Discover cool and unique places all over the world with the new Unlike app

Anyone who has read the Unlike city guides will know they adhere to a particular style – they specialise in places that have a certain ‘cool’ factor. This core branding is at the heart of the all-new Unlike, a global app which aggregates user-generated points of interest (POIs) and curates the best, or at least the coolest.

And that makes it much more than merely a generic free-for-all POI generator, according to founder Marley Fabisiewicz.

The new iOS app, which will launch the user-generated features, is currently in private beta, with the Android equivalent to be relaunched soon and a Windows version pencilled in for later. Users will be able to create their own POIs with or without a picture and explanation. They can then make these POIs private or public, with the latter option ensuring they show up in global feed.

And POIs can also be organised into guides – perhaps a personalised one for your friend who is visiting from abroad, or maybe a public one for the world to see.

Marley told Silicon Allee the the global feed is at the core of the new Unlike service: “User stuff,What is a real time Location system ? editorial stuff, whatever, in real time you see everything from all round the world in the global feed.”

But in order to be featured on the Unlike homepage of city landing pages, your POI needs to be selected by an editor, who curates the best user-generated content and pushes it out in a more prominent way.

Users can follow each other Twitter-style, and can see the (public) content of whoever they follow. So when you load up the app and look for places nearby, you not only see the editorial listings but also entries from your friends and contacts.

“It’s like a bookmark for places,” Marley added.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. If you are on the go and see somewhere you like, you can take a quick snapshot and add it to your favourites and it will come up in your stream the next time you are in the area.

Unlike began in 2007, born out of frustration of not being able to find the right places to go when travelling and not finding anything online. Beginning in Berlin, the young startup was boosted immeasurably by the launch of the first iPhone – especially when the first Unlike app was selected by Apple as an app of the month.

That attracted plenty of hype as well as seed investors. But with the team trying to, in Marley’s words, “conquer the world” by expanding too quickly, the financial crisis struck right in the middle of their first financing round. The investor got cold feet and pulled out at the last minute.

Unlike went into hibernation, with Marley heading for South Africa to enjoy a “mini retirement – go surfing, cycling and other stuff.” But the positive feedback didn’t let up and eventually the project was back on the table. This time, however, there was no search for investment; instead, the emphasis was put on finding advertisers and sponsors to help pay the bills.This page contains information about molds.

With companies like Samsung, Mercedes-Benz and Levi’s now involved, this has formed the basis of the new Unlike business model. The company is also working on content partnerships,Renowned crystal mosaic Supplier and Exporter in China. for example integrating with Airbnb through the API so that someone looking at an apartment will also see a list of the nearby Unlike cool spots.

This kind of integrated advertising is extremely attractive for brands like Lufthansa which need to vastly improve how they communicate with the type of people who use Unlike.

As for content on the new platform, it was decided that the one-dimensional city guide framework would no longer cut it; user-generated content was the answer.

Marley added: “With the very strong positioning we have, it was pretty clear what the quality of content should look like. So we don’t expect people to post McDonalds or Pizza Hut, but rather the cool things.Factory direct stone mosaic featuring marble mosaic floors.”

In addition to the satisfaction of seeing their content picked out by the editors, the company is also planning to encourage users by creating Unlike ambassadors who will receive special rights to publish directly onto the website, as well as incentives in the form of special deals on travel, hotels etc.

Porcelain ceramic tile, Rug Or Wood Floorboards Setting up

Deciding on in between proper surfaces to the brand-new house or alternatively concerning old surfaces which can be decaying or even applied is just about the difficult home remodeling tasks. In reality, the choices regarding surfaces will be in concept limitless. Wood, ceramic floor tiles, pebble, concrete as well as flooring are some alternatives among which experts claim, solid wood, ceramic ceramic tiles together with carpets receive the crucial assist.

A fresh typically observed advancement with your whole Texan spot actually is the usage of timber floor sequel in lieu of floors as well as tiling. This particular almost certainly provides something connected with the majority of round scorching weather. Cold months of winter on the inside Texas hardly ever decrease down below frosty point out obtain superb winter sports situations, the only real conditions issue by which timber floor coverings are certainly not especially unfavorable with coping with. It's gained use all of the proven fact that wooden pulls great quickly and therefore launched quickly.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. In addition, timber agreements throughout great and also increases throughout temperature producing present covering along with increase concerning casino chips. Apart from timber respond to freezing spots even so sprinting within neat wooden is in comparison with walking about snow. The identical will additionally apply to floor coverings in addition. Hence, floors are the most effective with this way of environment.

To get the best throughout carpet san antonio has become many options just as the personalized personal preference as well as selection on the inside ceramic tile san antonio residents currently have. Whilst floor covering is simply not encouraged having the next thunderstorm situations circumstances of this location, it really is well-liked by many due to actual less expensive installation fees. Ceramic porcelain tile conversely is a lot easier to assist maintain and keep clean even though enduring a long.Factory direct stone mosaic featuring marble mosaic floors. Moreover, timber flooring putting in should really serve you for a living along with showcase the earthly search of your residence making the austere out of your our mother earth. The idea releates to the main cost costs beyond the size one is bearing in mind. Carpeting and rugs effortlessly previous greater than 10 years while wood floorboards floor coverings might past forever just given that porcelain tile floorboards really does. In the event that longevity would be the dependence on right after from then on wood and ceramic tile you might be both functional choices.

Carpet san antonio entrepreneurs have got, cope with more difficulty with assessment to the his or her installing. Unsurprisingly the new as well as wetter local weather inside town encourages the development related to conforms along with mold using a wet floor covering. As a result, leaks in addition to smooth wetness will not only reduce the time period of your rug yet market place change into including fungi which is dangerous that you should wellbeing. Obtaining a floorboards made from porcelain tile san antonio design keeps your own house away from damaging adjusts plus stimulates health and well-being. The top credit score concerning tile would it be is easy to improve style and color . kind of serve.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties. Floor tile is actually proofed in opposition to one of the warmth in addition to freezing and also that you can chemical substances in contrast to wood surfaces,What is a real time Location system ? which reply adversely as a way to substance stains. Sooner or later,This page contains information about molds. deciding on floor coverings all through San Antonio will be based upon personalized alternative with the stamina as well as price facet.

Effective Tactics For Allergy

People get allergies when proteins in oil glands and saliva gets in contact with the people. Two or more years is what it takes to for animal allergies to develop in some inidviduals. Even after months upon contact, animal allergy symptoms may not subside. There can be many symptoms, which may include watery eyes, congestion and sneezing. When possible, try to avoid the animal that cause the allergies.

Decongestants, nasal steroids as well as antihistamines can be helpful medications. Chronic allergy symptoms may use immunotherapy.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. Insects such as cockroaches can bring similar symptoms. There are the same treatments.

In order to minimize pet dander, pets should be removed from the home, especially in the bedroom. Weekly washings of pets should be done. Pets should not be allowed on upholstery. Removing the trash bins can prevent cockroach allergy.

Urushiol causes the itchiness brought about by contact with poison ivy, poison oak,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. and poison sumac. Itchy rashes typical of an allergic reaction is observed with exposure to urushiol. This may happen within a few hours, or days after exposure. Exposure to urushoil need not be from direct contact. Indirect contact through other objects covered with the sap is possible.

Urushiol is predominant in all parts of the poison plants. The leaves, stems, and roots all contain this sap. It can also be found even after the death of the plant. Urushiol can be hastily taken in by the skin. Setting poison plants on fire will facilitate the inhalation of airborne urushiol. Inhalation of urushiol happens during the burning of a poison plant. This produces irritation of the nasal passages, throat, and lungs. Poison plants like poison sumac and poison ivy is widespread in the US with the exception of the Southwest deserts, Hawaii, and Alaska.

Poison ivy may grow as vines or shrubs. The Eastern, Midwestern, and Southern areas of the US predominantly see the existence of poison ivy vines. Poison ivy shrubs, on the other hand, exist in the northern and western areas. The three leaflets present in a poison ivy plant makes it easier to identify. Seven to thirteen paired leaves on a stem of a woody shrub characterizes poison sumac. Harmless sumac is distinct from poison sumac.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties. It does not have the drooping cluster of green berries characteristic of poison sumac. Poisonous sumac can be usually seen in swampy areas filled with water. Non-ppoisonous sumac has a cluster or two of red berries growing vertically on it.

Like pollen, molds are microscopic and parasitic fungi that can float in the air. Repair water leakages since this may contribute in harboring microograsnimsm. The similarity of symptoms exists between dust mites, pollen, and mold allergy. These symptoms include itchy and watery eyes, coughing, congestion, sneezing, and runny nose.

With the presence of mold inside the house, allergic symptoms can be manifested all throught the year. However, mold allergy is said to be seasonal. It mostly occur during summer and fall. Bathrooms and basements should be kept well-ventilated and moisture free. In addition, it is also important to keep their windows and doors closed. This will help in preventing fungi to travel from area to another. Molds can be found in damp areas of the home. Two common examples are the basement and bathroom. Molds are also present in the grass, mulch, hay, and other outdoor places.

It is alarming to know that food allergies and food intolerances can attack large number of people. Oftentimes, there are people who do not now that they have allergies.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. When they eat foods that give them unwanted reactions, they wonder.

There is one out of three people who claims either they have acquired food allergy or a family member is suspected to have food allergy that is why they tend to modify their diet. Among children, 5% are diagnosed of having food allergies. On the other hand, 4% of teens and adults are affected by food allergies.

The perception of the public to the problem and the clinically proven cases of food allergy are altered. This is because there is a misconception of the difference of food allergies and food intolerance. A food allergy happens when the immune system mistakenly identifies a protein as harmful for the body. As a result, abnormal reactions occur. Some symptoms of food allergy may be similar to that of food intolerance. However, the immune system is not the culprit for the symptoms brought about by food intolerance. For example, if a person is alergic to milk, he experiences adverse reactions due to the ingestion of milk.What is a real time Location system ? On the other hand, a person who is lactose intolerant experiences the inability to digest or absorb ,milk.

St. Louis battle over solar panels pits

Energy costs are rising. Hiscox is increasingly concerned about the environment. And government rebates could help him fund the $45,000 cost.

But his building,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. the Soulard Bastille Bar on Russell Boulevard south of downtown, has a roof that faces the street. And that means his solar array would break neighborhood rules. Soulard, a national historic district, does not allow visible panels.

"I'm just sick to my stomach," Hiscox said. "I don't get this."

Hiscox's heartache highlights a fight simmering from coast to coast.

How does a historic neighborhood hang onto that certain je ne sais quoi and still change with the times? How does it ooze history and romance, and still find space for solar panels and satellite dishes?

"Nationally, they've been dealing with it a lot,What is a real time Location system ? in historic districts in New Jersey, California, across the nation," said Ryan Reed, a preservation specialist with the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, which fights to save historic structures.

But no one, Reed said, has produced guidelines that make all parties happy.

Soulard is one of the oldest sections of the city. Its 150-year-old homes, perky mansard roofs and redbrick rows invite visitors to meander the streets — and boost property values across the neighborhood.

If the rooflines get broken by enough new gadgets, nearly all parties agree, the feel of Soulard might change.

"Think of it like a puzzle," Reed continued. "If you're missing so many pieces, you can't tell what the picture is."

The problem, said St. Louis architectural historian Michael Allen, is that many historic guidelines were written 40 years ago. The city's three oldest historic preservation districts — Hyde Park,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. Lafayette Square and Soulard — were created in the 1970s, Allen said, with strict rules to prevent bad business signs, cheap windows, rooftop decks and backyard lean-tos.

"They weren't hoping to keep out solar panels," he said. "They were guidelines for their future. Now those aspirations have been realized."

Are rain barrels and solar panels, he asked, corrupting neighborhood standards? Historic guidelines, Allen said, need to be revised.

This is far from the first time an area business has tried to incorporate new technology into historic renovation.

The city's Cultural Resources Office has approved solar panels before — though only when they're hidden, or nearly so.

Washington University successfully petitioned the city Preservation Board, which hears preliminary reviews, borderline cases and appeals on such issues,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. to mount 6-foot-tall wind turbines on the top of its three-story building on Delmar Boulevard in the Skinker-DeBalivere Historic District.

And rehabbers are constantly at odds with local and state guidelines over window replacements.

Just this past month, Alderman Jennifer Florida complained that a project in her ward, south of Tower Grove Park, couldn't put in double-paned vinyl windows, despite their energy efficiency. State historic tax credit guidelines called for wooden windows — but replacing the originals with double-paned wood was, she said, prohibitively expensive.

"You're ultimately adapting a 110-year-old structure for today's use," she said. "But energy efficiency should be non-negotiable."

"We have these old ways of doing things," she continued.

Even Betsy Bradley, director of the Cultural Resources Office, says it might be time to review Soulard's regulations. The city's ordinance says the standards should be rewritten every 10 years. Soulard's have not been revised since 1991.

That, however, would be too late for Hiscox. This month, he lost the first round in his fight to sidestep the historic guidelines. The city's preservation board voted 4-2 against his request.

Hiscox tried to show that the solar panels wouldn't offend anyone. He offered to put up six temporary panels prior to any permanent construction. He got 14 pages of signatures from neighbors.

But Bradley denied the temporary demonstration. She said she wanted to help Hiscox but could find no mechanism for permitting the temporary erection of such items.

And the Preservation Board sided with the Soulard Restoration Group, which wrote the guidelines and opposed the panels. Bradley, in her report to the board, noted that the surrounding buildings were historic, that Hiscox's panels would be "entirely visible" and that Russell was an important thoroughfare into Soulard.

Approving the project, she concluded, "would indicate that the visibility of solar collectors in a historic district is not a concern. The Soulard Historic District Standards, in several ways, indicate that a visually dominant solar panel installation on a street-facing public facade is not compatible with the historic character of the district."

Hiscox readily acknowledges that it's not just about going green. The Bastille has a walk-in cooler, four compressors, air conditioning and electric heat. He said his electric bill runs from $500 to about $1,800 per month.

"It's rough out here," he said. "I was just trying to save money and have some fun. So much for that."

Hiscox says he has already spent $6,500 for a new,Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties. black roof to match the anticipated solar panels (though he needed the new roof anyway), plus $15,000 in early panel costs, which he is hoping to recoup. One of the solar panels, he said, is still sitting in his kitchen.

"To say the least," he continued, "I won't be spending too much more money in the neighborhood."

Advocates and city leaders don't expect this problem to go away soon.

But they do think it will change. Technology will reduce the size of solar panels — there are already shingle-size cells out in some communities. And perceptions will adapt, too.

Jon Stewart Is Hilarious but No Teacher of Religion

In a much discussed article in the new online publication Religion & Politics Journal, New York Times religion reporter Mark Oppenheimer offers an enthusiastic endorsement of Jon Stewart's coverage of religion on "The Daily Show," which Stewart hosts on Comedy Central. "Jon Stewart may not be a believer," writes Oppenheimer, "but he is one hell of a teacher."

This is an interesting claim -- and a ridiculous one. Stewart is hilarious, and I consider his show to be must-see TV. My wife and I watch it every night that it is on, discuss it with our adult children, and bemoan its absence when the show is on break. But Stewart does not qualify, in any sense, as a "teacher" of religion.

He does cover religion extensively, and his coverage is very funny for the same reason it is funny when he takes on political subjects. In his monologues and skits, he is a master of puncturing pretense and skewering inconsistency. He looks for the absurd in religion and, without much difficulty, finds it. Unconstrained as he is by political correctness, the Mormons with their unfamiliar theology are an easy target for him; so too are the Catholic hierarchy and its approach to contraception and papal authority; so too is the Muslim and Jewish obsession with the Middle East; and so too are some of the apparently bizarre rituals of the Jewish tradition .

As a religious person, I know that some of this humor comes at my expense, but I love it nonetheless. Even if it's not always "fair," it serves as a corrective to the self-righteousness to which religious people so frequently fall prey. It also serves as a welcome reminder of how people outside the religious world see us. To an outsider, removing a foreskin or refraining from eating pork may indeed seem weird.

I also recognize that it is simply a good idea for people to laugh at themselves from time to time. As a liberal in both the political and the religious realms, I know that I have some inconsistent, imprecise, do-good ideas,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. and it is funny when comedians and satirists point that out,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. even if their words may occasionally offend my sensibilities. To the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which engages in screeching attacks on Stewart, my advice would be: Lighten up. I am also quick to acknowledge that the Jewish community, endlessly sensitive to the possibility of anti-Semitism, is often the American religious group least able to laugh at itself. Imagine that Trey Parker and Matt Stone had written a play entitled "The Book of Judaism," dealing not with Mormon youth but with black-coated Hasidic youth. How would we Jews have responded to that?

Nonetheless, it is a real a stretch to see Stewart as a teacher of religion. True, his interviews on religious matters, as on everything else, are always civil; see, for example, his discussion with Mike Huckabee.What is a real time Location system ? But the fact is that while he avoids anger and bitterness, his jokes and skits on religion have a mocking, dismissive tone.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. As an ethnic Jew, Stewart does not appear to have a religious bone in his body, and his jokes -- even at their most hilarious -- are the jokes of a man who cannot imagine what religious belief and observance look like and feel like. Those who are funniest about religion are usually those who have experienced religion's absurdities from within, and who laugh at religion even as they retain some affection for it (and perhaps even a measure of belief). That is why Stephen Colbert, a practicing Catholic, is funnier about religion than is Stewart -- a point hinted at by Oppenheimer in his article.

Trey and Stone, in "The Book of Mormon,Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties." are wickedly funny and a bit cruel about Mormon theology, and they remind us of the role that ego plays in motivating even the most traditional believer. At the same time, their musical is suffused with an appreciation for the vitality, exuberance and altruism of Mormonism -- and of all religions at their best. This is precisely what Stewart's comedy is lacking.

Oppenheimer suggests that Stewart's show will help skeptics and the uninitiated to talk about religion. I doubt it. Hearing Stewart's mocking and dismissive tone, skeptics and the uninitiated are likely to walk away with a mocking and dismissive tone of their own. So let us accept Jon Stewart for what he is: a national treasure who is a very, very funny man. But if it is religious teachers that we are looking for, let us look somewhere else.

The Paper Clip, a Perfect Invention

The paper clip is something of a fetish object in design circles. Its spare, machined aesthetic and its inexpensive ubiquity landed it a spot in MoMA’s 2004 show “Humble Masterpieces.” This was a pedestal too high for design critic Michael Bierut, who responded with an essay called “To Hell with the Simple Paper Clip.” He argued that designers praise supposedly unauthored objects like the paper clip because they’re loath to choose between giving publicity to a competitor and egotistically toutinSecured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI.g their own designs. Bierut might be right about his colleagues’ motives, but he’s wrong about the paper clip: It’s not all that simple.

Most everyday objects — like the key, or the book, or the phone — evolve over time in incremental ways, and the 20th century in particular revolutionized, streamlined, or technologized the vast majority of the things you hold in your hand over the course of an average day. But if you could step into an office in 1895 — walking past horse-drawn buses and rows of wooden telephone switchboard cabinets — you might find a perfectly recognizable, shiny silver paper clip sitting on a desk. What was then a new technology is now, well over a century later, likely to be in the same place, ready to perform the same tasks. Why did the paper clip find its form so quickly, and why has it stuck with us for so long?

Before the paper clip, there was paper. When it was developed in China in the first century A.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties.D., paper was made from cotton and linen. (Some contemporary paper is still made this way; most currency is printed on it.) This rag paper was expensive to produce, so it was primarily reserved for permanent writing and sewn into bound volumes. Temporary writing — tracking Sumerian accounts payable or inviting a friend to a birthday party in Pompeii — was done in clay or wax tablets that could be wiped clean and reused.

In the 19th century, the invention of wood pulping and industrial paper mills made inexpensive paper widely available; the rise of commerce, bureaucracy and literacy transformed it into masses of loose sheets of paperwork. The figure most responsible for the creation and care of all this paperwork was the clerk. As Adrian Forty points out in “Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750,” the clerk was a creature of uncertain status, someone who had attained a middle-class respectability but who frequently lacked both managerial responsibility and a middle-class salary: Think of Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol,” working endless hours for a thankless boss.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. These clerks were often surrounded by papers that had to be sorted into cubbyholes or tied into bundles with string. This was a new sort of urgent but essentially meaningless work. (No wonder Melville’s famously reticent scrivener, Bartleby, was forever intoning “I would prefer not to.”) And in the shop of Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer in Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House,” we get a glimpse of this tidal wave of 19th-century office supplies:

“Mr. Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper — foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey-brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India-rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocketbooks, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands — glass and leaden — penknives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention ..All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats..”

Here in Mr. Snagsby’s inventory we find the most direct precursor to the paper clip: the straight pin. As Henry Petroski notes in his book “The Evolution of Useful Things,” the pin-making industry was illustrative of the industrialization taking place prior to mechanization. The first chapter of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” features a passage describing the manner in which the manufacture of iron pins took advantage of the division of labor, with one man drawing the iron wire, another straightening it, a third cutting it, and so on. Smith noted that 10 individuals engaged in 10 different parts of the process could together make about 48,000 pins a day, whereas a single individual working by himself could not make even 20. By the end of the 19th century, this process was so efficient that a half-pound box of pins could be bought for 40 cents. But while iron pins were cheap, easy to use and disposable, they had the obvious downsides of rusting and piercing, leaving stains and holes in the papers they pressed together.

What enabled the shift from the pin to the clip was the development, in 1855, of low-cost, industrially produced steel, which has the right balance of strength and flexibility to make tracks, pipes, wire and nearly every other piece of 20th-century metal infrastructure.Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau. Manufacturers could use the new supple steel wire to draw in space, making strong, rust-free hooks, safety pins, clothes hangers and paper clips. And in the last quarter of the 19th century, patents were issued for nearly every shape of steel wire that could be imagined to be useful.

Solar-Panel Glut Claims Day4 Energy

Another once-promising Canadian solar power company is about to disappear from the public markets, as depressed solar-panel prices claim another victim.

Day4 Energy Inc., of Burnaby, British Columbia, said Monday it will sell itself to senior managers in exchange for the assumption of debt, and it will apply to delist its stock from the Toronto Stock Exchange.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI.

The move follows the bankruptcy this spring of Arise Technologies Corp., a Cambridge, Ontario, public company that built a state-of-the-art solar-panel plant in Germany but ran into trouble raising financing.

Solar cell and panel makers around the world have been struggling because of sharply falling prices caused by a glut of panels on the market.

There has been a spate of bankruptcies and insolvencies worldwide, and even some of the biggest companies, such as Germany's Q-Cells and Arizona-based First Solar Inc. have restructured, closed plants or laid off workers.

Day4 President and Chief Executive George Rubin said in an interview Monday that the solar market has been hit by a "multitude" of problems, including overcapacity, competition from low-cost Chinese panel makers, and a decline in government subsidies in many countries, particularly in Europe.

Rubin said Day4 needs to reduce "a whole ton of costs," and turning it into a private company will eliminate the considerable expenses of a public listing. Eventually, the industry will turn around and the lower panel prices will boost demand sharply, but that point is likely at least a year away, and perhaps much longer, he said.

In the meantime, getting Day4 back on track "is not going to be a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination," he said. The company's revenue fell 60% in 2011 to $66 million, and its loss quadrupled to $41 million.

Khurram Malik,Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau. an analyst at Jacob Securities Inc. in Toronto,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. said Day4 had "fabulous technology" for making solar cells, but that just doesn't cut it when solar panels are becoming a commodity business.

Both Day4 and Arise made advanced panels at high price points, but those kinds of firms are the ones hurting the most at the moment, Malik said. "The low-end guys are the only ones getting any traction at all. It is hard to compete in that space and try to sell a premium product."

Under the arrangement announced Monday,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. a private company controlled by Rubin and Day4 Chief Financial Officer Douglas Keith will buy all the company's business and assets. They'll pay $500,000 and assume all of the company's liabilities. Day4 will also apply to have its shares voluntarily taken off the TSX--although the exchange was already conducting an eligibility review of the stock.

The sale of the company will have to be approved by shareholders at the annual meeting set for June 27.

The delisting of Day4 will mark the end of public trading for a company that raised $100 million in its initial public offering in 2007, at $7.25 a share. At the time, the firm was led by John MacDonald, one of Canada's leading entrepreneurs who had been a co-founder of space technology leader MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

Since the time of the IPO, however,Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties. Day4 stock has been on a steady downward trajectory, and it has been trading below 10 cents a share for the past couple of months.

Day4 tried to insulate itself from some of the industry's problems by licensing its solar cell technology to other manufacturers. But the company noted in its most recent financial statements that these clients were also hit by the problems facing the industry, and were cutting back and delaying new technology purchases.

Malik said that, by going private, the Day4 executives can "close the doors and work on a longer-term plan," without worrying about quarterly reporting and pleasing investors. He said his firm is advising many clean technology companies thinking of going public that it is a bad idea unless they have a very strong revenue stream, and that they're better off raising money in the private market.

American women steal show on Day 2

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer moved into the second round of the French Open without mishap. No surprise there, but how about six American women?

Without getting carried away, because this is, after all, just the first round, such across-the-board success made it a memorable Memorial Day for American tennis in Paris.

Apart from headliner Lauren Davis, who scored a barely believable 6-1, 6-1 victory over the talented young seeded German Mona Barthel, there were solid and slightly surprising victories Monday for Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Vania King, Sloane Stephens, Varvara Lepchenko and Christina McHale. In all, there are 12 US women in the draw, and 10 have won while Serena Williams and Jamie Hampton are scheduled for first-round matches on Tuesday. This hasn’t happened in a while.

Just to add to the little green shoots of optimism that are appearing, many of the winners are still in the early stages of their career and beat higher-ranked opposition. Stephens scored a particularly impressive 6-4, 7-6 victory over the experienced Russian Ekaterina Makarova. Stephens is 19 and is ranked 70. Makarova is four years older and ranked 38.

King beat Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakstan, who, at No.First American Plastic molding is a custom injection molding facility that manufactures a variety of thermoplastic products. 49, is ranked eight places higher King, 23, was four years younger than her opponent.

McHale, who battled to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over the Dutch player Kiki Bertens, did not fit the mold in that she is considerably higher ranked (36 to 91) than her opponent. Nevertheless, this is red European clay and Bertens looked far more at ease on the surface at the start before McHale wore her down.The online extension of Mold Making Technology magazine.

Mattek-Sands, ranked 167th, had to overcome the biggest negative ranking differential when she faced the talented German Sabine Lisicki who is the 13th-ranked player in the world. But Mattek-Sands came through in style 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier in the day, on Court Three, which is to be found in a far-flung corner of the Roland Garros complex, Davis scored the best win of her career over another German,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture. Barthel, who is considered the most naturally gifted of a group of young emerging players from the nation of Steffi Graf. Davis, who packs a punch off her double-fisted backhand despite her diminutive height of 5-foot-2, knew that hanging around behind the baseline against a big ball striker like Barthel wasn’t going to work.

“She wins a lot of matches in the smaller tournaments by grinding it out,” said John Evert, Chris Evert's brother, who has been overseeing Davis' development at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Fla. “But we knew she would have to take it to Barthel and knock her out of her rhythm,”

The tactic worked from the get-go. Having seized the initiative, Davis never let go. The German was in such a state by the end that she served four double faults in the penultimate game as she tried to make the lopsided score line look more respectable.

“I’ve seen her play on TV,” said Davis with all the wide-eyed wonder of the 18-year-old that she is. “I mean, she’s 13 in the world.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. She’s a really good player. Her backhand is so sick, I tried to keep away from it. I have a lot of confidence right now — probably my biggest win.”

Asked to define herself, Davis said: “I have a lot of heart. I have so much passion for the game. I love playing.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. I’m tough mentally.”

Davis is obviously helped by her environment.

“I’ve been there two years,” she said of the Evert Academy. “It’s basically my home. I love it. It’s like my family there. Everybody’s so supportive and so loving. I fit in perfectly.”

The good thing — for two players, at least — is that the US is guaranteed two players in the third round because their are two all-American matches in the second round. Davis will take on McHale, and Mattek-Sands will play Stephens.

A Wyndmoor entrepreneur bulldozes into playtime cleanup

Take 17 years’ experience as an often-harried personal assistant to celebrities, combine it with the growing unwillingness of your typical 8-year-old to pick up his Legos, and what do you get?

The Toydozer, Wyndmoor entrepreneur Amy Bradley’s effort to capture a vast worldwide market of busy parents unwilling to crawl under beds to pick up what their children can’t, or won’t.

Her creation has brought Bradley some of the fame once reserved for her glamorous clients in New York and L.A., with a recent appearance on Today, a big feature in Daily Candy, and favorable mentions on numerous "mom" blogs, as they’re known.

Fortune? Well, not yet. It’s only been two months, said Bradley, 43, who shares her Montgomery County house-turned-warehouse/call center with husband, Tyler, 43, and, of course,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. their second grader, Harry, 8, the Lego king who also produced Bradley’s first YouTube video.

Harry was able to hold the camera still for more than two minutes while filming her as she demonstrated the Toydozer.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Bradley had a life before Toydozer, which was one part of the formula leading to the invention.

The Bradleys moved here from New York six years ago; they also had lived in Los Angeles. As a personal assistant— someone a celebrity hires expressly to make life easier — Bradley learned early on that "the simplest chore can take forever" and that "I always had to be on my toes."

"I always looked for ways to complete a task quickly and efficiently," she said, remembering that she would head in another direction if it looked as if the traffic light changing two blocks ahead would delay her.

And then there was Harry and his collection of Safari toys and Legos.

"There were hundreds of those little pieces everywhere," Bradley said, and as soon as Harry was old enough, he was given the task of making sure all of them were picked up and returned to the storage bins.

There came the point,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. as there always does, when Harry began balking at the cleanup because it "took too long."

So, Bradley said, she cut up an Adidas shoebox, using the piece she removed as a "brush" and the rest of the box as a "dustpan" into which all the little pieces were scooped "whoosh,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. whoosh, whoosh" in seconds.

The birth of the Toydozer (patent pending) came after she did an extensive search to see if there already were one on the market. Several prototypes in cardboard would follow, as Bradley tried to find the best way to push as many toys into the upright container for dumping into the storage bin.

"I talked to different manufacturers about tooling the Toydozer, but the cost was $60,000," she said.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

At first dejected, Bradley quickly took on the design task herself, "to simplify, making it easier to hold and lighter in weight so both adults and kids could use it."

Plastic would be the only option,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer. and the product needed to store easily, she recalled thinking as she sat at her desk for three weeks diagraming various prototypes.

"I’d never drafted or designed before, and I knew it would be faster if I’d hired someone, but I thought I’d be able to figure it out," Bradley said.

The whole process has made her a "little more confident" in herself. To create the computer-aided design of the prototype, she hired an engineer — one in China whose firm designed computer bags. She created the Toydozer logo herself after rejecting one she had hired someone else to design.

She also hired someone to do public relations — "couldn’t have gotten on the Today show if I had done it myself" — and a patent lawyer.

"This is one of those products that can be easily knocked off, patent pending or not," perhaps eventually forcing her to sell the idea to someone else who can take the Toydozer worldwide, Bradley said.

She turned to China for Toydozer’s tooling, which cost three times less than it would in the United States, she said, and to just across the California border in Mexico for manufacturing, because "the employer takes care of his workers and provides things like day care, while China was far away and scary."

Researchers develop probe for ultracold quantum matter

In a paper published in Nature Physics, a research group from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University reports the development and demonstration of a novel probe for atomic quantum matter. The paper, "Probing an Ultracold-Atom Crystal with Matter Waves," describes a proof-of-principle experiment on the diffraction of atomic de Broglie waves from a strongly correlated gas of atoms held in an optical lattice.

"Our work extends matter-wave diffraction, a technique that has already proven useful in various scientific disciplines, to the realm of ultracold quantum matter. What we demonstrated is similar to the diffraction of neutrons for the characterization of solid-state systems, but at energies that are a billion times lower," said Dominik Schneble, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook, who led PhD students Bryce Gadway, Daniel Pertot, and Jeremy Reeves in conducting the research.

In the experiment, an artificial atomic crystal is prepared by loading bosonic atoms, cooled down to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, into a miniature eggcrate-like potential landscape that is generated by several interfering laser beams. The behavior of atoms in this optical lattice closely mimics that of electrons in a conventional solid, but at a lattice period that is three orders of a magnitude larger, providing the experimenters with exquisite control over all relevant parameters in a defect-free system.Museum quality hand-painted fine oil painting reproduction on canvas. By increasing the depth of the optical potential, it is possible to reduce quantum-mechanical tunneling and eventually drive the interacting atoms into a localized crystalline state, a Mott insulator.

Studies of such and other strongly correlated phases, which are now conducted at a number of laboratories around the world, have recently propelled ultracold atomic physics into the focus of modern condensed-matter research, and the development of methods to characterize such phases is a central concern.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. The Stony Brook researchers recognized that Bragg diffraction of atoms may provide a simple yet powerful diagnostic tool that also allows for non-destructive probing.

Starting with a Bose-Einstein condensate, the researchers prepared a coherent atomic matter wave (akin to a coherent laser pulse), which they then directed at the atomic crystal. The wave-particle nature of atoms allowed them to control the wavelength of the incident atoms through their relative velocity. "Because the de-Broglie wavelength can easily be tuned, our technique precludes limitations on spatial resolution," said Bryce Gadway, first author of the paper, who is slated to join JILA (Boulder) as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow this summer.

By scanning the atom's wavelength, the researchers observed distinct Bragg resonances in the scattered signal, which revealed the crystalline lattice structure. From the signal, they were also able to characterize the localization of atoms on individual lattice sites, which is dominated by zero-point motion. Furthermore, upon reducing the atom's localization ("melting" of the crystal), the Stony Brook team observed inelastic scattering in the band structure.

As a first application, the researchers prepared and detected an atomic spin-mixture with forced-antiferromagnetic order. "In the future,What is a real time Location system ? our technique may be extended to the characterization of various novel states of ultracold matter, such as charge- and spin-density waves, and magnetically ordered ground states of quantum gas mixtures," said co-author Daniel Pertot, now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge, U.K.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

Independent of any such potential applications, adds Schneble, "Our experiment provides a nice example of wave-particle duality, where ultracold atoms serve both as localized particles and as coherent waves diffracting from them.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network."

Jacoby Jones Loves It Here, But Will Ravens Love Him?

For the most part, sixth-year NFL wideout Jacoby Jones has made a positive impression during the Ravens' first set of organized team activities (OTAs).

During Wednesday's practice alone, he made several noteworthy plays by using his speed to get to the spots where quarterback Joe Flacco was putting the ball.

During one red-zone play, the 6-foot-2, 212-pound Jones -- an unrestricted free-agent pickup from the Houston Texans -- darted to the middle of the end zone and was in position once Flacco had discarded his first read.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. The subsequent pass zipped into Jones' hands for a touchdown.

Another repetition featured Jones leaping high over second-year cornerback Jimmy Smith -- no easy task considering Smith is practically the same size -- to haul in another bullet-like throw from Flacco.

It's no wonder that one of the first things Jones told a small group of local reporters at his locker was that he was already loving Baltimore.

"It's something I have to get used to, one day at a time,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included." Jones said. "I just have to make the reads and follow the ball and make the plays."

It was the lack of big plays made toward the end of Jones' tenure in Houston that hastened his departure from a team that made its initial playoff appearance in 2011, winning its first AFC South Division title after 10 seasons spent in obscurity.

After getting a home win against Cincinnati during Wild Card Weekend, the Texans took on the Ravens during the Divisional round at M&T Bank Stadium.

Two misplayed punts by Jones didn't help the Texans' field-position fortunes, particularly with backup T.Museum quality hand-painted fine oil painting reproduction on canvas.J. Yates having to deal with the ferocious Ravens defense and an intimidating home crowd. The Ravens won, 20-13,What is a real time Location system ? ending the Texans' season and Jones' career with the team.

Smith recovered a first-quarter fumble at the Texans' 6 and ran it back to the 2, setting up a Flacco touchdown pass to Kris Wilson three plays later and a 7-3 lead the Ravens did not relinquish.

Three possessions later, Jones muffed another punt that he fell on back at the Texans' 14. One play later, Lardarius Webb picked off Yates, a turnover that preceded an Anquan Boldin touchdown, which stretched the Ravens' lead to 17-3.

Despite those big-game problems, Jones had averaged nearly 14 yards per catch and scored 11 touchdowns for Houston since he was a 2007 third-round pick from Lane College.

Not only that, but Jones' return skills -- something the Ravens definitely had their eye on when they signed him to a two-year contract earlier this offseason -- translated into a 10-yard average on punt runbacks and a 23-yard pace on kickoff returns.

But it was easy for Jones' performance to get lost underneath the avalanche of numbers elite wideout Andre Johnson put up, as well as teammates such as running back Arian Foster, wideout Kevin Walter, and tight ends Joel Dreessen and Owen Daniels.

Jones' arrival in Charm City enabled him to team up with two more former Texans, fullback Vonta Leach and strong safety Bernard Pollard. But it's his rapport with Flacco -- not to mention the fact that he is one of only four receivers on the 13-man position unit that has caught an NFL pass -- that will determine if he will succeed here.

"He's another big guy, and he can run," Flacco said. "He can track down a ball, too. He's got great skills and he's a great guy, too."

Head coach John Harbaugh also approved of the new acquisition.

"(Jones) has a great attitude," the coach said. "He's a real,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. real hard worker and very fast. He's a big, physical guy and he's done a great job so far."

Because it was the offseason's first OTA, the first for all NFL players in two years because of last spring's lockout, there were bound to be a few timing issues. For instance, Jones dropped a ball thrown behind him during a seven-on-seven drill.

"We've been off a couple of months now," Flacco said. "It was good to see a lot of the guys and get a lot done. Last year's (OTAs) were good in that we didn't have to be here.

"But it didn't affect us that much. We came out last year and got all the way to the AFC Championship Game."

Windows 8 on tablet: hands on

Anyone who has used Windows Phone will find the tile-based look and feel of Metro instantly recognisable, and that’s no coincidence.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. It features ‘live tiles’, which show live information such as the most up-to-date weather forecast, birthday notifications and information on the music track to which you are currently listening.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. Just as you see in Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

But Metro isn’t simply a port of the Windows Phone OS to a larger screen size. It has a range of extra features that help you make best use of tablet-sized screens. And it links in to the more Windows-like desktop-style screen, too. Here we’ll take a look at what Metro has to offer to tablets, and how well Windows 8 functions as a touch-friendly interface. We used an Intel tablet and Windows 8 Consumer Preview as Windows RT was not available at press time.What is a real time Location system ?

It’s worth noting at the very outset that the Metro interface isn’t limited to interaction by finger alone. You can control it with a mouse and keyboard too, and there are keyboard shortcuts for lots of tasks. We plugged in a mouse and keyboard via USB, and had no trouble using them.

If you are working with a finger, which is most likely on a tablet, the Metro interface is comfortable to use. On our test machine, a Samsung Series 7 slate PC, it was responsive to finger presses and sweeps,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. and there are some interesting features. We like the way, for example,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. you can zoom into the interface so you can see all your shortcuts with a quick pinch in and out.

Viewing all apps is easy, too. A sweep upwards from the bottom reveals a menu bar. What’s actually on offer here can vary depending on what you are doing at the time, but if you’re viewing the Start screen and instead would like to see all your apps, just tap ‘All apps’ and you’ll see a full list.

We’re big fans of how easy it is to pin any app to the Start screen. It’s just a case of sweeping upwards to get that bottom menu to appear, choosing ‘All Apps’, then dragging your chosen app down to the bottom of the screen to reveal the option to pin it to the Start screen.

You can also easily move tiles around the Start screen by dragging them, so that your most frequently used or favourite apps are always the ones you see first when you open the Start screen.

Just as with Windows Phone, the Start screen can display live information. If you are signed in to an email account, the Mail tile will provide alerts. If you allow Bing Weather to use your location it will show you the current weather situation, while the music tile will display information about the track you are currently listening to. It’s all designed to keep you up to date without you needing to keep opening apps all the time.

One of the great plus points of this operating system is the Windows Store. Accessed via the Metro interface, it gives you a direct route to third-party apps, which take advantage of the Metro look and feel to provide a whole host of extra functionality. App stores are nothing new, but this will be the first time we’ve seen one integrated into Windows.

In the Consumer Preview we’ve been looking at, the apps are all free, which certainly won’t be the case later on. Applications are categorised by subject, and you sweep through these to see what’s new or being promoted. The look and feel of the interface is similar to that of the Start screen.

Company Of Heroes 2 preview and interview

The preview event for real-time strategy Company Of Heroes 2 must have been the most sombrely depressing we've ever attended. Not because of the game, that looks great,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. but because of its setting. Canadian developer Relic took a lot of time, and colourised film footage, to illustrate how the Second World War wasn't won in the skies of Britain or the beaches of Normandy - but on the freezing battlefields of the Soviet Union.

Finding out that the Battle of Normandy was only that 23rd bloodiest battle of the war, and that 13 of the 15 that were all took place on the Eastern Front, starts to make you a bit queasy about recreating the events just to make a fun video game. Especially when you find out that one in seven of the entire Soviet population died during the war.

But Relic are clearly passionate about the period and determined to prove that the Soviet side of the story is not just worth telling, but in fact the most decisive aspect of the whole conflict.Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture.

Thankfully they weren't all slide shows and grim statistics and although we weren't allowed to play the game ourselves we were treated to an extended live demo.The online extension of Mold Making Technology magazine. The mission we saw was based on the Rzhev Meat Grinder battles, which even Wikipedia barely seems to have heard of - despite the fact that a million Soviet troops died during them.

With only three squads of men the virtual recreation starts of innocently enough,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. as Relic demonstrate the new Essence 3.0 graphics engine and its super realistic snow effects. As you can imagine Soviet snow drifts don't do things by half and although you can order your troops around with a simple mouse click they have considerable trouble carrying the order out if they're not on a road or track.

But as a Nazi position hoves into view it proves relatively easy to outflank it, simply because lying down in six inches of snow gives you instant cover. Other than the pretty graphics though one of Essence 3.0's major innovations is the True Sight system which accurately limits what each soldier can see based on what obstructions are in their way. The greyed-out haze of the fog of war is also vastly more detailed than usual for a real-time strategy, with what your soldier's can see changing every instant depending on their position.

Although in the real war many Soviet soldiers entered a battle completely unarmed, hoping only to pick up a dropped weapon later on, they're not entirely without back-up in Company Of Heroes 2. For example, a couple of flamethrower units make short work of a German occupied farmhouse and later in the mission they do get a T-34 tank to help as well.

What they also get though is Order 227, which a cut scene illustrates by showing retreating Soviet troops being gunned down by their own side just because they wouldn't continue their offensive.This is a really pretty round china glass mosaic votive that has been covered with vintage china .

The next stage of the mission therefore takes place with a new set of infantry squads and we're shown them nimbly jumping over walls and over barricades - another new feature of the sequel. It's at this point that the T-34 turns up, looking impressively dangerous and clearly modelled with a great deal of care and attention as it wobbles and turns in what seems to be a highly realistic manner.

Vehicles can now be abandoned and commandeered, with Relic suggesting that attempting to control a derelict vehicle will become a focus point in many missions. It's no wonder too because the T-34 also turns out to be the ideal way to demonstrate Company Of Heroes 2's destructible scenery, as it crushes trees and walls and blows holes through tree trunks and buildings alike.

Wassenberg Art Center exhibits, classes, lunch programs and summer camps

Multiple programs continue at the Wasesnberg Art Center and the paintings continue to arrive at a steady pace for our first 30 x 30 Art Fundraiser. As they parade by it's impossible to not get excited at the vast array of colors and technique. I for one am going to be hard-pressed trying to pick one (or two or three).Can't afford a third party merchant account right now?

This fundraiser is helping purchase supplies for our expanded summer camps and sorely needed equipment such as a clay extruder,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. slab-roller and repairing our kilns. Thirty original paintings donated by 30 artists will go on sale June 1 & 2 at this year's ArtRageous Festival for the mere cost of...you guessed it, $30!

They will go on display on May 20 on our website, Facebook, and here at the art center. After that they will be placed at our booth during ArtRageous, located in Fountain Park, Van Wert. Where else can you invest $30 in original art by professional artists who typically sell their work for hundreds or thousands of dollars? 30 x 30 supports our summer camp by purchasing supplies and much needed equipment.

We still have openings in those art camps, but they are going fast. Register early to guarantee your child's spot as space is limited. Our new Lunch & Learn programs are a great way to get your work team out of the office for a short time for an interesting presentation or quick project. As the name indicates we'll feed you too!

Regular classes for both adults and youth are also available at very reasonable rates. Oil painting, drawing, ceramics and a multitude of one-night classes featuring unique, fun projects Give us a call, email or check our website and we'll get you all fixed up.

Deadline for artists to submit their artwork for our 56th Annual June Art Exhibit is this Saturday and Sunday, May 19 & 20. Artwork will be accepted from 1-5 p.m. on those days. Please contact us at the number/email below if you need an entry form. The 56th Annual June Art Exhibit runs from June 9-June 29 and it will debut in grand style with a public reception BBQ, craft beer and wine tasting. In addition to artist award presentations we'll celebrate with live music by the Reese Dailey Band! RDB is made up of Dailey,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. drummer Chuck Mauk, bass Dan Langguth and rhythm/lead guitarist/vocalist Mike Cleveland and together make up a pivotal group of American musicians whose uncompromising style firmly states their Erie-Midwest flatlands identity. Reese Dailey Band is Lake Erie's Put-in-Bay favorite and commands any stage throughout Ohio and beyond. Reese, a dynamic guitarist with a seemingly endless flow of lyrical leads combined with his deep, rich vocals is able to produce a sound that holds listeners attention. This band's combined work includes openings for national bands, solo concerts and a couple members have provided music for movies and television. The band's first CD was released July 2011, (Olympia Records). Like our regional artists, this band is top notch. We are fortunate to represent high end, quality arts right here, in our own neck of the woods and we hope to see you here celebrating. Thank you to our sponsors, they rock! Van Wert Federal Savings Bank,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Cooper Farms, and the Van Wert County Foundation, Collin's Fine Foods and Walmart.TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China.

Hold the oil

With all his talk about sugar cane, corn, casaba and fungi, Jeff White sounded like someone with a food obsession. But the ingredients he enumerated during an interview last week had to do with manufacturing, not a meal.

His is an unconventional view of the world, where vegetables and other crops are the base materials for such durable goods as cellphone covers, DVD trays, and shipping containers. But the success of Ecospan L.L.C.,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. the bioplastics company he now leads that aims to replace petroleum-based plastics with those made from natural resources, depends on White's perspective becoming widely held by consumers.

It's not there by a long shot.

Bioplastics -- generally more expensive than petroleum products -- account for less than 1 percent of total global plastics use,First American Plastic molding is a custom injection molding facility that manufactures a variety of thermoplastic products. according to the SPI Bioplastics Council, a special-interest group in Washington that promotes growth of the fledgling industry.

Prospects are promising, however, pushed in large measure by the millennial generation and its demand for green products and a more environmentally sensitive lifestyle, the council and other bioplastic advocates said. The council anticipates yearly market growth of more than 20 percent through 2015. One estimate valued the entire plastics industry at $1.6 trillion.

"There's hurdles, but there's so many opportunities," said White, president of Ecospan, which is headquartered in Greenbrae, Calif., but which established a major Chester County,Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included. Pa.,TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China. presence last year.

The former Hewlett Packard executive-turned-serial entrepreneur/venture capitalist had served on Ecospan's board for about a year, starting in early 2010, when he was recruited to serve as company president and help expand what until then had been a biomaterials firm largely focused on research. Ecospan had secured one customer, a multinational electronics company,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. for a biobased box to be used to ship small electronics, such as a smartphone, for repair or exchange, White said.

Among its advantages was that it could be used 10 times as often as a standard cardboard carton, which typically can be used once or twice, White said. Even though the biobased box might cost twice as much as a cardboard box to buy, it would wind up being five times cheaper when reuse was factored in, he said.

From an economic and regulatory standpoint, the East Coast seemed to White, a Boston native, a more conducive environment than California for building a research and pilot manufacturing site. He launched a search for a suitable location from Maryland to New Jersey, settling on Pennsylvania in part because of a $100,000 job creation tax credit from Pennsylvania, White said. The state requires 90 new jobs over three years in return for the tax break.

Ecospan moved into 22,000 square feet in an office park near Exton, Pa., in December 2011. Last week, equipment was still being installed in the laboratories and the adjacent factory, which is designed primarily for small-scale manufacturing. Large orders would be contracted out.

The company produces both finished products and a resin it markets to manufacturers. That resin is 25 percent to 100 percent more expensive than petroleum-based counterparts, depending on the quality of the petroleum product, White said.

He unrelentingly guards Ecospan's "secret sauce," saying only that the simplest formula used to date involves four biomaterials, the most complex 14. Ecospan has tested more than 300 types of materials, White said.

As a private company, Ecospan does not disclose its financials. White said the company of 20 employees turned profitable in the third quarter of 2011, with sales increasing more than threefold that year and expected to grow more than 50 percent this year. Its dozen major customers range from start-ups to multibillion-dollar companies, he said. Ecospan is also doing reclamation with half of them, enabling those companies to have the Ecospan products they use ground up and reused, possibly for future products.

"Having that closed loop is the most ecocentric, sustainable thing you can do," White said.Among those working out a deal with Ecospan is Kip Weeks, whose five-year-old company in Maine, Eco-Kids, makes play dough and other children's art supplies from plant, fruit and vegetable extracts. Weeks said biobased dough molds and dough containers seem a natural for his company, whose motto is "Creative play the natural way."

What Paul Cannon, Ecospan vice president of sales and marketing, said could be huge for the company are two recent certifications from the U.S. Department of Agriculture verifying that the biobased content of its resins and a multipurpose container it manufactures is 94 percent. That enables Ecospan to use the USDA's "Certified Biobased Product" labeling.

The USDA launched the labeling program in January 2011 in an effort to encourage consumers to buy biobased products -- and, in the process, help support the agriculture industry and the nation's efforts to become less dependent on foreign oil. It came nearly 10 years after the USDA initiated its BioPreferred program to increase federal government use of biobased products, said Kate Lewis, deputy manager of that program.

Of the estimated 25,000 biobased products on the market today, the USDA has awarded certification to 715 covering a range of uses, including construction, landscaping, janitorial, food-service and packaging, said Lewis.

"When consumers buy these types of products, they can be sure that the product truly contains the amount of biomaterial that the manufacturer says it does," Lewis said.

Each certified product has been tested by a third-party laboratory, Lewis said. Working against the biobased industry "are the very iffy economic growth issues we have in the nation," said Richard Wool, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, where he has been overseeing a variety of biobased work, including using chicken feathers in printed circuit boards.

China trade tensions worsen amid solar energy row

China's government on Friday rejected a U.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network.S. anti-dumping ruling against its makers of solar power equipment,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. and Chinese manufacturers warned possible higher tariffs might hurt efforts to promote clean energy.

The conflict has worsened U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. The two governments have pledged to cooperate in developing renewable energy but accuse each other of violating free-trade pledges by subsidizing their own manufacturers.

"The U.S. ruling is unfair, and the Chinese side expresses its extreme dissatisfaction," said a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Shen Danyang, in a statement.

Mr. Shen warned the ruling might harm clean energy cooperation but gave no indication how Beijing might respond. Some American companies have warned China might retaliate against U.S. suppliers.

Thursday's preliminary ruling by the Commerce Department said Chinese producers sold solar cells and panels below fair price and hurt American producers. If that is upheld, tariffs averaging 31 percent could be imposed on Chinese solar-panel imports.

Three major Chinese manufacturers -- Yingli Green Energy Holdings Ltd., Suntech Power Holdings Co.Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection Moulding Manufacturer. and Trina Solar Ltd. -- rejected accusations they were selling goods at improperly low prices.

Foreign competitors complain Chinese manufacturers get improper government support in the form of low-cost access to land, bank loans and other resources. Beijing acknowledges giving research grants and tax breaks but says those are in line with its free-trade commitments and practices by other governments.

"We will challenge with data all of those assumptions," said Trina's chief commercial officer, Mark Kingsley. He said China's subsidies are lower than those provided by Germany and some other countries.

Mr. Kingsley said Trina's exports to the United States are unlikely to be affected if Washington raises tariffs. He said any solar cells or other parts affected by the duties can be replaced by components from other countries.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included.

Chinese producers also warned that higher U.S. tariffs might raise the cost of solar equipment and hamper efforts to promote renewable energy.

"Tariffs are disruptive and destructive for the entire solar industry," said Yingli's chairman, Miao Liangsheng, in a statement.

The Commerce Department launched its investigation in November following complaints by a group of U.S. producers led by Oregon-based SolarWorld Industries America Inc., a unit of Germany's SolarWorld AG.

Beijing responded by launching its own probe last November into whether U.S. government support for producers of wind, solar and other renewable energy technology is an improper trade barrier.

Chinese solar equipment manufacturers warned earlier that sanctions could result in a loss of American jobs because U.S. companies are both buyers of Chinese products and suppliers of materials.

Mr. Kingsley said Trina buys silicon from Michigan and manufacturing equipment from New Hampshire, plastic and glass from Japan and South Korea and other components from suppliers elsewhere in Asia.

"These products, by design,Offers China ceramic tile. are incredibly international," he said. "The vast majority of this value chain is not in China."

Castle on the river

With equal parts of inspiration, envy and generosity, people flock to see the May Court's Homes of Distinction each year.

The six houses on the 2012 tour offer plenty to kick-start your imagination or turn you green with envy, at the same time you help feed hungry students.

"People get a lot of ideas on the tour," said Margaret Vetter, publicity chair for May Court. "Every house is different. Every house is unique. We just want them to come out and enjoy the tour."

The homes were suggested by Marcus Plowright of Anden Construction and Sue-Ann Richardson-Siarto, publisher of Our Homes magazine.

"I like them all for different reasons," said Cathy Egerton, co-chair of the tour. "The Waterloo Street house is a commercial property renovation. There are two complete makeovers, a heritage home and a custom-built. Each has its own character. People will like them for different reasons."

The custom-built house at 2955 Catherine St., west of Dorchester, is certainly a showcase. Picture a French fairy-tale castle, set on the river. Exposed stonework, an archway reminiscent of ruins, muntin windows with arched lintels and a turret create the look of a castle. The 2.4-hectare property was professionally landscaped.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. Gardens, tennis court, golf course, pool, patio and terraces are edged by a ravine and conservation area.

You enter a half-round walnut door in the turret. The second floor of the turret houses a baby grand piano. A bas relief carving of a prince and princess was built into the stone hood over the range in the kitchen by a Serbian plaster artist who lives in Stratford. Rich wood cabinets echo the arched windows in glass-fronted doors.

The open stairway divides the entry and living room as it frames the view to the river. The decor is inviting, and carries through the living room, den and kitchen. An arched doorway separates the formal dining room from the hall. A glass-topped table reflects light from the French doors leading to a walled terrace.

The house was designed as a gathering place for family and friends. The concept started with the squash court and grew. The lower level is a walk-out to the pool and patio. As well as a guest suite, it houses a spectacular bar with mosaic tile backsplash, a large table for games or dining and a cozy television room. A shower, sauna, locker room and two-story squash court complete the sports offerings.

Upstairs,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. the master suite is a luxurious escape overlooking the pool and golf green.

The limestone-lined ensuite is better than a spa retreat, and the walk-in closet has a place for everything, even the washer and dryer.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

The fairy tale continues in the daughter's room with its hand-painted mural walls and chandelier. A large playroom offers a great place for a child's imagination to soar. Another guest room and bathroom are beautifully appointed with soft, earthy colours and rich textures.

Throughout the second storey, the angled ceiling lines create drama and interest. They follow the rooflines of that side of the house that is stick, hand-framed construction. The house took a year to build.

The homeowners had lived in London's Old North and wanted to incorporate the trim, the warmth of wood and a wood-burning fireplace they'd enjoyed in those houses. Personality is reflected in objects collected on travels and from the work of local artists. Craftsmanship is a theme throughout.

The idea for the exposed stone, done by an Italian mason, on the exterior came during a walk by St. Peter's Seminary.

Another house on this year's tour is across the road from the seminary. It is a classic, symmetrical Georgian Revival, built for Harry Sifton. The style was named after three English kings, during whose reign the architecture evolved as a variation of Palladian, with a balanced facade, simple ornamentation and few details. This sturdy Georgian also contains a dollhouse, a miniature version of itself. The original garage has been converted into a den.

Still in the Old North neighbourhood, a Craftsman cottage on Victoria St. has been remodelled to reflect today's tastes. Many of the houses on the street were built in the 1920s and influenced by styles popular in California.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

A side-hall cottage on Sydenham St. also features renovation ideas. This cottage plan was popular in the late 19th century, but remodelling shows how it can function well more than 100 years later.

One of London's prominent architectural firms of the turn of the 20th century, Moore, Henry and Munro, designed the house on Waterloo St. for a wealthy cigar manufacturer.

It's an example of Queen Anne style at its finest: tower, dormer, fluted columns and Palladian window. A law firm owns the house and has retained many of the impressive details, including a vault in the basement, stained glass (reputedly Tiffany) and mahogany wainscotting.

The new house on the tour echoes the Georgian style of the Huron St. home. Located in Old South, it features a custom approach to blending old and new. Even the garage features a traditional exterior with new technology inside.Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection mold manufacture.

Passport holders are served tea at the Carolinian Winery & Eatery during the tour. It is newly renovated and reopened.

The tour is the main fundraiser for the group's school nutrition program. This year 96 schools received $45,000 in food certificates. More than 200 volunteers provide thousands of hours for the May Court's program to supply snacks, breakfasts and lunches.

"We give the schools certificates and the teachers manage the flow of food," Egerton said. "They know best who needs something - from the kid who forgot lunch one day to those who need it regularly."

Muro has extra final exam in spring semester

Final exams are almost over for University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College students, but Alainey Muro has one more major test to take.

The freshman from McAllen High will be playing in the 20th annual NAIA Women’s Golf National Championship, starting Tuesday at Link Hills Country Club in Greenville, Tenn.

And she’s taking this test just as seriously as she would any other exam in an academic setting.

"I’m on a mission," Muro said. "I’ve been working hard. I’m pretty positive that I’m going to play well."

Playing at the national tournament is the culmination of a surprising season for Muro, who qualified for the event by breaking the school record for a two-round tournament with a 145 at the NAIA Unaffiliated No. 3 Tournament on April 23 and 24 in Oklahoma City.

Muro is one of 144 players taking aim at the national championship, but comes into the field as one of the hottest golfers in the NAIA. She qualified with one-over-par 145. Only Anna Arrese of Oklahoma Christian University (142) and Jessica Schele of Oklahoma City University (144), two of the top golfers in the NAIA, had better scores in their conference tournaments.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter.

The best 72 scores after Thursday’s third round will play in the final round Friday.

If Muro plays like she did in the qualifier tournament, she could be in the thick of chase for the individual national championship.

"I want to go out there and try to win it," Muro said. "I’m going in with a positive attitude. In practice the last two weeks, I’ve been striking the ball exactly the way I did at conference. I want to play the way I have been playing. If I do, I’ll have a shot."

Muro becomes the second golfer in the history of the Scorpions golf program to advance to the national tournament. April Martinez qualified for the event as a senior in 2009, but she also qualified for the NJCAA national championship as a freshman in 2006.

Martinez held the school record for the best round of golf with a 71, a score Muro tied in the first round at the conference qualifier. She remembers being very focused that first day in the qualifier.

"It was awesome there and seemed so unrealistic,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network." Muro said.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. "Halfway through the round, I didn’t realize how I was doing. I was just making pars, pars, pars and birdies started dropping. I realized " ‘Oh my gosh,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles. I could be in the lead after the first day,’ and I was."

Muro was tied for the lead after the first day with the 1-under-par 71, which marked the first time in her life she had recorded a score under par in a tournament.

"That night I couldn’t even sleep. I only slept about five hours before the second day. I knew I had to play consistent the second day to have a shot at it. I held it on the second day, and I’m glad I did."

Muro fired a 2-over-par 74 for a 145, running away with the individual title by seven shots. The 145 also broke Martinez’s school record of 161 for a two-round tournament.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. Muro’s previous best was a 148 (73-75) at McAllen High.

"I didn’t expect the conference win," she said. "I just wanted to qualify, whether it was winning or placing with the team. I knew that I had a shot to make it to nationals if I played the way I know that I could. I just had a couple of things that I need to fix. Coach (Anthony Lopez) has helped me improve a great deal."

Said Lopez, "This spring she really dedicated herself. She spent a lot more time by herself practicing, and that’s what has helped her out. Everything climaxed at conference. It was the culmination of having a couple of weeks, and getting some good practice in and being ready for it."

"She definitely has a chance to compete," Lopez said. "If she plays her game and feels good when she’s there, she can definitely hang in there with anyone."

Getting off to a good start in the first round will be crucial.

"I want to play the way I did at conference, with a lot of confidence," Muro said. "I didn’t expect all of this hype in my first year. Now my goal is going to be to get to the national tournament every year and hopefully win it."

Topological Insulators Open a Path to Room-Temperature Spintronics

Strange new materials experimentally identified just a few years ago are now driving research in condensed-matter physics around the world. First theorized and then discovered by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and their colleagues in other institutions, these “strong 3-D topological insulators” – TIs for short – are seemingly mundane semiconductors with startling properties. For starters, picture a good insulator on the inside that’s a good conductor on its surface – something like a copper-coated bowling ball.

A topological insulator’s surface is not an ordinary metal, however. The direction and spin of the surface electrons are locked together and change in concert. And perhaps the most surprising prediction is that the surface electrons cannot be scattered by defects or other perturbations and thus meet little or no resistance as they travel. In the jargon, the surface states remain “topologically protected” – they can’t scatter without breaking the rules of quantum mechanics.

“One way that electrons lose mobility is by scattering on phonons,” says Alexis Fedorov, staff scientist for beamline 12.0.1 of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). Phonons are the quantized vibrational energy of crystalline materials,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. treated mathematically as particles. “Our recent work on a particularly promising topological insulator shows that its surface electrons hardly couple with phonons at all. So there’s no impediment to developing this TI for spintronics and other applications.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network.”

The TI in question is bismuth selenide, Bi2Se3, on whose surface electrons can flow at room temperature, making it an attractive candidate for practical applications like spintronics devices, plus farther-out ones like quantum computers. Much of the research on electron-phonon coupling in Bi2Se3 was conducted at beamline 12.0.1 by a team including Fedorov, led by Tonica Valla of Brookhaven National Laboratory. Their results are reported in Physical Review Letters.

To study a TI’s surface conductivity, electron transport on its surface has to be separated from total conductivity, including the poorly conducting bulk. One experimental technique, called angle-resolved photoemission spectrometry (ARPES), is adept at doing just this.

ARPES shines bright light, like that produced by the Advanced Light Source, on a sample and captures the electrons that the energetic photons knock free. By recording the angle and energy of these photoemitted electrons on a CCD detector,TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China. ARPES gradually builds up a direct graphic visualization of the sample’s electronic structure.

“Of the several ARPES beamlines at the ALS, beamline 12.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.0.1 seems to have an ideal balance of energy, resolution, and flux for research on topological insulators,” says Fedorov. “This beamline was used for some of the first experiments establishing that 3-D TIs actually occur in nature, and several teams have worked here validating the characteristics of TIs.”

The photoemitted electrons in an ARPES experiment directly map out such features as the material’s band structure – the energy difference, or gap, between electrons bound in atoms’ outer shells, the valence band, and charge carriers that are free to rove, the conduction band. Insulators have wide band gaps, semiconductors have narrower ones.

The band structure of the surface states of a topological insulator like Bi2Se3 appear as two cones that meet at a point, called the Dirac point. There’s no gap at all between the valence and conduction bands, only a smooth transition with increasing energy. This is similar to the band structure of the fascinating material graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms, the thinnest possible surface. ARPES diagrams of band structures like these look like slices through the cones, an X centered on the Dirac point.

Although graphene and topological insulators have similar band structures, other electronic characteristics are very different. The combinations of different speeds and orientations equivalent to a material’s highest particle energies (at zero degrees) make up its momentum space,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. mapped by the Fermi surface. While the Fermi surface of graphene lies between the conical bands at the Dirac point, this is not true of TIs. The Fermi surface of Bi2Se3 cuts high across the conical conduction band, mapping a perfect circle. It’s as if the circular Fermi surface were drawn right on the surface of the topological insulator, showing how spin-locked surface electrons must change their spin orientation as they follow this continually curving path.

Biodico Lands $2 Million Grant

For years now, the biodiesel industry has been led by the pioneering and innovative strides of Santa Barbara-based Biodico. Its president, Russell Teall, a UCSB graduate, founded the company in the mid 1990s, and since then the biodiesel manufacturer has taken its expertise worldwide, conducting biodiesel feasibility studies in numerous countries from Argentina to Thailand, as well as opening biofuel production facilities at home and abroad, in Australia, Texas, Colorado,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. Nevada, and California.

Around seven years ago, Biodico struck a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Navy. Four years later, a major California-based space and defense contractor named Aerojet joined them. With an operations base at the National Environmental Test Site in Port Hueneme in Ventura County, they planned to design and develop biodiesel production technology the industry had never seen before. Mobile, modular, and capable of being deployed in almost any location, ARIES (Automated, Real-time, Remote, Integrated Energy System) is a highly laborsaving, transportable biodiesel production unit that can be controlled remotely from anywhere.

In March of last year, Biodico was awarded a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to the tune of over $800,000.TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China. Biodico’s success in furthering the progress of biofuel production best satisfied the CEC’s criteria of working to displace the need for fossil fuels. And just a month ago, Biodico was again awarded funds from the CEC, this time for $2 million; the criteria this time was for advancing technologies that support the displacement of older sources of electricity, as well as supporting the integration of newer ones. The CEC’s purpose in allotting these grants is to promote California’s energy self-sufficiency and reduction of harmful emissions, and it seems Biodico couldn’t be more aligned with this goal.

“ARIES has certainly been part of it,” said Teall, explaining why the CEC has been so favorable. It introduces a fundamental transformation in the production of biofuel; not only does it overcome the obstacles that older methods face — mostly to do with expensive, time-consuming procedures for quality control — but, also, it enables any central biofuel-producing facility to provide, on a global basis, technical, monitoring, and operational support, all driven by advanced automation technology.

“The funds we received will allow us to broaden what it is we are already doing to include other renewable energy products for the use of the production of biofuel,” said Teall. “We’re working on marginal soil, stuff farmers can’t grow on, and developing feedstock from mustard and canola seeds — and along with our pond-grown algae, which is very prolific, nutrient-rich, and, importantly, salt-water based, we can produce 25 times as much energy without costing the health of the environment.”

Joining Teall in this venture is Dr. Stephen Kaffka, the director of the California Biomass Collaborative and plant scientist at UC Davis, and John Diener, the president of the 5,400-acre Red Rock Ranch located in California’s Central Valley. While Kaffka will be conducting research at four of Davis’s agricultural research stations, studying unique low-impact feedstock suitable for underused land,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection moulds Maker. Deiner will scale up Kaffka’s work for commercial-grade farming. His specialty in practicing water conservation and reuse, along with his expertise in cultivating conventional and organic crops, will be vital to the project.

“It’s really an elegant system we’ve got going, and I think that’s why we were able to win those grants,” said Teall.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. “It takes all the by-products, coproducts,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. and ‘waste’ that are typically squandered, and turns them into valuable resources.”