Dolls putting out less straw for bedding for bulls in nice weather

A bright sun was peeking out last week on a cool morning with temps in the 20s but no snow on the ground as the Dolls put out bedding for their bulls.

Charles, David and Harlan Doll,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, who operate Doll Charolais and Simmental Ranch, lay out bedding for the bulls every three days, but it is nothing like last year at this time.

David said they’ve only used 10-15 percent of the bedding they had used at this time a year ago when 20-30 inches of snow had already fallen in the region, making cattle chores difficult.

There’s been only a dusting of snow so far this year, and producers are looking forward to a clear forecast for the next 10 days.

Bedding is a project that used to take two men and last an hour and a half.

“Now I can do it myself in 10 minutes,” said Harlan.

Harlan drove the bale processor which the Dolls purchased last year, and picked up a bale of straw and then distributed it evenly across the feed yard.

The bulls came running to the fresh bedding, laying soft, thick and even. They enjoyed nuzzling in it – and so did the farm dogs.As a professional manufacturer of China ceramic tile in China,

David said they bale both straw for bedding and hay for feed in the summer and store it for future use.

The North Dakota Simmental Association’s state sale, which the Dolls had bred heifers in, was a success last weekend at Farmer’s Livestock Exchange in Bismarck.

Charles said producers from states as far away as Nebraska and Wisconsin consigned bred heifers in the sale.

David added it was a “really good sale” with the average sales price being $3,400 on the bred heifers, and $2,900 on the open heifers.

During the sale, some of the Doll kids, Hailie, Krysten, Katie and Jacie, stood in the ring with the heifer donated by Joseph and Helen Doll, longtime members of the North Dakota Simmental Association.

“They were really proud of being able to donate a heifer to an association that they have been members of for many years,” David said.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,

The week before, the Dolls trailed the last of their cows home, then sorted and worked the cows the same day with a Scour Guard injection, and another dose of Ivomec.

The cows were out grazing stalks and grass in two groups across the road from farm headquarters. They have a nice open creek running through the fields bringing them fresh water daily.

“The creek hasn’t iced up at all,” David said.

A few shiny-coated cows were in a separate pen and eating a higher ration. Harlan said these were the cows they flushed for embryos, and they are fed extra mineral. They had 20 embryos flushed out of two cows and 10 out of another.

He added they decide which cows should be flushed based on if they are consistently having a nice calf year and have good mothering EPDs such as milking, good birth, weaning and yearling weights and they also check the carcass data, too.

The Dolls also went through their bulls a final time, making cuts, and castrating the cuts as steers.

They finished weighing the bulls in their sale and the heifers they are retaining. Charles likes to wait until he has the final 365 day weight to add to the other information, before he registers the animals. That way the data is complete.

“The bulls are averaging 3.8 pounds a day. They are gaining really well,” Charles said.

Meanwhile, their trainee from Brazil, Durval Neto, left to return home after nine months with the Dolls. It is an exchange program through the government that the Dolls have participated in before.

They had a cattle buyer from Minnesota come out looking for quality calves, and the Dolls took him around to some of their customers. Some weren’t ready to sell until after the first of the year, so he may come back then.

The brothers have been holding on to their grain and hoping the wheat market has a sustained rally soon. Harlan said it has been up some for six days in a row, but David said it seems to go up in a lot slower increments than it comes down.

Harlan added he is starting to look at rotations for next spring, and seed. He sent a sample of wheat in to get the germination level and see if it is high quality enough to use next spring. They will probably plant the same crops next year: wheat, barley, flax, corn and sunflowers.

The Dolls are also doing some end-of-the-year paperwork, and went over some numbers with their tax accountant.

David added, “After the first of the year, we will also start marketing our feeder calves.”

Harlan said they have had some people come out to the ranch and look at the bulls that will be in their March production sale.

“It is nice for us, too, because we like to visit with them one-on-one, and can spend more time that way,Buy oil paintings for sale online.” he said.

David agreed. “We enjoy visiting with them and spending the time with them. On sale day,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. it get pretty hectic, and you don’t always get to visit as long as you’d like,” he said.

Charles added they will have about 80 Charolais and 50 Simmental bulls in their March sale.

They are beginning to send out some photos and advertisements to different magazines for the upcoming sale.

Solar power use expands in South America

Latin America is investing more in solar power but, in line with International Energy Agency warnings, needs to do so intelligently and without multiplying costs.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,

Poverty-stricken Honduras is the latest home to solar energy projects in Central and South America that are driven by U.S.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. service providers but fitted out with Chinese-made equipment.

Colorado's Onyx Service and Solutions Inc. said it will install its newest solar energy project in Latin America, made up of Chinese-manufactured solar panels and associated equipment, at West Bay Lodge Project in Roatan, Honduras.

Onyx Management is also using Honduran personnel for the installation which fulfills a need for electricity supply expansion in the Central American country.Information on useful yeasts and moulds,

Honduras was severely affected by a coup in 2009 that triggered an international diplomatic, political and economic isolation of the country. Recovery has been slow despite assistance from the European Union and the United States.

The West Bay Lodge installation follows a deal reached in October to power the resort, part of the government's plan to regenerate the economy with tourism. The West Bay Beach is the most popular tourist destination on the Island of Roatan, and an international tourist destination.

Onyx said in deciding on the project it took a different course than most other solar companies, choosing to forgo competition against coal-fired electricity producers or depending on government subsidies to make a profit.

After a detailed research of the worldwide markets for power, Onyx said, it focused on sectors that relied on costly diesel generated electricity such as that in Roatan at present but offered opportunity for greater profit margins. Onyx is developing multiple solar power projects in Honduras, one as large as 22 megawatts, and Panama. The company is developing solar power distribution in Colombia and Peru.

Solar power generation and distribution is set to grow in Latin America and has enabled U.S. renewable energy companies to position in the area.

Last month scientists at Notre Dame University in Indiana announced they devised an inexpensive "solar paint" that can produce energy.

The paint, dubbed Sun-Believable, may someday be applied to homes to generate electricity from light to power appliances and equipment inside.

The paint uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy from sunlight.

"We want to do something transformative, to move beyond current silicon-based solar technology," chemistry Professor Prashant Kamat of the university's Center for Nano Science and Technology said.

"By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we've made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment."

When the paint is brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light it creates electricity, the researchers said.

"The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells," Kamat said.

"But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat,As a professional manufacturer of China ceramic tile in China, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future."

The International Energy Agency said a more intelligent use of solar energy could help meet a growing percentage of the world's energy needs.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,

Enough sunlight reaches the Earth in 90 minutes to meet the world's energy needs for a year if harnessed appropriately, the IEA said in a report from its headquarters in Paris.

"While solar energy resources are abundant, their use currently represents only a tiny fraction of the world's current energy mix," said report author Cedric Philibert.

"But this is changing rapidly and is being driven by action to improve energy diversification and security, mitigate climate change and provide energy access."

The IEA warns that concerns over cost have led some governments to make hasty policy decisions that could force a reversal of any gains in the use of solar energy.

The agency calls for "comprehensive and fine-tuned policies" that back a growing portfolio of solar technology. Given the right conditions, the IEA said, solar power could become a competitive energy source within 20 years.

"Integrating all solar technologies in a system-oriented policy approach will unlock the potential of solar energy within the broader set of low-carbon technologies needed for a future sustainable and more secure global energy mix," Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA's Renewable Energy Division, said in a statement.

How Goethe’s masterpiece is shaping Europe

From the wreck of the sovereign debt crisis Germany has unquestionably emerged as Europe’s pre-eminent power. And a central tenet of the German solution to the crisis – for it is primarily a German solution – is that other eurozone members must be recast in their mould of fiscal orthodoxy and financial conservatism. Debt is to be regarded as immoral; current account surpluses are de rigueur; all but marginal budget deficits will be punished; and financial innovation is to be throttled by regulation. What, fellow Europeans might ask, is the wellspring of this providentialism and homespun finance?

The usual explanation emphasises the traumatic experience of the 1920s Weimar inflation, which lingers in the German memory more than the slump that brought Hitler to power. There are nonetheless deeper factors at work, not the least the etymological link between debt and guilt in the German word schuld. The fear of currency debasement was entrenched long before the 20th century. Frederick the Great in the Seven Years War debauched the currency several times to fund the fighting. Note, too, that Goethe’s Faust Part II brilliantly describes the perils of inflation. Mephistopheles urges the emperor to use undiscovered gold beneath his lands as putative collateral for promissory notes to pay the army. When the emperor and his court find they can print money without restraint, their wild spending leads to an inflationary spiral and civil chaos.

This, from the man who served as privy councillor at the court in Weimar, was more than prescient, given that Germany had yet to acquire a note-issuing bank when the work was written. Goethe probably drew on experiences of revolutionary France. The National Assembly’s issue of assignats – certificates supposedly backed by the value of church properties confiscated in 1790 – ballooned out of control. Goethe’s masterpiece no doubt helped embed the anti-inflationary mentality in Germany’s educated class. It took the horrors of the first world war and its aftermath to induce the temporary lapse of memory under the Weimar Republic.This page contains information about molds,

Meanwhile, mercantilism and the fear of sophisticated finance have historically gone hand in hand in Germany and other parts of northern Europe. In the 15th century the cities of the Hanseatic League were profoundly suspicious of credit. They largely excluded foreign bankers. Merchants tried to balance trade bilaterally, relying partly on barter while making some use of coin. The economic historian Raymond de Roover reckoned the League’s credit institutions were about two centuries behind the Italians in 1500.

As the 16th century progressed, southern Germans such as the Fugger family became more competitive vis-à-vis the Italians. They developed a system of financial intermediation involving borrowing from wealth-owners everywhere and lending to monarchs. Yet they still mistrusted innovation deeply.

Then the big innovators were the Genoese, who developed the equivalent of interest rate swaps in lending to Spain’s government.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. In a form of securitisation they also used inflows of silver to Spain to finance the delivery of gold to pay Spanish troops in the Low Countries. According to the historian Fernand Braudel, the horrified Fuggers thought this an unworkable sleight of hand. So the Genoese were able to erode the Fuggers’ share of business with the Spanish treasury.

German banking continued to lag behind in the 19th century,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, while in the 20th big German banks were slow to respond to the importance of plastic cards, securitisation and derivatives markets. Does this conservatism matter? The Germans are superb manufacturers, while the Americans and British happen to have bigger financial sectors. Globalisation and the law of comparative advantage are all about specialisation.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, Yet the cultural bias is arguably a disadvantage. A shortage of equity in both banking and the non-financial corporate sector leaves Germany’s economy vulnerable to shocks.

The apparent lack of understanding of the reciprocal relationship between debtors and creditors is more damaging. No one can run persistent current account surpluses without somebody else running up deficits. There are also double standards here.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, The German military was long exempt from financial discipline: the motto of its general staff in the first world war was Geld spielt keine Rolle – loosely, hang the cost. Germany was the first in the European monetary union to break the stability and growth pact rules on deficits and debt.

Hail to the Chef!

A new Iron Chef has been crowned, and celebratory spoilers are being served.

On the finale of Next Iron Chef Super Chefs (Sunday, Food Network; series completed), the Chairman's challenge -- pressure -- lived up to its threat. Aside from the coveted title being at stake -- who doesn't want to be in the Chairman's stable? -- there were "surprises" promised. Or threatened, depending on your point of view.

The contest boiled down to an east coast/west coast thang with New York-based chef Geoffrey Zakarian going mano a womano with San Francisco treat Elizabeth Falkner. Best known as a pastry chef, Falkner's facile hand with weird ingredients, such as tuna jerky soufflé and bagel ice cream, took her to the culinary version of an Ultimate Fighting Championship. But Zakarian, a master of Mediterranean cuisine, was ready to inflict the kind of damage a truckload of Hello Kitty bandages wouldn't fix.

Joining judges Simon Majumdar, Iron Chef Michael Symon and Iron Chef America in the UK Judy Joo, were Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Masaharu Morimoto, with most of the previously eliminated chefs looking on from the Kitchen Stadium peanut gallery.

Create the ultimate holiday meal from the secret ingredients -- standing beef rib roast,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, squash, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, apple cider, and every chef's staple, candy canes.

Zakarian had visions of a "fanciful modernist Christmas" dancing in his head. Falkner's decision to make agnolotti, little pillows of filled pasta, was based on children nestled all snug in their beds, etc. The two sped over to the ingredients and started cooking and...

without stopping the clock, the Chairman called both chefs over to unveil his first surprise: cranberries. And no, this wasn't the kind of gift you can hide in the cupboard next to the bread machine. The consolation was that they could use any eliminated chef for help in creating a cranberry dish. Zakarian and Falkner quickly agreed that Alex Guarnaschelli would be the ultimate sous chef.

Zakarian enlisted Guarnaschelli to make cranberry risotto with sake, while on the other side of Kitchen Stadium, Falkner planned a halftime palate cleanser of cranberry sorbet. Everyone was a frenzied blur of cooking and...

Hold up! Surprise number two: The Chairman blew the lid off two ice cream makers. Falkner's solution: Eggnog ice cream. Zakarian's plan: buttermilk pot de crème. That's in addition to the chefs making beef Wellington, salt cod brandade, crispy creamy Brussels sprouts for vegetarians... Y'all can relate, right?

When Guarnaschelli's 15 minutes of fame as Zakarian's little helper were up, over she went to Falkner, who had the celebrated chef shaving fennel and chopping greens. Regrettably, time ran out before Guarnaschelli could really show off her chops by smashing candy canes.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.

Not enough pressure for these cookers? Chairman's surprise number three was martini glasses, cuz holidays without alcohol are like -- well, bad, that's what they're like! Falkner mixed up a California Christmas cocktail of gin, Cointreau, Clementine and lemon juice, while Zakarian mixed the clems with elderflower liqueur and rum. Ho ho ho, yo!

Judgment time. Falkner presented her salt cod dressed in black garlic aioli. The black garlic caused dissent among the judges; some liked the strong flavor, while others found it a little too muscular. Next up were squash agnolotti with Brussels sprouts in brown butter cider sauce with goat cheese. Majumdar fell hard for the goat cheese with sprouts -- a red flag Iron Chef fans know well, as praise does not always lead to a win. The kudos continued, with Flay describing Falkner's beef Wellington, wrapped in prosciutto and pastry, as risky and terrific,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, and Majumdar admiring Falkner's chutzpah .

Then came the possible game changer: Falkner's cranberry sorbet salad of frisee and clementines -- served with a gelée. Symon nearly had '70s flashbacks of Jell-O molds, but Majumdar was swooning. By dessert, chocolate cake with peppermint snow, Falkner seemed ready to be fitted for her Iron Chef toque.

Not so fast... Zakarian presented his modern luxury Christmas dinner,This page contains information about molds, starting with cranberry risotto and Mad Man Cosmopolitan. (Joo: "Oh that's REALLY good.") Zakarian's Brussels sprouts with apple mustard and apple cider reduction got a mild swipe from Morimito, who called it "a side dish," and Majumdar said Zak's crown roast beef was both overwhelming and overcooked. However, his parsnip cardamom bisque with sausage stuffing went down well, as did his buttermilk frozen custard.

Though every mom advises waiting an hour before choosing the next Iron Chef after a meal, it was decision time. If there were a competition for Iron Chef judges' comments,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , Majumdar would get points for using the word "chutzpah," but Morimito would win hands-down for his comment about Zakarian's food: "I can feel his heart."

Japan scientists hope slime holds intelligence key

A brainless, primeval organism able to navigate a maze might help Japanese scientists devise the ideal transport network design. Not bad for a mono-cellular being that lives on rotting leaves.

Amoeboid yellow slime mold has been on Earth for thousands of years, living a distinctly un-hi-tech life, but, say scientists, it could provide the key to designing bio-computers capable of solving complex problems.

Toshiyuki Nakagaki, a professor at Future University Hakodate says the organism, which he cultivates in petri dishes, "organises" its cells to create the most direct root through a maze to a source of food.

He says the cells appear to have a kind of information-processing ability that allows them to "optimise" the route along which the mold grows to reach food while avoiding stresses -- like light -- that may damage them.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen,

"Humans are not the only living things with information-processing abilities," said Nakagaki in his laboratory in Hakodate on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.

"Simple creatures can solve certain kinds of difficult puzzles," Nakagaki said. "If you want to spotlight the essence of life or intelligence, it's easier to use these simple creatures."

And it doesn't get much simpler than slime mold, an organism that inhabits decaying leaves and logs and eats bacteria.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,

Physarum polycephalum, or grape-cluster slime, grows large enough to be seen without a microscope and has the appearance of mayonnaise.

Nakagaki's work with this slime has been recognised with "Ig Nobel" awards in 2008 and 2010.

An irreverent take on the Nobel prizes, Ig Nobel prizes are given to scientists who can "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

And, say his contemporaries, slime may sound like an odd place to go looking for the key to intelligence, but it is exactly the right place to start.

Atsushi Tero at Kyushu University in western Japan, said slime mold studies are not a "funny but quite orthodox approach" to figuring out the mechanism of human intelligence.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high ,

He says slime molds can create much more effective networks than even the most advanced technology that currently exists.

"Computers are not so good at analysing the best routes that connect many base points because the volume of calculations becomes too large for them," Tero explained.

"But slime molds, without calculating all the possible options, can flow over areas in an impromptu manner and gradually find the best routes.

"Slime molds that have survived for hundreds of millions of years can flexibly adjust themselves to a change of the environment," he said. "They can even create networks that are resistant to unexpected stimulus."

Research has shown slime molds become inactive when subjected to stress such as temperature or humidity changes. They even appear to "remember" the stresses and protectively become inactive when they might expect to experience them.

Tero and his research team have successfully had slime molds form the pattern of a railway system quite similar to the railroad networks of the Kanto region centering Tokyo -- which were designed by hard-thinking people.

He hopes these slime mold networks will be used in future designs of new transport systems or electric transmission lines that need to incorporate detours to get around power outages.

Masashi Aono, a researcher at Riken,This page contains information about molds, a natural science research institute based in Saitama, says his project aims to examine the mechanism of the human brain and eventually duplicate it with slime molds.

"I'm convinced that studying the information-processing capabilities of lower organisms may lead to an understanding of the human brain system," Aono said. "That's my motivation and ambition as a researcher."

Aono says that among applications of so-called "slime mold neuro-computing" is the creation of new algorithm or software for computers modelled after the methods slime molds use when they form networks.

"Ultimately, I'm interested in creating a bio-computer by using actual slime molds, whose information-processing system will be quite close to that of the human brain,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air." Aono said.

"Slime molds do not have a central nervous system, but they can act as if they have intelligence by using the dynamism of their fluxion, which is quite amazing," Aono said. "To me, slime molds are the window on a small universe."

Argentina's Loyal No. 2 to Stand In for Kirchner

President Cristina Kirchner's emergency surgery for thyroid cancer puts a spotlight on her vice president, Amado Boudou, a guitar-playing former economy minister who will run the country for at least three weeks in January during her hospitalization and convalescence.

In the campaign leading up to Mrs. Kirchner's landslide October re-election, the telegenic Mr. Boudou's penchant for partying with rock stars and other celebrities often overshadowed his policy ideas.

But analysts say the leftist Mrs. Kirchner brought Mr. Boudou onto the ticket precisely because he lacked the political heft within the ruling Peronist party to emerge as a potential rival to her. Now that Mrs. Kirchner will be forced to retreat from the political stage for at least a few weeks after surgery next Wednesday, she is probably relieved to have chosen Mr. Boudou, analysts say.

Earlier this year, after she announced her plans to run for a second term, Mrs. Kirchner said the main reason she picked Mr. Boudou as her running mate, over some powerful Peronist governors, was his "loyalty."

Most medical experts consider the 58-year-old Mrs. Kirchner's prognosis to be good, and investors and politicians seemed to be calmly assimilating the announcement of the president's illness late Tuesday.

A vibrant-looking Mrs. Kirchner appeared Wednesday at an event with provincial governors and joked with Mr. Boudou, 48, about the responsibilities he was about to assume.

"Look at how important it is that the vice president thinks the same way as the person who has been chosen to guide the destiny of the country," she said. Then, amid laughter from the audience, Mrs. Kirchner looked toward Mr. Boudou and added: "Watch what you do!"

Mrs. Kirchner also made allusion during her remarks to the disastrous falling out she had with her vice president, Julio Cobos, during her first term.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, In July 2008, amid a bitterly polarizing Congressional debate over a proposal by Mrs. Kirchner to increase the grain export tax, Mr. Cobos was put in the position of casting the tie-breaking vote in his role as president of the Senate.

Mr.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, Cobos,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , who came from an agrarian district, broke with Mrs. Kirchner and voted no, dealing the government a humiliating defeat. For the next three years of Mrs. Kirchner's presidency, Mr. Cobos was ostracized by Mrs. Kirchner and her allies.

Today, by contrast, having Mr. Boudou in place "allows Cristina to recover without any worry about scheming by the VP to usurp power or otherwise take advantage of the situation," said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.Muyoung mould specializes in manufacture Plastic molding, "Were the current vice president not a diehard Cristina loyalist, I suspect a host of topics,This page contains information about molds, ranging from succession to potential attempts to take temporary control, would be causing great consternation for Cristina and her inner circle."

Mr. Boudou is generally liked by investors, who consider him one of the more philosophically market-friendly members of the Kirchner government. When Mr. Boudou took over as economy minister in July 2009, he set out priorities that many investors agreed with, including trying to restore credibility to Argentina's tainted inflation statistics and paying off Argentina's approximately $7 billion debt to the Paris Club of wealthy nations.

Nevertheless, Mr. Boudou never got far in achieving those aims due to resistance from more-populist members of the Kirchner inner circle, including Mrs. Kirchner's late husband and predecessor Nestor, who died of a heart attack in October 2010. But markets gave Mr. Boudou credit for having the right idea.

In Argentina, Mr. Boudou and his girlfriend, Agustina Kampfer, a television journalist, get paparazzi treatment from the media, which consider them one of the country's most glamorous couples. Mr. Boudou is known for tooling around on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and for collecting electric guitars.

Mr. Boudou's fun-loving ways have sometimes raised eyebrows in government circles, and Mrs. Kirchner hasn't hesitated to keep her No. 2 in his place. During a recent political event, Mrs. Kirchner wryly referred to Mr. Boudou as a "rich kid from Puerto Madero," an elegant part of the capital.

According to Argentine political columnists, Mrs. Kirchner's son, Maximo, one of her key political advisers, and some of the more ideological leftists in the government are still distrustful of Mr. Boudou. In part, that is because Mr. Boudou was educated and later taught at the Argentine Center for Macroeconomic Studies, a university identified with free-market thinking.

Mr. Boudou, however, proved his bona fides to many on the Argentine left in 2008 when he was serving as head of the state pension system and backed Mrs. Kirchner's initiative to nationalize a parallel system of private pensions. Later, as finance minister, Mr. Boudou helped craft a controversial 2009 plan to use several billion dollars in central-bank reserves to pay debt.

The government didn't anticipate the stiff resistance the proposal sparked from Congress and then-Central Bank President Martin Redrado, whom Mrs. Kirchner eventually ousted. Mr. Redrado subsequently wrote that Mr. Boudou "is probably the minister with the least technical quality that I've known, but with a great capacity for communication."

Circuit breakers

A group of DIY gizmo and robot inventors seek to rewire their futures. Wang Kaihao reports.

The 20-square-meter room is on the second floor of an unassuming building called Fuhao Xiezilou, which literally means, "Office of the Superrich", in Beijing's Xuanwumen area. But the people inside don't look rich, and the messy space doesn't look like a typical office. It's heaped with circuit boards, silicon chips and various electronic components that appear bizarre to laypeople.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen,

This is "Beijing Makerspace", where a group of developers tinker with electronic components to create everything from gizmos to robots as hobbies and careers.

Xiao Wenpeng quit his four-year stint as an IT company programmer in 2005 to start his own business, producing handmade digital devices and developing new silicon chips.

But he found the undertaking tricky to tackle alone.

"I want to meet different people with the same interest in DIY electronics," the 33-year-old says.

"We can make more dreams come true by joining forces."

That's why he opened the Makerspace in 2010. More than 20 young people gather there weekly to exchange ideas and plans to translate their blueprints into electronics.

Website employee Chen Wu says he was inspired after learning about Makerspace through its micro blog.

"It's great to communicate with so many people with the same passion and eagerness for creation," the 32-year-old Beijing resident says.

"I really envied the tech-savvy guys in university,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, because they would always be invited to the women's dorms to fix computers. That was one of my initial motives to do something cool."

But a lack of materials, DIY experience and time off work suffocate much of Chen's inventive productivity.

However, he uses what spare time he has to read about robots. And in 2008, the man who calls himself "Dynamic Old Boy" online created a miniature robot out of Lego that can solve any Rubik's cube within six minutes.

"When I actually started working on the robot, I found it's not as difficult as I'd expected," Chen says.

"It's just like building with blocks but with electronics."

Chen still shows off his first DIY robot, even though it's not as fast at solving the Rubik's cube as the record holder, which can finish the puzzle in 5.35 seconds. Chen's robot is a personal milestone for the self-described "geek".

As a geek,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, he says he watches many movies, from which he often takes ideas.

He took inspiration from the film Inception, which gave him the idea of using magnetic levitation theory to create a gyroscope.

After watching the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, he tried to replicate the quadrocopter - an aircraft powered and steered by four propellers - featured in the film. But the process has been anything but smooth.

"The most difficult thing is to keep the aircraft's balance," he says.

"I'm seeking others' advice at Makerspace."

While toy quadrocpoters can be purchased for 1,700 yuan ($269), Chen believes it's much more meaningful to hand-make one, especially as a gift for his 18-month-old daughter. He believes he can finish it by Spring Festival.

"My greatest wish is to make a 1-meter-tall robot to play with her," he says.

While Chen treats robotics as a hobby, Renmin Univeristy graduate Wang Shenglin treats it as a career.

The 23-year-old finance major didn't search for a job after graduation but rather decided to work full time developing devices at Makerspace.

The Shanghai native has created a 1-meter-multi-touch table that resembles a gargantuan iPad.

"I first saw a multi-touch table made by Microsoft on TV in 2008, but it costs more than $20,000. So, I made my own. We create some interesting devices,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high ," Wang adds, pointing to a remote control.

"I could take this to the store and change the TV channels. But I don't want to be a troublemaker. We make stuff like the guys in the The Big Bang Theory," he explains, referring to the hit US sitcom about a group of hyperactively intelligent but socially laggard friends.

"But I'm not a nerd like them."

Wang's past does suggest a relatively hip lifestyle.

He played on the school's tennis and cricket teams. And he flirted with advertising and even tried his hand at fashion design.

"If I don't try something new and exciting when I'm young, when will I?" he says.

"I ultimately find myself most interested in DIY electronics. My parents completely support me, even though I'm far from home."

But Makerspace faces financial challenges. It must pay a 3,000 yuan ($474) monthly room rental and hundreds of yuan more for materials. Testing equipment is also a big expense.

While their inventions may attract popular attention - the multi-touch table was spotlighted at this year's Beijing Design Week - most have yet to capture market demand.

But hope might come from the 3D printer Zhang Ming quit his bank job to invent. The device has aroused investor interest.

The printer lays down successive layers - usually of plastic or metal - to create 3D objects. It's widely sought after in the design industry, because it saves bundles on mockups.

Xiao's team initially believed it was merely a tool for rendering models of the electronics they develop. But the team discovered huge market potential for the device, as imported 3D printers cost 300,000 yuan ($47,400), but Zhang's retails for less than 10,000 yuan.

Zhang says the printer will be ready for the market next spring.

"We can't always stay in the lab," Xiao says.

"This project might turn things around."

And Makerspace's inventors and developers believe the 3D printer might be just the start.

The team hosts DIY salons and a book club to brainstorm about the latest technology and its potential. It also plans to organize a carnival next April to encourage more people to try DIY electronics.

Their hope is that those who work in the "Office of the Superrich" might actually live up to their workplace's name.Information on useful yeasts and moulds,

"The first thing we'll do if we get enough investment," Xiao says, "is move into a bigger office."

Critical Reading for Rare Earth Metals Investors

A quick search of media stories from the month of December, 2009 shows 24 clips including references to the 15 lanthanides and their related elements scandium and yttrium. By contrast, one day in December, 2011 produced 56 stories on the same resources. Even the tone of REE coverage has transformed over the years. Two years ago, an analyst piece from veteran metals consultant Jack Lifton titled “Underpriced Rare Earth Metals from China Have Created a Supply Crisis ” was a common headline as the world discovered that cheap supplies had left manufacturers vulnerable to a monopoly with an agenda. That supply fear made REE the investment de jour and sent almost all of the rare earth prices through the roof. In December of 2010, the headlines in big outlets like The Motley Fool announced that the “Spot Price of Rare Earth Elements Soar as much as 750% since Jan. 2010.”

Reality soon set in as investors realized that this was not a simple supply and demand industry. First, demand was still vague, subject to change and very specific about the type and purity of the product being delivered. Second, the ramp-up period for companies exploring, getting approval for development, mining, processing efficiently and delivering to an end-user was very, very long. Some became discouraged. That is why this year, the consumer finance site, The Daily Markets ran an article with the headline: “Why You Shouldn’t Give Up on the Rare Earth Element Minerals” by Gold Stock Trades Newsletter Writer Jeb Handwerger.

Through it all, Streetwise Reports has focused on cutting through the hype to explain what is really driving demand, how the economy and geopolitics shape supplies going forward and which few of the hundreds of companies adding REE to their company descriptions actually had a chance of making a profit.

Back in June of 2009, in an interview titled “The Race to Rare Earths,” we ran an interview with Kaiser Research Online Editor John Kaiser that concluded “China’s export-based economy, once dependent on American greed, is now but a fading memory. While the U.S. was busy printing and preening, the Chinese were long-range planning. But America wasn’t the only country caught off guard by China’s strategic, if surreptitious, supply procurement.” Even while other analysts were panicking, Kaiser was pointing out how investors could be part of the solution–and make a profit in the process.

“For the juniors, the opportunity right now is to source these projects.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , They get title to them, and when these end users want to develop them, they’re going to have to pay a premium to have these projects developed,” Kaiser said. “So it will not be economic logic that results in these companies getting bought out and having their deposits developed. It’ll be a strategic logic linked to long-term security-of-supply and redundancy concerns. And we’re seeing that sort of psychology at work in this market.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, It’s a bit of a niche in this market. Not as big as gold, but it is an interesting one because of the long-term real economy link implications.”

After years of covering the space by interviewing the growing chorus of analysts and newsletter writers singing the praises of rare earth elements, in June of 2011, we launched The Critical Metals Report to give exclusive coverage to the entire space,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, including rare earth elements, strategic metals and specialty metals. One of the first experts interviewed was Emerging Trends Report Managing Editor Richard Karn in an article called “50 Specialty Metals under Supply Threat.” He warned that investing in the space is not as simple as some other mining operations. “The market is just starting to become aware of the difficulty involved with processing these metals, which, in many cases, more closely resemble sophisticated industrial chemistry than traditional onsite brute processing. Putting flow sheets together that process these metals and elements economically is no mean feat.”

In this early article, Karn busted the myth that manufacturers would find substitutions, engineer out or use recycled supplies for hard-to-access materials. “The advances we have seen especially in consumer electronics over the last decade and a half have not been driven by lone inventors or college kids tinkering in their parents’ garages, but rather by very large, well-equipped and well-staffed research arms of powerful corporations.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, The stakes are high and if a certain metal is critical in an application, they will buy it regardless of the price,” he said.

An evolution in guidelines for research on chimps

Chimps are about 96 percent genetically identical to humans, and like us they are self-aware enough to recognize themselves in a mirror.

But physically, we show some remarkable differences. They don't get the same kind of heart disease humans get. They develop some of the brain abnormalities associated with Alzheimer's disease, but not others. And despite being more sexually promiscuous than humans, they don't get the same sexually transmitted diseases.

They heal better than we do and don't get sleep apnea, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, or acne. They aren't vulnerable to cancers of the breast, lung, stomach, pancreas, colon, ovaries, or prostate.

Physician-scientist Ajit Varki says these differences can be as informative as the similarities. With new restrictions expected soon on the use of chimpanzees in research, he and other scientists spoke about some types of research not mentioned in a new report, which they hope will continue or even increase.

The changes are expected to follow an Institute of Medicine report, released earlier this month, that stressed that biomedical research should be necessary, behavioral studies should be noninvasive, and animals should be housed and cared for appropriately. It was hailed as a positive step by animal-welfare advocates, such as the American Anti-Vivisection Society in Jenkintown. (According to the society's Sue Leary, there are currently no research chimpanzees in Philadelphia.)

The report said that most current research on chimpanzees is unnecessary. In response, the National Institutes of Health has called for a moratorium on new grants for chimp research until the agency can implement IOM's recommendations. But the new guidelines are not specific enough for scientists to predict which research projects will get the ax.

Some types of research should actually increase, said Varki, including studies that monitor the health of chimpanzees in research centers and sanctuaries. These, he said, can be conducted as part of the chimps' health care and can potentially benefit chimps, since they suffer their own unique set of health problems.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high ,

His bottom line is that scientists shouldn't do anything to a chimp they wouldn't be able to do ethically to a human. Researchers, he said, should consider invasiveness as well as any potential benefit to the chimps. Those criteria were not mentioned with regard to biomedical studies.

Varki said there is also a great deal we can learn through autopsy, and yet many sanctuary-housed chimps are incinerated when they die. Sanctuaries are not funded for autopsies or providing samples taken during routine medical care. "It's a lost opportunity to learn about them and us," he said.

Our opportunity to study chimps is also winding down. They are no longer imported for government-funded research. Research chimps are not bred in captivity, and, according to one estimate, will die out by 2037. Chimps in the wild are endangered, and may disappear as well.

Until that time,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, there is much that can be learned about ourselves from studying chimp behavior, said Emory University psychobiologist William Hopkins. Our evolutionary cousins are helping us understand the nature of our own language, culture, self-awareness,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, and social relationships. Studying chimps is helping us understand what makes us human.

"They exhibit abilities that other animals don't, so they occupy this unique niche in terms of information about how the brain works and how cognition evolved," Hopkins said.

He also sees no ethical problems with the behavioral work he is involved in at Yerkes National Primate Center, near Atlanta. Some of the studies involve brain scanning, but chimps can't sit still in a scanner without sedation. While darts are sometimes used to anesthetize dangerous animals, Hopkins said workers at Yerkes have trained chimps to accept getting a shot. That limits stress, which improves the accuracy of the scanning.

He is now investigating a form of nonverbal communication called joint attention, which happens when an individual looks at something and others follow his gaze. About 75 percent of chimps do this readily and the remaining 25 percent do not, he said. Genetic studies show those failing to follow another's gaze tend to have an altered form of a gene that codes for a hormone called vasopressin, implicated in bonding and social behaviors.

He also has found that chimps have varied and complex personalities. Some are more extroverted than others, some are more conscientious, and some are more neurotic, said Hopkins. "There are Woody Allens of the chimp world,Our company focus on manufacturing Plastic mould ," he said.

He said he believed that the new guidelines might have little effect on behavioral research, and that they were more likely to restrict invasive biomedical studies.

Whether such studies will continue may hinge more on the potential benefit to human health. The IOM panelists were divided over the use of chimps to study Hepatitis C vaccines. The disease kills people, and chimp research may advance the search for a vaccine. But the process - infecting healthy chimps and subjecting them to liver biopsies - is not something any scientist would do to humans.

Regardless of how NIH decides to go on this, there's an unmistakable trend away from invasive research. "Seventy years ago chimps were sent off into space, given lethal doses of radiation, or infected with leprosy or TB," Varki said. "That kind of thing is fading away."

Some of this change comes from our understanding of evolution. "Chimpanzees are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom," said NIH Director Francis Collins.Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, The connection between evolution and animal rights was an underlying theme in the film Planet of the Apes, in which two chimp scientists became enlightened about human rights as they recognized an evolutionary relationship between themselves and human beings. Now we seem to be moving in the same direction.

Emergency rooms see too many outpatients

The hospital in Ajman, one of the busiest in the country, receives 450 to 500 emergency cases per day, said Dr Abdul Karim Halimi, the emergency department director. He attributed the high number to the facility's proximity to industrial areas and one of the two motorways linking Umm Al Qaiwain and Ras Al Khaimah.

"Most of our emergency cases are for traffic accidents and construction site-related accidents," he said. "Unfortunately, there are also a number of cases that are not very serious and could be treated in our outpatient clinics but end up in the emergency department."

He said the hospital commissioned a study on the congestion in the emergency department. The study found most people preferred the department, even those with simple ailments, which increased pressure on emergency staff.

"Doctors spent a lot of time examining some of these patients before deciding to transfer them to outpatient clinics," he said. "This is precious time spent on someone not in a life-threatening situation, yet there could be one in that situation waiting."

He appealed to patients to go to the outpatient clinic straightaway for minor issues.

Hospital emergency departments being flooded with non-emergency cases is a problem nationwide,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, said Dr Yousef Altair, the head of the accident and emergency department at Saqr Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah.

A study by the hospital in 2010 showed that 73 per cent of patients admitted to the department had only minor ailments.

"They come in for anything, even a common cold. The real emergency Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,cases are few,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile.This page contains information about molds," he said.

Although there are enough family physicians in the emirate, patients do not want to wait until business hours to see a doctor, he said.

"Some [clinics] are not open 24 hours. Hospitals are open 24 hours," he said.

Some people even visit the emergency room at Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi to get prescriptions renewed, said Dr Jihad Awad, the head of the emergency department.

Other non-severe cases, which account for 10 to 15 per cent of the 300 patients admitted daily, include sore throats,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, body pain, nausea and chronic pain.

People also visit the hospital for check-ups, he said.

Everyone from the government to the physicians who treat minor cases in emergency departments must educate the public, Dr Awad said.

"They have to inform the patient about the cases they should be worried about and the cases they should just follow up with their family doctor," he said.

Dr Omar Al Jabri, the medical director of the Ambulatory Healthcare Services Company (AHS), said people also must be educated on what is a serious ailment.

"Their first choice will be emergency partly because they think they have something serious, most of the time," Dr Al Jabri said. "Part of it is individual education."

Ehab Ahmed, a 30-year-old Egyptian, said he brought his 2-year-old son to the Sheikh Khalifa emergency department with a fever.

He said most patients prefer the emergency department because the staff there were quick to attend to patients. He also said there was nowhere else to go when the outpatient clinic was closed.

Dr Halimi said the outpatient clinic at the Sheikh Kalifah Hospital operated from 8am to 11pm.

He said the emergency department was there to deal with cases that required immediate intervention, such as traffic and construction accidents, burns, heart attacks and epileptic seizures.

From Stuffed Animals to String Sections: The Art of Collaboration

There is hardly a morning that I’m not bombarded with piercing screams from either my three-year-old son or his younger brother as the two wrestle over stuffed animals, remote controls, cell phones and other assorted household debris. It drives me nuts, but it fascinates me as well.

It seems to me there’s some innate desire for individuals to “own” their lives. Most of us are control freaks in one way, shape or form—from babies to bosses, even to bandleaders. What’s ironic is that most of the greatest human accomplishments, including the domestication of livestock, the Great Wall of China, spaceships—and of course music—are all the result of successful collaborations. It’s a lesson that has taken me a long time to learn. And I’m still not sure I have it down.This page contains information about molds,

As I look back at the spectrum of rock greats and even my own little corner of rock history, it’s hard not to point to collaboration as a catalyst for success. McCartney and Lennon, Garcia and Hunter, Simon and Garfunkel, even Hall and Oates! Many times, when a collaboration comes to the end of its natural life, the individual contributors are unable to attain the same richness in their art. It’s the absence of their “yang” that gets ‘em in the end.

Having said that, there are plenty of examples where musicians go beyond their own constructs to find new direction and inspiration in the heart of new partnerships. Paul Simon collaborated with [nearly] half of Africa and it worked! Garcia had a string of successful projects beyond the Grateful Dead. Aerosmith, Madonna, Béla Fleck, Philip Glass, David Byrne—great collaborators!

It’s the ability of these artists to divorce themselves from their own self-created molds and to adopt new musical genetics that has propelled their success. This insight has increasingly informed my approach to making music and also helped define the vision for Assembly of Dust’s latest record— Some Assembly Required.

My bandmates Andy Herrick (drums), John Leccese (bass) and Adam Terrell (guitar) are all accomplished musicians and veteran recording artists. The process of collaboration began, as it always does, with them. We decided to take the notion of collaboration one step further by inviting a guest musician to perform on each song.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, We did our best to invite artists that we thought would understand and complement our musical aesthetic. Similarly we did our best to pair artists with songs that seemed to fit their musical style—to place them in a petri dish that was hospitable. The truth was, even with all of the prep, late-night coaching and the regular prodding, there was no way of knowing what we would get back.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,

This creative chasm was fed by the fact that many of the recordings were done remotely. We uploaded the tracks, the artists’ engineers downloaded the tracks, artists recorded, sent it all back via the Web and then we downloaded to our studio. This virtual recording process brought us from North Carolina to Nashville,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, from Colorado to California and everywhere in between.

One of the most pointed surprises, and arguably one of the most interesting collaborations, was with Martin Sexton. He opted not to sing a verse or sing harmony but rather to add “electric vocals” to a track. The effect is something like a slide guitar—absolutely genius and totally unexpected.

An evolution in guidelines for research on chimps

Chimps are about 96 percent genetically identical to humans, and like us they are self-aware enough to recognize themselves in a mirror.

But physically, we show some remarkable differences. They don't get the same kind of heart disease humans get. They develop some of the brain abnormalities associated with Alzheimer's disease, but not others. And despite being more sexually promiscuous than humans,My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. they don't get the same sexually transmitted diseases.

They heal better than we do and don't get sleep apnea, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, or acne. They aren't vulnerable to cancers of the breast, lung, stomach, pancreas, colon, ovaries, or prostate.

Physician-scientist Ajit Varki says these differences can be as informative as the similarities. With new restrictions expected soon on the use of chimpanzees in research, he and other scientists spoke about some types of research not mentioned in a new report, which they hope will continue or even increase.

The changes are expected to follow an Institute of Medicine report, released earlier this month, that stressed that biomedical research should be necessary, behavioral studies should be noninvasive, and animals should be housed and cared for appropriately. It was hailed as a positive step by animal-welfare advocates, such as the American Anti-Vivisection Society in Jenkintown. (According to the society's Sue Leary,VulcanMold is a plastic molds and Injection mold manufacturer in china. there are currently no research chimpanzees in Philadelphia.)

The report said that most current research on chimpanzees is unnecessary. In response, the National Institutes of Health has called for a moratorium on new grants for chimp research until the agency can implement IOM's recommendations. But the new guidelines are not specific enough for scientists to predict which research projects will get the ax.

Some types of research should actually increase, said Varki,Accept credit cards with a third party merchant account, including studies that monitor the health of chimpanzees in research centers and sanctuaries. These, he said, can be conducted as part of the chimps' health care and can potentially benefit chimps, since they suffer their own unique set of health problems.

His bottom line is that scientists shouldn't do anything to a chimp they wouldn't be able to do ethically to a human. Researchers, he said, should consider invasiveness as well as any potential benefit to the chimps. Those criteria were not mentioned with regard to biomedical studies.

Varki said there is also a great deal we can learn through autopsy, and yet many sanctuary-housed chimps are incinerated when they die. Sanctuaries are not funded for autopsies or providing samples taken during routine medical care. "It's a lost opportunity to learn about them and us," he said.

Our opportunity to study chimps is also winding down. They are no longer imported for government-funded research. Research chimps are not bred in captivity, and, according to one estimate, will die out by 2037. Chimps in the wild are endangered, and may disappear as well.

Until that time, there is much that can be learned about ourselves from studying chimp behavior, said Emory University psychobiologist William Hopkins. Our evolutionary cousins are helping us understand the nature of our own language, culture, self-awareness, and social relationships. Studying chimps is helping us understand what makes us human.

"They exhibit abilities that other animals don't, so they occupy this unique niche in terms of information about how the brain works and how cognition evolved," Hopkins said.

He also sees no ethical problems with the behavioral work he is involved in at Yerkes National Primate Center, near Atlanta. Some of the studies involve brain scanning, but chimps can't sit still in a scanner without sedation. While darts are sometimes used to anesthetize dangerous animals, Hopkins said workers at Yerkes have trained chimps to accept getting a shot.This page contains information about molds, That limits stress, which improves the accuracy of the scanning.

He is now investigating a form of nonverbal communication called joint attention, which happens when an individual looks at something and others follow his gaze. About 75 percent of chimps do this readily and the remaining 25 percent do not, he said. Genetic studies show those failing to follow another's gaze tend to have an altered form of a gene that codes for a hormone called vasopressin, implicated in bonding and social behaviors.

He also has found that chimps have varied and complex personalities. Some are more extroverted than others, some are more conscientious, and some are more neurotic, said Hopkins. "There are Woody Allens of the chimp world," he said.

He said he believed that the new guidelines might have little effect on behavioral research, and that they were more likely to restrict invasive biomedical studies.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile.

Whether such studies will continue may hinge more on the potential benefit to human health. The IOM panelists were divided over the use of chimps to study Hepatitis C vaccines. The disease kills people, and chimp research may advance the search for a vaccine. But the process - infecting healthy chimps and subjecting them to liver biopsies - is not something any scientist would do to humans.

Regardless of how NIH decides to go on this, there's an unmistakable trend away from invasive research. "Seventy years ago chimps were sent off into space, given lethal doses of radiation, or infected with leprosy or TB," Varki said. "That kind of thing is fading away."

Some of this change comes from our understanding of evolution. "Chimpanzees are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom," said NIH Director Francis Collins. The connection between evolution and animal rights was an underlying theme in the film Planet of the Apes, in which two chimp scientists became enlightened about human rights as they recognized an evolutionary relationship between themselves and human beings. Now we seem to be moving in the same direction.

How much secrecy do you want?

Local governments use the word “executive session” when they meet in secret, because it just sounds better. But it’s still only a closed-door meeting where the public isn’t welcome for various reasons.

The Chippewa Falls City Council met for about 90 minutes Tuesday night in one of those sessions, talking about the city’s plans to redevelop the entrance areas to downtown.

The council went into the secret session about 7 p.m. Several people associated with the development plans were excluded and waited outside in the adjoining hallway.

At 7:26 p.m., they were invited into the meeting. Twenty-three minutes later,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, they left again. Another man connected with the development project who had been waiting in the hallway was called into the meeting.

The discussion went on, with City Planner Jayson Smith doing much of the talking.

At 8:27 a.m. the public was called back into the council chambers. “We took no action,” Council President CW King said.

With that, the council resumed in open session, taking a voice vote and approving submitting a state community block grant application for the redevelopment project.

Not much has changed about the secret meeting process at City Hall over the last few decades. People sitting in the adjoining hallway can still hear snippets of the debate, if they are really interested enough to care to listen.

When he served on the council, Jack Covill routinely voted against going into secret session, saying they weren’t needed and the discussions should be public. He seldom won that argument with his fellow council members.

When then-Herald-Telegram editor Holly Meier covered council meetings from the 1940s through the ‘80s, the council would occasionally kick him out while they gabbed in what the council thought was secrecy.

Only the council chambers weren’t air conditioned then and in the summer the council would open the transoms above the doors to the council chambers to improve ventilation.

One of Meier’s favorite tales was how he would stand by the door and be able to hear every word said in the “secret” sessions. .Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings? .

The college football system has gotten to be such a joke that even teams that failed to muster a winning record now go to bowl games.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, But that’s an argument for another day.

There is a good reason, however, to tune in to a bowl game next Friday: You might be able to see a Chippewa Falls man making an unusual entrance.

Ben Arneberg is part of the "Wings of Blue," the parachute team at the Air Force Academy that consists of cadets who are full-time college students at the Academy. Before they are allowed to parachute into a stadium they must have 500 jumps under their belt.

Arneberg reached that milestone a couple of months ago, and on Friday, he will be one of six parachuters at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,, preceding the Insight Bowl between Iowa and Oklahoma. Kickoff is at 9 p.m. Central Time on ESPN. Arneberg will likely be carrying a Hawkeyes flag.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , . .

Maybe it’s the lack of snow or the still-struggling economy. Or perhaps a holiday song has been repeated one too many times.

The Story of Vesper: Yikes! An unexpected playdate

Vidalia, Veronica and Vincent had been playing thistle-thistle-who's-got-the-thistle in the hay field at the bottom of the hill near the bluebird house where they lived with their dad and mom, Vesper and Valeria.

It was a nice sunny day at the end of the fall, and they could hear rumbling and feel the ground shake, but they didn't know what it was.

The two sisters and their little brother — all northern white-footed mice — were suddenly snatched and bundled into a pile of hay. They didn't see this part, but the hay was squeezed and a string was tied around it and then placed on a wagon with other piles of hay.

As mice do, they started tapping their feet,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, which is how they talked. They were squished into the middle of the pile, and could just move their paws to tap, and had to pull their tails over their backs. "What in the woods," they tapped, "is happening to us? Where are we going?"

By the time the wagon stopped, they had wiggled some space for themselves inside the bale of hay. They felt the bale being picked up from the wagon and tossed. It was a little like being on a swing, but they couldn't see anything.

The bale landed in a corner of a little stall in an old shed that was used as a stable. From inside the bale, all the mice could do was listen, and tap,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, and scratch because the hay made them itchy.

"At least," tapped Vidalia, as she nipped a seed from a weed, "we have something to eat."

So they ate the seeds in the hay, and because it was dark in there anyway, they slept.

They awoke to a clomping sound, followed by a crunching sound, then more crunching.

"Something," tapped Veronica, "is eating."

The mice wiggled, yawned, stretched out their tails, and shivered. Each mouse was scared, and Veronica and Vincent cuddled close to their big sister Vidalia.

Three very old cats and a black and white pony gathered around the bundle of hay.

The cats were Edam, Yikes and Uh-oh. They were barn cats, two brothers (Yikes and Uh-Oh) and a sister (Edam).

The pony was Adeline, Addie for short. It was Addie who had pulled the wagon with the hay to the stable,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , and it was Addie who was eating the hay and paying no attention to the cats.

The cats were paying attention to the tapping noises they heard coming from the bale of hay.

"What's that tapping?" wondered Yikes.

"Something's in there," said Uh-oh.

"I'm hungry," said Edam.

Addie just continued chomping on her hay. Her ears came up and she shook her shaggy head, because she heard the tapping, too, but did not tell the cats.

This was happening in Addie's stall, which was full of things that should have been put away or thrown out. There were frayed ropes too short to tie on to anything, old leaky water pails and buckets, broken boards, mismatched soft leather work gloves and a moldy harness. Spider webs were in all the corners and the air was thick with cat hair and dust. The boards had grooves chewed by Addie when she got bored.

This shed, placed handily next to a pasture and a stream, was her home. The shed was isolated in the farthest field from the rest of the farm. Addie was on her own most of the time, with the cats, of course.

She could come and go as she pleased to get food and water because there was no door on the shed, only a greasy blanket nailed along the top to keep out the wind.

The three cats lived there, too. Somehow,Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings?The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, they managed to keep fluffy — not fat. They entertained themselves by never hurrying, by watching things for hours at a time without moving, and by finishing each other's sentences. Right now, though, they were staring very hard at Addie's bale of hay and listening.

"Tappety-tap-tap, achoo!" is what they heard. That was Veronica telling her sister Vidalia that she could see light, which meant the mice were getting near the outside of the bale of hay. They had managed to wiggle and stretch and push and eat their way to edge. The "achoo" was Vincent sneezing. He had allergies.

The three cats were watching when the three mice stuck their heads out of the bale of hay and took big breaths.

The Metropolitan Museum Honors Indian Master Painters

The exhibit Wonder of the Age, currently at the Met, illustrates highly disciplined Indian artistry from the 12th to the 19th century. Using a magnifying glass given by the Met, we observe the colored detailing of an elephant’s skin and remain in awe about the level of craftsmanship that went into creating thousands of painted leaves for landscape scenes.

The Wonder’s historically earliest installments date back to the 12th century. The exhibition displays an unprecedented creative execution of a mystically endowed element with the rendering of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara by a Bengali artist named Mahavihara Master by art historians.VulcanMold is a plastic molds and Injection mold manufacturer in china.

Art historian D. White came along with me to provide insights into the exhibition, which shows timeless religious motifs in juxtaposition to a politically changing backdrop. “I don’t talk politics nor religion. It’s a tricky subject,” he said.

I agreed as we waxed poetic over the underlying political dynamics of the Buddhist monastic tradition in eastern India at that time. “Unfortunately, there are not a great deal of paintings that depict the story of the Buddha because most of those depictions were in caves,” he said.

After mentioning that Buddhism began around the 5th century B.C., he said, “The Islamic factions had conquered those parts of India that were predominately Buddhist and in their wake destroyed many Buddhist images.”

The exhibit’s historical background, with its fusions of Sultanic, Iranian, Egyptian, as well as European influences that characterize early Hindu art, is nevertheless a most perplexing subject because of the inherent inconsistencies of religion and politics in themselves.

“This is why you’ll find with the Muslim paintings either images of war, courtly depictions, or veneration of royalty,” White said, explaining how Muslims adapted Hindu influences into the totality of their artistic lexicon while destroying Buddhist iconography.

The 15th century’s golden age of Mughal sees the aesthetics shifting—introducing more European influences. Of particular interest is the piece titled “Chameleon” with its delicate mint green and antiqued brown color scheme and a harmonious compositional dictation.

As we further explore the wonders of the ages, we find that as the centuries advance,Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings? the illustrations become progressively lush and arrestingly graphic. For instance, Master Ruknuddin’s “Ladies of the Zenana on a Terrace at Night” pop out with bold golden, muddy brown,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, and flesh-colored hues.

Heading into the 16th century,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, we discover the artist called Hada Master and the Kota school with its lucid, wet color, saturated images of elephants. The illustration “An Elephant Combat,” attributed to Hada Master, and “Ram Singh I of Kota Hunting Rhinoceros,” attributed to the artist known as Kota Master A,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , capture the highly realistic embodiment of motion.

Moving into the 16th and early 17th centuries, we find Bahu masters’ stylized, conceptually rich world of bright-colored landscapes. The intricacy of such painting’s as “King Dasaratha and His Retinue Proceed to Rama’s Wedding” and the variations on style suggest that there were many hands at work on these pieces—possibly father and son or two brothers.

DIY solar panel maker heads to Africa for charity

A second glance reveals a bunch of solar panels stacked against the wall and a man, busy breaking them up and reassembling them in a very home-made fashion.

The end result is DIY solar kits that can recharge phones and batteries. They look makeshift but they have the potential to make a huge difference to people thousands of miles away in Kenya.

As the director of KnowYourPlanet,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Mark Kragh's day job is to resell solar panels to small businesses and hobbyists.

But in February he will travel to Kenya to distribute specially-made kits he is giving away as charity, and to show local people how to make more.

For many in Africa there is little access to electricity due to mains power shortages. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the explosion in mobile phone ownership so it is not unusual for people to walk for several hours just to charge their phones.

"Often, charge points are driven by petrol or diesel generators, which are dangerous to operate and of course emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants. A daily phone charge can cost a considerable amount relative to people's wages," said Mr Kragh.

He was inspired by a chance conversation with a friend to experiment with using solar power as an alternative method to charging phones and batteries.

"The project started a few years back when my friend in Senegal asked me if I had any cheap options for solar power for Africa. I told him that PV [photovoltaics] was way too expensive and not a viable option,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. it required batteries and many other components and he should just forget about it.

"I kept thinking about this, could this really be true? Why could we not use a renewable energy? So I did some research and realised there was an entire community of people who already make solar panels from scrap," he said.

He was also inspired by his grandmother Dr Elisabeth Svendsen,Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, a lifelong charity worker who founded the UK's Donkey Sanctuary.

"She passed away this year but my granny travelled in Africa for 40 years, hands-on with all the good and bad that brought with it. She made a huge impact on the local people's lives and I hope that I will be able to carry on this work in my own way," he said.

The kits he creates are made from solar panels that manufacturers have rejected.

"There are very strict rules,They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed." said Mr Kragh.

Slight chips in the corner render the panels useless for traditional solar energy use but perfect for the DIY kits Mr Kragh has designed.

He aims to make them deliberately makeshift, creating a fairly crude circuit of solar panels on plywood.

The panels also require some more sophisticated kit.

"Initially we will bring specialised materials with us such as voltage regulators, UV stable encapsulants, solar cells and PV ribbon," said Mr Kragh.

But over time he hopes to be able to source components locally.

"To start with that would be glass, LEDs, batteries, wood and metal, wires and connectors. A great part of the pilot is simply testing and trying lots of non-solar materials to see what works,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high ," he said.

"Our main concern is the intense sun which causes degradation due to the high levels of heat and UV rays," he added.

Armed with a 5,000 grant from charity World in Need, Mr Kragh aims to build at least 1,000 kits when he arrives, training local people along the way so that they can build new ones and service old ones.

The ultimate goal is to create a $1 (64p) solar charger which has at least a five year lifespan.

"We aim to train local people in these techniques to create cottage industries, giving people locally the opportunity to generate income and keep currency in the community, rather than pay European and Chinese manufacturers and distribution chains and retail networks," said Mr Kragh.

Vacuum Cleaner Distributor Sentenced to 130 Months in Ponzi Scheme

Today United States District Judge Garr M King sentenced Johnny “Mickey” Brown, 59, of Beaverton, Oregon, to 130 months in federal prison following a jury trial that concluded on May 11, 2011. The federal jury found Brown guilty of all 14 counts in an indictment charging him with wire fraud, false statement to a financial institution, and tax evasion. After release from the Bureau of Prisons, Brown will serve five years on supervised release.

“The office of the United States Attorney will prosecute those who prey on the elderly and other vulnerable victims to the full extent of the law,” stated United States Attorney Amanda Marshall. “Brown is a con man who abused the victims in this case, both financially and emotionally.

Many of the victims lost their life savings and some lost their homes.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, All of the victims experienced a loss of dignity and trust.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, We are pleased that he will be spending the next ten years in prison where he won’t be able to take advantage of anyone for a very long time.”

The evidence presented at trial proved that Johnny “Mickey” Brown fraudulently obtained credit cards from unsuspecting victims, many of whom were elderly or financially naive, who believed they were investing in vacuum cleaner inventory for a profitable business. Once he secured the victims’ cards through false promises of no-risk dividends based upon the sale of the vacuum inventory, he immediately obtained all the available credit balance from each card.

Brown did this by running the cards through a United States Bank Merchant Point of Sale terminal and falsely disguised each transaction as a sale of merchandise when, in fact, he didn’t sell anything at all. Each of these pretext or “fake” sales caused United States Bank to automatically deposit the amount of the fraudulent sale entered in the credit card machine into defendant Brown’s business bank account.

Brown used the money he obtained from his scheme for personal and business expenses. The largest business expense was the monthly debt service on 596 credit cards and payments of “dividends” to the many victim investors. These payments had to be made in order to extend the life of the Ponzi scheme.

While some of the money was used to pay regular business expenses, the vast majority went to fund the scheme and for Brown’s personal use, including an elegant home and wardrobe, private education for his children, high-end vehicles, and large donations to the Living Water Christian Assembly in Albany, Oregon.

United States Bank froze Brown’s business accounts in March 2003. The account was frozen, not due to the credit card activity, but in response to United States Bank’s recognition that Brown was receiving the proceeds of, and making monthly payments on, United States Bank loans in excess of $232,000 to 17 customers.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Brown then frantically attempted to run $1,000,000 in fake refunds on many of the hundreds of victim credit card accounts he had improperly charged. United States Bank’s credit card processing office detected this activity and reversed the fraudulent refunds.

At that point, Brown orchestrated a massive campaign to dispute over 1,000 prior fake sales by submitting false “credit slip” documents to the various credit card companies.

Some victims cooperated with Brown’s credit slip effort, while some did not. Brown succeeded in charging back a total of $4,241,941 in fake sales to United States Bank. Ordinarily, merchant charge backs would have been charged against the merchant’s business account. But since Brown’s account had long since been depleted and closed, United States Bank was forced to absorb the full loss.

Individual victims also lost significant sums of money when their credit card companies refused to credit the victim’s accounts.

While carrying out this scheme, the evidence proved that Brown was also evading the payment of federal taxes due on 1993-1995 tax returns he had signed and filed, self-assessing a total tax due of $130,871. He never paid any part of that tax.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , In order to evade payment of the tax debt, Brown conducted his business and bought and sold assets through nominees. In order to further hide income from the IRS, Brown ran his credit card fraud scheme by use of a credit card processing agreement and bank accounts set up in the name of an employee.

He directed the employee to set up a business entity, open bank accounts and set up a merchant credit card processing agreement for his use. The employee was listed as the owner of defendant Brown’s finance company and those bank accounts as well. All of his business was done through bank accounts in the name of the employee and others.

The case was investigated by the Portland Office of the FBI, the Eugene Office of the IRS,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. Criminal Investigation, and by the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities.

Water sales contract still hot topic

The main topic on Toledo the past few weeks continues to be the new water sales contract by the Sabine River Authority of Louisiana.

I have tried to stay on top of the very heated issue as we wrote a fairly lengthy column last week on the matter.

I have been writing fishing columns and Toledo Bend news columns since 1998, and I have never had the volume of feedback this subject is receiving. My inbox is stuffed with emails from interested, concerned Toledo property owners, lake business owners, area wide anglers and people who just enjoy visiting the lake who are heart-broken to see the lake in its present condition.

The responses vary from those who express their concerns in a civil manner to those who are very angry at what many feel is a man-made situation when it comes to the present historic low water levels in the lake.

It appears the SRA is slowing down the water sales contract process and allowing more time for the public to let their legitimate concerns be made known. I think that is the best step for all concerns. Water sales may be the answer,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and portions of the contract that need to be revisited.

It is fairly safe to say that there is a lack of trust of the SRA on behalf of many in the general Toledo area public. Part of the trust issue might be justified, while some is not, which is the case with most heated issues.

One way to increase trust is to allow public input in the form of hearings and public forums where both sides can meet, discuss and understand each other’s position.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin,

One prevailing, genuine,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. deep-seated fear is that many think that Toledo may never see lake levels above 170 feet again. When these folks who have no water under their docks and hear of a 99-year contract to sell Toledo’s water to another state, there is a predicable negative response.

One question I have, and plan to find the answer to, is whether Texas SRA will have another separate water contract or will it share with Louisiana? I mention that because Toledo Bend is governed by two authorities, Texas and Louisiana. One political governmental agency would be challenging enough, but having two governing bodies, at times, proves interesting.

However, we must remember that both states did cooperate beautifully to build the lake in the late 1950s and 1960s. The Louisiana SRA board (12-13 members) are all appointed by the governor, so we can make our positions known to Gov. Jindal as well as to board members. I did contact the governor’s office this week to let him know my concerns.

I will say that SRA Louisiana Director,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , Jim Pratt, has been willing to discuss the issues with me and others who have contacted him. There are several sections of the contract where we are worlds apart, but Pratt continues to be open and addressing concerns.

In looking further at the contract this week, the lack of SRA overseeing the water outtake meters needs additional consideration as the buyer is doing 90 percent of reading and recording stats. Not a good practice!

Everyone needs to be accountable,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, and it is just a good business practice. A standing-room only public input meeting convened Tuesday at Toledo Town and I was present for that meeting.

I will give a report on the meeting in my next week’s column.

Combat engineers tear down patrol bases throughout Helmand province

Firebase Saenz has been destroyed. Its defenses have been torn down and its walls have been completely leveled. This destruction was not caused by insurgents – it was the handiwork of Marines from the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward).

With the recent reduction and reorganization of troops, Saenz is the first of several forward operating bases being demilitarized in Helmand province.

The firebase, which covered a little over 11 acres of Afghan desert, was built more than a year ago and named after Sgt. Jose Saenz III who was killed in action, Aug. 9, 2010. During its existence, Saenz housed Marine artillery units armed with M777 Lightweight Howitzer cannons that provided indirect fire support for coalition ground forces operating in the northern half of Helmand province.

After convoying north from Camp Leatherneck, the Marines of 9th ESB worked diligently from Dec.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, 13-15 to properly dismantle the base and ensure that there was little, if any, footprint from the Marines.

“Even though it can be difficult [demilitarizing the base], you kind of just want to wreck the place, you know, have some fun with it,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Fassett, commander of 1st Platoon, Alpha Company,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, 9th ESB, and a native of Princetown, N.Y. “But [the Marines] have been doing a good job taking everything down and making sure to keep it neat so it fits on the truck. We did the right job in terms of cleaning up after ourselves here in Afghanistan.”

Doing the right job included emptying sandbags, pushing down berms and coiling up hundreds of yards of razor-sharp concertina wire surrounding Saenz.

One of the more challenging tasks was dismantling the numerous HESCO barriers that made up the guard posts at each corner of the base. HESCO barriers (named after the British company HESCO Bastion) are military fortifications that have seen extensive use in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A typical HESCO is 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide and is made of a collapsible wire mesh container with a heavy-duty fabric liner that is usually filled with sand.

The Marines used tractors,Our company focus on manufacturing Plastic mould , forklifts,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , electric saws, shovels, pick axes, bolt cutters, knives and their hands to rip apart the HESCO barriers that once protected the Marines at Saenz from explosive blasts and small arms fire.

“It’s pretty tedious work for myself and the other Marines,” said Lance Cpl. Zachary Couch, a combat engineer with Alpha Co. and a native of Alton, Ill. “Using all the power tools, especially the bolt cutters - those get hard after a while…after at least two or three 7-foot HESCO’s, chopping them down from top to bottom. It gets pretty tough.”

The Marines that were equipped with the electric saws were able to cut through the wire mesh with relative ease compared to the bolt cutters. The sparks they produced lit up the evening sky and resembled fireworks that could be seen on the Fourth of July.

As darkness fell, the Marines used the headlights from the tractors to aid them in their disassembly of the HESCO’s. As they continued working deep into the night, the temperature dropped below 20 degrees, forcing them to put on more and more warming layers.

A little bit before midnight, the Marines called it a day. There were no tents to house them in so they slept inside of the armored vehicles that brought them up to Saenz. Several Marines would cram into one vehicle and sleep in some very awkward and uncomfortable positions on top of their packs and body armor. The more Marines that crammed into a vehicle, the warmer it got inside.

The Marines woke up the next morning, the sun shone on their weather-beaten faces that were still covered with sand from the day before. They grabbed their tools and slowly made their way back to where they had left off the night before.

During the night, the bulldozers had pushed over and flattened the berms that made up the walls of the base, thereby removing protection from any possible insurgent fire. From then on, the Marines had to wear their helmets and body armor. Although it made it slightly more difficult for the Marines to accomplish their duties,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, it did increase their protection against any possible enemy fire.