Delcam to show faster tooling design and machining at Amerimold

Delcam will show how the 2012 versions of its PowerSHAPE CAD software and its PowerMILL CAM system can speed the design and manufacture of all types of mold on booth 411 at the Amerimold exhibition to be held in Novi, Michigan, on 13th and 14th June. The programs allow toolmakers to increase their productivity at all stages of any project, so reducing costs and shortening lead times, as well as ensuring the highest quality in the finished mold and all components produced from it.

The faster mold design has been made possible by the incorporation within PowerSHAPE of a range of direct modeling options to complement the existing strengths in solid and surface modeling. The new options are focused on design for manufacture,First American Plastic molding is a custom injection molding facility that manufactures a variety of thermoplastic products. in particular on preparing product designs for the development of molds.

The direct modeling functionality that has been added will enable tooling designers to tackle all the common problems that they find in product designs, such as insufficient draft or inappropriate fillet sizes. Direct modeling is faster to use than surface modeling for these types of modification so it can shorten the overall time needed to produce tooling and so reduce delivery times. In addition, the new options have been made as accessible as possible by enhancing existing commands rather than grouping them in a separate area of the software.

Together with the extensive data translation and data repair options already available in PowerSHAPE, the addition of direct modeling gives a unique range of capabilities to tooling designers,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. whether they are working with injection molds, RIM tools or lay-up equipment for composites.

The most important of the new strategies is step cutting within area clearance, which will be especially valuable for manufacturers of larger molds. Modern roughing tools are capable of removing material more quickly by using larger stepdowns. The disadvantage of this approach is that large terraces can be left on the part. These steps can be removed by rest machining with a smaller tool.

An alternative approach is to step back up the terrace with the existing large tool, adding extra cuts at intermediate levels. This results in more material being removed,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. using the same tool within the same toolpath. The rate of material removal can be optimized by increasing the feed rate automatically as the depth of cut gets smaller. This reduces the overall machining time.

Another enhancement produces a more efficient result when using automatic verification on a toolpath to prevent a collision by the shank or the toolholder. In the previous versions of PowerMILL, the tool would be retracted to a safe height whenever a collision was possible and then returned to the part once it was safe to continue machining. Now, PowerMILL generates a continuous toolpath that removes as much material as possible, while still avoiding any collisions. The elimination of the retract moves shortens machining times and gives an improved surface finish,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. while the continuous cutting reduces the change of load on the tool so increasing its life.

Work has also continued to improve the macro language within PowerMILL that can be used to automate any routine or repetitive calculations, for example when producing a series of molds for different products of similar size and complexity.Visit TE online for all of your Application Tooling Solutions including tools. A new macro debugger has been added that makes it easier and quicker to identify any errors in a macro. Furthermore, the creation and editing of larger, more complex macros has been made easier with a new option to set breakpoints within the macro and the ability to view the contents of the variables in a separate watch window.

UK minister faces questions over ties to Murdoch

Prime Minister David Cameron's handling of Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal faces new criticism after a minister assigned to make an impartial decision on a takeover deal by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said his cozy ties to the tycoon's media empire were well known to the British leader.

Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt -- the top minister in charge of London's 2012 Olympics -- appeared Thursday before the country's press ethics inquiry amid questions over his conduct in deliberating on whether Murdoch's bid for a lucrative pay-TV provider should be approved.

Hunt said he regretted developing friendly links to Murdoch's son James, but he also shifted the focus back to Cameron, who has already been stung by his close ties to key suspects in Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal. Cameron's former communications chief was arrested and charged Wednesday.

Cameron is expected to appear before the ethics panel in the coming weeks. Questions will likely focus on his handling of the hacking furor and his friendships with key players in the scandal.

Hunt was made responsible in December 2010 for a decision on whether News Corp. should be authorized to take full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting, in which it holds a 39 percent stake.

The decision was regarded as a sensitive task because of its potential to reduce the plurality of media ownership in Britain and strengthen Murdoch's grip on the industry.

Cameron gave Hunt the job after Britain's Business Secretary Vince Cable was taped by undercover reporters claiming he planned to "declare war on Murdoch," and removed from making the decision on the grounds of bias.

According to government convention, ministers are expected to rule on such issues with impartiality.

Critics insist Cameron was well aware that Hunt was supportive of the deal and likely to side with Murdoch.

"I was sympathetic on the bid; I hesitate on the word `supportive,'" Hunt told the inquiry.

He said he had told Cameron of his views, which were "widely known.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions."

month before he was handed the task, Hunt had sent a letter to Cameron warning that blocking the deal would damage Britain's media industry.

The company's lobbyist Frederic Michel made 191 telephone calls and sent 158 emails and 799 texts to Hunt's office between June 2010, when News Corp.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. announced its bid to buy out other BSkyB shareholders, and July 2011, when the tabloid phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to drop the plans.

The scandal erupted after revelations that reporters at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid routinely hacked voicemails. It has since spread to involve a range of other offenses and ensnared dozens of journalists, politicians, police officials and other public figures.

Just hours before he was given the task of adjudicating in the case, Hunt had himself sent James Murdoch a text congratulating him on the company's successes in winning initial approval for the takeover from European regulators.

On the same day, Hunt also texted Treasury chief George Osborne -- a key government powerbroker -- warning that Murdoch was seeking legal advice following Cable's critical comments. "I am seriously worried we are going to screw this up," Hunt told Osborne.

Osborne replied: "I hope you like the solution.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile." Within hours, Hunt was appointed to rule on whether the News Corp. deal should go ahead.

The fallout from the phone hacking scandal -- and persistent disclosures from Britain's lengthy inquiry into media malpractice -- are threatening to dog Cameron's leadership, which is already suffering amid sluggish economic growth.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.

His ex-communications director Andy Coulson -- a former News of The World editor -- was charged with perjury late on Wednesday in connection with a case linked to tabloid wrongdoing. Coulson's lawyers said Thursday he would contest the allegations.

Cameron's friends Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie Brooks, who was at high school with the British leader, have both been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to police inquiries into hacking.

At the hearing,Husky Injection Molding Systems designs. Hunt acknowledged that in hindsight he had been wrong to develop such close ties with Murdoch's son James. They traded texts joking about the executive's hostility toward Britain's communications industry regulator and about his company's sponsorship of Britain's elite cyclists.

Despite his contacts with News Corp., Hunt said he did not show any bias. He said he believed his task was "to make sure that our democracy was safe," so his personal opinions were not relevant.

Special Effect

Today, he’s part of a commercial enterprise with a lab and workspace in Downtown Memphis that draws on that same body of knowledge to try and improve lives.

Singer, a former designer of monsters and makeup effects for films and TV shows such as “X-Files” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” is the director of research and development at Silicone Arts Laboratories.

He’s worked in Memphis for several years and once focused primarily on sculpting a particular prosthetic device – an artificial eye.

With help from Southern Growth Ventures, another Memphis entity and one that’s part of a joint venture with Silicone Arts, the enterprise has been slowly moving into more mass-market territory thanks in part to one of its newest products.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI.

Dermaflage is Silicone Arts’ “topical perfecting filler” that consumers can buy and then apply onto things like scars and wrinkles. It will conceal them for up to 36 hours and is quick enough to apply that the company talks about it being able to get incorporated into, for example, the makeup routines of its female customers.

Kits of the product are stacked in columns inside the entity’s workspace at G.E. Patterson Avenue and Tennessee Street. Also there, colorists are at work perfecting the shades of the range of ethnic skin tones that are available,Visit TE online for all of your Application plastic injection mold including tools. and benches are piled with various brushes, sculpting tools and small artificial skin creations,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. among other things.

It is a hive of activity that may be getting a lot bigger soon.Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection moulds Maker.

“This is where the orders come in … and you just can’t be in a better place for distribution,” said CEO Oscar Atkinson, leading a tour of the space.

The company recently was chosen to travel on a trade mission to China and South Korea. Along with a few other local businesses, Silicone Arts was part of a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development export initiative.

The company is looking into partnerships with distributors who market high-end cosmetics and similar products. It’s secured interest from a vendor in east Asia, and Atkinson said the company has raised a recent round of funding in the high six figures.

The entity believes its secret lies in the combination of commercially viable products mixed with the marketing, fundraising and entrepreneurial talent from the Southern Growth Ventures side of the equation.

The latter is a wholly owned subsidiary of local market strategy firm Southern Growth Studio, which helps entrepreneurs like Singer go to the next level.

“Our mission,” said Southern Growth’s Michael Graber, “is inherent in our name.”

In other words, the mission includes taking companies and helping them grow in ways they might not necessarily have realized they could pursue.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

Singer already had the talent. And it had picked up national media interest.

Several years ago, he donated an artificial eye to a Seattle man in need of one. A national ABC broadcast had presented the story of a man, Eddie Mitchell, who needed a prosthetic eye and couldn’t afford one. Singer offered to help.

Where Hybrid War Meets AirSea Battle

In the budget wars between the services, "hybrid threats" and "AirSea Battle" have become rallying buzzwords of two opposing camps.

On one side, Army leaders talk of hybrid threats, whose blend of guerrilla tactics and high-tech weapons pose the greatest plausible threat on land,If you are looking for offshore merchant account. now that Soviet-style tank armies are extinct and the nation has largely sworn off large-scale counterinsurgency. On the other, Air Force and Navy leaders speak of AirSea Battle as a way to coordinate their expensive hardware in a high-tech war with regional powers like China or Iran.

While the services tend to use these concepts to justify their budgets, one of the fathers of the hybrid war idea, retired Marine Frank Hoffman, tells AOL Defense they are less contradictory than complementary, especially in a potential conflict with Iran.

AirSea Battle and hybrid war theory address two parts of the same strategic problem, Hoffman said: how to project American power around the globe when potential adversaries from militia groups to the Middle Kingdom are developing new tactics and new weaponry to stop us. "AirSea Battle is basically the outer half of the problem: how do you get into a region," he said. "The inner half [is] once you get inside a region,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer. how can you operate" in the face of hybrid threats.

Hoffman has street cred as a strategist. He was a lead staffer for the famous Hart-Rudman Commission that warned of large-scale terrorist attacks on the US homeland years before 2001, wrote some of the seminal works on hybrid warfare,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. and frequently writes, speaks, and wargames on military concepts. Now retired from the Marine Corps Reserve, Hoffman is a senior fellow at National Defense University, although he emphasizes that he speaks only for himself, not NDU.

The strategic problem will take the efforts of all the services to crack, Hoffman emphasized. The Air Force and Navy will take the lead in the long-range fight; the Army and Marines will bear the brunt close-in, but each has a role to play in both halves of the problem. The ground forces need ships and planes to get to the war zone in the first place,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. and once they're in the fight they depend on air support, from drones to jets to satellites, to help them spot and strike the enemy. Conversely, the Air Force and Navy need the Army and Marines to protect – or to seize – key forward bases.

Those forward bases are critical and increasingly vulnerable. The Air Force has a few intercontinental bombers that can strike targets around the world from bases in the United States, but the rest of its planes need to operate from airfields closer to their targets. Likewise the Navy needs access to ports around the world to refuel and resupply the fleet. The most obvious threat to US bases is enemy missiles: Even Saddam Hussein's Scuds got a lucky hit in 1991 that killed 28 US troops outside Dhahran, and modern adversaries such as China field far more accurate guided weapons. But bases also need defense against cyber-attack,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture. sabotage, and suicide bombers, and for that matter the simple threat of enemy ground troops invading the allied nation hosting the base. The Army and Marines provide crucial counters against all those threats, from Patriot missile batteries to foot troops with a decade's experience fighting guerrillas.

Tuscany Offers True Italian Fare

For several weeks, a merry band of cooks and businessmen have been transforming the former site of Five Guys on Valley Road in Upper Montclair into an oasis of authentic Italian fare.

The result has been Tuscany,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? a new restaurant with Tuscan gold walls graced with Italian landscape paintings that puts the focus squarely on fresh pasta.

I admit I was a bit skeptical of a lunch menu that includes mostly dishes costing $14 or $16. Indeed, the cheapest item is the Melanzane Toscane, or thinly sliced layers of eggplant with fresh plum tomato sauce, pecorino, and Italian basil, for $10. Another pasta and eggplant dish, Lasagnette Toscana, is priced at $12.

But almost everything else on the lunch menu costs more.

Dinner, of course, is another story, with Rigatoni alla Bolognese priced at $19; Capellini Bosco E Mare priced at $26; and Bistecca Toscana priced at $36.

But I dare say the food was worth the money.

There's no kids menu, but I ventured to Tuscany for lunch with my three children anyway. They are older and have a penchant for Italian cooking. We perused the menu from a nice spot by the window. The quick delivery of warm bread, good for dipping into a notably savory herbed olive oil, struck a pleasant chord.Visit TE online for all of your Application Tooling Solutions including tools.

I opted for my usual favorite, Pappardelle al Ragu di Agnello, for $14. The flat wide pasta came out in about 15 or 20 minutes, adorned with a lush ragu containing tender chunks of lamb and topped with a hefty sprinkling of pecorino. It couldn't have been more tasty.

Also delicious was my son's Rigatoni alla Bolognese, also priced at $14. The braised sirloin sauce with celery, carrots, and tomatoes rang out with flavor.

My other son chose Cannelloni—a specialty here. The tubular pasta stuffed with braised short ribs, for $16,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. was not what he expected. (At least that's what he said.) But he immediately proclaimed it delicious. I had a few bites and, indeed, the meat was so tender it nearly melts in your mouth.

My daughter's nicely shredded Insalata di Caesar for $14 also was appealing, with an abundant coating of dressing. (There was so much salad, we ended up taking some home.)

The restaurant's amiable owner, Valter Cianni, hails from Italy, having come over to the United States in 1980. He proudly notes that he's a true, real Italian and not "a want-to-be Italian."

It's no surprise, then, that the food is also purely Italian. As the very gracious and attentive waiter noted, the pastas and the sauces are made on-site by inspired cooks that know how to transform fresh ingredients into something spectacular.

Cianni is not new to the restaurant game. He also owns Tuscany Bistro in Tappan, New York and Cafe La Mer in Naples, Florida. He also owned another restaurant called Tuscany Trattoria for 18 years in Westwood, N.J. before closing it in 2010.

Nice touches at his new Tuscany restaurant in Montclair include the curvy white plates, almost a cross between a plate and a bowl, brought in from California. Also nice is the ample space between tables. In addition, the plentiful supply of parking in the lot behind the restaurant couldn't be more handy.

There were no other customers there during our lunch, but several people popped their heads in to ask for a look at the menu. Many took away a copy of the lengthy takeout menu. On it is everything from Aragosta "Martini," or a lobster, avocado, and mango salad, for $16, to Gnocchi alla Toscana, with fresh pesto, plum tomato, and pecorino, for $18. In addition to pasta, there's also veal, beef, salmon, and chicken on the menu,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. served a variety of ways.

Will Tuscany succeed? We hope so. As the owners of the nearby Jafajems observed, there really is no other place like it in Upper Montclair. While other parts of town enjoy the likes of Osteria Giotto, this neighborhood's residents have long wanted their own touch of true Italian. Finally, they got it.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included.

Morgan on hot streak

The announcement of the final U.S. Women’s Olympic roster on Sunday afternoon took some of the suspense out of the friendly later that evening against China. The match changed from being an audition for players hoping to make the team, to a showcase for the squad that will most likely start when the Olympics get underway in July.

This 18-player roster looks very much like the same squad that finished second in the 2011 World Cup, but Sunday we saw a glimpse of how one player’s role has changed dramatically in the past year. Alex Morgan put on a show, scoring a pair of goals and setting up another in the US’s 4-1 victory at PPL Park on Sunday night.

Morgan looked every bit like the most dangerous player on the field, showing off her speed, strength, tenacity and deadly finishing ability.

This isn’t exactly breaking news. Morgan has spent the past year building on the momentum of her inspiring performances at the 2011 World Cup, where she came off the bench late in games and scored some of the most important goals of the tournament. So far in 2012, counting Sunday’s virtuoso performance, Morgan has tallied 13 goals and eight assists in 12 national team matches. Mind-blowing numbers for a 22-year-old player on a stacked U.S. team.

Her super sub days are over. Morgan is taking her game to new heights, and as scary as it sounds, her form on the field is matching up to the growing hype surrounding her off the field. She is more than just a pretty face drawing interest from corporations trying to capitalize on her combination of beauty and skill. Morgan is a bona fide superstar in the making,Visit TE online for all of your Application plastic injection mold including tools. as her form since last summer’s World Cup has shown.

Sunday’s game was the kind of game U.S. fans — and her teammates — are quickly growing accustomed to from Morgan.

“After that experience at the World Cup I think she came back stronger than ever,” U.S. captain Christie Rampone said of Morgan. “She wanted that starting spot and she earned it. She continues to work every day and she’s getting stronger and stronger and I’m looking forward to seeing her at the Olympics.”

Rampone helped set up Morgan’s most impressive moment of the night when the veteran centerback lofted a perfect long pass that Morgan ran onto, out-muscling a China defender before hitting a perfect strike from 18 yards out, making it 3-1 in the 50th minute.

Morgan fell short in her bid for a hat-trick,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. but capped her night with an assist when she sent an excellent long throw-in to Abby Wambach that the veteran striker finished from close range to make the final score 4-1.

The US started things off slowly,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. with China jumping out to a 22nd-minute lead by capitalizing on some shaky team defending from the home side. The Americans eventually settled down and took control, tying things up in the 34th minute when Morgan sent a curling shot past the China goalkeeper.

That goal settled the US down, and a China own goal just two minutes later gave the Americans the lead for good.

“We struggled a little bit in the first half and we turned it around in the second half,” Sundhage said. “The halftime talk was good with the players.Offers China ceramic tile.

“We haven’t played a lot of games, and it’s a little bit of a concern,” Sundhage said. “The more games you play the better it is, and this game was very important for the fact we could pick it up in the second half.”

MEMS wafer maker Okmetic outsources amid SOI push

Okmetic Oyj a manufacturer of silicon wafers for sensor, semiconductor and solar applications, has begun outsourcing wafer manufacture even as it is expanding its factory here to make more silicon-on-insulator wafers.

Kai Seikku, president and CEO of Okmetic, said the company has secured two Japanese and three Chinese partners who produce wafers for their local markets based on Okmetic ingots of silicon.

Okmetic has prospered over the last couple of years as a supplier of wafers for the booming microelectromechanical system (MEMS) market. The company was a 83.2 million euro business (about $100 million) in 2011 and in the first quarter of 2012 about 46 percent of sales were wafers for sensors.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. The company has become one of the anchors of a burgeoning MEMS cluster around Helsinki, Finland, that includes local universities, the VTT research institute and what was VTI Technologies Oy, now Murata Electronics Oy.

However, despite the growth potential, Okmetic is also looking to expand in innovative ways. In 2011 the company acquired ten crystal-growing furnaces to expand its ingot production and began a search for fab-lite partners for selected applications.

Seikku declined to name the five outsource companies Okmetic is working with but said that from the customers' perspective they are sources of Okmetic wafers, as Okmetic manages the supply chain,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. customer relations and the order and delivery process. In MEMS – unlike integrated circuits – the starting wafer is likely to have been heavily customized.

And some of that customization can be in the silicon boule or ingot. One of Okmetic's strengths is the ability to precisely cWe can produce Plastic Mould.ontrol and maintain crystal orientation as the boule is pulled from the melt as well as purity and doping levels.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000.

"We have a reputation with customers for good R&D but we are constrained by our ability to manufacture," said Seikku. He added that using outsource partners to take in ingots and produce wafers to Okmetic-developed specifications saves capital cost and provides flexibility.

Seikku denied that Okmetic is teaching eastern hemisphere companies how to become rivals for the sake of short-term business gains. "We retain the crystal growing capability. R&D and customers relations are the enablers of MEMS wafer business."

Meanwhile the company is building a 30 million euro (about $37 million) extension to its Vantaa plant to increase internal production capacity for SOI wafers for sensor applications. Thick SOI has been taking an increasing share of the MEMS market in recent years and also for high-voltage power semiconductor applications. Okmetic plans to triple its SOI capacity to 25,000 wafers per month by 2014 or 2015. The 600 square meter cleanroom is due to be completed by the end of 2012. This will also increase Okmetic's ability to deliver 200-mm diameter wafers.

While MEMS sensors are mostly made using wafer diameters up to 150-mm there is now likely to be a rapid transition to 200-mm wafers, particularly as IC foundries begin to engage as MEMS foundries attempting to serve consumers applications.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.

Seikku said such transitions always seem to take longer to arrive than originally estimated but once they arrive the take place much quicker than expected. "The transition has been discussed for a long time. We see 6-inch to 8-inch happening this year."

Catholics celebrate milestone in sainthood bid

If a group of local Catholics have a say in the matter, the late Archbishop George (Jurgis) Matulaitis could soon join the saintly ranks of Michael the archangel, Joan of Arc and John the Baptist. All they need is a miracle.

About 250 people gathered at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church on Sunday afternoon to mark the 25th anniversary of the year the Lithuanian priest moved one step closer to being considered a saint by the Catholic Church.

Pope John Paul II declared Matulaitis "blessed" in June 1987 after the Catholic Church found a miracle associated with his name.

Now, supporters of Matulaitis hope someone else will come forward with a miracle he or she experienced after praying to God, using Matulaitis as an intermediary. If a second miracle is found and approved by Catholic authorities,Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway. then Matulaitis could be considered a saint.

"If it is the will of God, we hope very soon that he can (attain) sainthood," Joseph Roesch, the vicar general of the Marian Fathers of Immaculate Conception,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injection mould company based in the UK.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. who oversees a Lithuanian parish, told the audience at Blessed Virgin Mary.

Achieving sainthood in the Catholic Church is a difficult endeavor that can last years after a person's death, priests at the Nativity celebration said. First, a candidate's legacy and character have to be researched to prove that he or she lived a holy life.

Then church officials must find two cases where someone experienced a miracle after praying to God using the candidate's name. The miracles are often medical in nature, but church officials will verify with doctors that there is no other natural or scientific explanation for the miracle.

In Matulaitis' case, a Lithuanian woman said she received instantaneous healing from varicose veins after she prayed to God with a prayer card attached to her leg featuring Matulaitis.

"The healing came from God," Roesch said. "(But) for us it's the saints, that are the intercessors."

Matulaitis, who was born in 1871 and died in 1927, had bone tuberculosis and wore a leg brace for much of his life, priests said. He visited Chicago's Lithuanian community, but he spent his life in the Eastern European nation.

Matulaitis, who was an orphan,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. paid much attention to parentless children during his ministry, said Kaz Chwalek, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of Immaculate Conception, who was there at his beatification 25 years ago.

Some of his other accomplishments included rebuilding a religious order and continuing in ministry at a time when political upheaval in Lithuania made the work of Catholic churches difficult, Chwalek said.

Nativity parishioners on Sunday dedicated a mosaic made of glass, enamel and granite in honor of the priest. The mosaic, about the size of two textbooks, depicts the priest with a slight smile and a white and blue halo glow radiating behind him. His white hair barely creeps out from under his red hat, and a gold cross dangles from his neck.

The artist, Ada Sutkus, 80, said the mosaic took about six weeks to put together. The hardest part was getting the contours of his face and gold cross, she said.

"I prayed so hard because once you put that piece there, it stays there," Sutkus said.

Still, Sutkus, who was born in Lithuania, said honoring the life of Matulaitis was worth her donated time and money.

"I read his biography and I was so deeply moved, Sutkus said. "He was a diplomat."

Cardinal Francis George said in a speech during the Nativity celebration that Matulaitis' service fulfilled a great need in the Catholic Church.

"We need a witness to radical discipleship,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists." George said. "(Someone) to give up everything to do the work of God in a radical way. He knew that ... and we are grateful."

A Family Affair

Heirs to one of the great names of the 20th-century art world, the current members of the Maeght family want to remain faithful to their roots, they say, and to the credo of the dynasty’s founder Aime Maeght—art dealer, collector and friend of Bonnard,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injection mould company based in the UK.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Matisse, Miró and Braque: “We must do everything in our power to help artists.”

The Maeght family originated in Hazebrouck, near Lille, in northern France. Today the renowned name (pronounced Mahg) is shared by art galleries in Paris and Barcelona, publishing houses for books and graphic works, a formidable private art collection, and—perhaps most famous of all—the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a splendid private museum in the backcountry hills above Nice.

Young printer-lithographer Aime Maeght transformed his “boutique atelier” in Cannes into an art gallery in 1936. Ten years later he opened a new gallery on the rue de Teheran in Paris, a now-legendary space that was quickly adopted by the post-WWII avant-garde. Maeght exhibited the Surrealists, and other artists as diverse as Chagall, Calder, Tapies and Kandinsky. His pragmatic wife Marguerite—the young couple married in 1928—was his lifelong accomplice in realizing his dreams.

In 1956 their 26-year-old son Adrien opened a second Paris gallery on the rue du Bac, on the Left Bank,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. where the public would soon discover Riopelle, Chillida, Gasiorowski and others. Marguerite died in 1977 and Aime in 1981. Adrien, now the octogenarian family patriarch, still presides over the foundation but is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of what he calls “the little family consortium”. His children, Isabelle, Florence, Francoise (known as Yoyo) and Jules are shareholders of the publishing house and the Galerie Maeght in the rue du Bac. (The original rue de Teheran gallery now belongs to former Maeght gallery associate Daniel Lelong).

Yoyo’s recent resignation from the foundation’s board of directors has stirred up a lot of comment. Pushing for “a more profitable strategy”,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. Yoyo publicly reproached her father and her sister Isabelle for “resting on their laurels”—a situation that the family has an absolute horror of discussing.

With the arrival last summer of new director Olivier Kaeppelin, a fresh breeze is blowing through the Maeght Foundation, as if to prove Yoyo wrong. Kaeppelin, who formerly reorganized Paris’s Palais de Tokyo contemporary art center, says he intends to “present every year an exhibit that represents a collector’s lifelong passion. We’re also planning a major yearly retrospective of an important artist, incorporating the riches in our collection. And of course we’ll show contemporary artists who are inventing and experimenting.”

The foundation’s spring exhibit, Arcadia in Celle (March 31–June 10), will bring to Saint-Paul, straight from Tuscany, treasures accumulated by the wealthy textile dealer and art collector Giuliano Gori. The Fattoria di Celle (Celle Farm) and its 17th-century villa, in a vast park near Florence, houses the Italian art patron’s dazzling collection, including some 80 works of site-specific art by artists including Robert Morris, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Alberto Burri, who were given carte blanche to develop their projects.

The 63-year-old Kaeppelin remembers enchanting times on the Cote d’Azur: “The foundation played an important role in my training.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. Not only the beauty of the magical place, and the exhibits that made up an anthology of art, but also the concerts and the ballets. I’ll never forget the summer of 1970, dedicated to the US and to free jazz musicians like the incredible saxophone player Albert Ayler.”

FTC Announces Settlement with Oreck Corporation Regarding Vacuum Cleaner and Air Purifier Claims

The Federal Trade Commission has been busy. On the heels of its $40 million settlement with Skechers, one of the largest of its kind, the Commission yesterday announced that it has settled with Oreck Corporation regarding allegedly unsubstantiated claims that the company made regarding its Halo vacuum cleaner and ProShield Plus portable air purifier. Oreck has agreed to pay $750,000,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. which will be disbursed to affected consumers via $25 refund checks, and has further agreed to refrain from making certain identified advertising claims without adequate substantiation. As is customary in these types of proceedings, Oreck has neither admitted nor denied the FTC’s allegations but has agreed to abide by the FTC’s consent order (in this case, a twenty-year order) as a means of resolving the dispute.

Although the monetary component of the Oreck settlement is significantly smaller than that of the Skechers settlement, the underlying issues are similar. In each case, the FTC alleged that the marketers made claims about the health effects or efficacy of their products that were not adequately substantiated and were, therefore, misleading to consumers. The FTC pursued Oreck for allegedly unsubstantiated claims that its Halo vacuum cleaner and ProShield Plus air cleaner would: (a) reduce the risk of the flu, (b) reduce the risk of other ailments caused by bacteria, viruses, molds or allergens, and (c) eliminate all or some specified percentage of germs,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. bacteria, dust mites, molds, viruses or allergens.

One of the ads featured in the FTC’s complaint depicts a woman standing in a wallpapered room (a kitchen, judging by the floral design) wearing a gas mask. The ad asks,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection Moulding Manufacturer. “WANT A NEW WAY TO HELP BATTLE THE FLU?” and reports that testing showed “up to a 99% reduction in airborne particles.”

Another ad depicts the Oreck Halo vacuum cleaner emitting a stylized,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer. blue UV-C light with the words “KILLS FLU GERMS.” The ad claims that the Halo is “the only vacuum in the world that uses powerful UV-C light to kill many of the germs that could be living on your floors, such as the flu” and states that the Halo “traps 99.9% of particulates down to 0.3 microns.”

According to the FTC, these and similar claims were not adequately substantiated at the time they were made. It is not possible to tell from the documents disclosed publicly what level of substantiation Oreck had at the time it disseminated the ads. (Given the specificity of the claims, it is unlikely that Oreck had no studies substantiating its claims). In typical fashion, the FTC’s complaint alleges merely that “respondent did not possess and rely upon a reasonable basis that substantiated the representations,” and the consent judgment prohibits similar claims unless at the time the claim is made, “respondent possesses and relies upon competent and reliable scientific evidence that is sufficient in quality and quantity based on standards generally accepted in the relevant scientific fields” to substantiate that the claim is true. Accordingly, as with the Skechers settlement, there is little specific guidance in the settlement documents for marketers who wish to play by the FTC’s rules when it comes to substantiating health and efficacy claims.

Without clear interpretive guidance from the FTC, and in light of the subjective inquiry required to determine whether a particular claim is reasonably supported by scientific evidence, the prospect of making health or efficacy claims can be daunting. However, as previously discussed, marketers can minimize their risk by keeping in mind the following key points, which have emerged from recent FTC actions.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter.

Zero To Hero

When it comes to making horsepower, if you throw enough money at an engine, it's going to produce the numbers you want. If you look at any form of professional drag racing, the big-money teams are the consistent winners, but if you really pay attention, it isn't just about making power. Putting that power to the ground is an equally important part of the equation, and it's traditionally been a challenge for high-horsepower street cars. Jeff Cleary wanted a car that proved its performance on the racetrack, instead of a dyno sheet. And with 600 hp at the rear wheels and elapsed times in the 10.70s on regular street tires, it's apparent he succeeded.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter.

Cleary bought the car as a bare hull,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. so before the purists gripe about heavily modifying a '67 Sting Ray convertible, understand that he started with a mere skeleton and built it into the machine shown on these pages. He received lots of help along the way, but his vision was carried through the entire process, and it resulted in a wickedly fast midyear that retains excellent street manners. First on the list of contributors is Mike Stockdale, owner and operator of SRIII Motorsports, a shop dedicated to making old Corvettes handle as well as (or better than) new ones. SRIII built the chassis-and-suspension setup for Cleary's car, using a round-tube frame that features double main rails and lots of additional supports and bracing.

For suspension, Cleary's car uses C5 Z06 front equipment, with the stock cast-aluminum control arms working in conjunction with a pair of adjustable QA1 coilover shocks. Braking power comes in the form of Baer Extreme binders, featuring massive slotted and drilled rotors along with a set of forged six-piston calipers. Bolted to those rotors are C6 Z06 wheels,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. measuring 18x9.5 inches at each corner and sporting Nitto 555 rubber, sized at 275/35R18 up front and 285/35R18 out back. The stance is just right, and the tire-and-wheel combination nicely complements the car's style.

Putting horsepower to the ground is left to the rear suspension, which features C4-spec equipment, including a stock-style Dana 44 center section that's been prepped for serious abuse by Mark Williams. Cryo'd C4 axle stubs send power to the aluminum halfshafts, while a host of tubular goodies from Vette Brakes and Products provide rigidity and adjustability. The short rearend ratio of 3.90:1 works well in combination with the highly modified T56 six-speed manual transmission. Inside the gearbox are a Viper-spec main shaft, carbon synchronizers and steel shifting forks, all assembled by Rockland Standard Gear in Sloatsburg, New York.

Neatly tucked under the '67 big-block hood is a very potent LS7 engine, built by John Walsh of J2 Race Engines in Chesapeake, Virginia.Visit TE online for all of your Application Tooling Solutions including tools. Cleary retained the stock rotating assembly and dry-sump oiling system, while adding a custom Peterson Fluid Systems tank. The LS7 heads are mostly original, but J2 updated the valvetrain with a set of PSI springs and Katech titanium retainers. A Katech Torquer camshaft moves the valves in an efficient manner, thanks to its 220- and 244-degree duration at 0.050-inch lift, and 0.615- and 0.648-inch lift. Up top is a custom Marcella sheetmetal intake manifold, which added a considerable amount of power over the stock composite piece. A steady flow of 93-octane pump gas comes from a Rock Valley stainless-steel tank, which features an in-tank Walbro pump.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System.

So Long as Government Exists, a Governing Class is Inevitable

It was inevitable, argued English liberal Oliver Brett in his 1921 work A Defence of Liberty, that so-called “state socialism” would become simply another class society — this time with the state bureaucracy in the position of privilege. “So long as Government exists at all” — so went his brilliant quip on the principle — “a governing class is inevitable.” Just as everyone who attended Eton — regardless of their class of origin or what rustic access they originally spoke — “bore the stamp of Eton,” everyone who exercises state power bears the stamp of that power. Government molds everyone who wields its authority into a governing type.

What’s more, Brett argued, it was questionable whether the state bureaucracy would really be a new ruling class at all:

“English history is full of the chameleon qualities of the rich. How quickly the feudal Baron is metamorphosed into the landed aristocrat,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. and the landed aristocrat into the mine owner and the railway director. We find often the same family names cast for these varied parts across the centuries. And these people will control the new bureaucracy. They know which way the wind is blowing, and they are preparing for the change of direction.”

Brett was part of a larger current, in the early years of the 20th century, of writers who applied Pareto’s “circulation of elites” theory to the state socialist movement. It included writers on the Left, like Robert Michels and William English Walling, who drew pessimistic conclusions from the socialist parties’ growing tendencies toward authoritarianism and collusion with the state and capital.

Michels argued that genuine majority or rank-and-file control of a large hierarchical institution was impossible, because it would be subverted by the “Iron Law of Oligarchy”: Representatives or delegates would transform their full-time inside control over information and agenda-setting to reduce the de jure authority of those they represented into a mere rubber-stamping function.

Walling argued (as did the Distributist Hilaire Belloc in “The Servile State”) that state socialist parties like the Social Democrats and Fabians were being coopted into the service of capital. Democratic socialist movements would by and large give up on the herculean political task of actually seizing control of industry, and would instead choose to leave the industry in capitalist hands while regulating it “in the popular interest.”

In practice, those “progressive” regulations would serve mainly to stabilize the economy in the long-term interests of big business, and use a minimalist welfare state and labor regulations to clean up the worst (and most politically destabilizing) forms of destitution left by the capitalists.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. As Belloc put it, if only the Fabians’ lust to manage and regiment the underclass were satisfied, they would be quite accommodating about capitalist ownership. So the de facto role of the “democratic socialist” state would be to oversee the economy on behalf of big business.

The historic continuity of the ruling class is another theme that has appeared in many guises. Immanuel Wallerstein and Christopher Hill, both Marxists, argued that a significant minority of the landed ruling class under the late Medieval political economy managed to reinvent itself as agrarian capitalists and negotiate the transition to capitalism, where they survived in such forms as the Whig landed oligarchy in Great Britain. The persistence of bastard feudal forms of concentrated land ownership, through such expedients as large-scale enclosure of the Open Fields, common pasture and waste, and the mercantile system of state finance and chartered monopoly, ensured a great deal of structural continuity between the medieval and early capitalist systems.

A similar continuity bridged agrarian and industrial capitalism, as silent partners in the landed classes provided much of the capital for industrialization and the most successful capitalists bought titles or married into noble families. That continuity between the European landed nobilities and industrial capitalists in the modern era was the thesis of Arno Mayer’s book The Persistence of the Old Regime.

Wallerstein,We can produce Plastic Mould. like Brett, feared either that the giant finance-capitalists would manage to install themselves as the new ruling class in control of the postcapitalist state, or that the bureaucratic apparatus would use its control over the economy to live in privilege. The same has been true of left-libertarian critics like Emma Goldman and the post-Trotskyist Frankfurt School, who used terms like “bureaucratic state capitalism” and “bureaucratic collectivism” to dismiss the USSR as a new form of class society.Online store for ceramic tiles by e-Ceramica group.

If there’s anything to such analyses — and I believe there is — we should take a long, hard look at whether state socialism (i.e., a system in which genuine working class political and economic power is exercised through the state) is even possible.

Murray Bookchin, in his multivolume work The Third Revolution, presented a historical typology of revolution in which, in the course of a revolution, popular struggle by working people themselves gave birth to all sorts of decentralist, self-managed, liberatory institutions like soviets and workers committees. But in every case, once a revolutionary party had firmly established itself in the capital and purged the state of its rivals, it proceeded either to suppress working class organs of self-management or to coopt them as top-down transmission belts for state policy.

That’s what happened when Lenin liquidated the other parties of the Left in his governing coalition, suppressed the Workers’ Opposition, and put down the Kronstadt mutiny. It’s what happened in Spain, when the Communist-dominated government in Madrid set up its own Soviet-trained OGPU unit and showed its willingness to lose to Franco in preference to tolerating anarchists in Catalonia.

In essence, it’s the cyclical phenomenon described by Orwell’s fictional “Emanuel Goldstein”: The high and middle eternally jockeying for power over the low, with the middle in each revolution enlisting the help of the low long enough to oust the old ruling class and set themselves up as the new one.

Since the rise of the state as an instrument of economic exploitation on behalf of a ruling class, there have been endless attempts to achieve justice through revolutionary seizure of the state — each one ending in failure and disillusionment. Ending injustice and exploitation through machinery which is purpose-built for injustice and exploitation is doomed. To repeat Brett’s observation:If you are looking for offshore merchant account. “So long as government exists, a governing class is inevitable.”

Republicans Kill Civil Unions in Colorado

A last-ditch effort by Colorado's governor to give gay couples in the state rights similar to married couples failed Monday after Republicans rejected the proposal during a special legislative session.

Democratic Gov.Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and porcelain tiles. John Hickenlooper had said the special session was needed to address a "fundamental question of fairness and civil rights."

The bill's demise was expected by Democrats, who have begun using the issue as a rallying cry to topple Republicans in the November elections. Republicans assigned the bill to House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee,Online store for ceramic tiles by e-Ceramica group. which was likely to reject it. The panel voted 5-4 along party lines to kill the measure.

"The gay community is being used as a political pawn," said Republican Rep. Don Coram, whose son is gay. Coram voted against the measure.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the Democrats' leader in the House and gay lawmaker co-sponsoring civil unions,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection mold manufacture. sounded a note of optimism before the committee hearing, even as he braced for the bill's rejection.

"If it fails this year, we're going to work hard to make sure the public understands what happened, the games that were played, and next we're going to push it again," he said. "And as I've said a number of times,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injection mould company based in the UK. it's not a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when.' And the 'when' keeps getting sooner and sooner. This will happen."

House Republicans hold a 33-32 voting advantage, but there was enough support for civil unions to pass.

Last week, Democrats tried to force Republicans who control the calendar to bring up the bill for debate. But it became clear Republicans were filibustering by unnecessarily talking at length about other bills.

Republicans then halted work for hours, killing the bill and several others that needed a vote before a key deadline.

"Transparency, accountability and the virtues of good government are compromised when the legislative clock is used to avoid consideration of important legislation," the governor said in a letter to lawmakers before the special session started.

The regular session adjourned Wednesday, the same day an emotional Hickenlooper announced his intent to call a special session over civil unions and other bills that died because of the GOP filibuster.

More than a dozen states allow either gay marriage or civil unions, including several that moved to pass such laws this year.

The debate in Colorado is playing out at a time when President Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly endorse gay marriage. But North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bars civil unions and defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

Earlier Monday, hundreds of supporters wearing red and waving signs greeted lawmakers returning to Denver for the special session.

Many of the gay-rights activists predicted the bill's demise. They urged Democrats to make the civil unions failure a rallying point for November.

"For too long Democrats have let the right corner the market no talking about values. Finally we've claimed the moral high ground, and we can talk about that," said activist Wiley Sherer, who was selling buttons that read, "Ignorance is forgivable. Pride in ignorance never is."

Bye-bye Shuki Zikri, hello Marcel Reboh

Toward the end of last year, his clients were shocked to learn that celebrity hairdresser Shuki Zikri and his brother, Mike, had flown the coop. Zikri had gotten in over his head financially, and the debts kept piling up till they reached something in the realm of NIS 10 million, much of which was owed to the grey market. Fearful after receiving threats to his life,You can find best china Precision injection molds manufacturers from here! Zikri and his brother fled to the United States and headquartered themselves in Miami.

Meanwhile, brothers Marcel and Gabriel Reboh who, together with a large number of their siblings and their parents, left Israel after the Six Day War in which another brother, Eli, who was a soldier in the Engineering Corps, was killed, came from Miami to Israel as the first members of their family to return home.

Just as the Zikri brothers had set up a chain of top-notch hairdressing salons across Israel, so the Reboh siblings, starting in 1978 in Montreal, had set up a chain of luxury hairdressing salons under the name of Femme Coiffure in Canada and the US. Each of the many siblings took charge of a different salon.This is a really pretty round china glass mosaic votive that has been covered with vintage china . Between them they had studied at leading hairdressing academies and salons in London, Paris, Milan and New York, in addition to which whenever one of them learned or developed something new, it was shared with all the other siblings to ensure that the high standards they had set for themselves were maintained.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties. Now two of them are back in Israel and are getting ready to open salons in Mamilla in Jerusalem and in either Dizengoff or Hayarkon Streets in Tel Aviv.

They haven’t come to take anything away from anyone else. “Israel has excellent hairdressers and we just want to enhance the profession,” said Gabriel as he and Marcel sat in the coffee lounge of one of Jerusalem’s major hotels. In fact, he thinks that all Israeli hairdressers who have made the big-time abroad should come home to help make Israel the beauty capital of the world.

Why do the Reboh brothers need to be in Israel if their family-run business is so successful abroad? Because both Marcel and Gabriel have become more religiously observant over the years, a factor that prompted them to return to the Jewish homeland.

When their father died in Montreal, they brought him to Jerusalem for burial. Their brother,Let us help you save hundreds of dollars* with 3M Window Insulator Kits. Eli, is buried in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.. When Eli died, he had three other brothers in the army. Their mother could not bear the fear of losing another son, which is why the family, who initially came to Israel from Morocco in 1962, moved to Canada. “We got strong in North America and now we want to share what know,” said Gabriel.

Talent is an important component of success, but luck also plays a significant role.

Marcel Reboh candidly admits that he owes a large part of his success to American television personality Barbara Walters.

The famous broadcast journalist was in Canada to deliver a speech at an important event and needed to have her hair done. Someone recommended that she go to Reboh’s salon and she was so pleased with the result that she began to send her friends to him. Many of her friends were no less famous, and they in turn sent other friends who were equally famous. Some of them actually flew him from Montreal to New York, Los Angeles and Miami because they specifically wanted him to style their hair.

Sarah Ferguson, the former daughter-in-law of the queen of England, actually flew him to London.

Thus Marcel Reboh became the hairdresser to the stars, the rich and the famous. Like Shuki Zikri in Israel, he took care of the hairdressing needs of topline fashion models, film stars and socialites. Reboh’s clients have included Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez,Professional Manufacturer for polished tiles. Tom Cruise, Sophia Loren, Lauren Bacall, Joan Rivers, Candice Bergen, Mary Tyler Moore, Uma Thurman, Claudia Schiffer and Ivana Trump, just to name a few. And he has plenty of photographs as proof.

Despite their close relationship with people whose names are so frequently in the news, the Reboh brothers are surprisingly modest and soft-spoken.

Time to check the gutters

Three people with expertise in gutters shared their guidance for maintaining them and managing water flow outside your home: Apryl Uncapher,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. a water conservation consultant; Tom Sullivan, a do-it-yourself repair specialist with Home Depot, and Stephen Gladstone, president of Stonehollow Inc., a home inspection service in Stamford, Conn.

Why are gutters important? Gladstone offered a passionate defense of drainage.Every Mold Maker job on the web.

"Water is the most important thing to watch out for with houses,Online store for ceramic tiles by e-Ceramica group." he said. "Whether it's leaks or problems with drainage, everything leads to something expensive with your foundation or with wood that molds or rots."

Gutters, he said, work well to protect the house from water, "but then we foolishly don't clean them or don't extend them far away from the house so water keeps away from the foundation."

The first step toward showing your gutters a little love is buying an umbrella.

"When it's raining, walk around and see if the water's draining properly, or if it's pooling around the house," Gladstone said.

Whatever the source of water, Gladstone added, look for drips or streams from the gutter or behind it.

Gutters often pull away from the house when they are filled with snow or ice, so if you notice a gap, you will likely find nails protruding an inch or more from the gutter's edge.

Next, inspect the bottom of each downspout. You will typically find a curved piece of aluminum on the ground nearby.

"Those downspouts come off for any reason," Sullivan said. "You might hit it with the lawn mower, or the kids might knock into it. But then water collects around the foundation and you can do tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage."

Beneath each downspout there is usually a splashblock, a wedge of concrete or plastic that diverts water farther from the foundation.

Inspect yours to make sure they're doing their job; replace any broken ones. Your basement sump pump may live a little longer as a result.

The gutters are more complicated, especially for people with multilevel homes and little comfort with extension ladders.

You can usually reach lower gutters with a stepladder, but no matter what type of ladder you use or how high your roof, it helps to have a few key items arrayed at the bottom.

Start with a stick, preferably 4 to 5 feet long.

When you get close enough to the gutter, rap it with the stick and watch for wasps. If they appear, descend to fetch a can of hornet and wasp spray (Real-Kill Wasp & Hornet Killer, $2.50).

Once the pests are gone, clean out the gutter with a scoop or a gloved hand. (Watch for sharp edges.)

Next, if your gutters are loose,Heat recovery ventilators including domestic home Ventilation system. Sullivan advises replacing the nails with long screws (7-inch gutter screws from Amerimax, $11 for a package of 10) that won't pull away from the fascia. Use a cordless screwdriver or drill to save your sanity.

If you are near the downspout, insert a strainer (the one from Amerimax is $2.30) at the top, to keep leaves from forming a dam.

As you move across, look for small creases or tears, which you'll fill with sealer (Seamer Mate,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? $3 for a 1-ounce tube).

At this point, you may choose to install one of the many types of gutter covers on the market. The old-school version is a length of wire mesh, but those now come with a lip that slides easily beneath shingles, and smoother mesh that doesn't snag leaves (Amerimax Snap-In cover, $2.10 for a 4-foot length).

A newer innovation is a solid cover (Solid Gutter Cover from Amerimax, $4 for a 4-foot length) with a narrow overhang and slots underneath. Water clings to the surface and flows through those slots into the gutter, while the cover keeps leaves out. Sullivan lauded this approach.

NATO invites Pakistan to summit in Chicago

NATO on Tuesday invited Pakistan's president to the upcoming Chicago summit on Afghanistan, the strongest sign yet that Islamabad is ready to reopen its western border to U.S. and NATO military supplies heading to the war in the neighboring country.

Pakistan blocked the routes in November after American airstrikes killed 24 of its troops on the Afghan border. The attack sent ties between Washington and Islamabad to new lows, threatening regional cooperation needed for negotiating an end to the Afghan war.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET.

The developments signal something of a rapprochement between the two countries, but tensions are likely to bedevil what has long been a brittle relationship, scarred by mistrust on both sides. Many in Washington believe Pakistan is supporting the Taliban, making the Afghan War unwinnable.

The U.S. expressed regret for the airstrikes and has been quietly pressing Pakistan to reopen the routes over the last two weeks. Washington and NATO stepped up those efforts in recent days, and officials had said Islamabad would not be welcome at the two-day summit beginning Sunday in Chicago unless it did so.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen phoned President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday afternoon to invite him to the meeting, according to a statement from the Pakistan government and NATO.

"This meeting will underline the strong commitment of the international community to the people of Afghanistan and to its future," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in Brussels, where the alliance is based. "Pakistan has an important role to play in that future.Renowned crystal mosaic Supplier and Exporter in China."

In Islamabad, Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president would consider the invitation.

Pakistani civilian and military leaders later met to discuss the possibility of lifting the supply line blockade. In a statement, the Cabinet's defense committee endorsed the invitation to Chicago, suggesting that Zardari would accept it.

It stopped short of saying the supply routes would be immediately reopened but said that talks with the U.S. and NATO over the resumption should be "concluded.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats." The full Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was cautious, saying U.S. and Pakistani officials were still negotiating in Islamabad on reopening NATO supply routes. She said a deal before next week's NATO summit would be a "wonderful signal," but that the alliance decided that Pakistan should participate regardless of whether an agreement is finalized.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. was hopeful that "in the very near future" the lines would reopen.

Pakistan sought to use the deadly American air strikes in November to extract new terms from the United States in what has always been a tense and largely transactional relationship. Noone expected the blockade to be permanent, so the main question became what concessions Islamabad could receive for reopening them.

The government has said it wants more money from the U.S. and NATO for hosting the supply routes, something Washington has indicated it could do.

The country's parliament also demanded an apology from Washington for the border incident and an end to America's drone strike campaign against militants in northwestern Pakistan, but neither appears likely, U.S. officials say. Negotiators from both countries have been discussing the drone strikes, which are unpopular in Pakistan,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. but Washington has said it will not stop them because they are vital to keeping al-Qaida on the defensive.

The defense committee only said the country "would remain engaged" with the United States on the question of an apology and the cessation of drone attacks.

By maintaining the blockade, Pakistan's teetering economy risked missing out on millions of dollars in international development and loans, as well military aid. It was also facing the prospect of being left out of discussions on the future of Afghanistan.

The blockade forced NATO to reorient its logistics chain to more expensive routes across Russia and Central Asia. While the war effort has not suffered, the Pakistani routes will be more important in coming months as NATO begins to pull out of Afghanistan, with a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops.

Pakistan has some bargaining power of its own because its cooperation is seen as important to striking a peace deal with the Taliban and their allies in Afghanistan that would allow foreign troops to withdraw without sending the nation into further chaos.Factory direct stone mosaic featuring marble mosaic floors.

The weak government risks some backlash from nationalist and Islamist groups, as well as militants, by reopening the supply lines. But the powerful army, which has influence over much of the country's media and some of its most firebrand politicians and clerics, is likely to tamp down the outrage.

More than 50 heads of state will attend the meeting in Chicago, including President Barack Obama who will be speaking in his hometown.

Trends in Senior Living

A senior living community is not just a collection of corridors, apartments and public spaces, all geared to levels of care needed; it is a microcosm of society. Consider the current categories of senior living facilities: independent living apartments, assisted living with and without memory care, skilled nursing, and continuing care retirement communities that include all of the above. There are also senior centers and senior day care facilities. And that is just today, or possibly yesterday.

Senior living communities contain as many types of areas as you would find on a college campus or in a small city: dining rooms (formal,Renowned crystal mosaic Supplier and Exporter in China. casual, bistros and cafes, possibly a pub), gift shops, beauty salons, spas and wellness centers, physical therapy facilities,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. fitness areas, and spaces for fun activities such as billiards, arts & crafts, and often an auditorium or atrium for concerts and speakers. Staff areas are also part of the mix, including nursing offices and stations, administration areas, meeting rooms and training rooms.

The options for senior living are not just growing but they’re also changing; new forms of senior housing and community will be part of our future.

The Culture Change movement was started 13 years ago with a goal of improving the quality of life for residents in all settings where aging services are delivered. The initial mission was to de-institutionalize long-term care and make these facilities more like home. In Culture Change, quality of care and quality of life are inseparable and equally important.

In addition, Culture Change puts more focus on the wellness aspect of health. Residents are encouraged to have a full life with care, programming and space design. Functions such as meditation gardens and other outdoor areas are routinely included. College courses are often available.

Many skilled nursing facilities have rearranged from much larger units that share a common dining area to households of a small group of residents who have their own dining and living spaces; this is termed the Household Approach. Open “country kitchens” are used in many of these facilities to provide the ambience of home.

The Green House Project is a de-institutionalization effort designed to restore individuals to a home in the community by combining small homes with six to ten residents living as a family. Each home has a small number of dedicated caregivers. The Green House concept has spread to over 100 Green House homes operating on 43 campuses in 27 states. This same style of housing is called by other names, Small Houses, for example. Currently in Georgia, there is a Small House being built in Columbus, and a Green House in the planning stages for Augusta.

People nearing retirement seem to be considering two directions as they look at the options.Factory direct stone mosaic featuring marble mosaic floors. One would be to enter a retirement early, possibly with friends, and enjoy the amenities, community and security. The other direction,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. appealing to a somewhat larger group, would be to age in place with the help of universal design.

One viable way to age in place is to become part of a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC). A NORC is a community or neighborhood where residents remain for years and age as neighbors. This designation may refer to a specific apartment building or a street of single-family homes. Some 27% of seniors live in NORCs.

Seniors who age in NORCs may eventually need care. The result of the trend towards aging in place is that assisted living with memory care or possibly skilled nursing levels will be the entry points into senior living facilities for many people. The average age for entering a facility is late 80s to early 90s.

Senior living does not just mean one product type. Many flooring products will be needed to address all the types of communities and spaces involved. And with the trend toward aging in place,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. there will be opportunities for new types of flooring for residential settings as well.

It is important to develop an understanding of the issues of aging to create products appropriate for elders. To begin, the product designer must listen to the customer. It is a truism to say that great design comes from listening to the customers’ needs. This is key in the senior living market. All stakeholders have important input into the process.

The most successful projects are ones where the design process is a conduit to express the mission of the organization. Responding to positive feedback on the Willson Hospice House, an award winning respite center in Albany, Georgia, architect Ila Burdette of Perkins+Will put it this way: “The staff did a great job. Our job is to give them an environment to do what they do well.”

Topological insulator shows promise for new class of room-temperature electronics

In the search for new materials with improved electrical conductivity, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have found what appears to be a promising candidate—at least on the surface. New experiments show that electrons on the surface of this so-called topological insulator are "protected" from two kinds of scattering that can potentially interfere with the flow of electric current, even at relatively "warm" room temperatures,Let us find you the best ceramic tiles suppliers around you. where the flow of electricity was expected to break down.

"This protection from backscattering means these materials could potentially carry electrical currents across their surfaces without dissipation,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mold." said Brookhaven physicist Tonica Valla, lead author on a paper describing the new findings published online in Physical Review Letters. "If the bulk material behaved as its name implies it should—that is, as an insulator—we'd be able to make very efficient room-temperature electronic devices with these materials."

Unfortunately, due to problems with how the materials are synthesized, the bulk versions tend to be conductors of the traditional kind, where electrons lose a large portion of their energy through heat-producing interactions as they move through the structure.

"We'd like to eliminate the flow of electrons through the material's interior, and get a better grasp on the unusual abilities of the surface electrons, to see if we can design new materials that take advantage of the exotic surface properties," Valla said.

Scattering of electrons can limit a material's electrical conductivity in two ways. At low temperatures, electrons scatter as they interact with imperfections in the crystalline structure. Previous studies have shown that surface electrons in the new class of materials called topological insulators are "protected" from this kind of scattering: When electrons hit an impurity, they don't bounce back but run through it, so that there is no degradation of the electrical current.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

The protection comes from a property called "spin," which is an intrinsic property like a particle's mass and charge. On the surface of a topological insulator,TeleTracking has developed the most advanced rtls for real-time. the electrons moving in one direction have the opposite spin from the electrons moving in the opposite direction. If they hit a defect, they cannot just bounce back, as that would require also flipping the spin to match the spin of the other electrons flowing in the opposite direction. Flipping the spin would require a change in the magnetic moment at the barrier; without a magnetic change, there's no flip of spin, and a U-turn is forbidden.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.

This resistance to backscattering could potentially make these materials ideal candidates for electronic applications—except that at higher temperatures, where real-world devices would be used, scientists expected that increasing vibrations in the crystalline lattice (atoms vibrate as they warm up) would cause a different kind of electron scattering. Collisions between electrons and the lattice vibrations, known as phonons, would cause energy dissipation and losses in the conventional way, they thought.

But no one had studied these higher-temperature electronic interactions, until now.

Valla's team used a technique called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source and at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to directly measure electron scattering rates in a topological insulator at a range of temperatures. The method bombards the material with beams of light and analyzes the energy spectrum of electrons emitted from the sample.

These measurements revealed that electrons on the surface of topological insulators are also "protected" from scattering on lattice vibrations.

Apartment dwellers

Apartment dwellers,TeleTracking has developed the most advanced rtls for real-time.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. how's the air in there?

On the list of life's major concerns, the state of our homes' indoor air quality doesn't seem to rank highly ... but perhaps it should. Apartment dwellers seem to care more about indoor air quality than owners of single-family homes—but can have a funny way of showing it.

These are among the conclusions of a 1,000-household, nationally representative survey recently commissioned by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. That survey also inspired our report on indoor air quality, "Is your home making you sick?" plus new tests of air purifiers and dehumidifiers.

More renters than homeowners had someone in the household with asthma or emphysema. Apartment renters were significantly more concerned about health threats posed by poor indoor air quality, with 16 percent more respondents considering it at least somewhat serious than did single-family homeowners. Half of homeowners, in fact, dismissed health threats related to indoor air quality as not at all serious.

Far fewer renters had a pet, though lease terms sometimes prohibit owning dogs or cats. And 14 percent more apartment renters than homeowners were very concerned about potentially harmful chemicals in their cleaning products.

"It's possible that because some renters live very close to their neighbors, they worry not only about themselves but also what their neighbors are doing that might impact their safety," said Elissa Schuler-Adair,Visit TE online for all of your Application Tooling Solutions including tools. Ph.D.Capture the look and feel of real stone or Ceramic tile flooring with Alterna by Armstrong., a manager of survey research at the Consumer Reports National Research Center. "Over 40 percent of renters said they were very concerned about exposure to indoor air pollutants from neighboring dwellings."

But the apartment renters in our survey also comprised a mixed bag. While renters seemed at least as concerned about carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless killer, as homeowners, 10 percent more rental apartments than single-family homes had a smoker. Carbon monoxide is among the myriad harmful chemicals present in tobacco smoke.

Apartment dwellers, though relatively concerned about what's in their cleaning products, were more apt to burn incense or candles than homeowners. (The soot and particles from these can trigger asthma attacks and allergic reactions.Find Plastic moulds companies from India.) Apartment renters in our survey were also less apt to dust and vacuum on a weekly basis.

If someone in your home suffers from asthma, allergies, or related respiratory illness, here are some ways to reduce the level of allergens in your home. And if you're one of the nearly 40 percent of apartment renters who expressed concerns about cleaners, you can watch our video guide to spring cleaning and read recipes for non-toxic cleaners.

Ceramic tile care and maintenance advice

Ceramic tile care and maintenance begins as soon as the tiles are installed. The very first step should be to seal the grout in your tiles. Sealing will not only repel water, but help prevent staining and tracking of grout dust through the rest of the house. Grout sealer can be found in the flooring section of your hardware store. Thoroughly vacuum any dust from the tiles before sealing. Use a sponge brush to paint the grout lines and let the sealer stand for about three minutes, then wipe with clear water. Apply at least two coats, waiting thirty minutes between each coat.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. Allow the sealer to cure for 24 hours before soaking, 12 hours before walking on it. Applying a coat of sealer once a year after the initial coats will keep your grout looking fresh and cut down on cleaning.

When cleaning for the first time after installation, there may be a whitish film caused by the grouting of your tiles. This film can be removed by scrubbing with muriatic acid, which can be found in your hardware store. Mix one part muriatic acid with ten parts water and scrub with a cloth. Rinse very well with clean water. If muriatic acid is left on the tiles, it will continue to leach lime from the grout and cause the whitish film to return.

Every day cleaning can be done with a damp mop to maintain shine. However,Capture the look and feel of real stone or Ceramic tile flooring with Alterna by Armstrong. if you feel the need to clean and disinfect you should use a mixture of cup low-sudsing cleaner (usually any commercial floor cleaner is low-sudsing), 1-2 tablespoons of tri-sodium phosphate, and 1 gallon of water. Damp mop the area and rinse well with clean water. An easier alternative to this would be to rent or buy an electric floor polisher-scrubber that will leave your floor clean and shining.
A mixture of chlorine bleach and water can be used to clean particularly stubborn grout.Alfa plast mould is Plastic Mould Manufacturer. Allow the mixture to sit on the grout for about 20 minutes then mop the floor, rinse thoroughly, and wipe dry to maintain shine.TeleTracking has developed the most advanced rtls for real-time. You made need to let the mixture sit longer or repeat the process if the grout is not as clean as you want it to be. Once you have achieved the desired look, waxing may be a good option for protecting your clean grout. However,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. choose your wax carefully as it may leave streaks on the surface of your tiles.

Soap scum, mildew, and hard water build up will be difficult to remove and need special attention when cleaning. The simplest method of removal would be to use a commercial product designed for that purpose. Alternatively, soap scum can be removed with 1-2 tablespoons of tri-sodium phosphate in one gallon of hot water, and then rinsed well. Mildew can be removed with diluted solution of bleach and water, according to the directions on the label. Hard water build up is best cleaned with a commercial cleanser.

Occasionally stains form in showers that have not been cleaned in a while due to a combination of body oils and soap scum. Apply liquid laundry detergent to the stain and allow it to sit for at least two hours, longer if necessary. Clean with water and rinse well.

All of these care tips refer to glazed ceramic tile. When cleaning glazed ceramic tile, do not use abrasive cleaners or harsh scrub pads that might scratch the tile. Vinegar and hydrogen peroxide are good alternatives for harsh cleaners because they are naturally acidic and less expensive. Unglazed tile is porous and requires more careful cleaning in order not to damage the surface. Do not use acidic cleaners or excessive water on unglazed tiles. Clean up any spills as soon as possible to avoid staining. Everyday maintenance is easily done with a vacuum or dust mop, but if deeper cleaning is needed use a mild, colorless cleaner diluted with water. Wring out the mop or rag so that it is damp, not dripping. Finishing and refinishing unglazed tiles is best done by a professional because of the porous nature of the tiles.

If you have cleaned and cleaned your tiles, but the grout is still dingy and gross, you may want to consider re-grouting your tiles. To begin, you will need to remove the old grout with a grout saw, which can be found in your hardware store and is inexpensive. The saw consists of a blade on a plastic handle. To use it, press it firmly into the grout joints and make two or three passes to remove old grout. Be careful not to slip and scratch the tile. Sometimes you will need to remove all of the grout, but there is usually clean, solid grout under the damaged portions and this can be left in the joints. Use a utility knife to cut around any caulked edges and pull out the old caulking. Once you have cleaned the joints, use a heavy duty vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess and remove excess dust.

Balvenie Rare Craft Roadshow Hits Nashville

Yeah, sometimes this job of being a spirits writer doesn't exactly stink. Recently I got to spend a morning tooling around with Nicholas Pollacchi,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Molding manufacture. brand ambassador for The Balvenie Scotch, in a handcrafted wooden British car known as a Morgan. Pollacchi was in town as part of The Balvenie's Rare Craft Roadshow, a program where representatives of the famous distillery crisscross the country meeting and interviewing local craftspeople who share their dedication to artisan design. After the trip is over, The Balvenie will grant fellowships to several of the craftspeople to further their work, and one lucky winner will be selected to fly to Scotland and learn how to craft scotch the Balvenie way.

On their Nashville stop, the crew visited Suite 129 of Marathon Village, where tie and hat maker Otis James and leather goods fabricator Emil Congdon of Emil Erwin have set up shop together to share their creative energy.TeleTracking has developed the most advanced rtls for real-time. It was fascinating to hear Pollacchi draw very apt comparisons between the craft of Scotch whisky and James and Congdon's artistic visions. The craftsmen swapped stories and took photographs of the process and products coming out of Suite 129, and even took some fun shots (photographic,Get your own third party payment gateway account. not alcoholic) posing in front of the low-slung head-turner of a car.

The Balvenie is a very appropriate curator of this recognition program, since their Scotch whisky is regarded as ranking among the finest crafted liquor products in the world. Established in 1893 in Speyside, Scotland, The Balvenie is one of only two remaining single-malt scotch manufacturers still owned by the original founding family, the other being their nearby neighbor The Glenfiddich. In fact, of 103 single-malt distilleries, only five are still family-owned at all; the rest having been gobbled up by various conglomerates.

Pollacchi remarked that the best thing about being family-owned is that the board is made up of people who make decisions based on liquid, not money.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. WIth kin instead of accountants running the company, they realize their actions should be based on their grandkids' best interests instead of next quarter's numbers. Which is a good thing considering that some of their product won't be bottled until 40 years after it leaves the still.

The company grows its own barley on a 1,200-acre farm, and then floor-malts the barley in house. That means they literally turn the piles of grain with a fork until it reaches just the proper muskiness to flavor their liquors. They've had the same coppersmith lovingly tending to all the distillery equipment for 54 years, and also employ an in-house cooper to make their barrels. Well actually, they buy bourbon and sherry casks and then break them down so that they can choose specific staves by hand, which they then reassemble into casks. Finally, they depend on their longtime malt master,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. Davis Stewart, to nose every barrel in their warehouses throughout the liquid's life span to determine which product it should be used for and when it should be released. Stewart signs every bottle of The Balvenie himself.

As you can imagine with all this hands-on care and the amount of time that goes into crafting such a fine scotch, The Balvenie is not cheap stuff. But the results of their efforts are extraordinary and worth seeking out. I tasted through some of their North American portfolio and found some real winners.

'11 suicides heighten concerns

Crystal Hachey was waiting for the cable guy when the first man jumped to his death.

It was the morning of Jan. 4, 2011, and Hachey recently had moved into a 10th-floor unit at Summit Towers,Let us find you the best ceramic tiles suppliers around you. the government-subsidized apartment building on Locust Street.

When she heard a noise outside the door, she assumed it was the cable company, but when she opened it, she saw a man in black shorts and a yellow shirt, climbing out of the hall window.

His foot got caught in the strings of the blinds, she said later, but he wriggled free, held onto the ledge, then let go. He didn't say a word before falling 83 feet.

"If you looked at his eyes, it looked like he was already gone," Hachey recalled.

John Acree's death was a tragedy, and it was also unusual.

In recent years, only a tiny fraction of the Tennesseans who committed suicide have done so by jumping or putting themselves in the path of moving objects.Muyoung mould specializes in manufacture Plastic molding.

In 2011, though, Summit Towers was a shocking exception. Acree was the first of three men who would fall to their deaths from the apartment building, and according to police reports at least two more residents committed suicide by other methods.

The string of suicides cast ripples through the state's mental health community and through the building's remaining residents, many of whom were dealing with trials of their own.After Acree's death, Hachey — who suffers from a form of bipolar disorder — said she was scared every time she heard someone outside her door. She stayed in the building for only a few months and described it as a lonely place. "I was really sad when I lived there," she said.

Summit Towers has 277 apartment units and more than 300 residents, approximately two-thirds of whom are either mentally or physically disabled. Rent rates are based on each tenant's income, and residents pay anywhere from $25 a month to — in at least one case — more than $600 a month, with utilities included.

According to his brother, John Acree was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia around 1980. Joseph Acree said that after college his younger brother had worked as a teacher in California but later moved back to Tennessee. Over the course of 30 years, Acree said his brother's condition worsened, mainly when he stopped taking his medication. He was dirty, delusional about relationships and his family would sometimes call the police when he ran off.

"There was a long history of that," said Joseph Acree. "He did that a lot."

Joseph Acree said he helped his brother move into Summit Towers in 2005, after about six months in which the two lived together. Joseph Acree said he liked the building's concierge service — a woman who would help residents with daily needs — but said things changed over the years.

In particular, he said the building went downhill after a bedbug infestation forced the ownership to take eradication measures in the apartments. Some residents, he said, had to throw their furniture away, and on visits he would sometimes see piles of mattresses and furniture in the back parking lot.

Acree said Summit staffers became more hard-nosed about everything. His brother had to submit certain paperwork because of his Social Security income, Acree said, and the management would be sticklers about the details.We are porcelain tiles specialists and are passionate about our product.

Already a difficult personality, John Acree didn't take well to those types of demands, or to the bedbug situation. Joseph Acree said he could sort of understand why the building management might be "a little PO'd" with his brother, but said he wished they had done more.

"They were just (a) real hard-ass with him, I think ... in a stupid kind of way," he said.Alfa plast mould is Plastic Mould Manufacturer. "And then ... what I'm kind of sympathetic with here is the unfortunate bug problem. There's no good way to deal with that. He was just stuck with it."

Bill Acree, another of John Acree's brothers, took a more sympathetic approach, saying the management at Summit Towers had actually cut John some breaks when he broke the rules, and even let him stay when he was late with his rent.

"Where would these people go if it wasn't for a place like that?" he said. "It's a very sad situation. (The management) did try to help within what they could, I think."