I recently purchased a natural sea wool sponge. I’ve used such sponges before in the bath; however, this sponge I bought for house cleaning, specifically outside window washing. Sea wool sponges are durable, soft (no worries about scratching windows), and they do an amazing job. My sea wool sponge has quickly become my favorite tool for cleaning all around the house. They are perfect for car washing too!
Google has recently announced that Google Buzz has become available for the desktop version of Google Maps, after having received numerous user requests. This service was initially launched for mobile devices only, allowing people to add notes to a certain location displayed on Google Maps, with the sole purpose to provide useful information, tips and a… (read more)
Eco Factor: Zero-emission vehicle to be propelled by electricity.
After completely a year’s worth of electric vehicle testing with Mini E, the BMW group is planning to start rolling out its first production EV dubbed the “Megacity” in 2013. The Megacity is expected to be a 5-seater vehicle in the size class of the VW Golf.
By Matt Hawes
Congressman Paul took to the House floor on Thursday to oppose H.R. 2194, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, and he warned against the war propoganda being spread in the House.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=KdwHN2De33Q (Thanks to Minnesota Chris!)
By Deb Wells
The following eight Republicans have not voiced opposition to Chris Dodd’s “Finance Reform” bill. Will they be part of the “substantial number of Republicans that will go along with it” that Richard Shelby (R-AL) referred to?
Will they help Create Bailouts Forever?
Will they help create a Permanent TARP?
Bob Bennett of Utah (202) 224-5444
http://bennett.senate.gov/public/
Susan Collins of Maine (202) 224-2523
http://collins.senate.gov/public/
Christopher Bond of Missouri (202) 224-5721
http://bond.senate.gov/public/
Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (202) 224-3521
http://chambliss.senate.gov/public/index.cfm
Bob Corker of Tennessee (202) 224-3344
http://corker.senate.gov/public/
John McCain of Arizona (202) 224-2235
http://mccain.senate.gov/public/
Olympia Snowe of Maine (202) 224-5344
http://snowe.senate.gov/public/
Scott Brown of Massachusetts (202) 224-4543
http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/
HAVE YOU CALLED, VISITED and FAXED YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO TELL THEM NO DEAL?
WE WANT AN AUDIT! WE WANT AN UP OR DOWN VOTE ON S604!
http://www.chooseliberty.org/dodd_contact.aspx
THE REVOLUTION IS NOW…
Eco Factor: Low-cost highly efficient solar cells to be developed using better technology.
Researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Chemistry Department have developed two novel technologies that can not only make solar cells inexpensive but can also make them highly efficient. The Earth receives more solar energy in one hour than the entire planet currently consumes in a year. However, due to the lack inexpensive means to transform that energy into usable form, we depend more on fossil fuels rather than clean energy from the sun.
Okay, I’ve had the X10 since 8:30pm last night now (but I had to sleep some) so here is my initial GutReactionReview™. This will be quick, and mostly point form. It’s possible that any “problems” I list might have solutions, but the whole point is what the reaction of a first-time smart-phone buyer might be, especially if they aren’t too savvy, or know how/where to solve these things on their own.
• Formfactor: The X10 is a “big” phone in your hand. It’s larger than the Magic for sure, but comparable to the iPhone. It “feels” big in my hand, a lot closer to the feel of the Palm TX PDA I used to use. Some people won’t like this, and it is taking some getting used to, but I like having a lot of screen real-estate. Despite its size, however, it’s surprisingly light! The Xperia X10 looks like a nice phone. while aesthetics are subjective (like art and music) I think most people will like having and showing off this phone. It has very nice lines, a beautiful big screen, and classy/modern-looking silver/steel highlights. The back cover has a nice slightly “rubberized” (is that the best word?) feel to it. It’s a little odd having the volume button on the right side, but probably only because the volume rocker is on the left side of my Magic, and I’m used to it. So, really this is my problem, and not the X10.
• Screen: Did I mention the screen is nice and BIG! Great for watching video and looking at photos. If you look close though you can see that the icons aren’t actually “sharp”. They look just the slightest bit “fuzzy” around the edges, but only if you look close. However, I did notice it, so others might as well.
• Power Button: The power button, at the top, is used not only to power the phone on and off, but to bring it out of sleep mode. I am used to hitting the Menu button on my Magic to do this, and it feels kind of awkward to me. The way you hold these phones when you are using them for anything other than making calls, it seems more intuitive to press one of the hard buttons on the front of the phone.
• User Experience: This is sort of a catch all area. The X10 comes with some widgets preloaded on the screen (only 3 home screens. C’mon guys, give us more!) including a widget for TimeScape™, and a very nice digital clock widget. Personally I find the “unlock’ sliding graphic kinda of lame, but some people like it. Just a personal thing, I prefer pressing the hard button on my phone to unlock, but I can see how an actual software on-screen onlock can actually be more secure since you can’t accidentally unlock it. There are some minor annoyances throughout, but I will cover them all at a later date.
• Keyboard: The X10’s on-screen keyboard is HORRIBLE!!! Trying to figure it out was driving me crazy, especially to get special characters. The keys are smaller then the keys on the Magic’s onscreen keyboard but just enough to make it even harder to see what you are pressing, and to type quickly. To get certain characters, like a comma or exclamation mark, you have to double-tap the period or question mark keys, and if you don’t do it just right, you get two periods or question marks. Unlike the Magic keyboard, there is no key to “clear” the keyboard from the screen. Instead you have to press the Back button on the phone. I had to figure this out on my own. Also, when you are typing the phone suggests so many different words as you type (some which have NO resemblance to the word you are typing) that it is unnecessarily overwhelming. Also hard to see, since they are little grey rectangles with small black font. Strangely, there are settings available for the default Android keyboard in the phone settings, but I could not find anywhere to actually disable the X10’s keyboard in favour of the default Android keyboard! Lame!
• Camera: It’s 8 MP, and has a flash. Except, just don’t rely too much on the flash. I haven’t tested the flash myself yet, but Puleen tried it on his demo unit last night, and it didn’t seem very useful. Also, rather un-intuitively, to take a photo you depress the “camera button” (on the side) half-way to focus, and the rest of the way to take the photo. The problem is, when you have pressed it half-way, it feels like you’ve pressed it as far as you can go. It can actually be pressed farther in (harder) but it’s not easy to realize. I gave the phone to two “common users” (both of whom have iPhones), and even after I told them about pressing the shutter button harder to actually take a photo they kept saying “I have, it won’t go farther”. They had to press it really far in to get it to work, and were surprised by it. If you didn’t figure it out, you’d think the camera wasn’t working. I haven’t had time to do any indepth testing yet, but I will put the camera through its paces and post some of the photos I get.
• TimeScape™: An interesting feature. TimeScape is a visual display of your Facebook, Twitter, Email (but not Gmail?!), Photos, Missed Calls, Music, and text Messages. Each one has its own screen (swipe left and right to get at them) and each is represented in a “tower” of floating “card” that you can swipe up or down. You set up your Twitter and FB accounts, and then set the frequency that they will refresh. Kind of annoying… it doesn’t seem there is a way to send a Tweet or an FB post from TimeScape directly. Instead you tap on the individual “card” to which you want to respond and it will open the browser and load the mobile page for twitter or FB. I wish I could tweet directly from TimeScape. TimeScape can also be set as your default “Home” screen (or skin, if you will) so that those floating Twitter, FB, or other feed towers are always on screen. This can be cool for people who are all about the social media thing, but that’s not me. Also, the images used in the Twitter and FB tower feeds seem rather “low-res” and not very impressive.
• MediaScape™: MediaScape is very smooth, very slick, and very cool. It’s not even a contest between MediaScape and the default HTC gallery or music player (I don’t have Sense UI, so I can’t compare to that). This is something I would enjoy showing other people when pulling out this phone! Two thumbs up. More on MediaScape when I have time. (For those who don’t know, MediaScape is a photo gallery, music app, video viewer all rolled in to one, and supports adding online services directly. For example in the photo gallery you can directly add support for FB or Picasa, but apparently not Flickr. What!?! Right?!)
• The Rogers Stuff: Less of the Rogers stuff that was on the Magic and Dream, but still… Rogers stuff. The Rogers logo shows on bootup (but that doesn’t really bother me). There is an icon for the Rogers MyAccount app, but the app is not actually pre-installed! instead it links to the app in the marketplace. You still have to install it. This replaced the pre-installed icon. There is also a pre-installed “Shop” icon, that goes to the usual Rogers sites in the browser. Attention Rogers… I will never use this! Why bother? Rogers also pre-installs an app called UrMusic. It is a music player, but a horrible one. Those of you with the HTC Magic and Dream… this music player looks worse than that. It’s also pretty pointless since the X10 comes with the MediaScape player that pretty much rolls over UrMusic without even noticing it hit something. I can only assume this app was rushed to be on the X10 in time for launch, but who knows. It seems the only real reason it is there is because you can use it to buy music online (from Rogers?) but it only seems to work when you have a 3G/Data signal so that Rogers can “verify” your device. I was able to connect last night with data on, I assumed my phone was “verified” but now that I don’t have data, it doesn’t let me in. Seems you have to buy your music using your data, and not WiFi, I guess so Rogers can make more money when you go over your limit? Maybe Rogers can clarify for us.
That’s it for my quick GutReactionReview™. So far I like the phone in general, but there are some irritants (but don’t all phones have those?). I will write a more in depth review after more use. Leave questions in the comments, and I’ll try to answer them.
Please visit IWMOPS for original review. You can follow Michael Schmidt on twitter as well.
Yet in the United States, the biofuel juggernaut continues. Legislation passed in 2005 mandated that the production of ethanol reach 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. In 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act upped this mandate to 15 billion gallons and also mandated 20.5 billion gallons by 2015 and 36 billion gallons by 2022. Much of the total ethanol mandate was to be satisfied by corn, the rest by new sources of ethanol, such as cellulose. As a result, the mandate for corn-based ethanol also increased, from 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 under the 2005 legislation to 13 billion gallons by 2012 under the 2007 legislation.
This, in turn, has driven up demand for corn to be used for ethanol production, which was roughly 200 million bushels per year until 2005 and rose to about 800 million bushels per year for 2005 through 2009…
In an analysis of the pressure that this new demand will put on food supplies and prices, one of us, Carlisle Ford Runge, along with colleagues at the University of Minnesota, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Mayo Clinic, traced the ultimate effects of high food prices to poor and malnourished children under the age of five. Using an econometric model developed at the International Food Policy Research Institute, the group determined that about 30 percent of the projected increases in global food prices over the next several decades can be attributed to increased biofuel production worldwide. Increased prices make it harder for poor households to feed themselves, leading to greater malnutrition, especially among children. Since about half of all infant deaths in poor countries are directly connected to malnourishment, any increase in malnourishment will sicken or kill millions of children over the next decade and a half.
From
Against the Grain.
Carlisle Ford Runge and Carlisle Piehl Runge
Foreign Affairs; Jan/Feb2010, Vol. 89 Issue 1, p8-14, 7p
Reprinted in The Australian Financial Review Friday 23 April 2010
In memory of the late Dean Emeritus Ralph H. Kummler, the College of Engineering has established the Ralph H. Kummler Distinguished Achievement Award in Graduate Student Research to recognize distinguished research accomplishments of graduate students. There was a total of 16 highly-qualified candidates for the inaugural award. The College’s Research Advisory Committee made the following recommandations and three of our Biomedical Engineering students were recogninzed for their innovative research:
| Winner: | Kristian Brown | Biomedical Engineering | Advisor: Greg Auner |
|
Honorable Mention: |
|||
| Aditya Belwaldi | Biomedical Engineering | Advisor: King H. Yang | |
| Xinyu Du | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Advisors: Hao Ying and Greg Auner | |
| Radu Florea | Mechanical Engineering | Advisor: Dinu Taraza | |
| Rachel Kast | Biomedical Engineering | Advisor: Greg Auner | |
The awards were presented at the Annual College of Engineering Honors Convocation.
SmrtGuard has updated to v2.22 and it’s made major improvements. It now includes Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam for the BlackBerry. SmrtGuard offers lite versions and pro versions of their applications. I think security is important in light of how fast technology advances. SmrtGuard has given us an offer for you…
I reviewed the last update by SmrtGuard before the addition of the Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam here. I really like the capabilities that it offers, now it’s even more comprehensive. The Anti-Virus scans your apps for you to keep you safe from Spyware, and the Anti-Spam is like a blacklist to keep the calls from those you don’t want away. If you are a current subscriber, check for updates, and update now. You’ll be happy you did. If you don’t have SmrtGuard, you might want to wonder why…
Now here’s the contest..I have twenty one month subscriptions of SmrtGuard Pro to giveaway, and we want you to tell us why you would benefit from SmrtGuard, what feature you would use most or what protection you value most. We’ll pick the top twenty best answers, good luck!
You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…
This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.
SmrtGuard Updates To v2.22, And Offers A Special Birthday Offer For Our Readers
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Despite Gallup’s attempt to spin this as a “still positive” result, the 8 point drop in American’s attitudes towards the environmental movement is indicative of a growing trend. Whether as a result of partisan blinders attempting to denounce the environmental movement as a fraud or simply as a result of attention being given over to the failing economy, the environmental effort in America is losing support. (more…)
In order to create a common system, IEC issued in October 2008 the norm IEC 60034-30. It’s a new classification sytem of efficiency that replaces the CEMEP one (to be clear, the one of “Eff.1, Eff.2, and Eff.3” motors).
It’s based on that and on the Regulation (EC) nr 640/2009 of 22 July 2009 that:
– From June 2011, the motors with efficiency lower than IE-2 will be forbidden
– From 2015, the minimum efficiency for motors from 7,5 to 375kW will be l’IE-3, and
– From 2017, the obligation of IE-3 will be extended to the motors from 0,75kW to 5,5kW
If not interest in CO2 emissions, surely, what mainly matters to the user is the BILL EFFECT: The purchase cost of a motor is about 2-3% of the total costs of its life. The balance is energy consumption costs. Comparing Eff.1 motors to Eff.2, the purchase price difference is recovered in about one year of energy saving.
We also remember the DURABILITY EFFECTS: Higher efficiency motors heat less, slowing
down the aging cycle of the insulating materials and living longer. Eff.1 motors can live
approx 40% longer than Eff.2 motors.
The problem is: can the client trust in the manufacturer’s declarations about the efficiency of the offered motors?
What does Motive do in this scenario?
– the data declared in catalogues is backed by the probative test-reports uploaded in motive web-site (each declared data, we remind it, is in fact supported, detailed and proven by such test reports)
– Eff.2 Motive motors are often offering an efficiency abundantly above the min allowed level, permits to several Eff.2 Motive motors to be already classifiable as IE-2 “high efficiency”. Before 2011, anyway, all those motors that do not yet reach IE-2 efficiency level will be improved.
– “Eff.1” motors are already available, and most of them are already IE3 “premium
efficiency”.
– The test reports end data truth of Eff1 Motive motors has been certified by IMQ,
the main Italian certification body for electrical appliances. The same, in fact,
in September 2008 has firstly inspected and qualified our internal laboratory
according to the norm IEC/ISO17025, and then supervised the internal tests on a
sampling list of Eff.1 motors, including some 6 and 8 poles in order to enclose further
values that, out of CEMEP classifications, were already established by some Countries
laws.
With the release of the latest version of the building thermography software Fornax 2, InfraTec GmbH provides an efficient tool for the evaluation and documentation of thermographic building recording, especially for energy advisors. The software simplifies thermographic building analysis as well as expert opinions in a more efficient way.
Being the result of a long-time experienced building thermography service provider, FORNAX has been developed for practical purposes, such as analysing, evaluating and documenting building thermography recording. It turns thermographic cameras of the InfraTec product series VarioCAM®, VarioCAM® high resolution and VARIOSCAN into efficient control and analysis tools for architects, engineers, facility managers, craftsmen and energy advisors. The latest version of FORNAX 2 allows customers to carry out thermographic building analysis in a simplified way and to furnish expert opinions.
AGME, leader in the manufacture of Special Assembly machines, incorporates the Clinching Technology to its machines in its desire to offer its customers comprehensive solutions for automating their assembly processes.
Clinching is a joining method for intersperse joining of sheets of mild steel, aluminium or stainless steel without the need for auxiliary joining pieces or additional material. It is suitable for joining different types of materials and sheets of different thicknesses.
The applications of the customized machines AGME designs with clinching technology, are very extensive in diverse industries such as:
– Automotive: car door frames, roof frames, bonnets, tailgates, windows lifters, seats panels, exhaust drier,
– Household appliances: housing, supports, angles, etc
– Furniture: shelf plates, supports, drawers,
– Air conditioning; cabinets, filter holder, etc
Packaging machines for grouping ,picking and placing cups/containers into carton trays/boxes .
Capacity : 5000-43000 cup/hour
Company Profile
LIAD ENGINEERING is a company that specializes in the design and manufacture of automatic systems concentrating its activity in the area îf packaging systems and handling machines. The company is based on a team of engineers whospecialize in automation and have been working in this field since 1977
LIAD ENGINEERING has wide engineering capabilities in mechanical pneumatic and hydraulic systems design , electronic and electric planning.
The company employs mechanical , electrical engineers and technicians , and has wide marketing and engineering capabilities to sell and carry out installations of mechanical , electric , pneumatic and hydraulic systems.
LIAD ENGINEERING manufactures and installs projects in the food , pharmaceutical , chemical as well as metal industries .
Among the systems that the company has developed and
manufactured are special purpose machines , packaging machines ,carton erectors , tray / case stackers and close loop servo systems.
Most of the machines are controlled and activated by electric and pneumatic actuators while using electronic controllers ( P.L.C.& Servo) further more LIAD ENGINEERING has the knowledge and experience dealing with systems that are manufactured from stainless steel
The main systems LIAD ENGINEERING is manufacturing are packaging for products filled and sealed in plastic containers, pauchase & other different products that are packed in plastic boxes, carton trays/cases or wrap around cartons.
Those are systems combined with the filing machines and constitute a full automatic packing line.
Beside of the production activity LIAD ENGINEERING is offering consulting and designing services for fully integrated filling & packaging lines
The company has the ability to offer solutions in a wide range of filling& packing issues for a large sort of products.
Leading food companies as Nestle, Unilever, Danon-Strauss, Coca-Cola, Tnuva & Carlsberg are part of LIAD’s customers.
The extensive knowledge of the food industry, and the wide range of technical experience that the company holds does greatly assist the marketing ,consulting and the selling activities and enables to give technical back – up, installation and after sales services on the highest level.
Situations can arise that may cause damage to goods or even injury to persons whenever you have to lift loads and/or goods that are longer than your current forklift truck forks. Loads can tip forwards when there is an insufficient load-bearing surface supporting the load while lifting.
MSE-Forks is the world’s largest manufacturer of hydraulic forklift truck forks so-called KOOI-ReachForks with over twenty-five years of experience. When hydraulic forks extensions are not frequently used they will be probably too expensive. For those applications MSE-Forks has designed an alternative. Extensive expertise in the field of bending and sheet metalworking has resulted in new and manually extendible slide-on fork extensions that meet the most stringent quality standards. Using special sheet metalworking techniques, a slide-on extension has been created that is partially open along its lower surface, but has the characteristics of a closed sleeve.
This unique design provides the following major benefits:
Loads can be handled where the load centre (LC) is located beyond the fixed forks’ basic length.
All-round, continuous cross-section without welds.
Lightweight construction compared to a full sleeve cross-section.
Profiled, pointed nose for easy pallet insertion.
Accurate tolerances with minimal play between extension and fork.
Load-bearing capacity of slide-on extensions has been calculated to be compatible with fixed forks with a maximum yield strength of 836 N/mm².
Strength comply with three-fold nominal load on 0.9* L.
Safety Issues:
Insertion length should be a minimum of 60% for open and closed extensions.
Contact always your lift truck dealer for the residual load capacity rating.
Special MSExtensions® Features
Lateral clearance between fork and extension minimized to increase safety.
Bending radii can be made extremely small using special-purpose folding press blades that allow extensions to be slid onto forks with a minimal clearance.
Lateral movement with respect to forks minimized.
All MSExtensions® subject to rigorous risk analysis.
Increased Extension Lifetime
The underside of the extensions can be fitted with a wear plate that is welded into the gap of the folded section. This adds virtually no extra thickness to the sleeve, but increases its lifetime considerably. All extensions are galvanized to prevent corrosion in compliance with standard 20405-Zn and the safety catch is made from nickel-chrome steel.
The BlueWave® LED Prime UVA high-intensity spot curing system offers many advantages over conventional spot curing systems including…no bulbs to change, cool cures, no warm-up, and constant intensity for thousands of hours.
The BlueWave LED Prime UVA generates curing energy using high-intensity LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). This system emits maximum light intensity output through a 5 mm diameter lightguide, and allows users to adjust intensity output from 0% to 100%. The relatively narrow frequency band produced by LEDs generates cooler curing temperatures.
The BlueWave LED Prime UVA is excellent for spot curing of various coatings, as well as adhesive bonding of polycarbonate, PVC, PET, metal, glass, and many other substrates.
A laser beam expander is designed to increase the diameter of a collimated input beam to a larger collimated output beam. EKSMA OPTICS offers compact Galilean type beam expanders for 1064 nm, 532 nm and 355 nm wavelengths. Compact beam expander has the possibility to be adjusted for the input beam divergence angle to obtain collimated, divergent or focused beam at the output.
PRAB’s wringers efficiently and effectively add value to your scrap while reclaiming 98 percent of valuable cutting fluids using centrifugal force. In addition, dry chips ensure compliance with EPA regulations when transporting chips for recycling. Gravity or air discharge models are available. Process rates of up to 10,000 lb/h can be achieved. Additional chip processing and filtration equipment can be integrated for a full, turnkey processing system.
PRAB
www.prab.com
[email protected]
1-800-968-7722