Regardless of whether kitty has been naughty or nice, you’ll want to get her a pair of handmade catnip coal lumps from Etsy seller Crafty Cat Lady. You get two fuzzy knit coal lumps filled with organic catnip and packaged in a festive little bag. Perfect for all kitties–good, and not so good.
I don’t usually feel the need to mark birthdays but this pair seemed very well worth noting.
Jean Francois Champollion was born today in 1790.
Wikipedia
BBC History
Karl Lepsius was born today in 1810.
Wikipedia
Now this is an ornament I could see on a Moderncat tree! It’s from Australian Etsy seller Little and Big K and it’s hand embroidered on natural linen. So sweet!
Heads up guys! The latest US PlayStation Store update is now available. This weeks lineup includes a bunch of PSN game sales, new game demos, the usual game add-on contents, a new PSP Minis and a PSOne
On the day I arrived in London, I went to the British Museum, where there was a very nice reception in the ancient Egyptian sculpture gallery. Neil MacGregor, the director of the museum, and Vivian Davies, the Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities, were present along with many other Egyptologists and many people who love Egyptology and Egypt. I was pleased also that the Egyptian Ambassador to England, Hatem Saiful Nasr, attended with his wife and gave a speech. Mr. MacGregor also gave a speech during the reception, as well as the President of the British Egyptian Society.
These four lucky readers will be stylin’ in the New Year with their new psychedelic Watson t-shirts:
Thanks to Medium Control for sponsoring this giveaway. We hope they will do another one soon with some more cool Watson gear! In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Watson’s design blog, The Watsonian.
We previously reported that the official NPR application for Android would be coming this month and it appears that time has come. Those of you who stopped in the Android Market today might have come across the NPR News app as it was released earlier this afternoon. The free title gives listeners all the great shows you’ve come to enjoy over the years as well as some great Android-only features.
Thanks to the way Android works, the NPR News app can run in the background of your phone, allowing users to toggle between other apps while shows play. Each of the topics listed offer anywhere from 10-20 topics that day and give users the ability to listen or read their news. Using the location-based services in the phone, NPR News can locate over 600 Station Listening Choices from around the country! Although the app doesn’t allow it currently, live station streaming is promised for Spring 2010!
There are four households that are going to be very happy this holiday, thanks to Hepper Home! The winners of the huge Hepper holiday giveaway are:
You’ll each be receiving a Hepper Pod bed and a matching Hive bed in the color combo indicated above. Keep an eye out for an email with more info on how to claim your prize. Congrats!
And thanks to everyone who entered and who gave feedback on new products and colors. We’ll be sure to keep you informed of what Hepper comes up with next!
HEAD Sport AG produces alpine skis in Kennelbach/Austria to strict technological and design specifications. Using the KBA-Metronic ink-jet printer alphaJET C, HEAD marks the lateral edges of the skis denoting the exact position for bindings to optimize skiing pleasure.
Aesthetics and quality go hand-in-hand
With a move away from a technology-focused image, to the new positioning as a lifestyle brand, the requirement for intelligent and flexible binding position marking has arisen.
Precise coding with quick-drying ink
The annual output of approximately 480,000 ski pairs cannot be achieved without reliable production machinery. The industrial ink jet printer alphaJET C from KBA-Metronic has an excellent reputation built up over the years, in demanding key markets including proven results in the electronic components and automotive industries. The ink jet’s ability to perform well at high speed has been well proven as this unit is widely used throughout the cable manufacturing sector. Alexander Baldauf adds: “We have decided in favor of the KBA-Metronic alphaJET C because it brings the necessary efficiency and compatibility with our existing machinery.”
After fabrication in the modern, well-equipped production facilities, the skis are then transported via a paternoster to the fully automatic, fence-protected machining centre. At this point the alphaJET C print head initially prints forwards along the first ski edge, then on the return sweep prints the second ski, coding it with identical data, consisting of serial number, ski length and the marking of the middle of the ski boot.
Two individual skis become a pair
The alphaJET C can print up to 6 lines with 48 pixels and script can be turned through 90° during printing. Head AG uses this functionality for the precise coding of the “boot center”, required for optimal fun and safety on the piste. Numbers and signs are marked in grey, quick-drying ink on the insides of the skis and dry without delay.
Traceable for years to come
The serial number printed matches both of the individual skis to form a pair. This unique reference is logged centrally with the details of the customer placing the order, including delivery and production information and the specific construction of the skis. This makes order processing simpler and secures long term quality control.
For the production of steel structures 75% of the total manufacturing time is wasted in the assembly of separate components and machined steel profiles.
The welding of separate components is so far almost entirely done by hand, because there are no automated systems for this purpose. Although the need for this particularly kind of machinery already longer exists, especially because automation of handling and composition will make a huge cost advantage.
Voortman manufacturer of machinery for processing steel and profiles and Valk Welding specialized in robots for welding, cutting and handling processes, have therefore started a corporation to develop an automated system for flexible assembly of steel structures.
The intention is to fabricate a system that is able to automatically pick up individual components and weld it on to a fixed pre-programmed position. This system should be ready in the third quarter of 2010. For this system handling as well welding robots will be used. The focus of this development is to translate CAD data to a comprehensive CAM file, which not only includes the position but also the tolerances and the quality of the weld. For picking up the individual components Vision-systems will be used.
Such initiatives have been started before, but never led to a functional result. Both companies believe that this ambitious project can only succeed if the knowledge of handling and processing of steel structures and assemblies are brought together. Voortman and Valk Welding have both their own software department. Therefore in the upcoming period the focus will be on the close cooperation between these two software divisions.
The directors Mark Voortman and Remco Valk see this period as the appropriate momentum to start this project. First of all because steel structures are becoming increasingly complex through the ongoing developments in 3D CAD. This requires greater form-freedom and more assemblies. Meanwhile ageing causes a natural decrease of professional welders, with the result that when the market rebounds a huge capacity problem might emerge. Emerging markets also offer a huge potential for such systems.
Voortman and Valk Welding are allready cooperating for a longer period with the integration of beam coping robots (video) which are integrated in the Voortman beam processing systems. The automated assembly system will be a perfect completion.
Information:
www.voortman.net
www.valkwelding.com
PRENTICE grapples are built tough to deliver outstanding performance in all types of logging and material handling applications. Four rotator models are available in to meet the job requirements of every logger. Jaws are constructed of special high-tensile wear resistant steel. Critical areas of the jaws are reinforced and designed to protect the cylinder rods and hoses. Grapple heads are constructed of high tensile steel with heavy-duty bearings and hardened gears.
A wide range of grapple sizes are designed to match different loaders. Log grapples are designed for loading, slashing and delimbing applications. The PRENTICE 4548SN-R50 grapple saw can be utilized to increase loader versatility. Four Solid Waste handling grapples are available for use in municipal clean-up applications.
For over 60 years, Prentice has earned the reputation as the most reliable and durable brand of log loader in the industry.
Now, the proven Hydro-Ax and Fabtek products carry the legendary Prentice name and are designed and manufactured with the same quality that has been built into Prentice for decades.
Loggers trust Prentice products because, in the words of our founder, Leo Heikkinen, they are simply “built better than they need to be.”
Prentice – positioned to deliver the most dependable line of timber harvesting equipment and set quality and productivity standards for many more years to come
I still can’t comprehend arguments in favor of allowing copyrights on facts. However, over in Europe they do allow copyrighting of facts if they’re in a database, using so-called database rights. Of course, there’s a big problem with such things. Contrary to the claim that database rights encourage a bigger database industry, the evidence (just like copyright and patents) points out that the opposite is true. And yet, Europe keeps believing in database rights. techflaws.org points us to a recent High Court ruling in Germany claiming that TV listings are covered by copyright and thus websites that display the factual information of what the TV schedule is have to pay up. In other words, it’s going to become harder to find out what time shows are on TV, meaning that fewer people will watch TV. How does this help anyone?
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Three days before Christmas and a day past Winter Solstice, our lives are a crazy mixup of anticipation and loss. The longest night has given way to the rebirth of light. Summer’s a bare blip beyond the horizon, but we’ve turned the corner. Old Father Time is creaking toward New Year’s Eve, when that perky bouncing baby takes over with all the foolish optimism of inexperience. Christmas presents? Yup, we’re looking forward to ‘em. Midwinter indeed, but hope is on the rise.
It’s a season for goodbyes and hellos and reinventions, and as we say a few farewells we suspect the people involved are like the seasons: This is a passage to something invigorated and refreshed.
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Fifty-two Pieces, one of Art Scatter’s favorite blogs, is about to enter its fifty-second week, and for its authors, Amy and LaValle, that will mean an ending and a beginning. They started their blog on Jan. 1, 2009, with the express intent of continuing it for fifty-two weeks and then letting a good thing go.
Each week this year they’ve chosen a single artist in the collections of the Portland Art Museum and explored his or her life and work in all sorts of fascinating ways. We’ve enjoyed the journey immensely, and now it’s almost over. We can hardly wait to see what comes next. God Jol.
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Our good friend Barry Johnson, the original Scatterer, who had the idea for this blog and brought it into being before parting amicably to pursue his own arts column and Portland Arts Watch blog for The Oregonian, has come to another parting. Friday, Dec. 18, was his final day with The Oregonian: He took one of the buyouts that have become business as usual in the newspaper racket, following Mr. Scatter’s example from two years ago. Time to reboot, Barry said in his final column. Out with the old. In with new ideas.
Some of the newest ideas he’s packing with him. We welcome Barry with open arms into the outside world, where we’re sure he’s going to have a key role in reinventing arts journalism for the post-print universe. Have your people call Mr. Scatter’s people, Barry. We’ll do coffee. (Lunch, in the post-paycheck economy, is a rarer commodity, but hey, we might spring for that, too.)
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As newspapers continue their freefall toward what every sane observer hopes will be a soft landing spot of shrunken but lively equilibrium, a lot of other former colleagues from The Oregonian have accepted their walking papers, too. Informed opinion has it that the 30-plus in the newsroom who accepted the latest buyout aren’t enough, and next time around, for the first time, it’ll be layoffs — maybe as early as February. Oh, yes. It’s midwinter, all right.
A few from the class of late ‘09 (there was a spring class, too; Mrs. Scatter got her diploma then) I don’t know, or barely know, or in a few cases, such as photographer Olivia Bucks, don’t really know except through their often exemplary work.
Let me mention a few I have known and admired and enjoyed as colleagues. As the song says, the best is yet to come:
Inara Verzemnieks, a wonderful storyteller whose stories are only going to get bigger and better. We swapped ideas and talked about writing. I even learned how to spell her name without looking it up.
John Foyston, a terrific feature writer and a good amateur painter who was a bracing antidote to journalism by Ivy League degree. Not many newspapermen are also experienced motorcycle mechanics. Fortunately he’ll continue writing his yeasty beer column for the O.
Don Colburn, a damn fine poet; Jonathan Brinkman, who knows how to make business writing lively and engaging; Abby Haight, a model of journalistic flexibility; Gordon Oliver, quiet competence and all-around good sense incarnate.
Ralph Wells, an articulate gentleman and former cab driver (and husband of Carol Wells, a freelance theater critic who’s brought some sparkle to the O).
Copy editors Jan Jackson and Pat Harrison, who on many occasions quietly saved me from myself. Copy editor Ann Ereline, an Estonian who gave me good advice about visiting there 10 years ago. And copy editor and old friend Ed Hunt, who was at the O and its late sister the Oregon Journal even before I was, and who helped me through a post-merger crisis when a long-departed editor was gunning for me. Ed’s advice was stunningly simple and practical: Go over his head.
Photo guy Mike Davis, who fought for visual storytelling.
John Hamlin, who moved from news and design (he was once a managing editor) into the strange new world of computerization and ably helped the rest of us do the things we needed to do.
The brain drain in the newspaper industry has been swift and barely fathomable. While a few nitwits in the blogosphere celebrate this, it’s creating a crisis for the great American experiment in representative democracy.
But the days are getting longer. A whiff of hope is in the air. Some of these people will be finding solutions to the newsgathering crisis. All of them will move into fresh new lives. It’s cold, but it’s also kind of exhilarating.
Goodbye and hello, my friends. And thanks.
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Illustrations:
Last Thursday I was diagnosed with PCOS insulin resistant/pre-diabetic.
The Endo put me on Metformin. 500 mg said to start with one and every couple oh days add another and work up to 4 x a day.
I am SO sick. I’ve never gotten past one a day. Symptoms are major nausea occasional stomach cramps. I am very tired occasionally get light headed and feel faint as if my blood sugar is too low.
The Endo said nothing about diet. The pharmacist encouraged me to try a low glycemic diet. Said I might be able to avoid meds.
So, I don’t know if I’ve over done it on restricting carbs or if I am one of those who have a really tough time with met.
Thoughts? Any tricks for alleviating nausea?
Filed under: Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
If you’re looking for a fun last-minute gift for someone who enjoys fitness, remember that balls are for grown-ups, too! Available in a wide range of sizes and colours, a fitness ball is a great gift that can be enjoyed for years to come. Here are … Read more
Over at MSNBC, they’ve unpacked the pros and cons of using certain sports drinks to quench your post-workout thirst. The candidates include electrolyte drinks, enhanced waters, coconut water, cherry juice, chocolate milk and good, old-fashioned, … Read more
It seems like the old telegraph system is suddenly getting lots of new attention. A few weeks back, we wrote about some lessons from the old telegraph system that could be enlightening in the net neutrality debate. And, now, James Gattuso points us to a fun read over at The Economist about how people freaked out that the telegraph was going to kill newspapers. There was concern about how this device would lead to destroying quality reporting, getting people to focus more on the quick hits, and that there would be less reason to do “real” reporting — leading to more annoying opinion writing, rather than actual journalism. Sound familiar? Of course, it didn’t work out that way:
What lessons does the telegraph hold for newspapers now grappling with the internet? The telegraph was first seen as a threat to papers, but was then co-opted and turned to their advantage. “The telegraph helped contribute to the emergence of the modern newspaper,” says Ford Risley, head of the journalism department at Penn State University. “People began to expect the latest news, and a newspaper could not succeed if it was not timely.”Today, papers are doing their best to co-opt the internet. They have launched online editions, set up blogs and encouraged dialogue with readers. Like the telegraph, the internet has changed the style of reporting and forced papers to be more timely and accurate, and politicians to be more consistent. Again there is talk of news being commoditised and of the need to focus on analysis and opinion, or on a narrow subject area. And again there are predictions of the death of the newspaper, with hand-wringing about the implications for democracy if fewer publications exist to challenge those in authority or expose wrongdoing.
The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is that people should have access to news, not that it should be delivered through any particular medium; and, for the consumer, the faster it travels, the better. The telegraph hastened the speed at which news was disseminated. So does the internet. Those in the news business use the new technology at every stage of newsgathering and distribution. A move to electronic distribution–through PCs, mobile phones and e-readers–has started. It seems likely only to accelerate.
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Ingredients:
Dressing
1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 1/2 tsp. yellow curry powder
2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
3 Tbsp. coconut milk
Salad
2 cups ham, diced
1/2 cup fresh pineapple, diced (you can substitute canned but it has a few extra carbs)
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
Prepare the dressing first by blending all ingredients well. Set aside in the refrigerator for the flavors to marry while you gather the ingredients for the salad.
Place all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss to blend. Pour about half the dressing over the top and stir to combine. Add the rest of the dressing or to taste. This makes ample dressing for the salad. Chill for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.
Nutrition Facts
8 – 1/2 Cup Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 137.2
Total Fat 9.4 g
Saturated Fat 3.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.0 g
Cholesterol 22.2 mg
Sodium 594.3 mg
Potassium 264.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 7.0 g
Dietary Fiber 1.3 g
Sugars 0.3 g
Protein 6.9 g
Amy Wagers wants to isolate the wound healing factors that are present in young animals that promote rapid healing and recovery.
Recently she has discovered a “partial pathway,” previously undescribed in the blood system, that is involved in the process of repair. “The reason we thought the factor that awakens muscle stem cells might be in the blood,” she explains, “is that organ systems decline globally with age, which implies that any signal has to reach many different locations.” A good place to look for a universal signal such as that, she reasoned, is in the blood.
In fact, her work has already shown that exposing an old animal to the blood of a young animal restores function to progenitor cells in a variety of tissues, not only in skeletal muscle. She is now collaborating with other Harvard laboratories to study such effects in the pancreas, liver, brain, and heart. “This might be a more broadly applicable mechanism,” she says, “an inroad for discovering pathways that can enhance repair activity.” In some cases, Wagers thinks, induced repair mechanisms that fail with age might overlap with genetic disorders, so that studying these pathways could advance research on cures for certain diseases. At the very least, she suspects that the “kinds of molecules we discover that enhance endogenous repair activity” could someday play an important role in readying tissues for cell therapy, once that field is mature. Adds Melton, “This has gotten us thinking more about not just fixing the human body when it is broken, but about how to harness the natural activity of stem cells for homeostatic repair to keep us healthy. We’re not there yet, but I think that is where we are headed.”
(via 3QD)
There were some great comments on my post from Sunday titled Being Syndication Agnostic. One of them was from Kevin Vogelsang – he asked the following question:
What are the downsides to syndicating a round of financing for the entrepreneur/startup (assuming the relationship with all investors is a good fit of course)? By syndicating a deal, the entrepreneur gains access to a larger network. This seems to be a big positive. However, there must be downsides (less attention, more interest groups, etc.) Love to hear more on the topic.
While there are plenty of downsides, I’m going to take on five common ones in this post.
Too Many VC’s on the Board: Most VC’s want a board seat when they invest in a company. At the early stages this is usually manageable (although not necessarily desirable). However, once a company has raised several rounds of financing and built increasingly large syndicates, this can quickly get out of control. The largest board of a VC backed company I’ve ever been on was 11 (8 VCs, CEO, founder, one outside director). It was a completely ineffective board. Now, the board size problems can be dealt with by a strong CEO and a strong lead investor who will help the CEO organize the board in a manageable way, but it has to be done proactively.
Too Many People in the Room: This is a corollary to “too many VCs on the board.” If the VC doesn’t get a board seat, they’ll want an observer seat. In addition, most later stage VCs or strategic investors want observer seats. Suddenly even though you’ve managed the size of the board effectively, there are a bunch of people in the room. I’ve been in board meetings with over 20 people in them (I don’t know the exact max, but I’m going to guess it’s around 25 since eventually you run out of chairs.) Not surprisingly, these tend to be weak or inefficient board meetings with separate “executive committee meetings” where the real board meeting happens, and then another three hour song and dance for the benefit of the 15 other people.
Both of these are a natural result of most investors in private companies wanting to have a seat at the table. While a reasonable expectation, it’s important for the CEO and founders to set an appropriate tone and expectations with their investors early on so that there’s actually an effective board, investor, and company dynamic as the syndicate gets large.
Misalignment of Interests: With each round of investment and each new investor comes new expectations. As the syndicate size grows, the chance of interests between parties getting out of alignment increases. This is especially true when each round has different dynamics beyond price (such different preference structures, protective provisions, voting thresholds by class of stock, and various participation caps.) When everything is going well this isn’t an issue, but the minute the business goes sideways (or worse) strange things start to happen. As the situation degenerate, the knives (or flamethrowers) come out. I’ve been involved in situations that resulted in the destruction of companies that deserved to live another day because the investors around the table (which included me) couldn’t get their collective shit together.
Decision Vacuum: This is a corollary to “misalignment of interests.” It’s similar to when I lived in a fraternity at MIT and a dozen of us would stand in the hallway trying to figure out where to go out to eat. This drill could go on for a while, especially if we had a keg of beer (or, er, something else) nearby. Eventually someone stepped into the decision vacuum and said “I’m going to Mandarin – come with me if you want” (well – that was what I usually said – others had different choices). Whenever you’ve got at least four VCs sitting around a table, you run the risk of a decision vacuum forming (queue snarky jokes here). If you are a CEO of a company and you see a decision vacuum developing, grab a bunch of matter and get in the middle of it.
Lame Duck Syndrome: There has been plenty of personnel changes in the “VC business” in the past five years, including plenty of firms that are winding down, have shrunk in size (and let partners go), and have disbanded. However, they are still investors in your company and some of them still sit on your board. In some cases they are just hanging around to “protect their investment” although they have no ability or interest in putting additional capital into your company. Now – some folks in this position are incredibly helpful, but many don’t do much more than show up. And – the more of them like this around the table, the less fun it can be.
Now, there are plenty of other downsides as well as plenty of advantages of large syndicates. If you’ve got additional ideas, or stories to share (especially horrifying ones showing the downside), comment away even if you change the names to protect the not so innocent.
