You’d imagine that the dollar’s stature has fallen over the last ten years, given the U.S. financial crisis, the rise of China, and simply due the media bashing it has sustained internationally.

Funny thing is that it continues to be used just like it used to be, and even more so.

According to U.S. federal reserve economist Linda Goldberg, the dollar’s share of international transactions stood at 86% in 2007, which is just above its share back in 1995.

WSJ: “Overall, despite market turbulence and substantial movements in the value of the dollar over the past decade, the dollar has not declined in prominence either as a central currency for exchange rate arrangements or as an international reserve currency,” she writes. The euro, which was touted as a big rival to the dollar, hasn’t been much of a challenger—at least so far.

Perhaps the dollar is akin to Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. The entire world loves to bash it as an American monstrosity, yet in the end the world can’t get enough of it.

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See Also:

• Asian Markets Tumble, Dollar Rallies On Global Jitters And Flights To Safety
• Wall Street Journal’s Million Dollar Payout Secrets Revealed In New Book
• Morgan Stanley: The Dollar Will Rally No Matter Where The Economy Goes

There’s nothing better than a handmade cat toy to show kitty how much you love her on Valentine’s Day, and of course, Etsy is the place to find the best selection. Here are a few of my faves (clockwise from top left):

• Kitty, Be My Valentine Large Ruffled Catnip Heart from Crafty Cat Lady
• Three Plush Catnip Hearts from Lowell and Son
• Valentine’s Day Felt Cookie Cat Toys from Ivers
• Be Mine Limited Edition Valentine Wooly Mouse from Cattitude Creations

CNN’s Larry King Live will have a primetime exclusive interview with Michelle Obama on Tuesday, February 9th, 9pm ET and 6pm PT according to cnn.com.  Larry King will discuss everything from the family’s first year in the White House, her husband, and her new initiative on childhood obesity, which is set to be unveiled on February 9th.

There has been so much talk about her comments regarding the girls’ weight, her husband’s first year in office as POTUS and her iconic style.  It will be very interesting to see how Larry King dives into these areas and even more so to hear how she addresses the questions.  Stay tuned to MOW as we discuss the interview as well as Mrs. Obama’s childhood obesity program.  Posted by Bridgette of http://trailblazer-firstlady.blogspot.com

GoDaddy.com’s seconds 2010 Super Bowl XLIV commercial shows Danica Patrick shocked when a sexy newscaster gets ‘too hot for TV’ during a live TV interview about “GoDaddy Commercials Too Hot for TV?”

Of course, GoDaddy just showed a teaser so you’ll have to visit GoDaddy.com for the whole ad.

Click here to check your Auto Credit Score.

Follow our Super Bowl XLIV Commercials tag for all the auto related Super Bowl commercials.

– By: Omar Rana

Bridgestone’s second Super Bowl XLIV commercial takes you on a journey to a future world. A wet, desperate world where absolutely nothing is more valuable than a great set of high-performance tires – not even your wife.

Click through for the ad.

Follow our Super Bowl XLIV Commercials tag for the latest auto related Super Bowl commercials.

– By: Omar Rana

Here we go again. A release date has been spotted for Gran Turismo 5 over at Target. Whether or not it’s the real thing, though, that’s another thing.
 
 
 

Hyundai continues its 2011 Sonata sedan ad blitz in the fourth-quarter of Super Bowl XLIV. The 2,700 HMMA Team Members at the Hyundai Plant in Montgomery, Alabama are each in charge of quality and that makes it feel like the 2011 Sonata is built by hand – but it really isn’t.

Hit the jump for the video.

Click here for more news on the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.

Click here to check your Auto Credit Score.

– By: Omar Rana

Earlier this week we showed you teasers of Audi’s A3 TDI diesel commercial featuring the Green Police. The commercial just made its full Super Bowl XLIV debut during the fourth-quarter as Manning looks pretty embarrassed by the interception he just threw.

Check out the commercial after the jump.

– By: Omar Rana

Volkswagen’s PunchDub commercial just made its debut during Super Bowl XLIV. The idea behind the commercial focuses around the game where every time you see an out-of-state license plate, you punch a friend – however, V-Dub’s version of the game is a bit different.

Check it out after the jump.

Click here to check your Auto Credit Score.

Follow our Super Bowl XLIV Commercials tag for the latest auto related Super Bowl commercials.

– By: Omar Rana

The Coop Bakery Wallisellen belongs to the reputable second-largest retailer in Switzerland – Coop. At the site in Wallisellen a staff of about 400 work in three shifts to produce baked goods. Four production lines are employed to generate a daily output of 80 tons. The bakery products are sold exclusively to Coop customers through a network of Coop chain stores.
The Coop group consists of five sales regions with more than 1,700 sub­sidiaries and employs a staff of more than 48,000. Coop is market leader for organic and Fairtrade products. Furthermore, Coop supplies a broad variety of groceries and everyday commodities. The turnover of Coop amounted to 16.7 billion Francs in 2008…

Interested on more Informations? Just download the application report!

The SBS (Schmitt Balance Systems) Acoustical Emission Monitoring System (AEMS) allows customers to monitor grinding processes with exceptional precision. Also known as ‘gap and crash control’ or ‘gap-crash’, AEMS uses proprietary acoustic technology to monitor high frequency signals generated on the grinding machine during key events in the grinding process.The latest addition to the Schmitt portfolio is the ‘Fluid Acoustic Emission’ sensor. The Fluid AE sensor is ideal for situations where direct acoustic contact is required during the grinding process. For example, where machine design, high frequency bearing, mechanical or electromagnetic noise prevents the use of other types of AE sensor. Typical applications include internal grinding using direct drive spindles and grinding between centres where AE signal is normally lost through the head-stock. The Fluid AE sensor uses the existing oil or water based grinding machine coolant with a separate feed from the cutting stream directed at the component or dresser. The noise of the grinding wheel touching the component or diamond is then transmitted back up the coolant stream to the AE sensor and detected by the Schmitt controller within 1 millisecond.
User benefits include elimination of the grinding-gap time in the grind cycle, notification and prevention of machine crash conditions, automatic quality monitoring of wheel dressing and machine positional control. The AEMS system allows rapid, automatic grinding wheel in-feed, right up to the point of initial contact with a new part loaded in the machine. The system can automatically detect the initial contact and very quickly report this event to the machine control, stopping the wheel in-feed without operator intervention. Typical cycle time savings of up to 20% have been achieved using this system. Part crash occurs when a part or fixture is incorrectly loaded into a grinding machine or some abnormal condition occurs. Rapid in-feed of the wheel may then result in a dangerous or expensive crash. The AEMS system allows the CNC control to monitor the acoustic levels on the machine and detect any unexpected contact when it happens. The system then reports that abnormal contact has begun providing an output to the CNC to stop the grinding wheel in-feeding within 1 millisecond. Schmitt’s AEMS system can also monitor the dressing process. This can be very useful when using expensive super-abrasive or CBN wheels where material removal needs to be minimised.

Ramsey has recently developed a new take out arm drive solution that virtually eliminates the production downtime caused by belt breakage.

By replacing heat sensitive belts with field tested, Ramsey RPV silent chain, take out arm life is greatly improved and maintenance is dramatically reduced.

Ramsey now offers take out arm assemblies that completely replace units from most other manufacturers. Retrofit kits are also available to convert existing belt driven take out arms to long-lasting Ramsey silent chain drives.

How much downtime can you take out of your operation?

AGME designs and manufactures special purpose machines for screwing automotive components. It has recently made a rotary transfer to screw car seat tracks. The screwing process is done in 12 seconds thanks to the automation of most operations.

The machine is composed of a four station rotary transfer with:

– One bed base and one circular plate with four work stations
– One set of 4 tools with 3 positions in each tooling
– One Screwing unit
– Pneumatic components: Pneumatic progressive starter, general electro valve and pneumatic presostate
– Electric components: general cabinet with power elements, control by “Siemens S7-300” automaton and tactile operating board
– Guarding: fixed guardings and photoelectric barrier

In the first station the following operations are performed: upper track manual feeding, latch positioning and upper track control through laser sensors. After these operations in the second station there are two screws automatic loading and screwing together with a torque and angle control.

Then the distance between the components is controlled in the third station as well as the ok parts marking. Finally, in the fourth station there is an ok parts automatic eduction. The Nok parts will be taken to a Red box.

The inventor of the world’s most sensitive camera, Olivier Daigle, will present a talk about “Photon counting with an EMCCD” at SPIE Electronic Imaging 2010, on January 20th.

Abstract

An EMCCD camera , designed from the ground up for extreme faint flux imaging, is presented. CCCP, the CCD Controller for Counting Photons, has been integrated with a CCD97 EMCCD from e2v technologies into a scientific camera. This new camera achieves sub-electron read-out noise and very low Clock Induced Charge (CIC) levels, which is mandatory for extreme faint flux imaging. It has been characterized in laboratory and used on the Observatoire du Mont Mégantic 1.6-m telescope. The performance of the camera is discussed, experimental and scientific data are presented.

The purpose of the pallet remover system is to load ship containers or trucks to the roof with bags or cartons, fast and WITHOUT DAMAGING THE GOODS IN ANY WAY and without any manual work.

The system requires a standard fork lift truck, the pallet remover and a standard fork lift truck mounted with a push-off device, the last fork lift truck shall be able to drive into a container or a truck.
A fork lift truck places the pallets onto the pallet removers base plate, the pallet remover type APF removes then automatically pallets up vertical away from the pallet goods without damaging the goods, and places the pallet automatically into the built-in magazine.

Pallet size:
Standard Euro 800 x 1.000 mm and 1.000 x 1.300 mm.
Other sizes on request.

The pallet goods is pushed over controlled onto a standard available push-off device with base plate, which is mounted on a fork lift truck. The pallet goods can be received either length- or sidewise depending on the loading pattern in the container or truck. In case of bags the pallet goods can be pressed length- or sidewise in a hydraulic load press and then be loaded into the container or truck.

The pallet remover and hydraulic load press operates full automatic and is activated by remote controls mounted onto the fork lift trucks.

When pallet magazine is full, there is an acoustic alarm, the pallet stack can be removed and placed directly into the palletisers pallet magazine.

A 20 foot container can be loaded in 25-30 minutes.

The pallet remover is controlled by a microprocessor and after commissioning there is no need to change any program parameters, the microprocessor controls all functions in such way that wrong sequence or operation is impossible.

Reference plants can be seen in operation also in connection with our full automatic palletisers. One reference plant is mobile for transport to different warehouses.

Resolve Optics Ltd. has established an international reputation for supply of OEM quantities of zoom lenses custom designed for specific applications.

Despite possessing many advantages ‘off the shelf’ zoom lenses have their limitations. To fulfill the potential of technological advances in many industries the need for zoom lenses which meet the exact needs of customers has risen dramatically. For applications that require high definition or large image format, operation in the UV or IR region or are compact in design – ‘off the shelf’ zoom lenses are either not available or represent at best a significant compromise.

Operating from its ISO9001-2008 approved facility in Chesham, UK – Resolve Optics has built a strong reputation for custom design and manufacture of production quantities of zoom lenses on time to strict quality and target price guidelines. Resolve Optics custom zoom lenses are characterised by their compactness, high resolution and focus tracking throughout the zoom range. Custom zoom lenses can be developed in non-motorised or motorised formats and in materials to suit the widest range of applications. Recent projects have included UV Zoom lenses for nuclear fuel inspection, HD Zoom lenses for broadcast TV, miniature Zoom lenses for head-up displays and pipeline inspection as well as IR Zoom lenses for machine vision applications.

For further information on a developing a high performance zoom lens perfectly matched to your application visit www.resolveoptics.com/zoom.htm or contact Resolve Optics Ltd. on +44-1494-777100 or email [email protected]

Innovative Gas Systems (IGS) is pleased to announce that it will exhibit its revolutionary and unique OXYSWING® Modular PSA Generators for the on-site supply of medical oxygen in the Rashid Hall – Booth RK41 during the upcoming Arab Health trade fair, which will be held in Dubai from January 25 until January 28, 2010 (http://www.arabhealthonline.com).

Oscar de Groen, Managing Director of IGS Italia, comments: “Since its introduction the OXYSWING® Modular PSA Generators have literally conquered the market with numerous hospital installations all over the world. Not only in Italy, its country of origin, but also in many other countries the OXYSWING® Modular PSA Medical Oxygen Generators have been certified by the local Ministries of Health. Our customers in the medical market are especially attracted by the unmatched flexibility of our concept in combination with superior efficiency and product quality, all available for a competitive price. The Arab Health trade fair has become a traditional annual appointment with our esteemed customers in the Middle East Area and an excellent opportunity to get to know new distributors.”

Innovative Gas Systems is one of the world’s major suppliers of on-site air separation plants for the production of nitrogen and oxygen. IGS’ technologies for the production of nitrogen and air drying by Hollow Fiber Membranes (GENERON®) and for the production of nitrogen and oxygen by optimized Pressure Swing Adsorption processes (NITROSWING® & OXYSWING®) set new market standards in terms of performance and efficiency. The IGS has production facilities and numerous sales and service centers in North America, Europe, Russia, Middle East, Asia and the People’s Republic of China.

Issued for press release: 2010-01-15

Contacts: Mr. Domenico Evangelista Mrs. Roxanne Barrera
+39 (0564) 45 80 41/42 +1 (713) 937 5233
[email protected] [email protected]

INNOVATIVE GAS SYSTEMS

E-Mail: [email protected]
[email protected]

URL: www.igs-global.com
www.igs-italia.com

Plastic wing nut with brass insert with tapped through hole.
Black Thermoplastic, mat.
Available with coloured cap.
For more information you can visit our web-site
.

SAFE Sump Trays

… to professionally protect the environment without large investments

The improper storage of hazardous materials can cause environmental damages. Therefore, the regulatory authorities are controlling whether companies who store/use such media conform to the legal regulations.

SAFE Sump Trays are available as “mini trays” for the storage of a 200l barrel or as “mega trays” for the storage of 1,000 l storage bins (IBC containers). SAFE Sump Trays are constructed for almost any need and can be obtained in different sizes with different collection volumes.

The construction made of 3 mm sheet steel (S235JR) is welded, leak-tested and galvanised. 100 mm ground clearance enables the easy handling with lifting equipment.

All trays are approved for the storage of non-inflammable, highly inflammable and extremely inflammable liquids according to the German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health (BetrSichV), valid as of 1 January 2003.

SAFE Sump Trays are also available in 2 mm stainless steel (1.4301) with a collection volume of up to 1.000 litres.