Author: Serkadis

Insomniac can’t wait for E3 to start, and with every good reason. You should be excited too, because the developer company is promising to bring in some heavy-hitters for all of you to see.
 
 
 
 

The mass exodus continues. Yet another member of the Infinity Ward dev team has thrown in the towel and has bid the company goodbye amidst the ongoing controversy with Activision.
 
 
 

News has it that Ninja Theory is working on a secret game. Could it be the next Devil May Cry iteration? According to Game Informer, yes, that would be it.
 
 
 
 

USDA Announces Funding to Enhance Market-based Approaches to Conservation: Conservation Innovation Grants Pre-proposals Due April 26, 2010

(USDA, April 7, 2010) The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the availability of approximately $25 million in fiscal year 2010 to fund projects designed to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies through its Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) in fiscal year 2010.  “USDA’s investment in these grants will advance our goal of producing long-term dividends in environmental enhancement and protection,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “The grants will assist producers in using market-based approaches to conservation and innovative technologies that can put conservation on the land.”

USDA will use these competitive grants to seek creative solutions to assist producers with emerging and traditional agricultural and natural resource issues. In addition to market-based approaches to conservation, emerging issues include energy conservation, specialty crops, and new methods of tackling climate change. The grants also will fund solutions to improve water, soil and air quality, improve nutrient management, and enhance wildlife habitat and pollinator populations. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers CIG.

CIG, a component of NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), provides competitive grants to federally-recognized Indian tribes, state and local units of governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals. CIG funds one-to-three year projects that targets innovative on-the-ground conservation, including pilot projects and field demonstrations. The maximum federal contribution for each project is $1 million.

The $25 million in CIG funding will be divided into three categories:

National – Approximately $15 million will be available for proposals that address specific CIG resource concerns nationwide such as energy conservation and climate change.

Mississippi River Basin – About $5 million will be used to address resource concerns in the Mississippi River Basin. This funding will help USDA further advance its recently announced Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative for 12 Midwest and Southern states.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed – Up to $5 million will be available for proposals that address natural resource concerns in the 64,000 square-mile watershed, which includes Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and the District of Columbia.

USDA encourages beginning farmers and ranchers, limited resource farmers or ranchers, Indian tribes or community-based organizations that service these groups to apply for grants. Ten percent of the total funding is being set aside for this purpose.

USDA will use a two-phased approach to award CIGs this fiscal year. Applicants must submit pre-proposals to NRCS’s National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. by close of business on Monday, April 26, 2010. Applications will be accepted from the 50 states, Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) and the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). Full applications for selected pre-proposals must be submitted by June 4, 2010. All CIG projects must include agricultural producers who meet EQIP eligibility requirements. For more information about the EQIP eligibility requirements, please visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip.

Information about the CIG Announcement of Program Funding can be found at www.grants.gov where applicants can apply electronically, and at the CIG Web page at www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/cig/index.html.

Solicitation Posting

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Renewable Resources Extension Act – National Focus Fund Projects – NIFA announces the availability of grant funds and requests applications for the Renewable Resources Extension Act-National Focus Fund Projects for fiscal year (FY) 2010 to provide for expanded and comprehensive extension programs for forest and rangeland renewable resources at a national, regional, or multi-institutional level.  The purpose of the grant program for FY 2010 is to provide funds for pilot projects that: (1) Address emerging forest and rangeland resource issues, (2) Have national or regional relevancy, and (3) Develop new and innovative projects that can be replicated at other institutions.  The goal of the Pilot Projects for Emergent Issues is to enhance the sustainability of the nation’s forest and rangeland resources and to enable landowners and managers to achieve their desired goals and objectives. These projects must provide opportunities for the Cooperative Extension System to maximize its impact and demonstrate capacity and relevance by either indirectly or directly working across state boundaries to bring expertise to bear on common problems.  Applications are being solicited for the RREA-NFF under the following areas: 1) Forest Continuity and 2) Rangelands, Drought and Climate Change.  Total Funding: $275K.  Eligibility: 1862 and 1890 Land Grant Institutions.  Application Due Date: June 8, 2010.

Posted Date: April 8, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: USDA-NIFA-OP-003116

Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis  (OPUS) – All four clusters within the Division of Environmental Biology (Population and Community Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Evolutionary Processes and Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories) encourage the submission of proposals aimed at synthesizing a body of related research projects conducted by a single individual or a group of investigators over an extended period. OPUS proposals will often be appropriately submitted in mid-to-late career, but will also be appropriate early enough in a career to produce unique, integrated insight useful both to the scientific community and to the development of the investigator’s future work. In cases where multiple scientists have worked collaboratively, an OPUS award will provide support for collaboration on a synthesis. Full Proposal Deadline Date:  July 7, 2010, July 7, Annually Thereafter; January 7, 2011, January 7, Annually Thereafter.

Posted Date: April 12, 2010

Solicitation Number: 10-557

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Dear Colleague Letter: Supplemental Opportunity for Translational Research in the Academic Community (TRAC) – The goal of fundamental research in science and engineering is the discovery of new knowledge.  At the same time, there is an expectation that some of these discoveries will lay the foundation for new innovations that may eventually be used to develop new products and processes.  However, for a discovery to be successfully translated into a new product or process and attract the sponsorship of or additional support from the commercial/government practitioner communities, the champions of the technology must be able to identify and communicate a development plan linking the concepts at the fundamental level with feasible application scenarios.  Often this means additional research in the form of prototyping, proof of concept tests and/or scale-up or implementation.   To facilitate this objective, the TRAC program provides targeted resources to researchers aimed at translating fundamental research into commercial applications.  Existing NSF GOALI grantees whose research results have commercial potential can compete for support to help position their technology for translation. Funds will be provided for product or process definition, design, and testing.

Posted Date: April 8, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: PD-10-044

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Math and Science Partnership (MSP) – The MSP program is a major research and development effort that supports innovative partnerships to improve K-12 student achievement in mathematics and science. MSP projects are expected to raise the achievement levels of all students and significantly reduce achievement gaps in the mathematics and science performance of diverse student populations. In order to improve the mathematics and science achievement of the Nation’s students, MSP projects contribute to what is known in mathematics and science education and serve as models that have a sufficiently strong evidence/research base to improve the mathematics and science education outcomes for all students. NSF’s MSP program coordinates its effort with programs of the U.S. Department of Education in the expectation that effective innovations in mathematics and science education will be disseminated into wider practice.  Through this solicitation, NSF seeks to support five types of awards: 1) Targeted Partnerships; 2) Institute Partnerships; 3) MSP-Start Partnerships; 4) Phase II Partnerships; 5) Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) Projects.  Total Funding: $42M.  Eligibility: Universities, Colleges, Non-Profit.  Full Proposal Deadline: July 8, 2010 (Institute Partnerships, MSP-Start Partnerships, Phase II Partnerships, RETA Projects); October 14, 2010 (Targeted Partnerships).

Posted Date: April 8, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: NSF 10-556

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Macrosystems Biology: Research on Biological Systems at Regional to Continental Scales – The NSF invites proposals from interdisciplinary teams of scientists to conduct innovative, integrated, systems-oriented “macrosystems biology” research to detect, understand and forecast the consequences of climate and land use change and invasive species on the biosphere at regional to continental scales. Proposals should address the scales where the ecological research challenges are the greatest and where research has the greatest potential to transform the field of ecology by addressing scaling issues that have long hindered development of large-scale ecology. Projects should strive to provide a mechanistic understanding of how multiple scale dynamics contribute to the structure, functioning, and change of the biosphere, and lead to the development of a more predictive understanding of ecological change. Proposals should be well grounded in theory, include novel approaches that will result in a theoretical framework for a predictive understanding of macroscale biology, and shows great promise for enhancing basic theoretical understandings.  Total Funding: $20M.  Eligibility: Non-Profit, FFRDCs, and Universities and Colleges.  Full Proposal Deadlines: September 16, 2010, April 4, 2011, First Monday in April, Annually Thereafter.

Posted Date: April 8, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: NSF 10-555

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NSF-NRI Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Supplements to NSF Centers in Nanoelectronics – The National Science Foundation (NSF) has undertaken a cooperative effort with the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) through the industry’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) to provide supplemental funding opportunities to NSF centers involved in long-term nanoelectronics research. The supplemental funding supports additional graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to work in collaborative efforts with participating NRI company assignees on exploring new concepts beyond the scaling limits of CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology. Such efforts are intended to enhance nanoelectronics research and education, strengthen industry linkages with NSF centers, and develop future cadres of industry and faculty researchers to help drive the field. The supplement research topics must be consistent with the goals of the NSF centers and must also align with the goals of NRI to find a novel, non-FET based logic switch as a successor to CMOS technology. NRI is focused primarily on research on devices utilizing new computational state variables other than the control of electronic charge by a potential barrier utilized in current FET technology. For this supplement opportunity, NRI is particularly interested in three areas: Circuit architectures for doing computation with non-FET devices; directed self-assembly and bottoms-up fabrication of specific non-FET device structures; and nano-engineering of phonon flow in non-FET devices and circuits to control heat and enable non-equilibrium behavior.  Supplement Deadline Date: May 10, 2010.

Posted Date: April 1, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: NSF 10-031

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EarthScope – EarthScope is an Earth science program to explore the 4-dimensional structure of the North American continent.  The EarthScope Program provides a framework for broad, integrated studies across the Earth sciences, including research on fault properties and the earthquake process, strain transfer, magmatic and hydrous fluids in the crust and mantle, plate boundary processes, large-scale continental deformation, continental structure and evolution, and composition and structure of the deep-Earth. In addition, EarthScope offers a centralized forum for Earth science education at all levels and an excellent opportunity to develop cyber infrastructure to integrate, distribute, and analyze diverse data sets.  The EarthScope facilities, consisting of the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), and the US Array, are a multi-purpose array of instruments and observatories that greatly expands the observational capabilities of the Earth Sciences and permits us to advance our understanding of the structure, evolution and dynamics of the North American continent.  This Solicitation calls for single or collaborative proposals to conduct scientific research associated with the EarthScope Facility and support activities that further the scientific and educational goals of EarthScope. Total Funding: $12M.  Eligibility: All.  Proposal Due Date: July 16, 2010; July 16 annually thereafter.

Originally Posted: February 10, 2009

Re-posted: April 1, 2010

Funding Opportunity Number: NSF 09-535

These adorable modcat pendants from aster+sage are the perfect way to show your moderncat pride! Each one is hand painted on ultra light plastic and strung on silk cord with sterling silver findings. Choose from red, green, black, or blue cats and light blue, red, or black cord.

Aster+sage is a company after my own heart. They make everything by hand and use recycled materials whenever possible. Linda Yesline is the designer behind aster+sage. She studied industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design and now creates the wonderful hand bags and accessories sold at aster+sage.

ENTER TO WIN!

One lucky winner will get to choose a cat pendant in their favorite color combo. To enter, please leave a comment on this post. The winner will be selected in a random drawing on April 19. One entry per person. This giveaway is open to addresses in the US and Canada.

Here are a couple of interesting pet carriers from Iris. The first one is a side-loading carrier, probably good for smaller cats since it measures just 18.3 x 9.4 x 12.8 inches. Available in this nice green and also in a soft pink. Normally $29.99 US, but now only $26.00 on Amazon.

The second one is a picnic basket type carrier with a top-loading door and two handles. This one has a storage compartment on the top, plus a smaller access door. Also for smaller cats, but slightly larger than the first one, measuring 19.2 x 13 x 12.2 inches. Reviews on Amazon are quite good, just one comment about the handles being somewhat awkward. Regularly $34.99 US, now $28.99 on Amazon. Available in green or a nice neutral tan.

Both seem to have good ventilation and look like they’d be easy to clean. Has anyone tried one of these carriers?

Published April 9, 2010
Atomictown.com, Tri-City Herald

The political and pop culture-themed sculpture of Gerrit Van Ness is featured in April at the Fred Esvelt Gallery at CBC in Pasco.

His work takes a stand on politics, war and pop culture by blending brilliant primary colors, not-too-subtle symbols and a satirical sense of humor. The sculptures are carved from wood and fiberglass, then coated with automotive paint and spray enamels.

Most of his works being shown are whimsical pieces designed to intrigue, enticing the viewer to ponder a moment longer at each piece contemplating the artist’s message. Van Ness will give a presentation on his work at 3 p.m. in the CBC theater, which will be followed by a reception at 4 p.m. in the gallery. Admission is free.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Harper’s softball team struggled this past weekend, dropping a doubleheader to Triton College on Saturday, 14-3 and 22-8, and then losing a pair to Moraine Valley on Sunday, 24-0 and 10-1.

Pitcher Becky Koeune took the loss in the first game with Triton. Chelsea Mora, Paige Hoppie and Lisa Burmeister all had triples, with Burmeister getting 2 RBIs.

Chelsea Mora was the losing pitcher in the second Triton game. Offensively, Mora had a triple and 3 RBI’s, and Lisa Burmeister added a double.

Against Moraine Valley, pitchers Becky Koeune and Chelsea Mora each were tagged with a loss. Alyssa Collins and Mora each went 2 for 4 for the doubleheader.

The Lady Hawks are now 2-16 and will next play Oakton Community College on the road this Wednesday at 3:00 PM.

 

Published Apr. 9, 2010
By Dori O’Neal, Tri-City Herald

Rudy Guidry has had a love affair with music since the third grade. It started with the marimba, then he found the recorder. The clarinet came next, followed by the baritone sax.

By his sophomore year at Pasco High School, he discovered the tuba. Though he still plays a wicked sax, it’s the tuba that moves him.

But never once during his discovery of music has he ever owned his own instrument. The 21-year-old still doesn’t.

“It’s quite expensive to buy a musical instrument, something I could never afford to do, and neither could my parents because they were raising 13 children,” said Guidry of Pasco. He’s the youngest child of Richard and Joyce Guidry, also of Pasco.

“But it didn’t matter that I didn’t have my own instrument,” he added. “I was lucky to have grown up in the Pasco School District, which provides instruments for kids to use. It’s how I learned to play and I’m so grateful for that.”

A new tuba can cost as much as $10,000.

Guidry has been a member of the renowned Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, based in Colorado, for two years. He also plays with the Columbia Basin College Jazz Ensemble.

He’ll be performing on baritone sax with the ensemble and on tuba with the Columbia Basin Concert Band at this year’s Jazz Unlimited Festival, which kicks off April 9 at CBC in Pasco.

Guidry credits his Pasco School District music teachers Wendy Smith, James Bennett and Russ Newberry, as well as CBC music teachers, for helping him hone his talent.

“They taught me how much fun music can be so that by the time I got to my freshman year of high school, I knew music was my destiny,” he said. “I’ve had to work my butt off to learn, but it was worth it. It’s sad for me to see kids not get an opportunity to play music, which is why I love to teach.”

Randy Hubbs, associate professor of music and director of bands at CBC, says Guidry is equally talented on the tuba and baritone sax.

“Rudy is very diligent and dedicated to both the tuba and baritone sax, which puts him at a very high level of excellence,” Hubbs said. “Unfortunately, he will be forced with the difficult decision of making a choice between the two instruments next year as he enters the music program at Central Washington University.”

Guidry says he would love the opportunity to perform professionally one day, but it’ll be music education and the tuba he’ll concentrate on at CWU.

“I was first drawn to the baritone sax because there was something about it that spoke to me,” he said. “But there’s something more challenging about playing the tuba, which is why I plan to focus on that next year.”

Guidry still won’t have his own instrument while attending CWU in the fall, but he isn’t losing any sleep over it.

“I’m paying my own college tuition so there’s no money right now to buy a tuba or a sax,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter because there are always instruments to borrow, and as long as there’s a tuba or a sax to play, I’ll be happy.”

As for buying his own tuba and sax, Guidry said it’ll have to wait until he completes his education and pays off his college loans. “It’ll happen one day,” he said. Some things are worth waiting for, he added.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Published April 9, 2010
By Josh Peterson, KVEW TV

An associate professor at Columbia Basin College is planning to help revolutionize and globalize higher education throughout the country.

Yongsheng Sun is getting a $15,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He’ll use the money to develop new online courses that incorporate teaching methods from other countries.

The classes will include instruction on math, political science and english among others.

Sun says the world is becoming more interconnected, and it’s more important now than ever to understand other cultures.

“We’re competing with everyone else in the world and it is important that we’re aware of what they’re doing and what they’re teaching in their classes somewhere else in the world, so that we know we’ll stay ahead and we know our students will be competitive when they graduate,” said Sun.

Sun is one of more than 80 teachers in Washington receiving money to work on the new learning programs.

The courses are expected to be free.

They’ll be created during the next couple of years.

Are you tired of your usual WWE wrestling games? Want to taste the spectacle of a real Mexican wrestling title? Well great news guys, coming later this year, Konami will release Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes of the

All you Grand Theft Auto IV players, get ready. Rockstar hasn’t forgotten about you, and to prove it, they’re rolling out patch 1.0.6.0 very soon. This patch should fix a bunch of little things that’s been bugging

Filed under: Motorsports, Ferrari, Racing

Oh, to be wealthy. We’re not talking about slightly rich, either. We’re talking about having your own Ferrari racecar with factory support wealthy. Such a program actually exists, known as Corse Clienti (translated from Italian as “Racing Clients”). Imagine showing up to the racetrack with your car already there, which was flown in from the Ferrari factory earlier that week. There’s no need to to get the car prepared, as Ferrari’s very own mechanics are already on the job. Just sit back and relax until it’s your time to get on the track, then hop in and take off.

The Ferrari 599XX, the latest member of the Corse Clienti stable, is brand new for this year and only made its debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway last month. We were eager to see them up close, and the first thing we did upon arriving at Miller Motorsports Park on Saturday morning was to go looking for the Corse Clienti cars. It didn’t take long to find them, as they were all safely stored in the garages along pit row. There were no less than seven 599XXs, plus an additional three FXXs as a bonus.

In person, the 599XX is a sight to behold. It’s not nearly as dramatic looking as the FXX, but that’s a good thing in our opinion. In fact, it’s one of the most beautiful modern racecars we’ve ever seen. Unlike the FXX, which seems to be a little rough around the edges, the 599XX has beautifully crafted details both inside and out. For instance, the inside of the door has “599XX” worked into the design of the carbon fiber, and the interior actually seems like a fairly hospitable place to be. The engine bay, like all other Ferraris, is a work of art, and even the functional aspects of the car like the splitters, winglets and diffuser all have an aesthetic appeal.

You can see all of the details of the 599XX, like the largest paddle shifters we’ve ever seen, the F1-like wheel donuts and more in the gallery below along with an additional gallery of the FXX.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

2010 Ferrari Challenge at MMP: A look inside the Corse Clienti garages originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we noted earlier, Angela Merkel’s inability to hold her bluff is costing her political credibility in Germany.

The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard captures the response of German leaders, who seem intent to undermine any confidence in the system:

Christoph Steegmans, spokesman for the finance ministry in Berlin, insisted that “nothing had changed” as a result of the weekend pledge by eurozone states for €30bn of loans. Help is “not automatic” and cannot be activated if any state objects. “The fact that the fire extinguisher has been primed says absolutely nothing about the probability of a fire,” he said.

Frank Schäffler, a Free Democrat finance expert in Mrs Merkel’s coalition, said the rescue deal is “clearly a subsidy” and violates the EU summit deal in March. “We’re on very thin ice legally,” he said, hinting at likely court challenges.

Professor Ekkehard Wenger from Würzburg University said the aid for Greece is “another step on the slippery slope downwards. All rational economic rules are being thrown out of the window. This is a bottomless pit.”

“In the short-term this may calm things but within 10 years the eurozone is not going to exist any longer in its current form,” he told Handelsblatt.

Of course, 10 years is a long time! In the meantime, no reason not to keep on buying.

Join the conversation about this story »

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Porsche

This is what happens when you put people other than navigators into cars with ex-World Rally Championship drivers: EVO‘s Chris Harris makes more than a few faces like this, while François Delecour looks like he’s on a casual Sunday hunt for Starbucks.

The camera is inside the car so you don’t get to see how Delecour throws the Porsche GT3 RS around tiny French B-roads, but in 13 minutes behind the wheel of the GT3 RS he talks to Harris about trying to enter one in the Monte Carlo Rally, about what changes he’d make to the car, requests ABS in order to drive faste, and he takes a phone call. When one remembers that Delecour’s recent Sunday drives were done much faster and often sideways, we guess it’s all right this time. Follow the jump for the video. Hat tip to Derek!

[Source: Evo]

Continue reading Video: Francois Delecour manhandles rally-handles a GT3 RS

Video: Francois Delecour manhandles rally-handles a GT3 RS originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a time where many in the recording industry are running for the hills as a result of the digital revolution, classical music seems to be embracing the new era. As a result of the access to the long tail afforded by the internet, classical labels have seen an increase in sales. Contemporary classical composers are experimenting with posting their scores online for free, recognizing that scores locked up behind copyright that nobody plays are far worse than freely available scores that musicians do play. Furthermore, considering that many scores by the great composers like Mozart and Beethoven are public domain and not covered by copyright, it provides additional incentive for modern day composers to participate in the sharing ecosystem. This entrepreneurial spirit of experimentation would greatly benefit the rest of the music industry.

Great orchestras around the world are also trying new things of their own, from running their own labels, to offering digital subscriptions of downloadable tracks, to online streaming of live concerts. Orchestras have a unique set of challenges as compared to a rock band. They tend to consist of many, many more members (around 100) and also have large fixed costs like concert halls to contend with. So, since touring is not really a viable option, most orchestras are limited to larger cities that have large enough populations to support them. The digital era brings with it the opportunity to engage with audiences that are far beyond the cities in which they play.

Fans of the Berlin Philharmonic, widely regarded as one of the best orchestras in the world, can now subscribe to live streaming concerts through its “digital concert hall.” For about $200, fans have access to live and archived performances for a year. Granted, the virtual experience probably does not come close to seeing a show at the concert hall, but the price is much lower than the cost of a ticket, which opens up the experience not only to fans who are limited by distance, but also fans who are limited by funds. However, as internet technology continues to converge upon living rooms, televisions equipped with internet access, connected to high fidelity home theater audio systems will undoubtedly start to become more commonplace, making the experience of watching a live concert from the comfort of your own home even better. Even so, it seems unlikely that home viewing would ever really compete with the live experience. Especially with orchestras the live sound fidelity just can’t be matched — and most people attend such performances for the social experience. After all, there’s no chance at all that you’d show up in the society pages if you’re watching the show from your couch.

Still, it will be worth watching to see how much revenue that these new products generate. Most orchestras, even the most successful ones, still rely upon charitable giving for a large portion of their revenues — but there’s no reason the focus needs to be on charitable giving. There’s no reason why orchestras can’t start coming up with valuable scarce reasons to buy beyond just the live shows (or even streaming access to shows). They could offer all sorts of special views or access. For example, for less experienced listeners, you could take part in a special “educational” stream, where an expert would alert you to things to listen for — and listeners could ask questions and discuss. Alternatively, they could provide access to the musicians in other manners, such as one-on-one discussions, music lessons or even solo performances. They could sell off old instruments, broken strings or used sheet music (perhaps signed?). There are lots of additional ways in which they can start to embrace the same sorts of business models that others in the wider music industry are using.

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Mike O’Rourke succinctly explains why the Greek bailout, which will involve both the EU and the IMF, is such a mistake.

The problem with IMF involvement and the entire manner in which this situation has been handled is that investors are looking for EU leadership to establish a clear framework as to how the Club Med deficit problems will be addressed.  Simply put, investors prefer a strategy as opposed to ad-hoc reactionary policy similar to what prevailed in the United State in the fall of 2008.  Ad hoc responses are the result of policy makers chasing the market.  As most every investor who has been around for the past decade can attest markets are often subject to extended bouts of inefficiency in both directions.  Policy makers need to exhibit that they have the confidence and clout to navigate a volatile situation to establish the path out of the crisis, which will then eventually lead to the desired level of stability.  This response has been reactionary and will likely solve Greece (at least for now), but still leaves the door open for a new ad hoc response should another debt laden EU nation  come under pressure.

Angela Merkel finds herself in the worst of both worlds. She’s a disappointment to German conservatives, hoping for a resolute approach to Greece, and yet she’s not a leader with a steady hand.

Just hope that the worst fears in Spain, Italy, and Portugal don’t actually require any real intervention.

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The new MultiMelt tank melter is a product for users who process different hotmelts. The hotmelt unit is engineered to melt PUR hotmelt, but also other thermoplastic adhesives such as EVA, PSA, APAO, etc. Tank and melting grid can be cleaned easily to permit changing from one hotmelt to another. Regular adhesive changes are not recommended. A dry-air supply for the tank is available as an option for processing of PUR adhesives.

– Suitable for processing adhesive blocks from 20-litre drums without inner liner

– Suitable for PUR hotmelt and thermoplastic adhesives

– Tank design for homogeneous, gentle melting

– Quick and easy to clean, easy access

– Robatech modularity & compatibility

– Melting and buffer variant

– Best price/performance ratio

Applications

– Profile wrapping (for example)

– Topping-up of containers and small adhesive applicators

– Applications calling for a fast change of adhesives

New addition to popular PDU2 line offers increased moment load capacity and stiffness suitable for multi-axis systems and demanding single-axis applications.

Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation, manufacturer of the original DualVee guide wheel and industry leader in guided motion technology, announces the availability of the new HepcoMotion® PDU2M Profile Belt Driven Unit, a high moment capacity version of the successful PDU2. The PDU2M incorporates a carriage that contains four extra rollers on each side in order to withstand increased moment forces. Suitable for demanding single-axis systems and multi-axis applications, the PDU2M delivers a 50% higher load capacity, a 200% increase in moment load capacity and a 1,000% improvement in moment load stiffness compared to the standard PDU2. Designers can now specify a single PDU2M unit as a horizontal axis in an X-Z system, where previously two PDU2 units working in parallel would have been required to provide the necessary rigidity and strength.

PDU2M is comprised of a rigid but lightweight aluminum slotted profile fitted with a toothed belt drive and carriage which effectively encloses the unit. Rated for operating speeds up to 6m/s and loads up to 750N, PDU2M’s 20AT3 belt allows for driving forces up to 280N. Left, right or double drive shafts can be specified together with a range of options such as brakes, positioning encoders and mechanical or inductive limit switches. Internal bumpers provide end of stroke protection at both ends.

Key to this unit is the extra ultra-high performance HepcoMotion Herculane® wheels that are mounted on adjustable eccentric studs. These wheels run virtually friction-free on the inside of the profile providing stable support for the carriage plate; felt wipers sweep debris from their path. Several carriage styles are available to allow for quick and easy construction of multi-axis systems with minimal brackets and hardware.

PDU2 is fully compatible with aluminum profile systems (which Bishop-Wisecarver carries) and is an ideal replacement for failing ball-based systems that are unable to match its speed and reliability.