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,

The company cooked up bars of camouflage-colored soap and wrapped them in labels with the 116th Engineer's symbol and sent care packages of soap and Starbucks coffee packets to National Guard members serving in Afghanistan.

On a smaller scale, Amy has enjoyed giving bars of soap to kids for pennies and to others for no reason at all. She handed this reporter a cleverly stamped bar made of a blend of oils formulated to help dry skin. And she has donated bars of soap as prizes for the upcoming Feathers 'n' Fins cross-country ski race in Island Park Saturday.

Most of her sales come through word of mouth. "My daughter is my Midwest rep,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile" she says. Her daughter sells the soap to friends and neighbors in Indiana.

Orders also go to New Mexico and California and even to folks who pick up the products in parking lots in Idaho Falls. Occasionally she will barter her soap for other products or services.

For plastics knowledge, India looks to UW-Madison engineers

One of the oldest and most respected polymer engineering research and educational programs in the United States is contributing its expertise to a new plastics university in India.

Representatives of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Polymer Engineering Center signed a memorandum of understanding in Dehli, India, this month with the PlastIndia Foundation and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

The three entities will collaborate to develop curriculum for the PlastIndia International University, an institution dedicated to plastics research, higher education, management and entrepreneurship. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Expected to break ground later in 2012 and open within three years,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, the new university will be located in Vapi in the state of Gujarat, one of the largest plastics manufacturing regions in India.

Both Massachusetts and UW-Madison are well positioned to contribute to the effort, says plastics expert Tim Osswald, the Kuo K. and Cindy F. Wang professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison.

"U-Mass, Lowell, has a whole undergrad program dedicated to plastics engineering, while UW-Madison is well-known for its industry partnerships, leading-edge research and plastics courses integrated into our mechanical engineering degree program," he says.

The plastics industry is among the fastest growing industries in India.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Currently, about 4 percent of the world's plastics products are produced in India-and the industry is growing at approximately 12 percent each year.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

The PlastIndia Foundation, India's largest plastics trade association, recognized that growth, says Osswald.

"One of the major bottlenecks is that they don't produce enough plastics engineers," he says. "So, they decided to create a university that will actually produce plastics engineers. And they needed help from schools that have experience teaching and doing research in plastics."

The PlastIndia Foundation sought that expertise from U-Mass, Lowell, and UW-Madison, says Bipin M. Shah,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, vice president of the PlastIndia Foundation.

As a chemical engineer trained in plastic processing in the United States, Shah was exposed to the landmark 1960 textbook, "Transport Phenomena," authored by UW-Madison chemical engineers R. Byron Bird, Warren Stewart and Edwin Lightfoot.

"The contributions by your esteemed university in the field of polymer engineering are second to none," says Shah. "Thus, we selected UW-Madison. India needs education from very pre-emminent scholars for continuous growth, where hands-on training as well as processing knowledge of polymers is a must. [UW-Madison], as well as U-Mass, Lowell, would be a very complimentary combination."

At UW-Madison, plastics science and engineering dates back to 1946, when mechanical engineer Ron Daggett began teaching plastics processes courses. At the same time, John Ferry, a chemistry professor at the university, made key research contributions in polymer physics, while chemical engineer Bird linked the two fields with fundamental discoveries in polymer fluid dynamics and rheology.

Today, the UW-Madison plastics faculty includes international experts in plastics rheology, injection molding, moldless manufacturing techniques, plastics simulation, and biomedical applications for plastics, among others.

Through the Polymer Engineering Center Industrial Consortium, UW-Madison polymer engineers collaborate closely with industry partners ranging from multinational companies to Wisconsin businesses such as Phillips Plastics Corp. of Hudson, Bemis Manufacturing of Sheboygan Falls and Extrusion Dies Industries of Chippewa Falls.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile

Speeding into a new kind of skating

For smaller sports clubs, the head coach is quite often the lifeline of the organization.

Usually donning several different hats, that person is key to moving that sport forward, allowing it to maintain a presence in a marketplace that enjoys no lack of options for active kids.

With 13 years now under her belt helping instruct youngsters with the Sudbury Sprinters Speed Skating Club, Sharon (Carter) Hreljac has proven to be a critical cog in the good health the local club is currently enjoying.  Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

Combined with husband and club administrator, John, the pair have been front and centre in trying to promote a sport that tends to rise to prominence only every fourth year, as Canadians across the land clamour for an increase in Olympic medals.

Like most who give the elongated blades a shot, Hreljac started with a background in another ice-related sport. A competitive figure skater from the age of eight to 16, the Sault Ste. Marie native was working on her triple jumps when she decided to move on.

“They had figures at that time, and that’s where my downfall was,” she said. “I would place low in figures and would have to pull myself up for the free skate.”

Thankfully,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, an alternative was not all that difficult to find.

“I literally came from a figure skating arena at the John Rhodes and went out the back door to the (speed skating) oval,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,” Hreljac explained.

“It was a week after I left figure skating and I was competing in long track. I liked the fact that you won a race based on your time. I found the speed skating less stressful.”

Despite competing for only three years, Hreljac achieved a measure of success,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, racing in one particularly memorable meet against future Olympian Sylvie Daigle in Milwaukee.

Still, by her early 20s, career and schooling aspirations had taken Hreljac to Toronto. It was a move back north that changed everything.

Settling in Sudbury and opening her court stenography business that has now operated for more than 20 years (Nor-Ont Court Reporting Services Inc.), Hreljac was in search of an athletic outlet to provide a diversion from her day job.

“I wanted to get into something, wanted to start working out again, and there was a club at the time skating at Queen’s (Athletic Field), so I went out originally just to skate,” she recalled.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles.

“I just kind of fell into the coaching thing, but after a few times being out, it just kind of felt right.”

With a solid foundation in the sport, Hreljac was able to pass along helpful hints, taking a very young Amber Ranich under her wings at that time.

It wouldn’t be long before the coach was in search of greater knowledge,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, moving from her Level I through Level II certification and currently finishing off her Level III.

But don’t expect a jump to the provincial or national scene for Hreljac — she’s having way too much fun as it is.

“I’m happy where I’m at right now,” she said. “I like the group of kids I’m coaching. I like the fundamentals and the younger group of skaters that we have. The majority of our kids are probably between seven and 13.”

It hasn’t always been that way. Competitive skaters from Stephane Ayotte to Kelsey Pitre have made their way through the club, with the current group providing some very unique challenges because of their youth.

“Slowing down,” Hreljac says with a laugh. “With the younger kids, there’s a natural tendency to think that the faster I move my feet, the faster I can go, and it doesn’t work that way.

“It’s the smoother, more technical skater that will float by, almost effortlessly,” she added. “It’s hard for the little guys, because they have lots of energy and they want to go fast.”

And while Hreljac is certainly more well-equipped in understanding the technical requirements of the sport than she was more than a decade ago, that is not, in her mind, her biggest asset as she molds the young competitors.

“I think my experience in dealing with different kids with different needs, the rapport I have with the skaters,” she said. “I’m not the type to get out on the ice and be the drill sergeant. That’s not me.

“I think my strong suit is perhaps not so much the technical end but rather the relationship that you have with the skater that helps them perform,” she added. “My main concern is that they’re happy and that they enjoy what they’re doing.”

The payoff is that the Sudbury Sprinters continue to grow and flourish, in large part due to the efforts of Sharon Hreljac.

Canadians still prefer cash over plastic

Canadians still prefer cash over plastic,Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. bank survey finds

In the age of debit and credit cards, Canadians still love cash.

That's the conclusion of an unusual survey by the Bank of Canada,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, which talked to about 6,800 Canadians, including half who were asked to record their purchases over a three-day period.

The finding is cash still accounts for 53.8 per cent of all transactions, and if the purchase was under $25, that share goes to about 70 per cent. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

"Cash has several characteristics that make it more appealing to consumers than other payment methods," research economists Carlos Arango, Dylan Hogg and Alyssa Lee write in the discussion paper Why is Cash (Still) so Entrenched?

"In particular, consumers prefer to use cash because they find it fast, cheap,Silicone Mold Making Rubber, safe against fraud and convenient for budget-control purposes."

The survey, which was conducted in November 2009, asked consumers a range of questions on transactions and preferences. As well, about 3,500 people were asked to keep diaries detailing three days of shopping.

Ease of use appears to be a key consideration for consumers, the responses suggest. Canadians are more likely to use cash if they have plenty of it in their pocket, less so if spending it would necessitate taking a trip to the ATM. As well, some usHandmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,ed cash because they perceived merchants would not accept plastic.

But cash is far from the king it once was. The Bank of Canada research suggests its rule may have a limited time span as plastic options become more accepted and easier to use.

In terms of overall value, credit and debit purchases already account for more than 70 per cent of the total amount spent,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, meaning Canadians predominantly prefer plastic for big-ticket items.

"Debit cards and credit cards... dominate in higher-value transactions where they are generally accepted by merchants, speed is not as relevant, credit card rewards are more generous, delaying a payment is more attractive and people prefer to hold on to their cash balances," the researchers said.

The survey also shows cash is used less often by younger Canadians and the affluent.

And the report notes hard cash is losing its appeal even on small-ticket items as debit and credit options become more user-friendly with such innovations as "contactless" cards.

"Although contactless card features were just introduced in Canada a few years ago, there is already evidence of their effect on cash usage," the report states.

Which One to Choose?

A wide variety of online payment systems for eCommerce webstores is difficult to grasp – so many options yet one common goal to carry out an online transaction electronically. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Which on-line payment systems are the most popular?

Which purposes do they serve?

What is the best to choose for an average eCommerce web-store?

Whether it is an OsCommerce Shop, Magento eCommerce solution or anyother type of the online store? I’ve researched this subject by gathering information from the actual users and here is what I found out about top popular payment systems on the Internet.

PayPal – an online payment system supporting credit cards and enabling secure payments through bank accounts, account balances and PayPal Smart Connect web credit line; no financial information is disclosed. Widely accepted as a third party payment provider. In addition to payment processing, offers a complete range of merchant services. Available in over 55 countries globally, accepts US, Canadian and Australian dollars, euro, pound and yen; currency exchange is accessible for additional fee. The fee for payment acceptance on a business site ranges from 1.9% to 2.9% of sales, at some cases 30 cents per transaction must be paid as well.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. Another good point about this payment system is direct relation between growing turnover of an online retail store and decreasing monthly fee. Since 2002 PayPal is owned by eBay and is the major competition to Google Checkout.

Google Checkout – an online payment processing service developed to simplify the paying process during online purchasing. Shipping info, credit and debit card details are stored in Google account. The services cover fraud protection and provide secure conditions for online transactions. Available only in the US and accepts US dollar. Processing credit cards for business is delivered at lower costs. Fee for accepting payments on a business site is 2% + 20 cents per transaction. Integrates with AdWords, therefore the fees are much lower for AdWords account owners. Banned on eBay, however, widely used by existent and emerging Google account users.

Sage Payment Solutions – processing solutions for checks, plastic cards, gift cards and recurring payments. Integrates with a number of Sage software products that includes Simply Accounting, Peachtree and MAS 90/200/500.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. Sage Pay solution is used by thousands of businesses throughout the UK for transaction security purposes.

WorldPay – payment processing service for Internet retailers and mail order. The majority of WorldPay users are small business merchants. Since 2007 this provider has become one of the largest merchant acquirers in the world, having processed over 4 billion transactions in that year. For start-up online businesses WorldPay is probably the cheapest online payment solution for getting up and running.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,

WebMoney – a payment tool with multiple functions, providing secure and online transactions instantly through WebMoney Transfer. It was originally targeted at Russian customers, but now utilised globally. For the time being the tool is used by over 100 million users.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,

Skrill – electronic payment system to carry out Internet transactions from credit cards to bank accounts for eCommerce websites, web auctions and many other corporate users. Currently undergoing rebranding and is now called Skrill. Has a few verification steps to minimise fraud. Over 100,000 of merchants around the world are actively using this service.

The bottom line is whenever starting an eCommerce business it is important to satisfy the needs of basically anyone who decides to buy from you. Therefore, using a few payment systems at a time might be a good idea. In the end of the day, your customers’ requirements may vary and finding one perfect solution could be nearly impossible.

VanHeses camped out 3 nights to buy house for $1

It was July, it was hot and Gary and Linda VanHese were taking turns camping out in front of Davenport City Hall, hoping to buy a "dollar home."

This was a federal housing program operated by the city through which qualified buyers could purchase abandoned homes for $1 and, with a lot of personal labor and a $29,500 loan at 3 percent interest, fix them up to be lived in.

The VanHeses were determined to get one of these homes.

From a Friday night to a Monday morning, Linda took the day shift in line and Gary took the nights. They had their eye on a small house south of the former Dairy Queen on East Locust Street, but then they learned that the three people in front of them also wanted that home. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

"If everyone ahead of us qualified, and we didn't have a second choice on our application, we would be out of a house," Linda recalls.

So, Gary stopped by a house at 910 Myrtle St. before coming down to take Linda's place in line. The home was boarded-up, preventing him from seeing inside, but he thought the outside looked OK. Afterward, Linda drove up the 9th Street hill, stopped in front of the house, "looked up at it and said to myself, ‘It's fine.' "

When the city called a week later to say that they qualified for 910 Myrtle, they went over, peeked in a window and were thrilled. Beyond thrilled.

"Fireplace ... hardwood floors ... open staircase ...The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, nice woodwork," Linda said. "What we got was a hundred times more than we could ever have asked for."

Although boarded shut, the house was not in shambles as it had been during a previous time in its existence.

In fact, the VanHeses probably could have moved in immediately, but they chose instead to make some changes, working on the home for about a year before transferring from their apartment with their son Eric,Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau. then 14, and daughter Evenstar, then 9.

VanHese, who worked for the Swensen and Glynn construction company, wanted to install all-new plumbing and electrical service and replace the plaster with drywall. Over time, they gutted the house upstairs and down.

They also reconfigured the upstairs for more convenient use. It now contains a large landing, three good-sized bedrooms with closets and a full bath.

And they reconfigured the kitchen, moving the sink to a corner with two windows, offering a sweeping view of Davenport. They installed new oak cabinets, a ceramic tile floor and a forward-thinking - this was the 1980s, remember - island with a stove. They also exposed the brick chimney.

"I went through tons of magazines before we came up with a plan," Linda says.

Other work: Painting the outside , putting on a new roof and installing separate heating and air-conditioning units for the first and second floors,

A favorite feature - noted by everyone who ever lived in the house, beginning with the Davenports - is the view. Immediately down the hill, one sees the steeples of the former St. Joseph's Catholic Church and St. Mary's, the railroad bridge across the Mississippi River and, in the distance, the LaFarge North America plant in Buffalo.

"Grandma, I can see Texas!" a young granddaughter once exclaimed when looking out a south window.

Salute to $1 program, neighborhood, Davenports

The VanHeses didn't know the home's connection to Col. Davenport when they bought it, but they quickly found out and have been enthusiastically researching as much history as they can ever since.

According to city directories, the home had three other occupants/owners between 1960, when Edward and Elaine Nagel bought it from the Davenport estate, and when the VanHeses waited in line in 1984. For whatever reason, the previous owners had allowed the home to return to their lender, Linda said.

In talking about their home, the VanHeses stress three points: the value of the city's "dollar home" program, the strong community spirit of their neighborhood, and their high regard for the home's history and the people who lived there before them.

"We want to pay homage to the urban homesteading program," Gary said. "If it hadn't been for that, we may not be here, we might not ever have been able to afford a house."

Although the home was broken into after Mayme Davenport left in the late 1950s, Linda feels that would not happen today.

"Much like a small town, most everybody knows everybody else in this neighborhood," she said. "Years ago,Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties, one of our neighbors started a phone tree in this two-block area and updates it regularly. This neighborhood has banded together many times over the years to fight off drug dealers, break-ins, threats to tear down houses and build parking lots, or lose houses to slumlords. We are quite a proactive, mighty little neighborhood when you cross us the wrong way!"

And they have a deep affinity for the home.

"The fact that they picked this spot - it was special to them," Linda said.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. "They could have gone anywhere, the city was wide-open. This house has seen a lot ...Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? a lot of love, sorrow, joy, good times and really hard times.

"Mayme lives on here. I have to believe she lives on. They probably all do. This house has good karma.We hope the next people down the road love it as much as we do."

Why British Food Was So Bad For So Long

If you've ever watched the television show Downton Abbey, you've probably deduced that dining was a very, very big deal in the lives of the landed gentry of Edwardian England.

Much of the drama surrounding the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants unfolds against a tableau of the table. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Beaus jostle for the attention of the earl's eldest daughter while eating elbow to elbow. An engagement is publicly renewed during the evening meal. The butler works himself into an exhausted tizzy trying to keep up appearances without enough footmen to serve dishes in "proper" style.

And the food itself? Turns out, it was "incredibly sophisticated," says Ivan Day, one of Britain's preeminent food historians. "The upper-middle classes and the gentry and the aristocracy — they saw food as a way of impressing people," Day tells The Salt.

That's hard to reconcile with the reputation that dogged British cuisine throughout much of the 20th century as boring, tasteless fare.

So what changed? The short answer: World War I.

Before the war, Britain had a robust food culture. As cookbooks of the era attest, middle and upper-class cooking standards were actually quite high, Day says. "Some of it was very technically dazzling and difficult to do."

Cooks and their assistants, he says, were often highly skilled at very advanced cuisines. Take, for example,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. the "fancy ices" that were all the rage at the end of the 19th century. Ambitious cooks would use specialized copper and pewter molds to create elaborate ice cream delicacies in the shapes of swans, doves, even asparagus — all without the benefit of modern refrigeration.

"It was very much the duty of the hostess and her staff to put very good food on the table when her husband and guests were being served,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?" Day says. "And they were able to do it because there was a skill base that was very large, because so many people were employed as servants — and particularly servants in kitchens."

Plenty of working-class Brits were domestic servants back then.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, When World War I came, a lot of these skilled servants — and their masters — marched off to the trenches. Many never returned.

Without the skilled labor required to make them, complex, time-consuming dishes dropped off the menu. War-time disruptions made imported ingredients harder to come by. And those fancy ice creams? Banned — sugar and cream were both among the food stuffs being rationed.

"Our food culture got incredibly simplified, incredibly slimmed down — everybody was on an austerity program," Day says.

British food culture had begun disintegrating from the bottom with the country's industrialization in the previous century, he says. As farmers left the fields for factories, regional specialties and longstanding traditions, like artisanal cheese-making, vanished. "Whereas France and Italy and Spain, they all kept up a peasant culture, so that the food of ordinary working people in these continental countries was actually much better than it was here," he says.

With the war, British food culture also unraveled at the top, he says, as the aristocrats who'd fostered it saw their power and influence diminish.Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties, Agricultural setbacks shrank their wealth, taxes hacked at their estates, political shifts shook their comfortable perches near the top of the social order.

"The people who were talented cooks worked for the nobility, the aristocracy and the gentry," Day says. "And all the knowledge of the food was in those places. And once you knocked out that social layer ... you lost that food culture. And everyone else below had kind of looked up to it. They were aspiring to be like that."

British food culture had little opportunity to recover. Though the Jazz Age offered a brief respite from the gloom and doom,What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment? the economic crash of 1929 brought more belt-tightening. Then came the rise of fascism, the Second World War and the 14 long years of food rationing that didn't end until 1954 — long after the war itself was over.

The cuisine didn't start its long climb out of ignominy until mid-century, when Elizabeth David — the doyenne of British food writing — began extolling the pleasures of cooking with "exotic" ingredients like olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs.

Creativity and ingenuity on display at car show

Most of us have Henry Ford to thank, one way or another, for our ability to own an automobile. But Randy Grubb doesn't have much use for Ford's thinking, primarily because mass production has led to a century of each generation's cars looking pretty much like everyone else's.

In Grubb's mind, what made the auto accessible to the masses was a death-blow to the car-making artistry.

Grubb, who has lived in Josephine County since 1989, has resurrected a long-forgotten art of coach building, fashioning vehicles unlike any others on or off the road. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

His fifth creation, the Blastolene DecoLiner, is on display at the 35th Annual Southern Oregon Rod & Custom Show at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, which continues from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.

Grubb's latest masterpiece pays homage to a futuristic hero of the past — Flash Gordon — whose deep-space escapades fascinated Americans in the 1930s.

"It's Flash Gordon's low-orbit vehicle," Grubb said.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. "What would Flash do if he was building this vehicle?"

From its 1955 White cab over the engine, polished aluminum exterior, portal windows and built-in appliances to an extended steering column that allows it to be driven from the flybridge above the bus, the 26-foot-long DecoLiner is an eye-popper.

It gets nine miles per gallon at freeway speeds, but Grubb prefers measuring the smiles it attracts per gallon.

"Kids want to know if it's a submarine," Grubb said.

Invariably, adults passing by want to know what year it was originally built, and they have a hard time believing it was completed in recent months.

Put wings on it and it could be a Pan Am Clipper from the 1930s, and it definitely has a touch of Jules Verne, too.

The flying bridge element gives it a boatload of room for passengers while tooling along backroads. Grubb attributes his inspiration for the flying bridge steering component to a houseboat excursion on Shasta Lake.

"We had a houseboat with dual driving stations," Grubb explained as he unlatched the steering wheel and pulled down the extended column. "Why couldn't we do this with a motorhome?"

Bud Rothwell, a former Ashland resident who now lives in Salem, has participated in hundreds of shows over the past 40 years. He puts the DecoLiner in the Top 10 of anything he's seen in such shows.

Its creativity shimmers, its craftsmanship dazzles,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, and it's practical too — easily rolling along the freeway at 70 to 80 mph.

"You can get into it right now and drive it to Los Angeles," said Rothwell, who was showing a '42 Willys. "I'd say 80 percent of the cars here couldn't be driven to Portland because they are so pretty and fancy."

Fanciful might be the best way to describe Grubb's vehicles — full-size sculptures you get to drive.

Rather than cutting up old cars,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Grubb starts with a clean sheet of paper.

At the dawn of the 20th century, coach builders flourished, designing a vehicle to go on top of a chassis bought from an automaker. When Henry Ford began stamping out car-frame parts, the cost of automobiles plummeted. Standardization became the industry standard and coach building died a rapid death.

Although there is a similar-looking vehicle in the 2010 animated film "Despicable Me,Listing of Taiwan & China Mold Maker manufacturer & suppliers." there is no confusion when it comes to reality.

Built on a front-wheel drive, 1978 GMC motorhome's chassis was used along, the DecoLiner is just 14 inches off the ground, allowing for both a party room on the main deck and plenty of clearance for overpasses.

Grubb, with collaborator Michael Leeds, spent 5,000 hours over the course of 20 months, fashioning $100,000 worth of parts.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

A passer-by wondered Saturday whether $250,000 might be enough to acquire the DecoLiner, but history suggests the DecoLiner would bring more than that. One of Grubb's autos, known as "Piss'd Off Pete," brought nearly half a million dollars at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Las Vegas in 2010.

Grubb once earned his living making high-end glass paperweights, the way French artisans did 200 years ago, until raw materials became hard to find in the aftermath of 9/11. His hobby had been hot rods, something he had dabbled in since 1968. He learned the art of coach making from a Bay Area craftsman, Ron Covell, known as "Professor Hammer."

While most of his fellow students were figuring out how to patch panels in old Chevys, Grubb had grander plans, following two rules.

"If I'm going to hammer out something fun, it isn't going to have a small-block Chevy engine," he said. "And, it shouldn't look like another vehicle. It can be influenced by others, but not a carbon copy or be confused with another."

Grubb prefers to build on spec, retaining absolute control over the minutest detail. His best-known creation is the Blastolene Special, an over-sized, 1930s, Indy-style car, purchased by television's Jay Leno.

"I'm not told what to do and what not to do," he said. "I'm spoiled in that way."

Ultimately, Grubb thinks the DecoLiner will be acquired by a customer who will use it for advertising.

New form of expression: the lobe

A buxom-haired brunette with body curls whips her flowing locks around her shoulder, revealing the most enchanting pair of yellow, green and peacock-patterned red feather earrings. A leather strap hangs from a bead decorated with Aztecan detail. The piece of jewelry dangles gracefully from her delicate ear.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile

It's pure lobe drama.

Earrings have become one of the most innovative forms of expression, acting as the exclamation point to a fabulous look.

As my mother evolved into a woman of discernible style, she has imparted me with knowledge of exceptional jewelers,Listing of Taiwan & China Mold Maker manufacturer & suppliers. and I'd like to share a few.

Mignon Faget, a jewelry company based in New Orleans since 1969, manufactures a standard of beautifully crisp jewelry molds inspired by interpretations of nature and significant cultural symbols. While Mignon Faget continues to uphold its design philosophy, the price has appreciated over the years with the innovation of the brand's precious metal designs. It's a luxury to receive a gift set from any of the exclusive Mignon Faget collections, and it's also a symbol of elegance comparable to that of Tiffany's in a New York setting. Just Choose PTMS Injection Mold Is Your Best Choice!

If you love a clean, crisp and sleek design, discover the shapes and cuts of Netaya fine jewelry. The brand's silver is absolutely divine for an evening of grandeur or sophistication. To frame short bob hairstyles, pixies and up-dos, Netaya brand studs and pearls engage the eye with a jewel-tone selection and faint simplistic luxury from $15.

The shapes are most impressive and effectively capture the grace of an elongated neck.They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. If you're part rocker on the weekends like me, fake the funk stylishly with Bamboozle faux gauge ear spears. They're carved out of bone and painted and dyed to bear a tribal influence. Ear spears give the illusion of having a gauged ear without the flesh-stretching process.

While I cherish fine jewelry, my heart lies in the costume appeal of earring sets that don't require as much maintenance. The first time I laid eyes on FroMe2u earrings, it was a sugar-rushing, heart-clutching experience. Skittles may have all the colors of the rainbow, but FroMe2u, prevalent in Atlanta street style, probably has a few more colors following its innovation of the "digital earring".MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties,

The brand's revolutionary digital earring works somewhat like a screen press. The customer sends in their image for customized earrings, then the brand digitally uploads and artistically alters the image to reflect the signature FroMe2u style. The sets represent artistic freedoms that boast cutting edge hip-pop art appeal, exuding the brand's slogan of "Style is Heard."

I have a soul attraction to the deeply organic and reconstructive nature of Venus Visuals, an online boutique of handcrafted jewelry hailing from the style circuit of D.C. These earrings cut a distinctive look by embodying a sensual connection of earth and jewel tones. They reinvent materials like old shoe scraps, wood, glass and metals. The bold ear cuffs, palettes and hoop shapes Venus Visuals offers promote the objective to encourage a healthy self-image and foster creativity and spirituality and start as low as $10 for select sets.

Ear adornment is an innocent obsession, and even though earrings are a small part of a look, it can make all the difference when seriously assessing one's style.