Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Use Airtel Money To Make Payments & Transfer Money In Gujarat

Transferring money, paying utility bills, everyday shopping and buying movie tickets – all this and more is now possible the easier way! Bharti Airtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL), today announced the pan India launch of airtel money – the country’s first of its kind mobile wallet service by a mobile operator. Now available across 300 key cities in India - airtel money is a fast, simple and secure service that allows its users to load cash on their mobile devices and spend it to pay utility bills and recharges, shop at 7000+ merchant outlets,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, transact online etc.We offer offshore merchant account,

Apart from serving as an easy alternative to cash / card payment options, airtel money is also the first mobile based service to offer customers the convenience of instant money transfer to prepaid wallets and bank accounts. With this, customers in Gujarat can now use airtel money to make payments and transfer money across the country - at anytime, anywhere!

The national availability of airtel money follows the success of service’s first phase of launch in Delhi NCR and Chennai in 2011. Commenting on the rollout, Mr Anant Arora, CEO – Gujarat, Bharti Airtel said, “Whether buying groceries, shopping in a mall or eating out with friends – more than 90% of India’s population relies on cash to pay for its daily needs. With changing times, this trend shifted towards the use of credit and debit cards – while money transfer continues to dependent upon the speed of remittance through methods like money orders and cheques. The national rollout of airtel money will fulfil a much required need in the marketplace for a mobile-based wallet service that provides customers with the ability to transact and transfer money at the press of a button. We are confident that our customers across [Gujarat] will see great convenience in subscribing to airtel money – a simple and secure alternative to cash and card based transactions”.

In Gujarat, Airtel has already established partnerships with over 200 merchants including, Torrent power, Adani gas, Gwalia sweets, Deepkala – CG Road, Rajwadu, Eagle Travels, Royal Express,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, Cream and Crust, Newyork city- a garment shop who are now accepting payments via airtel money. What’s more - customers using airtel money will be able to avail exclusive discounts and attractive offers at various merchant outlets in the market – and save money as they shop!

Airtel mobile customers can self register for airtel money Express Account by dialling *400# from their mobile phones or sign up for the service by walking into any of the 15,000 plus airtel money outlets across the top 300 cities of India and submitting the required KYC documents.
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For airtel money Power Accounts, Airtel has established merchant partnerships with over 1,800 brands across the country – this includes utility providers viz. BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, Reliance Energy, Indraprastha Gas, Tata Power Company Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, telecom and insurance , movie theatres ,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, organized retailers as well as local chemists and grocery stores who will now accept payments via airtel money, thereby ushering a new era in the world of electronic payments.

Additionally, airtel money will work as a convenient payment alternative to debit and credit cards in days to come for online transactions on popular websites like Flipkart, Yatra, Letsbuy and even www.airtel.in. What’s more - customers using airtel money will be able to avail exclusive discounts and attractive offers at various merchant outlets in the market – and save money as they shop!

Treasure in a bottle

Tyler Delay recently learned he is one of the top-selling vendors at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria.

Tyler sells his product, “A Message in a Bottle,” wholesale to the Columbia River Maritime and the Oregon Maritime museums’ gift shops, as well as to a handful of other souvenir and gift shops along the north Oregon coast.

Tyler, 14, attends Hilda Lahti Elementary/Middle School in Knappa. He started his business four years ago when he joined the Young Entrepreneurs Club/Biz Kidz program sponsored by 4-H and the Astoria Sunday Market.

His product is a small plastic bottle with a scroll of paper inside that can be sent by mail to a friend or loved one. “I thought it would be good to come up with an idea that would go with the theme of Astoria and sell to tourists,” Tyler said.

He has incorporated a pirate theme into his display. When he sold at the markets, he would lay some of the bottles in a plastic treasure chest filled with strings of shiny beads.

He has sold his product at the cruise ship markets, the Astoria Sunday Market and directly to retailers.

His mother, Lindsay Delay, said she’s seen Tyler grow in his abilities over the past four years. “He learned the more you talk, the more money you make,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,” she said.

“Since I started out, I was really shy,” said Tyler.
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But it didn’t take him long to realize that the other kids at the market were more successful at encouraging customers to buy. “I eventually learned that if I wanted to sell the product and make good money, I’d have to talk to people,” he said.

His most memorable sale was to a cruise ship passenger who wrote a marriage proposal on the scroll, slipped a toy ring into the bottle and mailed it home, where it would be waiting for his girlfriend when the cruise was over. Later,Silicone Mold Making Rubber, Tyler received an email telling him that she replied yes.

Overcoming shyness has spilled over into the rest of Tyler’s life, said his mother. He is doing better in school, at sports and with friends.

“He’s going to be so successful, now that he’s learned to use the mouth he inherited from his mother,” Lindsay said.

And Tyler has also learned how to manufacture his product more efficiently.

In the beginning,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, he would singe the edges of the paper scroll. It took considerable time and care to ensure he did it right. “He learned you burn through supplies quickly if you make mistakes,” Lindsay said.

During the tourist season, Tyler and Lindsay were spending hours each week processing the scrolls.

Now, he prints two scrolls on an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper, makes one cut down the middle, rolls the scrolls and secures them with a rubber band – which brings us to his next challenge: The size of the rubber band matters, a lot.

Tyler learned that if he didn’t use a smaller rubber band, his scrolls would ease open a bit inside the bottle, making them nearly impossible to remove.

Putting labels on the bottles also proved to be a frustrating endeavor early on. It was difficult to get the label on the bottles straight. And if a label was crooked, there was no way to reposition it on the bottle.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,

So he began lining the label up with a seam on the plastic bottle. Now, his bottles look uniform and professional in their tiered display.

Tyler said now he can put together an order of 36 bottles in less than an hour. Each bottle retails for about $6.

“He’s a pro now,” Lindsay said. “He just puts his iPod on,” flips a new bottle out of the box and gets to work. “It’s such a relief to me to be hands-off now,” she said.

With the profits from his business and the animals he raises for auction, Tyler has been able to pay all of his 4-H expenses and to sponsor a friend who wanted to participate in the 4-H animal auctions. He bought his friend a market hog and market steer, and enough feed to get started.

He also has been able to buy plane tickets for several trips to Sacramento, Calif., to visit his cousin, Taylor,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, who he considers like a brother.

“He’s been pretty self-sufficient,” said Lindsay, “which is helping, because Mom and Dad are feeling the pinch like everyone else.”

Tyler’s goal for this year is to broaden the market for his product. “Just the main thing is to get online selling and get into more gift shops,” he said.

“He would love to grow this thing to a million dollars,” Lindsay said. “Mom has to keep it wrangled in … He needs to have a kid life, too.”

Conjunctivitis makes citizens see red early

The change in weather has brought a host of ailments to the city, and the latest scourge plaguing Mumbaikars is conjunctivitis or the 'pink eye' . Ophthalmologists say that temperature differences-especially between day and night-is perfect for viruses to thrive, resulting in not just the usual cough, cold and runny nose, but also sore eyes with itching.

Although conjunctivitis is common during the hot summer months of April and May, general practitioners and hospitals have already started treating patients for swollen eyes, watery discharge and redness-all classic symptoms of conjunctivitis . "We are seeing quite a few conjunctivitis cases.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. This always happens when the temperature rises," said Dr Ragini Parikh, head of ophthalmology department at the state-run JJ Hospital.

Dr Kavita Rao, cornea consultant at Aditya Jyot Hospital in Wadala, said that the viruses strike when a person's immunity levels are down. She treats around three-five patients every day, but the number is likely to rise in the coming weeks.
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"This is a transitional phase of two seasons. At this time, just as cough and cold cases increase, so do those of conjunctivitis," she said, adding that a bout of conjunctivitis may follow after an upper respiratory tract infection from the cough/cold secretions. "These secretions can affect the cornea also. Unhygienic habits tend to help the viruses spread infection in more than one part of the body," she said.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,

Dr Phiroze Patel, ophthalmologist at Jaslok Hospital noted that while a change in temperature may cause congestion , irritation or burning in the eye, it may not be conjunctivitis . Nevertheless, students , who are in the midst of their final and board exams, need to be careful "Excess use of computers, along with study strain may be causing headaches and blurred vision. But after their exams, everything settles down.Silicone Mold Making Rubber, So children just need to take care of their eyes and maintain general hygiene," he said.

Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctivae-the mucous membranes covering the white of the eyes and the inner side of the eyelids .Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, According to many doctors , patients are suffering mostly from viral conjunctivitis , which can spread rapidly between people.

The best way to curb the spread of the infection is to maintain personal hygiene.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, "When one eye is infected, avoid touching the other eye as the infection can spread," said Dr Rao. City doctors have also advised patients against self medication.

New credit-card style driving licence revealed

The design for the new Irish driving licence has been revealed.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats,

The plastic credit-card style licence, which will replace the familiar paper one, is to be introduced for all new licences issued from next January.

The design will be the same as the one used for driving licences in Finland, and is the same pink tone as the existing full Irish licence.Bathroom Floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles.

It will feature the driver's name and date of birth, their photo, signature and any restrictions or endorsements such as the need to wear glasses and any penalty points accrued.

European law requires all Member States to introduce a plastic card model by next January, and the Irish one will come into force on the 19 January 2013.

The European legislation includes an option to feature the driver's address on the licence but the Department of Transport opted not to do this for security and logistical reasons.

Later versions of the card are likely to include a micro-chip which could be used to store other information.

Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar said consideration was given to incorporating the new Public Services Card into the new driving licence but that the European legislation did not allow for that.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,
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Mr Varadkar also said he was holding talks with airlines about their accepting the new style licence as valid identification for air travel.

Currently Ryanair does not accept Irish driving licences as identification and Aer Lingus only accepts them for flights within Ireland or to the UK.

Once this new form of licence is introduced, the old paper style will no longer be issued, but they will be still valid.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, However any driver can trade in their old model for the new one before their renewal date for a fee which has yet to be decided.

The new licences will be issued centrally by the Road Safety Authority rather than by individual motor taxation offices as is currently the case. However people will still be able to purchase the licence in person at motor tax offices and perhaps even at post offices.

The Minister said this would mean only about 60 people would be required to issue the new licences rather than the 200 currently needed for the paper ones.Silicone Mold Making Rubber, He said this would allow those extra staff to be redeployed to other frontline service areas.

A tender process is currently underway to find a company to develop and operate a Plastic Card Delivery Unit which will produce the polycarbonate driving licences and learner permits ready for their introduction next January.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Nine-year-old can solve Rubik’s puzzle in seconds

IT’S a puzzle which has left most people stumped for almost 40 years.

But nine-year-old Darrin McDonald can solve the Rubik’s Cube no problem – and it only takes him around 90 seconds.Buying solar panel and want the Best Price?

The youngster is such a natural at the puzzle that he has also solved a larger version – which has five squares down each side rather than three – though that takes him around an hour.
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He’s also mastered a 15-sided pentagonal version and is now working on the seven-square cube.

Darrin, from Chesser, said he had started out with the regular cube.

“I got that about a year ago,” he said. “It was a present from my mum’s boyfriend.Find out the facts about Cold Sore, For the first one I used YouTube to work it out, but after that I started trying to figure them out myself and I moved on to the next one and the next one.

“I don’t know why I’m good at it. Everyone was really surprised when I brought it into school and I showed them, I felt nervous, but proud too.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Darrin’s favourite subject at school is maths – but he’s not your archetypal studious puzzler and is more likely to be found getting up to mischief than asking for extra homework, according to class teacher, Chris Kelly.

He said: “It’s great, it’s absolutely terrific. I was just blown away, particularly with the 15-sided one. It’s particularly good with Darrin because he sometimes gets in a bit of trouble but it’s brilliant to recognise his talents – all children have talents in a range of different ways and this is one particular area where his talents are really shining.”

Darrin showed off his incredible skill to fellow pupils at Balgreen Primary in assembly, and has now become a tutor for classmates who want to follow in his footsteps.

“We have problem-solving hours on Tuesday and I teach a group of people, but they find it quite hard,” the youngster said.

His record for completing a standard cube from scratch is one minute and 39 seconds, achieved in school assembly, which puts him just a shade behind Labour leader Ed Milliband,Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chicken coop website! who famously boasted that he could solve the cube in 90 seconds.Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes,

He still needs a little practice until he can challenge the world record holder, however, after 17-year-old Feliks Zemdegs completed the cube in just 5.66 seconds at the Australia Melbourne Winter Open competition last year.

Mr Kelly said: “In class we’ve been focusing on problem-solving and thinking skills and how to apply that in lots of other areas.

“So then Darrin brought in his Rubik’s cube and showed it to us, so we started to celebrate that and it’s grown from that.

“He’s got a real talent for maths – a lot of kids don’t recognise they do have talents. Since we started celebrating his talents, his self-esteem has risen, and his ability to be more self-reflective on areas that he’s good at.”

'The Odd Couple' comes to Opera House

Stepping onto the set of “The Odd Couple,” one feels transported back to the 1960s. From the retro vacuum cleaner to the lime green over-stuffed chairs to the vintage air purifier acquired from someone’s basement, the idea is to keep the play as authentic as possible.

“Anything you do to change the original, it takes the power out of what the show is about,” said director Betsy Stemple, referring to the Tony Award-winning Neil Simon production.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

The original Broadway play spawned the creation of a TV show, movies and even a female stage version. Stemple, vocal director and co-producer of “Pirates of Penzance” is proud to take on “The Odd Couple” as her directorial debut.

“I love this script …. I’ve seen the play 12 times and wanted to put my hand to it to see what I could do,” she said.
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The TownSquare Players version is an unusual show in the sense that those involved are “stretching their gifts,” says the director. Megan Marshall, who played a starring role in “Pirates of Penzance,” will be debuting as a first-time producer.

“I’ve been thinking about getting more involved in the company for awhile,” she said. This is a good show in terms of being a straight play instead of a musical.”

The play challenges a few members of the eight-person cast as they move away from musicals and into new areas of acting.What causes TMJ pain?

The story centers on two best friends who become roommates after their marriages fail. Felix Unger and Oscar Madison have different ideas about how to keep house — Felix is a neat-freak newswriter and Oscar is a slovenly sportswriter — and soon they find they’re driving each other crazy. Other characters in the story include their poker friends Murray, Speed, Vinnie and Roy, as well as Cecily and Gwendolyn, the two British sisters who live upstairs.

“Every character is lovable in their own eccentric way,” said Stemple. “When we get a creative idea unexpectedly, it catches and flows,Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties, we do something fresh,Low prices on projector bulbs from Projector Lamp London UK. surprising, make ourselves laugh.”

This will be Lundstrom’s fourth production with the TownSquare Players.

“I get to make funny noises, act goofy, throw myself all over the stage …. I’m a big slob. The set is a lot like my real life,” said Lundstrom, on how he relates to his character Oscar.

“Tim wonders why I cast him as Felix,” said Stemple, laughing and nodding over at Vance, who is hungrily devouring a sandwich while dropping crumbs on the floor, appearing nothing like his fastidious character. “He’s usually cast in the romantic roles.”

Ward Green has played cops on previous occasions and loves how his character has both a light-hearted and serious side.

“And Betsy is the director,” he said. “Which is why I chose this play.”

Sheri Warren, formerly Sheri Storer , enjoys stepping into Gwendolyn’s shoes.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “When single, I didn’t do a lot of dating.”

Sheri married Chris Warren in December and both have roles in this production. How do they feel about sharing the limelight?

“Every married couple should be so lucky as to have their favorite thing to do in the world shared with their partner,” she said.

Despite the show being a comedy, there are some challenges.

“The many faces of Felix and Oscar … a lot of drama you have to keep from being really scary. You have to keep them honest … have to take a look, have a laugh, have humanity come out, but not at any point forget you’re being entertained,” said Stemple.

“It’s a challenge to always sound like we have the same British accent,” said Warren, referring to her on-stage sister Cecily.Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau.

“[My] biggest challenge is not doing an imitation of Walter Mathau,” said Lundstrom, speaking of the most popular movie version.

Whatever the challenges, it’s evident the cast members blend together delightfully and are having a lot of fun.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Obama Must Say 'Sorry' to Afghanistan and Pakistan

The killing of two U.S. military officers by a gunman inside Afghanistan's heavily guarded Interior Ministry on Saturday, part of an explosion of anti-American violence that has continued unabated despite a U.S. apology over the burning of Korans by U.S. troops, has complicated President Obama's plans to accelerate the NATO troop withdrawal and hand some operations over to the new Afghan army by mid-2013.

The challenge facing Obama is even more difficult, both strategically and politically, because his administration is preparing another apology to neighboring Pakistan over the errant NATO strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last fall. This statement was to have been delivered shortly by high-ranking U.S. military and civilian officials, most likely by Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two U.S. officials told National Journal.

The anti-American protests in Kabul have raged since early last week, when it was first reported that Korans and other religious materials had been thrown into a pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. At least 25 people have been killed,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. including two other U.S. soldiers. A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul told National Journal that the violence would not set back plans to begin handing over security to Afghan forces, despite the decision by Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. forces, to withdraw all NATO personnel from government ministries after the shootings on Saturday. Allen had previously apologized for the burning of the Korans.

"I don't think there's any discussion about this affecting transition," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Frankly our position is this was a careless act, but we've already apologized for it and we want to move on."

Whether the planned transition in Afghanistan is affected or not, the apologies over the Koran incident and the NATO strikes pose some political peril for Obama at home in an election year.Buy low price Aion Kinah, Republican presidential candidates have been regularly accusing Obama of appeasement and, as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has put it, "apologizing for America."

On Thursday, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who has grown increasingly immoderate in his statements as he has faded in the polls, called the U.S. apology to Afghan authorities over the burned Korans "astonishing'' and undeserved. Other Republicans have not joined in the criticism as yet. Neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Santorum's campaigns responded to requests from National Journal for comment on the killings of the officers on Saturday -- underscoring not only the distance those campaigns have put between their operations and Gingrich's but their reluctance to wade into the snarled issue of U.S.-NATO operations in Afghanistan.

As one senior congressional GOP adviser told National Journal Saturday: "The military made a mistake, even if there were radical sayings written in the Korans, we should have sought the help of a local cleric on how to dispose of them. It was a stupid mistake by our military that undercut the very essence of our strategy. When similarly unfortunate events occurred, President Bush apologized as well. There are a thousand things to criticize about the president's handling of two wars. But this ain't one of them." Just Choose PTMS Injection Mold Is Your Best Choice!

Whether Obama can escape similar criticism over the apology to Pakistan that his administration is quietly preparing remains to be seen.

The latter apology, linked to an official Pentagon investigation that partially blamed mistakes made by U.S. forces for the NATO incident, was put off indefinitely after the Koran incident, but U.S. officials say they still plan to deliver it in coming weeks.

The administration initially had refused to apologize for the NATO strikes. The White House, Pentagon and State Department rebuffed the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, early on when he pressed for an immediate apology following the Nov. 27 incident. But prodded by the new Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, the State Department resurrected the idea in recent weeks, and this time the White House and Pentagon signed off on it.

As one Defense Dept official put it this week, the administration realized that something had to be done to "try move past the rough patch" with Pakistan. Last month, Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, sent a top-secret cable to Washington concluding that Taliban havens in Pakistan were jeopardizing the success of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

With U.S.-Pakistan relations still roiled by the fatal NATO strikes and other disputes,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? especially the unilateral mission that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town last year, the administration has felt compelled to give Islamabad a face-saving way to resume normal ties.TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. The United States is pushing for talks with the Taliban ahead of a planned withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan that is to be completed in 2014. Recently the Afghan government and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani also called for negotiations with the Taliban.

But U.S. officials fear that without more assistance from Islamabad, the Taliban could exploit the American withdrawal from Afghanistan to wreak havoc from across the border. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are also tense following the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief peace negotiator and a former Afghan president himself, last September, allegedly by a Taliban suicide bomber. Kabul blamed Pakistan for the attack. Pakistan denied it,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds. but Islamabad has sought to support the Islamist group as a strategic asset.

Yorkshire trio need to quickly transform fortunes

It IS all about momentum – that is all they ever said.

The regular season is about building towards the promotion play-offs – was another line trotted out, week in, week out.

Time and again Diccon Edwards, Andre Bester and Brett Davey reached for the regular-season hymn sheet, climbed the stairs to the pulpit and began to preach.

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With a number of games meaningless, their focus has to be on the play-offs.

Yet as the regular season ends and the congregation turns its attention to the second and decisive phase of the RFU Championship season, it is time to ask just what momentum Yorkshire’s representatives have gained and how solid the foundations they have built over the last 22 games.

The answers are: not very much, and creaky.

Leeds Carnegie, Rotherham Titans and Doncaster Knights have finished the 12-team league portion of the season in sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

That equates to mid-table to lower mid-table.

If they were to repeat that feat next year under a new system the Rugby Football Union is considering, which would see only the top four teams contest the promotion play-offs and the bottom four the relegation post-season, the campaigns of the Yorkshire teams would be over. At the end of February.

There is little money below the Premiership as it is. The loss of gate receipts for the final two months could prove fatal.

That, alas, is an issue for another day.
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For the question of whether Yorkshire’s triumvirate have the ability to negotiate their way through the play-offs and towards promotion is the more pressing concern.

On the face of it, mid-table finishes in a traditional league campaign where every team has been played twice would suggest they are not good enough, and quite frankly, are not deserving of the reward of promotion.

And because of the points system in the play-offs, only Leeds go into the campaign with anything on the board; a solitary point for being the third-ranked team in their pool.

Rotherham and Doncaster have nothing, compared to the three and two points the top seeds will be starting with in less than a fortnight’s time.

How’s that for building blocks?

The question of whether they arrive at the post-season with momentum is equally sobering.

Leeds have been beaten in three of their last five games; Rotherham three times in their last four while Doncaster have ended the season with four straight defeats.

Leeds Carnegie are the most maddening.

Traditionally the side relegated from the Premiership is the powerhouse of the second tier.

The Headingley club won promotion at the first attempt in 2006-07 under Stuart Lancaster and in 2008-09 under Andy Key and Neil Back.

This season they have never looked like promotion material.

They lost four of their first five games under Edwards before a run of seven straight wins saw them threaten the top four.

The cobwebs had been shaken off at last – but it was not to be.

Mediocrity and inconsistency began to stalk a side built on the strength of loan players from the Premiership, whose sporadic absence since the turn of the year exposed the many holes in the Leeds squad.

Edwards placed his faith in the club’s admirable youth policy but the absence of maturity and experience in a number of key areas has been hard to make up.

Leeds remain the strongest of the Yorkshire candidates for promotion this season.

Yet few opponents will fear them, as they should a once-credible Premiership force.

On the flip side, Leeds are confident enough not to be too cautious, and will be aided by a pool that does not contain the division’s most physical sides.Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas.

Leeds know their opponents’ weaknesses, but similarly, any vulnerabilities they have will be exposed by equally aware opposition.

In this respect,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Edwards’s opposite number at Clifton Lane, Bester, will tell you he has been crafty.

Rotherham eviscerated eventual table-toppers Bristol in October in a stunning performance that will live long in the memory of Titans fans.

Bester’s side climbed to second in the autumn after a terrific run of victories, but the fact that it was only the Spring of a year-long campaign left a nagging doubt.

A place in the top four, and a significant advantage going into the play-offs,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. was Rotherham’s for the taking.

Yet once the 50-point mark was reached, Bester began switching his squad, fielding his reserves, blooding his fringe players.

The South African feared burn-out among his playing contingent, who had proved the measure of anyone they faced before the turn of the year.

He also sent weakened teams down for the return match at Bristol, not wanting to reveal his full hand in what amounted to a dead rubber, when they could meet the old Premiership warriors when it really mattered.

Rotherham have some momentum, and they will be feared by most clubs, particularly at a wind-swept Clifton Lane.

But last year’s post-season collapse is a memory that is hard to ignore.

When assessing Doncaster, a dose of pragmatism is required.

The Knights do not have the resources of Rotherham, let alone Leeds.

They train only part-time compared to the full-time programme at Clifton Lane and the professional operation of Leeds Carnegie.

Their head coach, Davey, like Edwards, is in his first season in a top job, but did not come from the RFU and Premiership environments in which Edwards was nurtured.

As eighth seeds, and in a pool with Bristol, they are long shots to reach the semi-finals.

Doncaster have shown the ability to ruffle feathers this season and have taken some notable scalps. If they can win a couple of consecutive games, then who knows?

But they won only three times away from Castle Park in the regular season.

The quirk of the second tier is that all that has gone before is rendered irrelevant over the next two months. Any of Yorkshire’s sides can transform their fortunes for the better.

Lessons on Food and the Other From "Annie Hall"

In the 1977 classic, “Annie Hall,” Jewish Alvy Singer sits down for dinner with Annie Hall’s (Diane Keaton) WASP family.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Alvy imagines that the Hall family views him as a Hasidic Jew. They have imprinted upon him their one misguided image of a Jew, regardless of what Alfie says, does, or eats.

This scene kept coming to mind when I was reading David M.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. Freidenreich’s “Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law.” Just as in the “Annie Hall” dinner scene, “Foreigners and Their Food” illustrates the way different religions project characteristics on the “other” in order to preserve their own sense of community or authority.

Despite its complex analysis of ancient religious prohibitions, “Foreigners and Their Food” is really about the simple act of breaking bread. In examining the laws regarding with whom we can and cannot share a challah loaf, Freidenreich seeks to answer the larger question of how we define “Us” and “Them” and, even more significantly, how we maintain this distinction over time.

Freidenreich analyzes food prohibitions regarding who is allowed to prepare and partake of our meals, a body of laws that might seem archaic to 21st Century Jews. The most orthodox and observant still adhere to the nuances of bishul akum, prohibitions on non-Jews’ involvement in cooking, but the vast majority of American Jews do not. Even among modern Jews who identify as kosher, few of us worry about the religion of the chef at Eden Wok who makes the General Tso’s chicken or the Kineret factory worker who molds the challah dough. If you refused to eat your 2nd Avenue Deli corned beef sandwich alongside a non-Jew, you’d be considered rudely insular, if not flat-out racist. Yet, these dietary restrictions were once one of the most discussed and debated issues among Jewish leaders, and they are Freidenreich’s prime focus.

The book has three separate parts to examine Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources on foreign food restrictions. Freidenreich applies a nuanced lens for examining an array of religious scholarship,We offer offshore merchant account, including the Mishnah, several church councils, and the different schools of legal thought within Sunni and Shia Islam. The emphasis is on the way the intellectual elite within each of these religious communities analyzed food laws to define a community identity.

I found the part on Christian sources ,“Defining Otherness,” to be the most engaging of the sections. Freidenreich shows how the early Christ-believing community, Hellenistic Jews themselves, reinterpreted the same Jewish food prohibitions to argue the illegitimacy of Judaism.
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Freidenreich carefully deconstructs how Christian theologians reinterpreted food prohibition as a way “to define Judaism as the very antithesis of Christianity.” Church elders argued that kashrut restrictions were imposed upon Jews not because they were chosen by god, but because god believed they were impure and needed constraints on their fleshy, carnal desires. The fact that Christians needed no such prohibitions was a sign of their inherent purity and holiness.

Religious authority was not the only issue at stake. The implicit recognition of cooking and eating as highly social acts with potential for intermingling is what fuels many of the seemingly inane intricacies of religious food prohibitions.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.

This fear of inter-religious meals makes sense if you recall any 1980s teen movie or your own high school experience. Remember how the cafeteria was sharply segregated into jocks, theater geeks, and stoners who sat at separate tables? Think about how little the different cliques communicated and, as a result, understood each other. Under the foreign food prohibitions, Jews, Christians, and Muslims were like characters in “The Breakfast Club,” hermetically-sealed within their specific communities with almost no accurate knowledge of the “other.”

Conversely,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. through sharing each other’s foods, there is natural cultural diffusion. How many of your earliest friendships started when you traded your Warheads for Pocky sticks on the blacktop or baked brownies together at your first sleepover? Hundreds and thousands of years ago, the religious intellectual elites already recognized that eating and cooking held this social power, which, Freidenreich shows, is why they feared its potential to challenge their communal structures.

Technically Difficult Treatments

According to the National Pest Management Association, termites cost U.S. homeowners $5 billion in property damage a year. These wood-destroying pests, which have existed for more than 250 million years, survive year-round in colonies that vary from thousands to millions of termites. Though each species of termite thrives in different climates and eats different types of food, all termites require four things to survive — food, moisture, shelter and optimal temperature.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. These conditions can be found in all homes, regardless of their construction type. Therefore, as pest control experts, we must be able to overcome challenges to provide customers with the results they expect — and it all starts with preparation.

Dealing with technically difficult termite jobs can be both challenging and rewarding. Numerous obstacles face termite technicians and often times these challenges are experienced in somewhat older and more expensive homes. With spring nearing, here are a few tips for treating four of the more common challenges.

Marble or stone floors pose a unique challenge as they are generally placed over concrete due to their weight. Sometimes, additional joists and thicker subflooring is required to allow the use of marble for floors.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. This can create an additional obstacle when treating for termites.

Marble floors utilize “leveling cement” as a base that allows for proper placement and true leveling prior to the use of another type of cement and grouting. Some problems encountered when treating this type of floor include shattering of the tile itself, chipping of the tile and loosening of the tile. Simple steps such as using low speed, non-hammering drills,We offer offshore merchant account, proper cutters and tape covering can reduce the problems of breaking or chipping. Sometimes being able to drill the grout area does the trick, but be sure to use a smaller drill bit to do so.

If your customer doesn’t want any signs of drilling, you need to be upfront and tell him or her that while there are alternatives, they might be time consuming or incur additional costs. Some customers may need to have a flooring specialist remove the tiles and then replace those tiles when the termite treatment is completed. Another method is to employ an above-ground bait station on the area where termites are entering.
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A major issue with special surface floors is when termites tunnel through the base cement and come from a different area altogether. To combat this, consider using foam as it can get into the areas that a liquid cannot. Utilizing the appropriate treatment choice, such as foam, helps reduce termites from entering through a nearby crack.

Heat ducts can be a nightmare to treat due to the different materials used — they can be “modern” (PVC, tile or metal) or “ancient” aluminum foil-covered cardboard. When treating cardboard ducts, it is best not to treat at all until the homeowner has the ducts “sleeved” with a non-porous material or closed off entirely. Let a professional HVAC company do this as re-balancing the airflow can be difficult and may require additional construction work to add a duct. Do not start the job until this is completed and the customer signs a statement attesting to the required modifications.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, Once the perimeter is drilled, the use of foam is usually a better material to use than a full-scale liquid treatment, as liquid puddles may occur and seep into the duct.

A rule of thumb is to use dry foam near the duct and wet foam away from the duct. The distance from the duct will depend on the substrate beneath the slab. Gravel can be closer to the duct, while hard packed clay, further away. Use common sense here. Either way, an inspection tool, such as a borescope with a camera, is necessary. Keep detailed drawings of where the ducts go, what they are made of and their condition. Consider using a digital camera that time stamps pictures to provide proof of what you did before, during and after treatment.Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. As a safety measure, have long flexible chimney cleaning poles on hand to help remove any product that may have infiltrated the duct. Taking one’s time, planning and thinking the treatment through will greatly reduce the likelihood of termiticide intrusion into ducts.

Telephone and internet credit card scams net 14m in year

INTERNET and phone scams netted a massive 14m from unsuspecting credit card customers and retailers in a year, according to the latest official figures.

They now account for almost three quarters of all credit card frauds.

The growth of what is known as 'card not present' fraud has been spectacular since the Garda national fraud bureau virtually eliminated the eastern European gangs who controlled 'skimming' rackets at ATMs and in retail outlets.

Garda operations led to the arrest of key Bulgarian and Romanian figures and drove the rest of the criminals involved in skimming out of the Irish market. Gardai believe many of these are now exploiting the market in Scandinavia, while others have moved into other types of fraud.

During 2004 and 2005 skimming, which involves electronically copying account details from an ATM card's magnetic strip onto a blank plastic card, became the fastest growing white collar crime in Ireland.

The offence had not existed here in 2003 but in one eight-month period fraudsters skimmed at least 2m from ATM customers and targeted more than 100 'hole in the wall' machines in the first 10 months of 2005.Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas.

But gardai admit that 'card not present' fraud is now by far the biggest problem they confront. The huge interest in shopping online has opened up a lucrative market for the scam merchants who, despite the vigilance of Irish retailers when compared with their European counterparts, are running a successful business.

The cards are being compromised after they have been used by the genuine owners to make online purchases.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.

The fraudsters operate by either hacking into the websites or dealing with rogue staff at some of the companies, who copy the details of the cards and then sell them.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter.

The gangs usually focus on making overseas purchases with the stolen Irish card details and, according to the gardai, buy large TV sets and other expensive goods, which can be sold later at discounted prices.

They supply bogus addresses to delivery companies and intercept the couriers when they arrive with the goods.

The retailers who have been conned may not find out about their losses until the card transactions go through the banking systems a month later.

Gardai say it is difficult to quantify the full extent of the scams. But the latest figures compiled by the Irish Payment Service Association (IPSO),We offer offshore merchant account, which represents the payments industry, show that credit card frauds amounted to 19.8m in 2010.

This amounts to a mere 0.08pc of the gross credit card turnover of 22.8bn that year and underlines the steps being taken by the industry and retailers to combat fraud.

'Card not present' (CNP) scams accounted for around 14m, or 71pc,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, of the overall frauds.

This compares with the 2009 figures, which show that CNP fraud netted 12.4m out of an overall figure of 23.1bn.

The IPSO has advised internet shoppers to find out as much as they can about the retailer before making a purchase and to focus on shops that friends and colleagues had used successfully or they have heard about through trusted sources.

They should make sure their internet access is secured. The beginning of the retailer's internet address should change from "http" to "https" before a purchase is made. This indicates that they are using a secure connection.

Shoppers are also advised to contact their bank or card issuer about a tool known as 3D Secure, which protects mastercard or visa cards against unauthorised internet use.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

ETAP Yachts Rebranded as Armageddon Life Rafts

Early this winter, fans and owners of ETAP yachts noticed something peculiar on the official ETAP Yachting website.We are professional Plastic mould, Although new ETAPs haven’t been produced or sold commercially in the U.S. since early 2009, when the Belgian yacht company that designed and built the classic ships declared bankruptcy, the site appeared to have been updated recently. First there was the mood music, The Last Farewell by Roger Whittaker, with lyrics about “death and darkness” and sailing into hell. Even more distressing was an ominous passage on the site’s home page under the heading “How to survive 2012?” The text warned of a “tidal wave” that could only be escaped if “present and future owners” of ETAP yachts worked together to save enough people “to start a new civilization.” (Last week, it was moved to the website’s news section.) On online yachting forums, there was speculation and confusion over what had happened. Some wondered whether the ETAP site had been hacked.

Those who delved deeper into ETAP’s revamped site found links to the website of Patrick Geryl, a Belgian author and doomsday proselytizer. By Geryl’s estimation, a reversal of the planet’s magnetic field should be happening right around the time the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, leading to, in his words, “pure unimaginable horror,” which could take the form of nuclear meltdown, volcano eruptions, and—of particular interest to ETAP owners—flooding of biblical proportions. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

Geryl’s enthusiasm for all things ETAP reads suspiciously like a sales pitch. “ETAP is the only producer in the world of comfortable, unsinkable yachts,” he writes in his 2007 book, How to Survive 2012. Geryl, who lives in Antwerp, Belgium, insists he wasn’t paid for his promotion. “I only do it because they are the best and there are no alternatives,” he says. “This is for the survival of humanity.” He admits, however, that he probably won’t be on an ETAP yacht come December. “I get very easily seasick,” he laughs. Instead, he says, he plans to ride out the apocalypse in a small bunker in the mountains of Drakensberg, South Africa.

Geryl’s relationship with ETAP began several years ago, when he discussed the boats on a handful of TV news shows in Europe (none of which he can recall) with representatives of MIC Industries, the engineering and construction company based in Lokeren, Belgium, that currently owns the ETAP brand. Toni De Pape, manager at MIC Industries, sees nothing unusual about featuring all ETAP endorsements on its website, even if they happen to be from survivalists. He says it was not MIC’s intention to make Geryl the new unofficial spokesperson for ETAP, but concedes that “whatever helps our brand is OK with us.”

It’s a bizarre second chapter for one of the most acclaimed and beloved yachting brands in recent history. Founded in 1970 by Belgian entrepreneur Norbert Joris, ETAP built boats that were universally praised as innovative and ahead of their time. They feature a unique hull-within-a-hull design; the gap in between is filled with a nonporous polyurethane foam, making it practically impossible for the inner hull to fill with water. It’s a design concept that has won more than a few accolades, including Yacht magazine’s coveted Innovation Prize in 2006.

But as the company’s reputation grew, so did its ambition. “They started making bigger and bigger boats,” says David Morris, brokerage and new-boat sales manager at Tollesbury Marina in Essex, U.K., and an ETAP broker for 12 years. “The volume of sales started to decrease. They just weren’t able to cover the costs.” The company was bought by German yacht-building shipyard Dehler in 2008, which went bankrupt just eight months after the takeover. MIC purchased the ETAP name in March 2009 for an undisclosed sum, including all the original factory molds and design instructions. Rebuilding the brand should have been easy, according to Morris. “The people at MIC are engineers,” he says, “so they were the perfect company to manufacture boats.” Yet, he says, after several years of promises and encouraging e-mails, MIC has not built any boats, and Morris doesn’t expect them to begin anytime soon. “They’ve not filled us boat dealers with any confidence at all,” he says. “It’s really quite sad what’s become of the ETAP brand.”

Detroiter makes a career from Mexican gelatinas

A steady hand and a syringe are all it takes Flor Walker to create colorful floral works of art with one main, and unusual, ingredient -- gelatin.

Walker's easel is an array of colors made with milk products, artificial flavorings and more gelatin.  Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Along with syringes, her tools are knives and metal instruments, lined up as if they are in an operating room. Some have scooped or sculpted edges used to pierce the gelatin to make specific shapes.

Walker even made her own tool -- a straw with a spoon end that slips on the end of a syringe to make wide petals.

"I like art, and it's like drawing in a different medium," Walker said.

Walker, 52, of Detroit, has been told her gelatins,Find out the facts about Cold Sore, called floral gelatinas, are almost too pretty to eat. But you can.

These lovely looking treats are hugely popular in parts of Mexico, and Walker has brought the technique to Detroit.

She demonstrated it recently at El Nacimiento restaurant in Detroit, taking a syringe filled with a green-colored milk mixture and poking the needle into a small, clear plastic container filled with transparent gelatin. She deftly moved the needle up and down,External Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line. injecting the liquid while turning the container.

"This is the stem of the flower," Walker said.

Using another syringe filled with a different color, Walker poked in the needle again, this time at a slight angle, and moved it sideways to make a wide petal.

More colors followed, making even wider petals and then leaves.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties,

"You can do any colors or shapes you like," she said. "Part of the beauty is they create the impression of being in water."

Once satisfied with the flower, Walker poured a thin layer of milk-infused gelatin into the container as a finishing base. It took about 5 minutes to set.

It wasn't always this easy.They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. It took months of practice,Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chicken coop website! and Walker admits many of her first attempts were not so pretty.

But she got better and faster. She estimates it takes just a few minutes now to make one gelatina.

Walker first saw gelatinas last summer while visiting her hometown of Mexico City.

"I saw a person giving it to a child to eat," she recalled. "I thought, 'Why are they giving the child plastic?' "

Learning it was edible gelatin, Walker was intrigued -- "I thought the gelatinas were very creative, very unique and very different" -- and she went on a mission to learn how to do it.

"I found a chef in Mexico City to teach me," Walker said. The chef offered a two-day workshop for $60.

Back in Detroit, Walker took her creations to a holiday bazaar and sold out. That led her to approach Sheila's Bakery in southwest Detroit and later El Nacimiento. Now, Walker hopes to grow her business and perhaps teach others how to make gelatinas.

Sheila's Bakery manager Esmeralda Lucero said Walker's gelatinas have been a hit. The bakery sometimes sells as many as 40 of the small ones a day, priced at $2.20, she said.

"People buy them for parties or to give as gifts," Lucero said. "They are excited and surprised that it looks like a real flower inside but you can eat it."

Spanish firm has new solar power vision for Az

Until now,Low prices on projector bulbs from Projector Lamp London UK. visions of Arizona homes powered by renewable energy have centered mostly on rooftop solar panels or huge solar power plants in the desert.Official web site for Uwe cube puzzle and novelties,

A Spanish company setting up operations in the Valley of the Sun is promoting a new vision: developments built around generating stations providing solar power by day and generator power, preferably running on renewable fuels, after the sun goes down.

Aora Solar offers a community–scale power facility that can be built on a half acre and can generate 100 kilowatts, enough for between 60 and 100 homes. The centerpiece is a 100–foot–tall,Our websites supply Insulator, tulip–shaped tower that an array of mirrors hits with sunlight to turn a turbine with superheated air.

Zev Rosenzweig, the company’s CEO, said the American Southwest is an ideal location for the technology because the plants use little water and can capitalize on the region’s abundant sunshine. The technology is in use at a plant in Israel and at a plant that is awaiting commissioning and certification in Spain.

“Today, we’ve been approached by quite a number of architects who want to design housing developments with our tower in the center because it’s aesthetically pleasing and it doesn’t dominate the neighborhood and it will create a sort of island of energy independence around it,” he said.

Rosenzweig expects a community–level system to sell for about $500,000, though the final price will depend on the quantity sold. His primary market is companies planning new developments, though he said the technology can provide power at a larger scale for industrial use, among other possibilities.

Aora is collaborating with Phoenix–based Sisener Engineering N.A., Corp.Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas., the U.S. branch of a Spanish firm that specializes in design engineering. The firms are seeking permits to build two solar towers in a research park near Sky Harbor International Airport and expect that to be completed within three months.

“It’s a very good location for this company,” said Michael Horner, CEO of Sisener Engineering. “The Southwest United States has some of the best solar radiation in the world.”

Harvey Bryan, a senior sustainability scientist at Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability, said the companies are up against the increasing popularity and affordability of photovoltaic solar panels,Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes, which are now the dominant technology. It could be a tough sell to get firms to invest in such a complex technology when there are simpler and cheaper options available, he said.

“I’m not 100 percent sure this solar tulip will take off,” Bryan said. “The economics seem to be pushing us toward photovoltaic.”

Rosenzweig said his company’s design offers advantages over rooftop solar, including the ability to provide power at night.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Nature's winners and losers

If you have noticed a lot more snowy owls than usual around Regina, don't worry - you haven't suddenly wandered into a Harry Potter novel.

The lack of snow on the ground this year means the birds are sticking around as they feast on a veritable buffet of voles.  Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

As University of Regina professor of biology Mark Brigham explains, voles - the owls' main food source - usually run about under the snow, but no white stuff means there's nowhere for the little critters to hide.

"The snowy owls are having an absolute picnic," he says.

"They usually invade this part of the world in wintertime, but because it's so easy to hunt this year there are many more than usual."

Snowy owls are one of the winners when it comes to this year's unusually warm winter, but their distant cousins - burrowing owls - may have it tough come spring.

"They hunt voles as well, so the fact the snowy owls have done such a great job picking off more voles than usual means it could be tougher than usual," Brigham says.

The same goes for snakes, coyotes and other animals that rely on voles as a food source.

"These things tend to have a cascading effect through the system," he says.

"We humans think it's wonderful to be outside in this weather, but for some animals it's really not such an easy time."

Another example of animals doing it tough in southern Saskatchewan's balmy winter are those that hibernate.

"We have been inundated with calls telling us about bats being active in buildings in the city this winter, which means they're using their fat reserves too quickly and they're going to starve to death,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds." Brigham explains.xcel Mould is a Custom Injection Moulding Manufacturer,

"Also ground squirrels, because the warm conditions mean the ground isn't likely to freeze as deep, so they're using energy faster than they usually would."

This winter has already resulted in a number of people and vehicles going through ice as a result of abnormally warm conditions, but what about what's happening under the ice?

"From a nature point of view, with the ice so much thinner organisms like algae and plankton ...Welcome to polished tiles. are likely going to persist longer, so for fish this could be a very good food year for them,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber." Brigham says.

"But with that ice coming off earlier ... it also means the water will be warmer in late summer, which means less oxygen, and that may well be stressful on fish."

Back above water, it's not so much the temperature, but the lack of snow, which is taking its toll on plants.

"Snow is an insulator, so without that there the cold can penetrate more deeply and really affect the root systems, particularly when it comes to shrubs and perennials," explains Tim Van Duyvendyk, owner operator of Dutch Growers in Regina.

"We find after a winter like this we have a lot more people coming in telling us they've lost more plants over the winter.

"Experienced gardeners know to pack as much snow as they can on top of their main planting areas, which will help add protection."

When it comes to trees, it's not so much the roots that suffer in the cold weather as it is the bark.

That, explains Van Duyvendyk, is because rabbits, deer and those vole dashing about everywhere nibble at and strip away the bark.

He recommends protecting tree trunks with casing that goes at least three feet high.

"The real message is that although some animals benefit and some lose out,They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. these cycles happen all the time," says Brigham.

"If we have a whole bunch of years like this, then over time there are more serious consequences."

Ukraine Fans Default Risk in Russia Gas Bet as Vote Molds Policy

Ukraine’s efforts to seek cheaper natural gas from Russia rather than comply with the terms of a bailout have alarmed investors, propelling the former Soviet republic’s credit risk above Argentina’s for the first time in two years.

The government is shunning the International Monetary Fund as it struggles to agree on discounted fuel imports from Russia, with whom clashes halted European gas transit twice since 2006. That’s fanned concern over its ability to meet $11.9 billion in debt costs this year, with default risk rising more than any country Bloomberg tracks except Greece in the last six months.

While Ukraine faces a widening current-account gap, slowing economic growth and limited access to global capital markets, President Viktor Yanukovych has refused to raise household gas tariffs to restart a $15.6 billion IMF aid package as support for his ruling party ebbs before October elections.  Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

“It’s a question of willingness to pay a political price,” Ronald Schneider, who helps manage about $1 billion in emerging-market debt at Raiffeisen Kapitalanlage GmbH in Vienna, said Jan. 31 by phone. “Skepticism for Ukraine will increase” without a resumption in IMF disbursements.

The cost of insuring Ukrainian state debt against non- payment for five years using credit-default swaps increased 271 basis points in the last six months to 797 on Feb. 21, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices from dealers in the privately-negotiated market. That compares with 768 for Argentina, which the gauge surpassed on Jan. 13. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Economic growth may slow to 3.9 percent this year from about 5 percent in 2011, the government estimates,Welcome to polished tiles. as the euro- region turmoil threatens its steel exports and cold weather curbs the grain harvest.

Pressure on the hryvnia has intensified in recent months while dwindling trust in the authorities has halted capital inflows and investment, the IMF’s Ukraine representative, Max Alier, warned former First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuev in a Jan. 31 letter, Kommersant-Ukraine reported Feb. 13.

The hryvnia declined to 8.00010 per U.S. dollar from 7.9550 in the year through Feb. 21. Ukraine’s gold and foreign-currency reserves fell $3.3 billion to $31.8 billion in 2011 as the hryvnia weakened and its current-account deficit widened to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product from 2.2 percent.

The former Soviet state’s credit-rating outlook was cut to stable from positive at Fitch Ratings in October, while Moody’s Investors Service lowered it to negative in December, citing risks to funding, liquidity and political stability. They both rate Ukraine five levels below investment grade.

The yield on the government’s Eurobond due 2016 has jumped to 8.813 percent from 6.265 percent when it was issued last June. Foreign investors have cut hryvnia-debt holdings to 4.26 billion hryvnia ($532 million) as of yesterday from 11.26 billion hryvnia in January 2011, central bank data show.

Ukraine’s IMF loan, obtained in 2010, has been frozen since last March because the government won’t approve a one-third increase in consumer energy costs, a move the Washington-based fund has demanded to trim losses at state energy company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy.

“We can’t burden the citizens,” Yanukovych, whose ruling Party of Regions has 14 percent backing before this year’s parliamentary vote, said Feb. 16 in comments published on his website.

Instead, he wants to wipe a third off his country’s gas bill by seeking a discount on its Russian imports to $250 per 1,000 cubic meters from the $416 average price assumed in this year’s budget. The bill came to about $12 billion last year.

While the two neighbors have been negotiating for months, no agreement has been reached. Ukrainian officials say Russia wants control of the transit pipelines OAO Gazprom uses to ship gas to Europe, a similar deal to one Belarus accepted last year.

Ukraine is unwilling to sanction the sale and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov reiterated Feb.Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. 11 that there are no plans to join a Russia-led customs union of which Belarus is also a member.

“Russia will demand a very high price in terms of sovereignty and getting control of key economic assets,” Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said Feb. 8 by phone.

Gazprom’s press service declined to comment yesterday when asked about the negotiations with Ukraine and what the company is seeking in return for potential price discounts.

Russia, which supplies Ukraine with more than 70 percent of its gas needs, agreed to cut prices in April 2010 in exchange for a 25-year extension on its lease of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, where it has a naval base.

The two countries have fallen out over Ukrainian cheese imports, with Russia banning products from three plants on quality grounds. Russia halted Ukrainian dairy imports in 2006 after it cut gas supplies during a price dispute.

Ukraine doesn’t appear ready to make concessions, according to Alex Brideau, an analyst at Eurasia Group in Tokyo.

“At the same time, it wants a deal quickly, so as to minimize the economic damage from high prices,” he said in a Feb. 10 note.Buy low price Aion Kinah, “The combination of these factors makes it probable that tension will escalate between the two sides in the coming weeks.”

With Russian gas talks dragging on and no sign of a compromise with the IMF, Ukraine has said it may seek to raise funds on international markets next month.

The government plans to borrow 12.15 billion hryvnia abroad in March, almost a third of its full-year target for foreign borrowing, the Finance Ministry said Feb. 9. It picked JP Morgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Russia’s VTB Capital and Troika Dialog, which is controlled by OAO Sberbank, to lead manage a potential Eurobond sale, the ministry said Feb. 3.

Whether Ukraine can successfully sell debt abroad depends on foreign-investor appetite and the government’s readiness to accept higher borrowing costs, Olena Bilan, chief economist at Dragon Capital in Kiev, wrote in a Feb. 10 note.

“Unless the Ukrainian authorities succeed in reducing fiscal and external pressures -- the main Ukrainian macro risk at the moment -- we don’t think investors will be prepared to accept a single-digit yield on new Ukrainian debt,” she said.

Ukraine will service and repay all of its debt, Halyna Pakhachuk,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds. head of the Finance Ministry’s financial policy and government-debt management department, said Feb. 16.

The budget deficit reached 4.3 percent of GDP last year, with Naftogaz’s shortfall widening to 20.6 billion hryvnia, according to the Finance Ministry.

Ukraine’s currency may fall further without measures to bolster public finances, according to Sergei Strigo,Our websites supply Insulator, who helps manage about $750 million as head of emerging-market debt at Amundi Group in London. Amundi cut its holdings of hryvnia- denominated bonds at the end of last year after the chances of a “substantial” devaluation in the currency in 2012 rose.

New, improved DIII Ice Jacks go down fighting

Last season, the Division III NAU Ice Jacks won a mere four games, and too often on the wrong side of a lop-sided score board. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

Entering this season with 19 rookies, the D-III team knew they would be in a rebuilding year, but that did not stop the Jacks from being a competitive team. This season, the team finished the regular season with a record of 18–8, including an undefeated 9–0 home record,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds. playing every game of the second semester on the road,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. and qualifying for the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) regional playoffs.

“It has been the best experience to have a group of boys who want to work every time they’re on the ice,Buy low price Aion Kinah,” said head coach Kris Walsh.

This past weekend was Hockey Weekend in America and the D-III Ice Jacks celebrated by traveling to Nebraska to compete in the ACHA regional playoffs. NAU entered the post-season as the No. 10 seed and faced No.3 Iowa State in the first round of the one-loss elimination tournament.

Picked by many experts around the ACHA to lose, the Ice Jacks played tough against Iowa and despite losing 4–2, the Ice Jacks kept their heads held high.

“We could have won that game,” said senior captain, forward Joaquin Rivera. “We went down swinging.”

Junior forward Zach Duda got NAU on the board in the first period and added another goal in the second stanza to knot the game at two heading into the third period.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. Freshman goalie Matt Bertsch stood on his head to give his team a chance to advance to the next round, stopping shots and coming up with the puck in scrambles. When the game ended, Bertcsh had 47 shot saves on the stat sheet.

With over six minutes to go in the final frame, the Ice Jacks turned the puck over in their defensive zone and the Cyclones’ forwards pounced on the puck and buried the rubber into the net to go up 3–2. NAU attempted a few more shots on net, but would come no closer as Iowa sealed the 4–2 win with an empty net goal in the final minute of play.

“It was huge that the seniors had something to remember,” Rivera added. “This team had a taste of playoff hockey, and now know what they are all capable of.”

Rivera,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. the longest tendered Ice Jack in the NAU hockey program, will graduate this coming May. He served as the captain for Walsh’s D-III squad two straight seasons and finished his Ice Jacks’ career with 109 points. In his final season with NAU, Rivera set career-highs in: goals , assists and points.

“These kids have a passion for the game and it shows in their effort,” Walsh said.

The team looks to improve at an even faster rate for next season and will set goals at returning to regionals and ultimately, a national playoff berth.

“With 19 first year players, these guys gained valuable experience this season,” said General Manger AJ Fairchild. “With the experience these guys gained this year and another great off-season of recruiting, the DIII team will look to improve quite a bit next season.”

‘Time Stands Still’ moves to a swift, complex, emotional beat

“Time Stands Still” is an unfair misnomer to Ambler Act II Playhouse’s latest offering, which moves, indeed whizzes by audience members like a train speeding through a station. The New York City-based drama is contained in a fashionably diminutive Brooklyn apartment of two journalists who’ve been removed by disparate forces from their foreign wartime beats.

For all the exotic and colorful aspects of the play’s two main characters’ profession, Sarah and James are facing issues that will be familiar to any audience member — fidelity,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. passion, obligation and love.

By making his subjects recently repatriated journalists, playwright Donald Margulies gives himself a complex playing field upon which to transpose the interpersonal drama that unfolds throughout the two-hour production. The play begins with the return of Sarah to the apartment she and James have shared for some time between assignments. The first person the audience meets is McKey’s Sarah, hobbling into the impeccably staged set after having been the victim of a roadside bomb attack. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

Sarah’s forced homecoming plunges her into complicated depths: her return to James, who was already convalescing in the apartment after his own emotional breakdown abroad,Sharps include syringe needle, her need for intensive recovery and rehabilitation, and her drive to rejoin her colleagues on the battlefield all complicate her every move.

The backdrop of pain and trauma is a stunning canvas upon which to explore the notion of happiness and domesticity, and just when you think Margulies’ play might be too heavy,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. he adds Richard and Mandy, a middle-aged magazine editor and his bright-eyed twenty-something girlfriend. Mandy, played here with awe-inspiring honesty by Megan McDermott, is a force that moves through this piece,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds. tearing down social norms in one swipe and delivering simplistic yet mind-blowing reaffirmation in the next. The couple of Richard and Mandy bring to light Sarah and James’ own weaknesses and move this piece along through witty comedy and lively conversation.

There isn’t much more to say about the plot of “Time Stands Still” without diminishing the full effect of the play’s shocking revelations. Through its whiplash speed and curveball-laden conversations, “Time” is a conversational piece swooping along so effortlessly from one bit of drama to the next, one cannot help feeling more like a voyeur than an audience member.

Having an efficient and cerebral script, of course, works in favor of this production, but having such a well-tuned cast of players, each as strong as the next, catapults the Act II offering into the realm of the must-see. Perhaps the most impressive feat is McKey’s Sarah, whose bitterly reinforced independence manages to come off as anything but unsympathetic.

Sarah is complicated and relatively self-interested, someone who would be all too easy to dislike, yet McKey molds her prickly, particular character into somebody not just identifiable but likeable. Without the sympathy for Sarah, this production would be doomed, but thanks to McKey, the play is able to flourish.

Actors Kelly and Graham are also to be praised for their consistent and on-point repartee, which helps make the piece move.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. The two actors excel at conveying tough emotions, Kelly summoning incredibly realistic tears, and Graham even summoning a blush at one point.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Affordable prosthetic knee joint may mean big stride for poor amputees worldwide

Jan Andrysek balances a prosthetic leg on the arm of his chair, then applies downward pressure to make the front of the foot push forward, causing a joint in the device to bend just like a natural knee.

The prototype black metal knee joint may look like some kind of automobile part, but the biomedical engineer hopes the simple device will give the gift of mobility to untold numbers of people in developing countries who have lost a leg to amputation.

With an estimated target price of $50 to $100, the joint is an affordable component that will allow a static prosthesis — made up of a socket, a metal post called a pylon and an artificial foot — to move in a rhythm that more closely mimics that of a natural leg.

There's a need "for an inexpensive knee joint — inexpensive sort of equates to accessibility — because in many countries people don't have the money nor are there funding systems in place to allow them to be able to purchase these devices," says Andrysek of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

"And in countries such as Canada, these devices can cost typically, to put a prosthesis together, you're looking in excess of $5,000 — and it can go up to $50,000.

"So these are very expensive devices. We're fortunate in Canada to have funding systems in place that cover most of those costs for the individuals. But that is not the case for most countries around the world."

Haiti is one glaring example of a country desperate for affordable, functional prostheses to help the tens of thousands of amputees who suffered traumatic injuries in the 2010 earthquake.

"In counties such as Cambodia and Myanmar, you have many postwar injuries resulting from landmines that haven't been cleared or are even still being laid," he says. Blast and other injuries in such war-torn countries as Afghanistan have also left a population of amputees in need of prosthetics.

Andrysek has spent about six years developing the knee joint with a team at the Bloorview Research Institute. He was recently awarded a $100,000 grant by the non-profit organization Grand Challenges Canada after being named one of its "Rising Stars in Global Health."

"This work really came from some of the initial work we did with the children here to try to develop a little joint for kids," he says. "At that time, our two criteria were to make it very functional, because these are active kids and they want to be able to do a lot of things, but at the same time it has to be very durable.

"And it turned out similar criteria for developing countries. These are generally healthy individuals who can be very active and they require devices that would allow them that function."

One key consideration is environment: the knee joint controlling the movement of the prosthesis must be able to withstand the kinds of walking surfaces that are common to many developing countries.

That could mean mountainous terrain, rock-strewn surfaces or pitted and uneven ground that can be problematic even to those who aren't amputees.

"The challenge in that is you're trying to design the prosthesis to have the same type of control that our human muscles have," says Andrysek, explaining that a built-in locking and unlocking mechanism in the joint automatically responds to pressure, or "loading patterns," exerted through the foot.

"And that control means that the leg is stable. If the person puts weight on it, it's securely underneath them, but at the same time it can easily go into the natural motion that we see walking, which is the knee bending."

For now, Andrysek says he is focusing on a knee joint for adults because those for children would have to be made in several sizes to match different ages, although his team plans modified versions that are smaller and lighter for kids as part of their future research.

"We think that the technology will serve both children and adults well."

During the design phase, which followed a lengthy period studying the mechanics of the human gait, the team produced three different prototypes. The current one is what he calls "something between a prototype and a product."

The researchers have invested money in making moulds, so the knee joints can be make out of plastic, he says.

"That allows us to make these parts very inexpensively, so we can injection-mould the three main parts of the knee for about $15, and that's a large part of our ability to make these knees affordable."

Andrysek says Bloorview hopes to team with a manufacturer to produce the knee joint. "We're just getting to the stage of trying to work with partners who could facilitate that part of it. And the big thing is the distribution — how to get these knees to those different countries."

The knee joint is now being tested by the International Red Cross, which has project sites in about 60 countries, he says. "They will be evaluating it over a year, and depending how it goes, they would be a very good partner to get this technology out there to those who need it.

"As a researcher, one of the most rewarding things is when you can actually take a project from the beginning, with the conceptualization,Our websites supply Insulator, and actually get to a point where it gets out and starts having an impact on people's lives and people's health."

Cisco Chews Up the Scenery in the Interoperability Drama

Last week, Cisco raised an objection to the Microsoft acquisition of Skype, saying it would hurt video conferencing interoperability -- even though, in this space, you could argue Cisco is not the poster child for interoperability. Coincidently, I met with the CEO of LifeSize last Thursday, and he saw this Microsoft acquisition as a huge opportunity. LifeSize is the poster child for video-conferencing interoperability.

So why would Cisco complain about a move and highlight something it doesn't do as a reason to block it, while LifeSize would applaud the same move because it plays well with its interoperability advantage? Given this is an election year, there are a lot of parallels to politics in the juxtaposition of these two companies and this one acquisition. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

I'll close with my product of the week: a driving experience that saved me US$120k.

It often seems that in an election year, the truth takes a holiday. For instance, the Obama administration is requiring insurance providers of religious organizations to supply birth control pills. This is consistent with the state's position on nondiscrimination. If you supply a service for one, you have to supply the same service for another, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.

This was positioned by Obama's opponents as an attack against the Catholic church. It wasn't -- it was an attack on discrimination. However, it does involve birth control, which is a practice the Catholic church opposes. You couldn't exactly come out with a platform saying it is OK to discriminate against people who work for religious organizations, so the anti-church message was crafted, even though Obama appears to be pretty religious.

If you look underneath the pro-life vs. pro-choice controversy, it isn't about babies -- it is about control. Who should make life or death decisions regarding a pregnancy is at the core of the dispute: the government and the church,Find out the facts about Cold Sore, or the individual. But as a right wing party, you can't very well argue for increased government control of personal decisions, so the platform becomes about life. If it really were about life, there would be more effort to fund and care for children born to parents who don't want them, but that isn't even a minor part of the pro-life/pro-choice debate. It's all about who can make the decision to abort a pregnancy.

The sad thing is, we don't seem to get this is all about manipulation. Someone -- or some group -- is tricking a large number of people to agree to a position that they would likely not support, if they fully understood what is at stake (personal freedom).Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties, For instance, if the government can make invasive medical decisions in one area, isn't it likely it will make them in others? At some point, we'll live in that Big Brother world of 1984.

The problem with video conferencing is that it historically doesn't interoperate. From FaceTime to Cisco Telepresence, one system generally can't work well with another. There are no common directories, and even if they connect, they typically provide such a crappy experience that the primary vendor can convince you to buy more of its stuff in order to get an adequate experience. It is kind of like TV was when RCA owned everything,Find everything you need to know about kidney stone including causes, except no one company is as powerful as RCA was, so it just means stuff doesn't work.

The end result is that companies like Cisco can have high-margin systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and even though there are cheaper alternatives, those alternatives can't get access to the proper Cisco control points to ensure as good an experience, so they can't compete, and Cisco maintains margins.

This is kind of like what the PC market was before Microsoft, and the server market was before Microsoft Server and Linux. In a Unix world, companies like Sun were king, and everyone paid a huge premium because once locked in, you couldn't move.Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chicken coop website!

However, if Microsoft does with Skype what it did with Windows, it will establish a common, low-cost, high-definition standard that will commoditize the video conferencing market much as it did with PCs and servers. Suddenly, stuff will work together, and buyers will no longer have to buy the massively expensive and very high-margin, high-end systems. They'll chase the lowest-cost adequate technology provider.

This gives low-cost providers like LifeSize the potential to grow up to be the next Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) while companies like Cisco collapse and become the next Sun. But Cisco can't step up and argue it is pro-high margins and against interoperability, so instead it crafts a platform on the evils of Microsoft and comes out in favExternal Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line.or of standards.

Is there really a shortage of machinists?

As I’ve said before in this blog, it seems to me the biggest jobs market story afoot this year is the “talent gap”or mismatch between what millions of unemployed workers can offer and what employers really want. Bridging this gap one way or the other seems the only solution to the plight of the 99-weekers and other who feel displaced from existing employment opportunities.  Just Choose PTMS Plastic Mould Is Your Best Choice!

So it’s doubly interesting to stumble across articles like last week’s CNN Money report in which head of the National Tooling and Machining Association stated that there is a “critical shortage of machinists.” According to the article,Low prices on projector bulbs from Projector Lamp London UK. these $60,000-a-year jobs are going begging and small “job shop” tooling factories are suffering for lack of qualified employees.

(If you’re wondering: machinists - sometimes known as tool-and-die workers or by other monikers, is a generic term for those who operate the cutting machines and other equipment to produce parts from metal. It’s extremely precise work – think of the infinitesimal tolerances of an engine piston, for example; the measurements have to be just right to many decimal points – generally lumped into the blue-collar category due to its prevalence in the manufacturing industry.)

You can use this public statement by the trade group chief to take a look at the local skilled trades scene as a hunting ground both for displaced workers and those seeking retraining for a new field. And, in light of dire predicitons about college tuition, student loan debt, a dearth of jobs for professional school graduates and other aspersions on traditional four-year degrees, you might want to take a fresh look at trades and craft jobs as alternatives for graduating high-school seniors. I guarantee that’s a story your audiences devour.

Here’s the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational report about machinists; it’s a little trove of state-level information, the number of machinists by industry, wages and outlook. And here’s a neat American Machinist report, just out this month, about how metalworking apprenticeships are evolving.

If machining isn’t in sync with your beat, find a similar skilled-trade or on-the-job training angle.Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. I delved around a bit and was amazed at the state data about apprenticeship programs; check out this page from the state of California, it’s even got information about characteristics of apprenticeship registrants by age, race, sex, ethnicity, veteran status – right up through January 2012. What a gold mine!

You can look at for-profit vocational schools, apprenticeship programs run through unions or trade groups and community-college vocational training.What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment?

Another thing to keep in mind: Don’t just take the word of employers and trade associations. As I learned by following, out of curiosity, dialogue about the purported truck-driver shortage, there is a contingent that contends no shortage of skills exists, but merely a shortage of people willing to do the job for the prevailing wage. An economist might contend that is the same thing — but when you get into the territory of industry- or taxpayer-funded training programs, etc.What causes TMJ pain?, I think it’s worth looking at contrarian views, as well. And for historical perspective, check out this 1982 report about … what else .. the shortage of machinists.What is a third party payment gateway ? It will help you put some of today’s claims into perspective.