NHGRI to develop revolutionary technologies for exploring genome function

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded 10 grants, totalling $10.5 million, to develop revolutionary technologies that will help researchers identify millions of genomic elements that play a role in determining what genes are expressed and at what levels in different cells.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

These multi-year grants are part of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, whose aim is to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive catalogue of functional genomic elements that will ultimately help explain the role that the genome plays in health and disease.

“The ENCODE project is providing a Rosetta Stone to understand how the sequence of the human genome forms the words that tell our bodies how to work at the molecular level,” said Eric D Green, MD, PhD, director of NHGRI, which directs and funds the ENCODE project. “By developing more revolutionary technologies for probing genome function, we expect to accelerate these efforts.Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction.”

Sequencing the human genome and identifying the small fraction of its bases that directly code for proteins were among the first steps in understanding how the genome functions. But the remaining larger fraction of functional genomic elements continues to be a mystery. In response, NHGRI launched the ENCODE project to identify all the functional elements in the human genome, along with the modENCODE project to identify the functional elements in the fly and worm genomes and a smaller effort examining the mouse genome. These projects have been rapidly releasing data to the research community.

These ENCODE efforts have collected large amounts of data with a wide variety of cell types, in many cases identifying key functional landmarks. By studying these landmarks, researchers can establish the locations of DNA sequences that perform a variety of essential functions.

“In an exciting development, researchers are beginning to use the ENCODE catalogues to understand how variation in the DNA sequence might influence diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders,What is a real time Location system (RTLS)?” said Mike Pazin, PhD, a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research.

Each person has one genome sequence that is basically the same in all cell types. In contrast, many genomic elements function in only some cell types. As a result, researchers must test many cell types using many different experimental approaches to develop a detailed inventory of the functional elements in the genome. Revolutionary technological improvements are required to discover and test the millions of functional elements and to learn more precisely what they do. Significant advances are also needed to establish whether information about these functional elements can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

“The current ENCODE efforts owe a good part of their success to technology development that has occurred over the last decade,” said Elise A Feingold, PhD, a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research. “In addition to the technologies developed through this programme, ENCODE has benefitted enormously from advances fostered by NHGRI’s DNA sequencing technology initiative,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. the $1000 Genome Programme.”

Discovery of functional genomic elements will be addressed by funding projects for a new assay to identify RNA splicing elements, new assays to identify promoters and enhancers, as well as a project to improve assays for identifying functional elements by allowing these assays to work reliably using smaller samples. Splicing is the process that joins RNA copies of gene segments together to form mRNA, the blueprint for the production of proteins. Errors in splicing sometimes lead to human disease. Promoters specify the sites in the genome where genes begin and much gene regulation occurs. Enhancers are genomic elements that can turn on expression of nearby and distant genes. Mutations in promoters and enhancers can cause human disease.

Validation of biological elements will be addressed by funding projects for new methods with improved throughput, and a smaller project to improve accuracy by testing elements in their natural genomic context.

Computational analysis will be addressed by funding projects to predict regulatory protein binding and gene expression based on sequence alone, and to predict chromosomal interactions and link functional elements to their target genes.

Discovery of Functional Elements: Christopher Burge, Ph.D.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; $800,000 ; Researchers will develop a new technology to catalog all of the RNA branch points that form in mRNA during splicing.

Mats Ljungman, Ph.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking.D.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; $1,200,000 ; Using bromouridine labeling of RNA, these researchers will develop new assays (BruChase-Seq and BrUV-Seq) to identity promoters and enhancers and to measure mRNA degradation and splicing kinetics.

Raymond David Hawkins, Ph.D.; University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; $460,000 (over two years); These researchers will improve the power of ChIP-seq assays to identify functional elements. ChIP-seq is one of the fundamental assays used in ENCODE to identify the locations in the genome that are attached to a particular protein.

Story of real-life alien hunter with lifetime’s quest

THE thought that we’re not alone has intrigued and perplexed ever since Neanderthal man first raised his eyes skywards and wondered what that big silvery circle thing in the sky was.

Stars, planets and the vast scale of the galaxy, all part of a brainbusting conundrum that has confounded civilisations down the generations, leaving mere human minds to boggle under the concept that, somewhere out there, one of those twinkling little stars is home to someone else.

As for Hollywood movies, they whisk us to imaginary worlds of little green men with light sabres and a disturbing habit of shooting first then asking later to be taken to our leader – in perfect if slightly robotic English – or to curious worlds with multi- coloured moons and purple oceans.

Could any of that possibly, in our wildest dreams, ever be real?

Actually, yes, says Dr Duncan Forgan, straight-faced, deadly serious and not even wearing a replica Star Trek uniform or a giant fancy dress Chewbacca head. It could be true and, indeed, it probably is.

Well, perhaps not the bits about the light sabres and green men. Or the multi-coloured moons and the purple oceans – I made all that up. Besides, that’s the fine detail to be established once and for all sometime later.

Right now it’s enough to know that, on those starry nights when we choose to raise our eyes heavenwards, peering through the haar and the city’s light pollution to ponder the prospect of intelligent life on other planets, there’s probably someone else looking down at us wondering exactly the same thing.

“The idea that we’re alone as biological organisms, well, for me, that’s kind of unlikely,” says Dr Forgan, a sort of Han Solo with a university degree and Edinburgh’s real-life “alien hunter”.

“There are estimated to be 100 billion planets in the galaxy,” he continues, ignoring the references to Space: 1999 and the odd Vulcan salute. “That only one could have even simple biological life seems to be unlikely. If that was the case,What is a real time Location system (RTLS)? then it would be a shattering result.”

Far more likely, he believes, is that alien life forms are really out there. Indeed, according to one raft of research he published after intense study from his lair at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, there could be between a mere 361 up to a jaw-dropping 38,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking.000 alien civilisations in our galaxy alone.

And if even one of them has a Death Star, enough unleaded to fuel it plus a dislike of folks who walk upright, watch mind-numbing reality television shows,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. tweet about what they had for breakfast and overindulge in McDonalds, then we’ve had it.

Of course, Dr Forgan has heard all those smarty-pants jibes before – about ET and Klingons on the starboard bow, death rays, phasers,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. teleporting and Captain Kirk’s acting ability. Still just 27 years old, he learned a while ago that, when he goes to a party and someone asks what he does for a living, it’s probably less hassle to simply respond, “I’m a PhD research fellow in an academic position”,Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction. than to admit, “Well, as a matter of fact, I hunt for aliens”.

And yet that’s pretty much a large element of what he does. Even if the proper term for it all is that he “carries out theoretical calculations for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, he’s basically the chap peering skywards, armed with an astonishing array of scientific data to help deduce where life forms may be, and what their home might be like.

Of course, if you want aliens, the best place to find them is on the silver screen, and now Dr Forgan has ventured there too. Not a cameo appearance in Avatar, but in a short film made by Edinburgh College of Art students aimed at explaining his “out of this world” research, with the hope of inspiring us all to become amateur alien hunters.

Turkish gas drill in Cyprus hikes tensions

Turkey has begun drilling for natural gas in northern Cyprus ratcheting up growing tension across the east Mediterranean over control of offshore gas fields that could transform the economies of a region long barren of energy resources.

The Turks control the northern one-third of Cyprus, where they've stationed 30,Enter the Indoor Positioning System (IPS).000 troops since 1974 when they invaded the island, which is dominated by Greek Cypriots.

Ankara calls its zone the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus but it's recognized only by Turkey. The Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia is internationally considered the sovereign authority.

Technically, that means the Turks are drilling illegally.

That exacerbates a spider's web of territorial and maritime disputes in the east Mediterranean that intersect with long-running and potentially explosive conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors and the ancient rivalry between Turkey and Greece.

Israel made the first discoveries off its northern coast in 2009-10 with the Noble Energy Corp. of Houston striking major reserves.

The Tamar field contains an estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of gas but the nearby Leviathan field has 17 tcf,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. the biggest strike made so far in the region. Four subsequent finds have boosted estimated Israeli reserves in the Levant Basin to 35 tcf, worth in excess of $130 billion and enough to turn the once energy-poor Jewish state into an exporter.

The Turks launched their drilling in the TRNC Thursday, sharpening the swelling dispute over who has rights to the island's potential energy riches and setting back hopes of reconciliation between the two communities and the states that support them.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz declared the onshore well operated by the state-run Turkish Petroleum Corp. has "strategic significance and we attribute great importance to it.What is a real time Location system (RTLS)?"

Cyprus could be sitting on enough natural gas to last it 200 years.

When the Greek Cypriots, defying Turkish warnings, began exploration of the southernmost of their 12 maritime blocks in 2011, Turkey sent a seismic vessel escorted by a warship into Greek Cypriot waters and warned it would "retaliate even more strongly" to any further drilling.

Israel and Cyprus, where Noble Energy made a strike of 5 tcf-8 tcf recently, are collaborating on plans to jointly export their gas to Europe via an underwater pipeline to Greece.

Another option is building a liquefied natural gas plant, possibly offshore which would make it the world's first floating LNG terminal -- and a juicy target. China's interested in building it.

The economic cooperation between Israel and Cyprus, 300 miles to the north, is also forging a new military alliance between the Jewish state and Greece.

This is rapidly replacing the strategic alliance between Israel and Turkey that was formalized in 1996, but broke apart in May 2010, in large part because of growing antagonism by Turkey's Islamist-led government.

So a major realignment in the eastern Mediterranean appears to be under way as the region's energy resources are uncovered.

The U.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.S. Geological Survey reported in 2010 that the Levant Basin, embracing Syria, Israel, the Gaza Strip and Cyprus, contains an estimated 122 tcf of gas and some 4 billion barrels of oil.

In February, Israel, a major regional military power, signed a military cooperation pact with the Greek Cypriots,Master Arts specialises in oil painting reproduction. whose military forces are miniscule. This allows Israeli ships and aircraft to use Cypriot territorial waters and airspace.

Childhood in France leads to mastery in art of butter-making

As one of the three youngest in a family with 10 children, Monique Hooker was assigned to the butter-making crew that worked in the dirt-floor basement of their farmhouse in Brittany,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. France. Butter was made at least twice a week in a wooden-barrel churn with a glass top.

"It wasn't a chore," she said. "We made a game of it, counting the turns and watching cream turn into butter.Welcome to Best Custom GLASS MOSAIC from china glass mosaic Offers Our mother would hit the floor (above) with her broom if she thought we were having too much fun. I have very fond memories of it."

Hooker now lives in a log home in the bluffs of western Wisconsin, where she retired after a culinary career that spanned four decades. It began at age 15 in a French restaurant kitchen and included stints in prestigious restaurants in Europe and America, where she worked beside other French immigrants such as Jacques Pepin and Pierre Franey in the 1960s. She also was proprietor of the acclaimed Monique's Cafe in Chicago and author of the award-winning cookbook "Cooking with the Seasons: A Year in My Kitchen."

These days, Hooker has returned to her cooking roots and is sharing her passion for great butter. She leads classes and workshops throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere, with children among her favorite students.

"Filling a pint jar with cream and shaking the devil out of it is aerobic exercise," she said. "They dance to music while shaking, they sings songs, and there's competition: who gets butter first."

Making butter is fun for all ages, Hooker said.

"It's easy to make, it keeps their attention and builds dexterity. These motions are good for their brains," she said of her young students. "It's a fun family activity.Find Plastic moulds companies from India."

Among Hooker's goals is changing the anti-butter attitude of most Americans.

"In France, butter is the king of the table. (The U.S.) is the only culture in the world where it's taboo," she said. "Butter is as ancient as the Earth, one of the first basic foods besides grain. It's made everywhere, with milk from goats, ewes, yaks,Enter the Indoor Positioning System (IPS). camels. In Tibet it's burned to Buddha."

During her youth in France, Hooker remembers her family giving butter to the local Catholic church, which sold it to the wealthy. "It was our contribution," she said.

The more beautiful the butter, the better the price it fetched, she added. So they formed it with homemade wooden molds and decorated it with stamps of wheat or flowers. Some of the butter was mounded and hand-carved with spoons.

"It's the quality of the butter, not quantity, that's important," Hooker said.

Al Bekkum, the owner of Nordic Creamery, which makes specialty butters at a new 3,000-square-foot butter plant in Westby, said interest in high-quality butters has skyrocketed recently.

Since his facility opened a year ago, sales have greatly exceeded their projections,Silicone Mold Making Rubber. he said. Nordic Creamery is now selling between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds per week, much of it to restaurants and hotels in Chicago, as well as to several stores in Madison.

"I really believe that butters in Wisconsin will go the same way as cheeses," Bekkum said. "After people try artisanal butters they don't want to go back to commodity butters, even if they're less expensive. People are constantly asking me how to make butter and want to be my apprentices."

But there is a dilemma, he said: a shortage of high-quality cream for butter-making in Wisconsin. That's because most milk is used for cheese-making.

With $1.3M From Voyager & More, Chirpify Brings Direct Music

When you think Twitter, you may think realtime news, or CRM, or brand marketing, or maybe even Justin Bieber, but “eCommerce”? Probably not. In the social network landscape, Facebook is generally seen as the most eCommerce-inclined, what with its “F-Commerce,” but up to this point, consumers really haven’t fallen in love with the idea of brands replicating their storefronts on Facebook. Meanwhile, Twitter’s priorities lie elsewhere, so, in spite of its growth, the social network has yet to leverage its own eCommerce potential. That’s why Portland-based Chirpify has developed a platform that transforms Twitter from a broadcast platform into a transactional one.

In February, Chirpify rebranded from SellSimp.ly and launched a Twitter commerce platform that allowed brands and consumers to buy,If you wish to use a third party payment gateway with your ecommerce solution please see a list of supported gateways. sell, donate and transact through tweets without leaving the comfort of Twitter. Since launch, Chirpify has seen growing traction, thanks in part to a promotional campaign launched at SXSW, called “Tweet-a-Beer,” which used the startup’s API to allow people to buy each other a pint over Twitter. The campaign resulted in a huge boost of traffic for Chirpify, with two new users signing up every second — activity that Chirpify Founder Chris Teso tells us continued for several weeks after SXSW. Although it’s slowed down a bit since, the campaign proved that direct commerce over Twitter was not only possible, it was so easy a tweet could do it.

Today, the startup’s direct sales model for Twitter is officially getting further validation — this time in the form of capital — as the startup announced that it has secured $1.3 million in series A financing. The new round of investment, which adds to the $50K in seed it raised from its incubator Upstart Labs, was led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Geoff Entress,My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, former Facebook exec Rudy Gadre,The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free. and TiE Oregon Angels.

Just in case there’s any confusion in terms of how Chirpify works,Ekahau glass mosaic deployment in the Eastern Savo Region Hospital District. put simply, when users sign up for Chirpify, they connect their Twitter and PayPal accounts to the platform. Merchants upload whatever they want to sell to their dashboard, and tweet the link. Consumers simply reply to the tweet and include “buy.” Boom, Chirpify sends you a secure download over DM, the cost is deducted from your PayPal account, the funds instantly transferred to the merchant’s account, at which point they get a receipt.

Anyone can sell, buy, or donate on Chirpify. Even if the process sounds complicated, it’s not. So, the more one considers the fact that the platform offers a simple way to turn tweets into transactions, and seeing as people already use Twitter to follow their favorite brands, musicians, and other people they care about, why not let users buy the latest product or download the latest song by tweet? Well, in addition to its funding announcement, Chirpify is today launching Twitter Commerce for Digital Content, which enables musicians to sell songs and concert tickets directly to fans on Twitter (with the by-product being increased control of their own distribution).

While Chirpify is working with musicians and music labels, at first, the goal Teso says is for this to work for any brand, event, product, or service. (Next, Chirpify plans to work with eBooks vendors, for example.) That’s because the cool thing about Chirpify is it that it works wherever Twitter is, on mobile, desktop, or tablets, and this direct commerce even applies to re-tweets — which has the potential for some serious amplification by allowing for-sale items to reach more streams and thus more eyeballs.

But what if your brand or band is already using a storefront to manage transactions? Chirpify also offers integration with existing eCommerce storefronts (like Magento, for example) so that brands can leverage back-end fulfillment, listing, and transaction management. Merchants just click the “list on Twitter” button when creating a listing for sale, either in their eCommerce or Chirpify dashboard, and can then set the price, quantity, shipping price, and shipping timing.

Civic leader questioned on Ficksburg protest

Meqheleng teacher Phillip Selokoe was questioned in detail on Tuesday in the murder and assault trial of seven public order policemen in the Ficksburg Regional Court.

Counsel for the policemen Johann Nel cross-examined Selokoe on the organisation and rules of the protest march last year to the municipality's offices.

Selokoe was the deputy-chairman of the Meqheleng Concerned Citizens (MCC) movement, set up to hand a memorandum on service delivery problems to the Setsoto local municipality.

Selokoe was a colleague of Andries Tatane who was killed, allegedly by public order police, when the march and protest turned violent on April 13 last year.

Video footage showed riot police beating Tatane.

As a result ,Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. roads were blocked, with stones and bricks and tyres set alight over several days.

Selokoe said the conduct of the crowd outside the municipal offices was peaceful but changed when the then mayor started addressing them.

The MCC leader struggled to describe the actions of individual crowd members when asked by Nel.

"Please explain one or two ways you saw, otherwise I will tell the magistrate you refuse to answer," Nel urged Selokoe after he repeatedly said they reacted in different ways.

Selokoe repeatedly replied that there were between four and five thousand people and that they all reacted differently.

Nel continued by urging Selokoe to at least describe one or two reactions of the crowd members.

"Who did what, you were there. Did they (crowd members) keep to the rules or not. Explain to the magistrate."

Selokoe repeated and said the people reacted differently.

The State alleges that Tatane tried to protect elderly people from the police's water cannon by moving between the cannon and two elderly men.

The State argues that two of the accused fired rubber bullets from a very close range at Tatane.

One of the shots was fired directly at his chest and the rubber bullet penetrated his chest cavity,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses. the indictment reads.

The cause of death was a gunshot wound to chest.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.

The policemen deny all allegations against them and deny that they acted unlawfully as set out in the charge sheet.Ekahau glass mosaic deployment in the Eastern Savo Region Hospital District.

U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar cells fuel debate about green jobs

A simmering trade dispute is highlighting a debate about the kinds of jobs America can sustain in a greening economy.

The Obama administration's recent decision to slap import tariffs on Chinese solar cells was hailed by some domestic solar manufacturers as a victory for job creation, leveling the field while also sending a powerful message to Beijing about monopolistic behavior in crucial industries.

But a close look at the U.S. solar industry suggests that the tariffs may actually be a job killer because the vast majority of positions in the sector aren't on the assembly line. Instead, upward of 70% of U.S. solar employment is in installation, sales and distribution — and companies that hire those workers argue solar cells must get significantly cheaper to remain competitive with other energy sources.

"What China is doing to boost its manufacturers is unfair, but tariffs could actually reduce jobs," said Gordon Johnson, a green tech analyst at Axiom Capital Management. "The price of solar panels goes up and looks unaffordable compared to alternatives."

Although the U.S. pioneered photovoltaic solar cells decades ago, it has fallen increasingly behind lower-cost manufacturers of the technology,Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. including China, South Korea and Malaysia. But the U.S. is among the world's fastest-growing solar consumers, opening vast opportunities for service-sector jobs in the sunlight-extraction business.

The matter comes to a head next month, when the Commerce Department will announce a determination on a possible second round of tariffs on Chinese-made silicon-based photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electricity and are by far the most popular solar technology.

While tariff advocates say that protecting a solar manufacturing base is crucial to the nation's energy security, others argue the U.S. has already lost that footrace. Instead of swooping in to rescue remaining plants, they say, the focus should be on reducing the cost of solar to speed liberation from fossil fuels, which dovetails with the goal of reducing unemployment.

"Installation is where all the jobs are," said John Smirnow, vice president of trade and competitiveness at the Solar Energy Industry Assn. "There are 5,600 companies in the healthy,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. vibrant and growing solar-services sector."

The Commerce Department's May 17 ruling, in response to allegations of dumping by the U.S. unit of a German solar panel maker, could fundamentally alter the solar landscape in the U.S. Dumping is when a company or industry sells its products below cost to capture the market. If additional tariffs are applied, they will probably be much higher than the relatively light first round announced in March, which ran from 2.6% to 4.7%.

The smaller tariffs — designed to balance out Chinese subsidies of its solar factories — could squeeze margins for installers, but most experts agree they aren't enough to radically reduce consumption. Anti-dumping duties, however, could run above 20%, dramatically increasing the cost of switching to solar.

Cost is a key factor in getting businesses and homeowners to convert to solar power. A typical residential roof setup costs about $25,000, which federal, state and local rebates and tax incentives can cut to about $13,000 in the city of Los Angeles. At that price,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses. it still could take about a dozen years for the systems to pay back the upfront costs through lower electricity bills.

If tariffs on Chinese cells come in as high as many predict, they could raise the out-of-pocket cost of such an installation by $1,250 — and commercial projects by far more.

Such an increase could be a deal breaker for many would-be customers, especially with a 30% federal tax credit set to expire after 2016, said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, the nation's largest solar installer.

SolarCity has 1,600 employees in 14 states and is hiring three new employees a day. The San Mateo, Calif., company puts solar panels onWal-Martstores, government offices and university campuses, as well as thousands of houses.

"The No. 1 decision for our customers in terms of going solar is whether they can save money," said Rive, who worries that higher prices could offset government subsidies. Several European countries are already curtailing solar incentives, he said. "We have to be competitive with whatever the local power company is charging, or we're in trouble."

According to a study by the Solar Foundation,The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. 52,503 Americans worked in the solar installation business last year, and 17,722 worked in sales and distribution, compared with 24,064 in manufacturing. And although almost 10,000 new installation jobs were created in 2010 and 2011,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. manufacturing actually lost 1,000 positions while seeing several domestic makers go out of business, including Solyndra, which failed despite government loan guarantees.

The growth in service jobs has tracked closely to the falling costs of photovoltaic cells, often the most expensive item in any installation. Thanks largely to aggressive pricing by Chinese manufacturers, the cost of solar panels has fallen 28% in the last 12 months, according to data from research firm Solarbuzz.

Walter Ellard, installation director of SunFusion, a San Diego company with 25 employees, said he pays about 40% more for U.S.-made solar cells than Chinese ones. "Some customers prefer American made, but otherwise it's not even close," he said.

How Dallas-based Talenti Gelato went from gelato stand to national brand

Talenti Gelato e Sorbetto had modest beginnings in 2003: just a single gelato stand on Knox Street in Dallas. But somewhere between then and now, it grew into a major gelato manufacturer whose lineup of 19 flavors is sold at groceries across the U.S.

The company just introduced five new flavors: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Banana Chocolate Swirl, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip-Stracciatella, and Simply Strawberry. Previously available in pints only, Talenti has also begun selling gelato in quart containers.

How Talenti got from there to here is the result of elbow grease on the part of its founder Josh Hochschuler, coupled with the inexorable increase in popularity of gelato, the Italian-style ice cream. It has a fine, dense texture that's similar to super-premium ice creams such as Ben & Jerry's. But where super-premium ice creams use cream, true gelato uses milk and has less air whipped in. The result: creamier texture, cleaner more intense flavor -- and less fat.

Most of Talenti's gelatos include cream as well as milk. Its new black-raspberry chocolate chip (similar to a Haagen Dazs flavor that was first originated by the now-defunct Dreamery) has milk, cream, sugar, black raspberries, chocolate oil, dextrose, vanilla, carob bean gum, and soy lecithin.

Paciugo Gelato did the hard work up front, introducing Dallas to gelato in 2000. At the time, Talenti seemed to be nothing more than a me-too, though a worthy one with good gelato. Hochschuler had tried gelato while living in Argentina and wanted to duplicate the experience when he opened Talenti on Knox Street in 2003. Located in the space that is now Toulouse (in fact,We specialize in providing offshore merchant account and third party merchant account payment solutions to international businesses. Hochschuler had to haggle with Alberto Lombardi to be able to take his little freezer with him, and gave up his stereo and furniture), it was a pristine Euro-style space with flawless white marble and cozy little tables, and there was always a line.

But one area in which Talenti was a pioneer was its use of caramel as a flavor, combined with vanilla -- back then dubbed "Argentinian caramel" and one of its most popular scoop flavors.

Owning an ice cream stand meant that Hochschuler worked 16-hour days scooping cones. No wonder he responded so readily to a request from Nick & Sam's chef Samir Dhurandhar.

"Samir asked me to put the gelato in bigger containers so he could sell it at Nick & Sam’s," Hochschuler says. "It was an 'a-ha moment', that maybe I should try to sign on other restaurants and do bulk gelato to restaurants. Samir introduced me to [Eatzi's owner] Phil Romano, and then I put in a little freezer of Talenti at Eatzi's."

When Eatzi's grew into five stores, Hochschuler provided all the branches with Talenti. He remembers going to Walgreen's and Tom Thumb to buy milk,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mold. making the gelato, and Fed-Exing gelato to Eatzi's in New York, Houston,Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. and Washington, D.C. By 2006, he added CostCo and Market Street to his customer list. He hit a stumbling block at the end of 2006 when Eatzi's closed down four stores, but by 2007, Whole Foods Market had signed on.

In 2008, unable to handle the business on his own, he partnered with Steve Gill and Eddie Phillips (now deceased), who'd marketed Belvedere vodka and knew about luxury branding. They scored financing and made connections with distributors, landing Talenti in the Publix supermarket chain in Florida in 2009. Although the company won't reveal sales figures, they're in most grocery chains -- more than 20,000 stores, including California.

One thing that makes them stand out -- not necessarily in a good way -- is their packaging. Their distinctive clear plastic container with black lid is less environmentally friendly than the paper cartons used by other ice cream makers.

"I knew I wanted to do something transparent," Hochschuler says. "Initially, I was using a stock item made of polystyrene, with a polypropylene lid.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. But Whole Foods wanted me to be more environmentally friendly. We had to build molds in Japan to make our own jars and lids. It allowed us to get away from polystyrene which is a #5 level to PET #1 which is easier to recycle. And we changed the lid to high-density polyethylene, so that the entire pack could be recyclable."

They've run "re-use" ad campaigns in some cities and a Facebook contest on how customers re-use their jars. Hochschuler says they've made other environmental overtures including recirculating their water at their manufacturing plant west of Love Field.

"We are looking at the research Coca Cola has done on plant resin that biodegrades more quickly, but we're not just going to scrap it and go to paper," Hochschuler says. "We're going to find the best solution to be responsible within what would allow us to continue to have success.Find a Plastic moulds Manufacturer and Supplier."

Hospitals, schools cope with sudden, 4-hour power outage

Surgeons at Gulf Breeze Hospital and The Andrews Institute were able to complete operations already in progress, and classes continued as scheduled at darkened Gulf Breeze schools during a widespread four-hour power outage on Thursday, April 12.

Electrical power abruptly shut down at 10:57 a.m., and crews at Gulf Power finally restored power to the last of 12,800 affected customers at 3:19 p.m. The disruption forced some businesses to close while the hospitals and schools quickly enacted emergency contingency plans.

“Things actually went very smoothly at Gulf Breeze Hospital,” Administrator Dr. Bob Harriman said. “Our three emergency generators kicked in, and all of our critical-needs equipment maintained power.

“Our doctors were able to complete surgeries in progress, and other surgeries were postponed. Our staff was able to provide temporary lighting to patients’ bathrooms, which aren’t lighted by the backup generators, and the kitchen was able to serve hot meals to all patients. I couldn’t be more proud of the way the situation was handled.”

Chad Gilliland, Chief Operating Officer of The Andrews Institute, a Baptist Healthcare partner of Gulf Breeze Hospital, said: “While many of our afternoon physician appointments, X-rays and MRIs had to be rescheduled, our backup generator power allowed us to continue with time-sensitive appointments in rehabilitation and complete surgeries safely on patients that were in surgery at the time of the outage.”

According to Gulf Power spokesman Jeff Rogers, a power line on a pole in front of Aloha Wine and Liquor at 2631 Gulf Breeze Parkway somehow became separated from an insulator.

“Once we got eyes in the area, we discovered where the problem was and were able to isolate it and restore power to about 8,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses.000 customers promptly,” Rogers said. “At that time, all of Gulf Breeze Proper and a couple of chunks of Pensacola Beach (about 4,700 customers) were still without power.”

Power poles along U.First Impressions sells silicone molds.S. 98 have multiple insulators. Gulf Power replaced all three insulators on the affected pole as a precaution. The work took several hours.

“Many things wear on the insulators such as age,Ekahau glass mosaic deployment in the Eastern Savo Region Hospital District. weather, the power load on lines,” Rogers said. “Lines expand and contract and are constantly moving. Parts wear. Everything mechanical has a breaking point eventually.

“The wire just came loose from the insulator. It wasn’t very dramatic to look at it when you saw it. The middle line came loose and was resting on the bracket below it on the bottom line.”

Principals and administrators at Gulf Breeze schools immediately took charge of the situation, and staff and students handled the inconvenience admirably.

At 1,600-student Gulf Breeze High, many classrooms have no exterior windows and were plunged into darkness. Teachers were resourceful in creating ways to get lighting into their rooms,Aeroscout stone mosaic provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking.What are the symptoms of Piles. Principal Jason Weeks said.

“We lost the ability to illuminate all the classrooms,” he said. “Our emergency generator was operable, but it is limited in the areas that it can light. We manually rotated classes. Our food service folks were incredible. All transactions were documented with pen and paper; we had natural gas, and they were able to cook a limited menu. All students that wanted a lunch were served. We rotated through three lunch cycles and stayed, basically, on schedule. We stayed within 5-10 minutes of our regular class schedule.”

At Gulf Breeze Middle School, seventh- and eighthgrade lunch times were adjusted so students could enjoy hot meals.

“The kitchen had most of the food prepared and cooked for the day,” Assistant Principal Michael Brandon said. “Plus, they have a lot of food that doesn’t necessarily need to be heated. The stuff that was already cooked and heated, we wanted to make sure it was served so it wouldn’t go to waste.

“Our school is fortunate in that we have a lot of windows around the halls, plus we have emergency lights. Safety was not an issue. We stationed the teachers outside their doors monitoring the halls and ensuring the safety of the kids. We have such good kids here, though; they did what they are supposed to do.”

USD rallies together to support student drag show

As a university community, we should be able to stand in solidarity together, even if we do not share the same beliefs.

This past Wednesday April 11th, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender PRIDE club at USD put on their first ever drag show, intended to be a student-run event to celebrate gender and freedom of expression. However, the show caused much controversy among students, faculty members and alumni, with some saying that the drag show went against USD’s core Catholic values.

While the protesters outside the event were peaceful, other people that were against the idea of a drag show on campus were hateful, threatening and disrespectful via their online comments. According to an article by MSNBC, ever since the show was announced by California Catholic Daily, people have been posting comments on the site to voice their negative opinions.

One commenter called the show, “Perversion at its highest level.” Another writes: “USD stands for Undeniable Satanic Destruction.Ekahau glass mosaic deployment in the Eastern Savo Region Hospital District.” While these comments are offensive, especially to the members of the PRIDE club putting on the show, they are just the act of people voicing their opinions, which everyone has the right to do.

However, one comment completely crosses the line of voicing an individual’s views, and deliberately and inappropriately attacks the members of the PRIDE club: “Whoever is organizing this event should hang themselves in shame.”

This comment is extremely offensive, very hurtful and not appropriate. While USD grants students the right to peaceful protest, it does not condone hate or animosity between students. We should be able to come together as one student body that respects its diversity and different viewpoints instead of attacking our peers for their beliefs.

“The fact that USD was founded on Catholic values is important to me, but as a Catholic, I stand by my peers and support their decision to express themselves and celebrate their gender in any peaceful form that they choose, including a drag show,” says USD freshman Mary Nowell.

In addition to the peaceful protesters who knelt outside of the UC Forums last Wednesday to protest through prayer, Mary was one of the many students gathered to counter the protest and support the show. They held up signs such as, “USD supports you!” and, “USD celebrates students’ diversity!”

The entire basis behind the idea of putting on a drag show was to be able to expose students, faculty and alumni to the diversity of USD and to celebrate our differences, especially those pertaining to gender roles.Aeroscout stone mosaic provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. It is important for any and all USD students to be able to express themselves in any way that they choose, and this includes the way that they perceive and display their gender.

USD freshman Danielle Winkle attended the show to support the PRIDE club’s endeavor. She said that, “The show threw out all stereotypical definitions of gender, and kind of made fun of how we automatically characterize men and women so differently from one another. People don’t fit into stereotypical molds, and this show really brought this to light for me.”

Anthony Pavlovic, ASB President, was quoted by 10 News saying,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses. “There is nothing wrong with having a drag show at USD because what it is, it’s the LGBT community expressing themselves as they feel comfortable doing so. It’s these people who might ground their bigotry in prayer that are the ones that attack us, but that doesn’t make sense because we know that we’re a member of this human family and all that we’re trying to do is show each other who we are.”

We are all aware that a number of students in our campus community are also a part of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, so who are we to tell them that they cannot be themselves? Everyone is entitled to freedom of expression, and since everyone is different, we all express ourselves differently, and these differences should be respected and celebrated.

The fact that the roles of gender are such a huge part of our everyday lives and are so controversial is truly unfortunate. This drag show truly tore down the stereotypical views that most people hold on the roles of gender, and brought to light a counter-narrative story.A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server.

The show displayed different views and showed varying ways on how a person’s gender affects their life and the way that they dress or act. It challenged the “normal” roles of gender and opened up a whole new perspective to the people who attended,What are the symptoms of Piles. as well as to those who heard about the show through word of mouth.

Wanted, desperately: Skilled workers

The economic recovery has been driven by a manufacturing revival the past two years.

But the strength of that revival could be threatened by the challenges facing a small and beleaguered sector of manufacturing that evokes images of a quainter, more labor-intensive era: the tool and die industry.

These skilled manufacturers are vital. They produce tools, dies and molds that other makers use to shape products -- from car fenders and dashboards to shampoo bottles and cellphones.

Yet tool and die makers shrank far more dramatically than other manufacturers in the downturn, and now they're struggling to find skilled workers. As a result, they may not have a large enough workforce to support the return of significantly more manufacturing to the U.S., a trend known as reshoring, according to a Congressional Research Service report last month.

"It's unquestionably a problem" and could slow reshoring, says Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative.

The past few years, companies such as General Electric, Caterpillar and Ford Motor have brought some production back to the U.S. They cite rising wages in China, overseas shipping costs and the need to hasten deliveries to U.S. customers.

That, along with soaring auto sales and the improving economy, has lifted tool and die makers. Last year, the number of workers in the sector jumped 7% to 98,000, while total payrolls for all manufacturers rose 2% to 11.8 million,External Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Eighty percent of the USA's 5,800 tool and die firms -- small firms with an average 30 employees -- are seeking one to five workers, estimates Dave Tilstone, head of the National Tool & Machining Association.

Fledgling workers typically complete four-year apprenticeships, after which they can make $60,000 a year. "Johnny and Mary don't have to go to college to make a decent living," Tilstone says.

Unlike manufacturing workers who run mass-production machines, tool and die makers take months to create a single, custom-designed part that's used to crank out hundreds of thousands of a product's components. Dies, for example, are steel forms that stamp out metal components such as car fenders and washing machine panels. Molds shape plastic and ceramic parts such as dashboards and hairbrush handles.

Most basic parts are now made in computerized machines. But workers must design and piece together the parts to form dies and molds, often manually, relying on an unusual level of judgment and precision.

Ron Overton, president of Overton Industries in Mooresville, Ind., has been trying in vain to hire about 10 engineers, machinists and tool and die specialists so he can ramp up production. "We lose a lot of work because we can't turn it around quick enough," he says.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent.

He's seeking employees with good math and science skills who can work with their hands. Yet many such candidates perceive manufacturing as a dying field.Ekahau glass mosaic deployment in the Eastern Savo Region Hospital District. The tool and die industry is working with community colleges to offer training and helping high school students build robots that battle in competitions.What are the symptoms of Piles.

The industry's heavy reliance on labor led to its decline. Labor makes up 26% of costs vs. 18% for manufacturers overall, according to Tilstone and research group MAPI. As a result, the sector was hit much harder when manufacturers began off-shoring work to low-wage countries such as China. From 1998 to 2010, 36% of tool and die firms closed, twice the rate of all manufacturers, the Congressional Research Service report notes. Employment fell 45%, vs. 35% for manufacturers.

Tool and die shops were further hammered by auto industry downturns in the early 2000s and in the 2008-09 recession. The auto industry traditionally has made up a majority of sales.

Besides benefiting from an auto turnaround, tool and die makers are reaping new business as the manufacturing of sophisticated dies and molds for aerospace and medical devices shifts back to the U.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses.S. Some foreign-made products were of lesser quality, Tilstone says.

More advanced vehicle and appliance-making is also returning to the USA. General Electric recently moved production of an energy-efficient water heater and refrigerator from overseas plants to Louisville. That's been a boon for Madison, Ind.-based Millennium, which is making dies and molds for GE. Its staff, which fell from 25 to 10 in the recession, is now at 30, with 17 new workers dedicated to GE, says Millennium General Manager Jeremy Dykes.

An elegant evening gives back

Twinkling lights flickered as the sun set over Autumn Creek Vineyards Saturday night during the Hearts and Hands Charity Ball.

The ball served as a fundraiser for the Free Clinic of Rockingham County, an organization which provides access to health care for low-income, uninsured residents.

“There are so many people who fall through the cracks, who don’t have any money and can’t get Medicare,” Caroline Payne said. “They just fall through the cracks.”

Payne said the Free Clinic is a wonderful charity and she attends their events every year.

“They (patients) are doing the best they can and they just can’t do any more,” Plum Elton Trent said.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses. “They need this attention.What are the symptoms of Piles.”

John and Gayle Ferguson both are very familiar with the clinic and were enjoying themselves sitting and eating with Philip and Mary Rose on the patio of winery overlooking a large pond.

John serves as an obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN) in Reidsville while Gayle works at Rockingham Community College (RCC) teaching medical office administration. Gayle sends her students to the Free Clinic to learn practical medical experience.

John said 25 of Gayle’s students serve at the Free Clinic and Gayle added it has been a great learning experience for the students; many who didn’t know Free Clinics were necessary because they never needed it.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent.

“It’s been an eye-opener for them,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET.” Gayle said. “They have more empathy, they’re proud to be from Rockingham County because we have something like this, because there are communities that don’t have something like this to offer. It speaks very well of us that we take care of everyone.”

Though the clinic is located in Reidsville, John said they plan to open another clinic in Madison and then Eden within the next year.

Philip was enjoying the event with his friends and wife.

“It’s wonderful,” Philip said.External Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line. “I’m amazed that they can put this thing on in such a small community because I’m not from around here, but it’s spectacular they could do this.”

Philip was also impressed with the bands which played throughout the night. Those in attendance were treated to impressive views of the pond, a waterfall, the large vineyard and a beautiful forest lining the property.

Philip said the vineyards wine surpasses any other wine he had tried in North Carolina.

The two couples were also competing against one another in an auction. John said he most wanted to win a dinner for 10 or a trip to Nags Head. Other auctions included a trip to Disney World, a gift basket from downtown Reidsville businesses and much more.

Executive Director of the N.C. Association of Free Clinics, Jason Baisden said he enjoys coming to events in the county because they’re always professional, well done and spectacular. He said it was an evening to celebrate the work the volunteers do day in and day out, and it also serves as a fundraiser for the Free Clinic.

Baisden said without the clinic, the uninsured would be forced to get medical services from the emergency room and this is very costly. Free clinics give a second option to those who need it.

Baisden said many people believe when the Health Care Reform bill is fully implemented in 2014 the need for Free Clinics will no longer be necessary. He said this isn’t factual because a large group of people will still be unable to have insurance and they would fall through the cracks.

Those who helped support the Free Clinic through donations will have their donation multiplied. Baisden said the clinics in North Carolina have been known to give seven dollars of free health care services for every one dollar given.

Earth Celebration Day planned by Renfrew Institute

A full day of discovery, education, music, art and shopping is planned during Renfrew Institute’s Earth Celebration Day and Festival of Art fun from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. on Saturday, April 28, at Renfrew Park in Waynesboro.

Now in its 22nd year, the celebration also features a clothesline art exhibit and dozens of exhibitor displays featuring everything from beekeeping to archaeology to gardening. Held in conjunction with the event, the seventh annual Recycle/Reuse Yard Sale is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free.m. in the park.

Twenty area artists will display, demonstrate and sell their works during the Festival of Art. These include a variety of fine art, jewelry, photography, basketry, garden art and pottery. Earth themes will be in the spotlight.A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server.

“The goal is to offer to the public the concept that art, in its many forms, reflects our effort to celebrate the earth and its life through artistic expression,” said Melodie Anderson-Smith, institute executive director.

The seventh annual “Renfrew Institute Environmental Artistry Award” will be presented to a local artist, in honor of outstanding lifetime achievement.

Art activities for children will be offered.

Slim Harrison will returns this year with his “good time mountain music.” Kids can use his handmade instruments or bring their own to play along as part of the Sunnyland Band.

Local artist and musician, Patric Schlee will lead an “improv music session” beginning at 3 p.m.

“Bring drums, flutes, guitars or a didgeridoo — any instrument — and jam with Earth Day Concert No. 3,” Anderson-Smith said. The improv session is open to everyone.

Several hands-on, earth-friendly activities are planned. A creek cleanup is scheduled from 9 a.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.m. to 11 a.m., hosted by Franklin County Conservation District. Anyone interested in helping should bring gloves.

The Franklin County Commissioners and Washington Township supervisors are sponsoring free personal document shredding from 10 a.m.There is no de facto standard for an Indoor Positioning System. to 2 p.m. in the Washington Township office parking lot off Welty Road. There is a limit of 10 bags or boxes per person, and the following items cannot be processed: newspapers, three-ring binders, carbon paper, film, metal, cardboard, trash or heavy plastics.

In the spirit of recycling, several area groups are collecting items for reuse or proper disposal. The Lions Club will collect used eyeglasses and cell phones, and Summitview Elementary School will collect used printer cartridges (no copy toner cartridges). A disposal bin for used batteries will be available. All types of household and electronic device batteries are accepted, except large acid batteries that exceed 11 pounds.

CFAR/Waynesboro Running organizers are collecting “gently used running shoes” to support the Waynesboro Area Middle School running team.

Again this year, the Franklin County Commissioners will present an official proclamation declaring April as Earth Awareness Month. A ceremonial tree planting is also planned.

'See You Tomorrow, Pedophile Friends'

There's a theory that you can't trust any message conveyed by a person's most public expressions and gestures. Instead, the theory runs, you have to study the fleeting look, the involuntary movement. The micro-expression that lasts a second or two, before the welcome smile is fixed in place.

That theory sounds good to me -- plausible enough that I wonder if you can apply it more broadly: If, for example, you can look at the unscripted remarks of politicians and deduce the real truth.A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server. I'll give the theory a run in the United States when the election campaign heats up, but for now let's give it a practice outing in France -- just days before that country goes to the polls.

First up, some background. France is slap-bang in the middle of the Eurozone crisis. Its government deficit isn't appalling -- or at least, not appalling by U.S. or Spanish standards, which admittedly doesn't set the bar too high. On the other hand, France's debt-to-GDP ratio is a scary 86 percent. If you add on all its other undeclared liabilities (pensions, EU obligations, and so on), the ratio is way over 150 percent. And France has run a budget deficit for more than 30 years.

France also has some big international banks. Those banks are active in Spain (where the financial prospects are awful), Italy (no better) and indeed the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. If and when one of those institutions hits a major stone in the road, the French government will have the choice between watching a massive lender fail or putting its own financial solvency on the line. Either way, the fiscal impact will be horrendous.

So: scary times. Scary enough that you'd want and expect some somber honesty from politicians. But no. Nothing of the sort. The man most likely to win, Francois Hollande,We are professional Plastic Mould. has come up with a brew of policies -- lowered pension age, new public sector hires, a tax on the rich that may touch 90 percent or more -- that collectively have the feel of some retro 1970s-themed party, all disco balls and facial hair.

That policy cocktail didn't work in the '70s. It brought rocketing inflation, stagnant growth, collapsing exchange rates and public protest. And these days, the climate is far less propitious than it was. There's more trade, China is fiercely competitive, the bond markets more open and less deferential and rampaging technological change (notably the Internet) has utterly altered the interconnectedness of markets. Meantime, France has lost control of its own currency. It can't even print its way out of trouble.

So what does our study of the unscripted remarks of politicians tell us? Well,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. we may as well note straight away that it's going to tell us more than a study of their scripted ones. Back when Sarkozy first ran for the presidency, he spoke it like he was for real. "Merit and labor should be rewarded more and more," he said. "Globalization requires us to reinvent everything." He spoke of a "rupture" with the past. He sounded like a French Thatcher.

Since he hasn't, even remotely, governed that way, we may as well study the unscripted. And we start with a little room for optimism. Asked by journalists if Italy could repay its debts,Our company focus on manufacturing Plastic mould. he laughed out loud. Not as in a "of course it can, don't be silly" way, but in an "Are you joking? It's Italy!" way. That's truthful, if hardly diplomatic.

But Sarkozy's tendency to honesty doesn't seem to extend as far as an appetite for debate. Given a hard ride by some journalists in relation to a major current corruption scandal -- hardly a topic that journalists ought to avoid -- Sarkozy raged at them. Turning to one journalist, he said, "And you! I've no evidence against you. But it would seem you're a pedophile. Who told me? I have an absolute conviction." His diatribe lasted for 10 minutes, during which time he kept returning to his ugly analogy -- then stormed off saying, "See you tomorrow, pedophile friends.There is no de facto standard for an Indoor Positioning System." Nor is it just journalists he treats with disdain. He once told David Cameron, the British prime minister, that he had "lost a good opportunity to shut up."

Voters get the same treatment. When a man refused a handshake at a French agricultural fair, Sarkozy snapped, "Casse-toi, alors pauvre con."

Worse still, the man's basic untruthfulness pertains even when it comes to the financial crisis -- the issue which is (or should be) dominating French politics. Asked repeatedly by Spanish journalists about the effect of S&P's downgrading of the French credit rating, Sarkozy twice refused to answer at all before stating abruptly that it "changes nothing."

Yet the financial math says otherwise. The winds of crisis starting to blow once again round France's nearest neighbors says otherwise. The slow ticking up of French bond yields says otherwise.

Truth is, if you want the most telling micro-expression of all, you could do worse than consider Christine Lagarde, former French Finance Minister and current head of the IMF. At a talk in Davos she held up her capacious Louis Vuitton bag and said, "I am here, with my little bag, to collect a bit of money." It was a joke ... only not. Her remark comes too close to the truth to be funny.

Chicken coop sparks neighborhood debate over Alabama city's zoning ordinance

Bayne and Melissa Searcy hoped having six egg-laying chickens in the backyard of their Jasper home would teach their two boys something about responsibility. The project has been more of a civics lesson than anything, however.

Several weeks ago, a zoning administrator told Bayne Searcy that the family's chickens are a violation of a city zoning ordinance. Speaking at a City Council work session, Searcy said he was confused because he called City Hall eight months ago and spoke with a city clerk before building the coop or purchasing the animals.

Searcy said the clerk reviewed the city's ordinance with him, and they both agreed his chicken coop would be lawful. According to the city's ordinance,The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges and be used for future applications beyond asset tracking. the only stipulations are that the chickens must be kept in an enclosure.

"We've done this," he said. "I was told I was fully within the city ordinances and allowed to do this."

The administrator that visited Searcy, however, said his chickens were in violation of a zoning ordinance, which is different from the city ordinance regarding livestock. City Planner Keith Pike explained the zoning ordinance at the session, saying residents must qualify as a hobby farm to possess chickens.

According to the measure, hobby farms must be at least 5 acres and have 8,000 square feet of property for every 20 chickens.A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server. The chicken coops must also be built 100 feet from any adjacent lot.

Searcy said his family's project is not a hobby farm,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. and he believes the ordinance does not prohibit pet chickens. He also said he does not understand how a city ordinance can conflict with a zoning ordinance.

City attorney Russ Robertson said the laws are exclusive from one another, and residents must follow both.

"You have to comply with more than one law. And perhaps that's confusing, and that's a fair criticism," Robertson said. "Perhaps it's capable of other criticisms. But every activity in the city is governed by the zoning ordinances."

The Searcys' neighbors, Dot and Ray McAdams, have a petition signed by 32 residents in the family's neighborhood who are opposed to the chicken coop. The petition included the signature of Morris Studdard, the Jasper City Council member who represents the Pinecrest neighborhood.

"A lot of our children are no longer attached to that association of a homestead or having the responsibility of taking care of animals and seeing that animal go through and have a process and caring for that animal whether it be egg production or having a litter of kittens," she said.

The McAdams said they are concerned that, by allowing the Searcys' chicken coop, city leaders would set a dangerous precedent that would lower property values in the area.

"If we started allowing this, people might start increasing the size of them and the city would never know without someone policing this," Dot McAdams said.

Dot McAdams said she worked for city hall in 1946 and can remember a time when chicken coops were popular within the city limits.

"I just don't see us going back to those days," she said. "I just feel like we have a progressive city,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. and we want to see it go forward and not backwards.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent."

Melissa Searcy said her family doesn't view the chickens simply as poultry. The animals are pets, and their children learn by taking care of birds, she said.

"A lot of our children are no longer attached to that association of a homestead or having the responsibility of taking care of animals and seeing that animal go through and have a process and caring for that animal whether it be egg production or having a litter of kittens," she said.

Melissa Searcy also said her family wanted to stop buying heavily processed eggs from factory farms that keep chickens in deplorable conditions. She told council members that backyard chickens are a growing fad among people who favor sustainable living and organic foods.

Burger review: Whiskey Cake in Plano

After several ventures into the darkest bars Dallas has to offer, it was time for a change for the crew at Burger Breakdown. It was time for a burger that hadn’t been cooked on a grill that may or may not have been cleaned in the last year, and it was time for a place where you could actually see who was sitting across the table. It was time to visit somewhere where it was okay to be sober past noon. It was time for a visit to Plano, and time for a visit to Whiskey Cake.

The change couldn’t have been bigger. Plano and Whiskey Cake feel like a world away from the Lakewood dive bar scene. Brightly lit and overflowing with exceedingly friendly waiters and waitresses, the restaurant offers a homey, small-town feeling that you don’t often find in Dallas area eateries. And even though it’s packed to the gills with eager patrons rushing through their lunch breaks, there is hardly any wait at all for a table. The restaurant, the brainchild of restaurateur Randy DeWitt and design consulting group Plan B, is set up like an old warehouse, with hanging light fixtures and exposed brick throughout. And while the walls and hanging lights may look ancient, the polished, hardwood floor and beautiful oversized windows look brand new. But pretty ornamentation isn’t the only reason to visit. The main reason to visit Whiskey Cake – and it’s obvious because they’re on almost every table in the place – are the burgers.

The Basic burger ($11) may be just that, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s plain. Chef TJ Legnick’s creation is served on a small brown ceramic piece of tile covered with a bit of butcher paper and a small skewer holding the burger together, on top of which is a large pickle that manages to drip all over the top of the bun. While some may think this small inconvenience would dampen the meal, it really only adds to it. And don’t make the mistake of thinking basic means small, either, because it does not. Half of this burger is enough to please a normal man. Served on a slightly toasted/buttered challah bun, the brisket patty is grilled medium with little to no pink in the middle. Charred well, but not at all burned, the meat, topped with thick slices of Swiss and American cheese, was moist and meaty, benefiting from accompanying bacon, veggies, and mustard.

The Basic is stuffed with tomatoes, romaine lettuce,A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server. and strips of red onions,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. which all tasted like they had just been harvested that day. The bacon is crispy, and the crunch goes well with softness of the bun and patty. However, the mustard is the star of the burger. It blends well with the cheeses and meat and adds just the right amount of bite.

And then there is the OMG Burger ($12). The thing is a mess – a delicious mess – but still a mess. It comes to the table with a giant steak knife plunged through the middle to hold it all together. The second the knife is removed the whole thing collapses on itself and all that’s left is a pile of soggy challah bun, roasted crimini mushrooms, a giant onion ring and a brisket patty all smothered in Port Salut cheese. Honestly,My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. it’s best to just attack this thing with a fork. To compare the OMG and the basic is pretty simple; it has the same bun, same patty, same veggies and slightly fancier mustard (a grain mustard, but the taste is similar to the mustard on the basic. The main differences are the onion ring and the mushrooms. The onion ring could be a meal in itself. It’s massive. Stacked under the bun and on top of the patty, it’s impossible to get at all of the items in one bite. What really kicks the flavor in the pants is the mushrooms. Creamy and moist, the roasted crimini mushrooms make the whole burger. The combination of the Port Salut, brisket patty, and mushrooms is a pleasant surprise.The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges and be used for future applications beyond asset tracking.,

It may be far away or too bright and fancy for the dive bar burger aficionado, but Whiskey Cake offers amazing burgers at reasonable prices. Yes, it’s a burger that sounds like it belongs in a preteen girl’s text message, but it’s well worth the drive.

Bain Offers a Template to Middle Market, VCs Out in the Cold

No matter how much Bain Capital might stick out like a sore thumb between now and the 2012 elections, one thing is for certain: the PE firm has consistently been ahead of asset class trends, as evidenced by its trajectory through the 1980s right up until today. Unfortunately, Bain’s former leader has been turned by so many media outlets into its de facto poster boy for evil, the GOP and cut-rate taxes. Still—as was evidenced by reporting from Reuters earlier this week—Bain Capital knows how to stay ahead of the curve.

The private equity firm is once again keeping ahead by offering limited partners varying levels of exposure to its performance.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. By slashing management fees to as low as a half percent, Bain is incentivizing its investors to under-pay them up front for over-performance they feel certain they will execute.

It is something limited partners are increasingly growing to expect. Although terms were never publicized, sources indicated that some of the mega-commitments being made by pensions and sovereign wealth funds to large-cap private equity firms come with reduced terms for managers. Along with Bain, reports of Providence Equity and BC Partners discounting terms had previously emerged.

At a time when the biggest LPs are trying to reduce the manager headcount in their portfolio, it appears smaller firms need to court even the smallest investors with better terms in order to complete funds.

I spoke with a limited partner at Thomson Reuters’ PartnerConnect last week who said middle market and venture capital firms are increasingly offering (or, at least,The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. accepting) reduced management fees. Many aren’t exactly thrilled about it, he added.

“You won’t get it [flexible management fees] unless you ask for it,” he said.What are the symptoms of Piles. “But it is much easier to get now than, say,Air Oasis Air purifier Are Maintenance Free for 3 Years. two years ago.”

Who will step up and bite the bullet first—and, at what cost to managers? It is perhaps a cruel irony that the very question so many private equity firms’ portfolio companies’ employees have faced, is being posed to some of the middle market firms themselves: would you rather work for a little less, or not make anything at all? There are also plenty of VC firms out there that are hurting for cash, and might miss their target. Although top-quartile VCs have been able to nail down oversubscribed funds left and right, other firms should consider—and some may well already be offering—new terms.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included:abstract oil paintings.

Many limited partners (and, successful GPs) have said the industry is due for consolidation—by up to 40%, depending on whose estimate you’re willing to believe—and that regardless of how they restructure fees, some PE and VC shops are going away for good.

“It is inevitable,” said Colin Ambrose, Chief Investment Officer of UJA-Federation of New York, speaking at Thomson Reuters’ PartnerConnect conference last week. “But it is good for the industry.”

Polly's Paper Studio, Lucky Penny Mosaics Open in Downtown Dexter

Downtown Dexter is home to two new arts and crafts-based businesses that opened their doors this week.The Plastic molding industry has evolved over the years.

Polly's Paper Studio, located at 3238 Broad St., is a specialty boutique that sells hundreds of items for scrapbooking,Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. handmade cards, and other paper crafts. Across the street, Lucky Penny Mosaics, located at 3205 Broad St., features a variety of classes for basic and advanced mosaic art instruction.

"We really love the family appeal and artsy vibe of Dexter," Polly's owner Ginny Nemchak said about her decision to open the store. "With all the downtown restaurants and stores, Dexter has this neighborhood feel but it's also a destination location."

Nemchak has been operating Polly's Paper Studio in Pinckney for the past two years, but decided to relocate the business to Dexter to capitilize on traffic from Ann Arbor and other surrounding communities.

"Fortunately, scrapbooking shops are few and far between, and if you want the more exclusive brands sometimes you have to travel. The nature of the craft makes our shop a destination spot that will hopefully bring other people into town, which will help other businesses as well," Nemchak said.

With a 20-year career in retail, Nemchak said she decided to open her own business after a friend turned her onto scrapbooking.

"I was a stay-at-home mom for several years, but I also like to work, so opening my own business allowed me to do something I enjoy while still getting to spend time with my family," she said.

The store offers 1,800 paper patterns, adhesives, embellishments and other scrapbooking products. It will also offer classes in handmade card making, scrapbooking and altered art projects.

"Paper crafting in general is an afforable hobby, and I think people like to give a handcrafted item as a gift because it's more personable. It's also a craft that you can manage in a small amount of space if you are doing it at home," she said. "We'll also let people work in the store."

Lisa Wandres, co-owner of Artistica in Dexter, opened Lucky Penny Mosaics above Life is Good, to expand her home-based mosaic classes. Wandres, who considers herself an "artist by accident" began her lifelong love affair with mosaics 10 years ago after learning about the craft.

"I was curious (about art) and discoverd courses on mosaic and luckily it turned out to be my thing,Capture the look and feel of real stone or China ceramic tile flooring with Alterna by Armstrong." Wandres explained. "I have since ... dedicated myself to leaning more about mosaics and also to broadening my artistic influences."

Wandres has been selling work on commission with moderate success, which led to her decision to offer classes of her own for students.

"Mosaic is coming back in the art world and it's coming back as an art form, transcending the (stigma) of a casual hobby," she said.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

The studio will offer a four-week two-hour basics class for $135, with materials and supplies. Wandres will also offer studio time for intermediate level students,The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. at $10 an hour. Students will learn about cutting, grinding and working with glass cutting techniques. Other workshops include a pet portraiture project (four weeks, $135), and mosaic tables (six weeks, $165).

"Anyone can do a mosaic. You don't have to be artistic or know how to draw," Wandres said. "I want this to be a place where beginners and advanced artists come to work. We're a full-fledged studio, so we have all the equipment to complete a mosaic project."

New Magnetic Testing Technique Helps Ensure Reliability

Taking advantage of the force generated by magnetic repulsion, researchers have developed a new technique for measuring the adhesion strength between thin films of materials used in microelectronic devices, photovoltaic cells and microelectromechanical systems .

The fixtureless and noncontact technique, known as the magnetically actuated peel test (MAPT), could help ensure the long-term reliability of electronic devices,Find Custom designed glass mosaic. and assist designers in improving resistance to thermal and mechanical stresses.

“Devices are becoming smaller and smaller, and we are driving them to higher and higher performance,” said Suresh Sitaraman, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This technique would help manufacturers know that their products will meet reliability requirements, and provide designers with the information they need to choose the right materials to meet future design specifications over the lifetimes of devices.”

The research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, and was reported in the March 30, 2012 issue of the journal Thin Solid Films.

Modern microelectronic chips are fabricated from layers of different materials – insulators and conductors – applied on top of one another. Thermal stress can be created when heat generated during the operation of the devices causes the materials of adjacent layers to expand, which occurs at different rates in different materials. The stress can cause the layers to separate, a process known as delamination or de-bonding, which is a major cause of microelectronics failure.

“We need to find out if these layers will separate over time as they are used and subjected to thermal and other stresses,” Sitaraman explained. “These systems are used in a wide range of applications from cell phones and computers to automobiles, aircraft and medical equipment. They must be reliable over the course of their expected lifetimes.Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here.”

Sitaraman and doctoral student Gregory Ostrowicki have used their technique to measure the adhesion strength between layers of copper conductor and silicon dioxide insulator. They also plan to use it to study fatigue cycling failure, which occurs over time as the interface between layers is repeatedly placed under stress. The technique may also be used to study adhesion between layers in photovoltaic systems and in MEMS devices.

The Georgia Tech researchers first used standard microelectronic fabrication techniques to grow layers of thin films that they want to evaluate on a silicon wafer. At the center of each sample, they bonded a tiny permanent magnet made of nickel-plated neodymium (NdFeB), connected to three ribbons of thin-film copper grown atop silicon dioxide on a silicon wafer.

The sample was then placed into a test station that consists of an electromagnet below the sample and an optical profiler above it. Voltage supplied to the electromagnet was increased over time, creating a repulsive force between the like magnetic poles. Pulled upward by the repulsive force on the permanent magnet, the copper ribbons stretched until they finally delaminated.

With data from the optical profiler and knowledge of the magnetic field strength, the researchers can provide an accurate measure of the force required to delaminate the sample. The magnetic actuation has the advantage of providing easily controlled force consistently perpendicular to the silicon wafer.

Because many samples can be made at the same time on the same wafer, the technique can be used to generate a large volume of adhesion data in a timely fashion.

But device failure often occurs gradually over time as the layers are subjected to the stresses of repeated heating and cooling cycles. To study this fatigue failure, Sitaraman and Ostrowicki plan to cycle the electromagnet’s voltage on and off.

“A lot of times, layers do not delaminate in one shot,” Sitaraman said.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. “We can test the interface over hundreds or thousands of cycles to see how long it will take to delaminate and for that delamination damage to grow.”

The test station is small enough to fit into an environmental chamber, allowing the researchers to evaluate the effects of high temperature and/or high humidity on the strength of the thin film adhesion. This is particularly useful for electronics intended for harsh conditions, such as automobile engine control systems or aircraft avionics, Sitaraman said.

“We can see how the adhesion strength changes or the interfacial fracture toughness varies with temperature and humidity for a wide range of materials,” he explained.

So far,The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. Sitaraman and Ostrowicki have studied thin film layers about one micron in thickness, but say their technique will work on layers that are of sub-micron thickness. Because their test layers are made using standard microelectronic fabrication techniques in Georgia Tech’s clean rooms,Excel Mould is a Custom plastic injection mould Maker. Sitaraman believes they accurately represent the conditions of real devices.

“To get meaningful results, you need to have representative processes and representative materials and representative interfaces so that what is measured is what a real application would face,” he said. “We mimic the processing conditions and techniques that are used in actual microelectronics fabrication.”

Access and cost revolution sweeping through utilities

On a January evening, Anand is shelling betel nuts by the light of an electric lamp in Halliberu, his village in India's Karnataka state.

As his friends gather on the lamp-lit porch to swap stories, children play in the yard. Inside, after decades of cooking in the dark, Anand's mother prepares the evening meal while a visiting neighbor weaves garlands of flowers.

In October, Bangalore-based Simpa Networks Inc. installed a solar panel on Anand's whitewashed adobe house along with a small metal box in his living room to monitor electricity usage. The 25-year-old rice farmer, who goes by one name, purchases energy credits to unlock the system via his mobile phone on a pay-as-you-go model.

When his balance runs low, Anand pays 50 rupees ($1) -- money he would have otherwise spent on kerosene. Then he receives a text message with a code to punch into the box, giving him about another week of electric light. When he pays off the full cost of the system in about three years, it will be unlocked and he will get free power.

Before the solar panel arrived, Anand lit his home with kerosene lamps that streaked the walls with smoke and barely penetrated the darkness of the village, which lacks electrification. Twice a week, he trudged 45 minutes to a nearby town just to charge his phone.

“Things are much easier now,” Anand says, describing how he used to go through 5 liters (1 gallon) of fuel a month, almost half of it bought from the black market at four times the price of government kerosene rations. “There was never enough.”

Anand is on the crest of an electricity revolution that's sweeping through power markets and threatening traditional utilities' dominance of the world's supply.

From the poorest parts of Africa and Asia to the most- developed regions in the U.S. and Europe, solar units such as Anand's and small-scale wind and biomass generators promise to extend access to power to more people than ever before. In the developing world, they're slashing costs in the process.

Across India and Africa, startups and mobile phone companies are developing so-called microgrids,Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. in which stand-alone generators power clusters of homes and businesses in places where electric utilities have never operated.First Impressions sells silicone molds.

In Europe, cooperatives are building their own generators and selling power back to the national or regional grid while information technology developers and phone companies are helping consumers reduce their power consumption and pay less for the electricity they do use.

The revolution is just beginning, says Jeremy Rifkin, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Third Industrial Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Disruptive to the economic status quo, the transformation opens up huge opportunities to consumers who may find themselves trading power in the future much as they swap information over the Internet today, he says. “This is power to the people,” says Rifkin,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. who was once best known as a leading opponent of the Vietnam War.

India has 30 gigawatts of mainly diesel generators that could be replaced by cheaper solar power tomorrow, says Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Within a decade, installing photovoltaic panels may be cheaper for many families than buying power from national grids in much of the world, including the U.S.,Find Custom designed glass mosaic. Japan, Brazil and the U.K., according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The ultimate losers in this shifting balance of power may be established utilities. They've invested billions of dollars in centralized networks that are slowly being edged out of markets they've dominated.

As it is, with big utilities also generating more and more power with alternative fuels, renewables provided 20 percent of the European Union's power in 2010, up from 14 percent five years earlier, according to the Paris-based Renewable Energy Observatory. The EU aims to raise that share to about 34 percent by 2020.

European utility stocks are already suffering as entrants using new technologies pour in to meet demand. The Bloomberg European Utilities Index touched a seven-year low in September, and German power futures contracts were in the doldrums as of March 12.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology.

In many underdeveloped regions, it hasn't made economic sense for utilities to build the capital-intensive infrastructure required to deliver energy from traditional sources.

David Feherty

Golf Channel Contributor David Feherty was the announcer on hole number 15 during the broadcast of the 76th Masters Tournament. One of the reasons that he wanted to interview Bubba Watson for his show is the fact that he initially had an allergic reaction to the media and especially on-course commentators. Feherty is amazed at how he has grown in that respect and he is actually in Orlando on Monday to record some new material for a re-broadcast of his interview with Bubba which airs tonight at 8PM ET on Golf Channel.

Bubba is certainly an eccentric and that there is a bit of little boy in him who needs to be taken care of and his wife Angie certainly fills that role.Plastic Injection moulds as well as other dies. It is refreshing to see someone who does not care about what swing coaches or anyone else has to say because he has the talent and the imagination to know how to swing and how to hit the ball in a certain situation. He is able to mold himself to a course the way a comedian molds himself to an audience.

Sergio Garcia finished T12 in The Masters but commented that he does not feel he has any hope of winning a Major in the future. He had not heard the entire comment from Sergio but he knows that Sergio has a history of allowing a moment to take over his thoughts. He is a great kid who sometimes trips over himself in comments so he does not take much stock in what he said last weekend. Feherty believes that Garcia will win a Major one day.US Manufacturer of distribution Insulator.

Westwood finished tied for 3rd and he is a tough, working class guy who will take this on the chin but move on. He may be one of those players who is one of the best in the world but never wins a Major Championship just as a great quarterback will sometimes never win a Super Bowl in his career.

Looking at Tiger Woods after The Masters, Feherty first noted that he is the biggest Tiger fan in the world and then said that he hopes Tiger will just get rid of all of the people who are telling him what to do with his life and his golf game. As an addict,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free. he understands the idea of confusing fun with happiness and he thinks that Tiger has this problem in his golf life. You have the right priorities and sometimes you have to just go out and play like you were a little kid again.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology. Golf is too much work and not enough fun for Tiger and that needs to change.