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If you’re saving up to buy an iPad, don’t do it by sticking your spare cash into an envelope. (Or a sock, for that matter.) As a woman in Palo Alto, Calif. learned, the same “credit or debit cards only” policy that Apple put in place to prevent rampant reselling of iPhones exists for iPads, and no stack of bills can be exchanged for the shiny gadget.

Being disabled and on a fixed income, Campbell held off on buying a computer until the Apple iPad came along. It was small, mobile and perfect for her needs. So, little by little she saved up the $600 she needed to get one.

“It took quite a long time for me to just save up this small amount of money to go down and purchase one,” she said. “I had my cash in the backpack and I went up proudly to the counter and told them, ‘I would like to purchase an iPad.’”

She was at the Apple store in Palo Alto, about to pull out the big wad of cash and take home her first computer. Instead, she received a terrible blow.

“They said, ‘Sorry, we don’t take cash.’ And, so I looked at her and I said, OK she’s kidding,” Campbell recalled.

Customers can purchase iPhones with Apple gift cards, but not their plus-sized cousins. Indeed, Apple’s policy makes it difficult for people without bank accounts to buy the iPad–no matter how carefully they saved up for them.

Cash not always welcome at Apple stores [KGO]

RELATED:
Apple Escorts You From The Store For Trying To Purchase An iPhone With Cash
Your Cash Isn’t Good Enough For Apple’s Precious iPhone

As The Four Seasons said, “Oh, What a Night!”

Yesterday’s primary elections were marked by big anti-incumbent upsets, and one of the most interesting was the Democratic U.S. Senate contest in Arkansas, where incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln received only 45% of the vote, forcing a run-off with upstart challenger Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who got 43%.

What happened in Arkansas? Was it, as labor and progressives say, a populist uprising against Lincoln’s conservative and corporate-friendly voting record? Was it part of the overall anti-Washington mood of the masses?

In reality, Lincoln’s weak showing was due to a variety of factors, some of which offer conflicting lessons

* THE LABOR FACTOR: Only 4.2% of Arkansas workers belong to unions — the second lowest rate in the country — but labor was a huge factor in mobilizing support for Halter. Prompted by Lincoln’s votes and positions on labor’s key issues like health reform (against), the Employee Free Choice Act (against) and financial reform (all over the place), national unions poured major resources into the race and got results.

At its peak, AFL-CIO’s Working America had 45 paid staff in Arkansas, and it claims to have contacted 90,000 people and sent 1.75 million pieces of pro-Halter mailers. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spent $1.5 million in the state and says it reached another 85,400 in the state.

In response, Lincoln was left with complaining about the role of unscrupulous “outsiders” (read: carpetbaggers?) in trying to influence voters. But in a race where Halter and Lincoln were separated by less than 5,000 votes, the direct voter contact and media publicity labor was able to generate for Halter was pivotal in enabling him to force a run-off.

* THE RURAL/URBAN DIVIDE: But the fact that labor flexed its muscle in this race is far different from the conclusion that Politico comes to, which is that liberal “activists” were the reason Halter forced a runoff.

On the contrary, Arkansas’ progressive Democratic strongholds (such as they are) aren’t what propelled Halter to his strong showing.

Take, for example, Pulaski County — home of Little Rock, one-third African-American, a key Democratic base and the most voter-rich county in Arkansas. If Halter is a favorite of progressive Democrats, this is just the kind of place he should have won.

But Lincoln won Pulaski County with 52% of the vote; Halter only got 40%, even though it’s his home base. This suggests the pre-election analysis put forward by Arkansas columnist John Brummet may have held: Whatever their disillusionment with Lincoln, Democratic voters stayed with the known-quantity incumbent against a challenger they viewed as too risky.

* ANTI-BLANCHE, BUT PRO-WHAT? The fact that Halter beat in Lincoln in conservative, rural districts but lost in the progressive strongholds suggests that something else was at work. The Arkansas Blog credits Republican mischief, or GOP voters who crossed over in the open primary to vote for the Democrat they thought they had the best of chance of beating in November.

There’s also the reality of Lincoln’s low poll numbers, which drove even conservative Democrats to vote for an ABB (Anyone But Blanche). That “anyone” included D.C. Morrison, the right-wing Democrat who took third place in the primary with 13% of the vote.

So in the Lincoln vs. Halter runoff, where will the Morrison voters, anti-Blanchites and even the few stray cross-over Republicans (who will be much less of a factor, given that they’ll have no other races of interest) end up?

There’s no way of telling, but it likely won’t neatly follow the “liberal vs. moderate” narrative the national media wants it to follow.

During REM sleep, where most dreaming takes place, your eyes move around but it’s never been clear exactly why. A new study just published online by neuroscience journal Brain suggests that they are looking at the ever-changing dream world.

The first question you might ask is how the researchers knew what the dreamers were looking at. To study this, the project recruited people with a condition called REM sleep behaviour disorder who lack the normal sleep paralysis that keeps us still when we dream.

In other words, people with REM sleep behaviour disorder act out their dreams. We’ve discussed the fascinating condition before as it gives an outside view to the inner dream life of the affected person.

In this case, the researchers, led by neuroscientist Laurène Leclair-Visonneau, used electrodes to monitor the eye-muscle movements of 56 patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder and 17 healthy controls in a sleep lab, while also videoing their night-time movements.

The research team initially looked to see if there was a major difference in rapid eye movements between people with the condition and those without. They found that the groups were statistically indistinguishable – meaning that the sleep disorder wasn’t likely to be affecting the eye-movements themselves.

Knowing that REM eye-movements were not abnormal in people who acted out their dreams, the team then looked at the video and picked out where patients completed a ‘goal directed action’ while dreaming – such as picking up a dream object or reaching out to touch something.

By synchronising the videoed actions with the eye muscle recordings during REM sleep the researchers found that the eyes were fixed on the dream target 90% of the time.

In other words, when the eyes move during REM sleep they are looking at something in the dream world.

The eyes seem genuinely to be a bridge between the land of dream consciousness and waking life.

Link to PubMed entry for REM and dreaming study.

Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly sent 20-year-old reporter Liu Zhi Yi undercover in Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen, China. For 28 days, he experienced dreadful conditions that the factory’s 400,000 employees endure, churning out iPods, iPads, and iPhones for Apple nonstop. More »

So check this out, we’ve been waiting for iPhone tethering since the original device, and when Apple built tethering into iPhone OS 3.0, we figured that was where our dreams would turn to reality—but of course, in the US, this is AT&T we’re dealing with, which means…we are still waiting a year later. However, in the just-released iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4, there’s finally an option to enable tethering, and when you tap it, you are instructed to contact AT&T at 611 or to visit the AT&T website to add tethering to your account.

Obviously, there’s been progress here. Still, no word from AT&T as to when they will give us tethering. Also interesting that this news comes well after the launch of the iPad 3G, as we’re sure that many iPhone owners that bought the 3G model of the iPad would have just gone with a Wi-Fi model if they knew tethering was around the corner, right?

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IEA has issued a “call to action” on legislation awaiting Governor Pat Quinn’s signature.

IEA members are asked to encourage Gov. Quinn to use his amendatory veto power to make changes to HB6065, which would force a school employee to administer insulin to a student. (Download HB 6065 fact sheet)

IEA opposed the bill and worked with the Illinois School Nurses Association (a group affiliated with IEA-NEA) to try to defeat the legislation.

All IEA members are urged to:

1. Call the Statehouse at 217/782-2000 and ask to be connected to the governor’s office.
2. Once connected, please state your name and the school where you work.
3. Ask that the following message be given to the governor:

“I would like the governor to use his amendatory veto to remove the section of House Bill 6065 that requires ‘Delegated Care Aides’ to administer insulin to students.”

“Thank you.”

It is believed that calls from IEA members echoing the message IEA lobbyists and leaders have been delivering on this bill will give the organization the best chance for success.

Please contact IEA Government Relations with any questions.

[JURIST] The French Cabinet on Wednesday approved legislation [materials, in French] that would make it illegal to wear the Islamic burqa [JURIST news archive] or other full face veils in public. Under the bill, women who wear the veil can be required by police to show their face, and, if they refuse, they can be forced to attend citizenship classes or be charged a USD $185 fine. The proposed legislation would also make it a crime [Al Jazeera report] to force a woman to cover her face, with a penalty of one year in prison and a fine of USD $18,555. French President Nicholas Sarkozy [official website, in French] indicated he was pleased with the bill [press release, in French] and that its passage is an important step toward insuring the fundamental value of human dignity, but the proposed legislation has also been met with criticism. Amnesty International [advocacy website] has called on French lawmakers to reject the ban [press release], saying would violate freedom of expression. Others have indicated they will challenge [AP report] the constitutionality of the ban [JURIST report] if the bill becomes law. The legislation is scheduled to be voted on by the National Assembly in July and the Senate [official websites, in French] in September.

Many jurisdictions are currently considering legislation that would ban the burqa. On Tuesday, hearings began [CBC report] in Quebec’s legislature on a bill introduced in March that would ban women from wearing full face veils from public services. The proposed legislation garnered support from members of the Muslim Canadian Congress [advocacy website] who argue that the law would not violate human rights [JURIST comment] and would promote the ideals of a free and democratic society. Earlier this month, European Parliament [official website] Vice President Silvana Koch-Mehrin [official website, in German] expressed her support for a continent-wide burqa ban [JURIST report]. In April, the Belgian House of Representatives voted 136-0 to approve [JURIST report] a bill that would ban the burqa and other full face veils in public. The proposed legislation [materials, in French] applies to areas “accessible to the public” or areas meant for “public use or to provide public services.” Violators could face a penalty of up to seven days in jail or a fine of 15 to 25 euros. The measure must now go before the Senate.

Just came across smart ubuntu online radio client — radiotray. As it comes from its name radiotray sits in Ubuntu’s system tray and just plays online radio (see the screenshot taken on my Ubuntu Lucid Lynx). You can of course stop playing or select different channel (there are four channels coming by default). I found this utility useful when working as it doesn’t required to keep in RAM such monster like amarok just for listening the radio. Nice and simple application.

The metal poles that carry power lines across the country, which measure up to 12 feet in diameter and 100 feet in height, are built to take whatever blows at them. But transmission poles still can fail under the stress of extreme ice and wind, and they could be vulnerable to an infrastructure attack. When one falls, others are pulled down until heavy dead-end structures stop the cascading collapse. Jon “Matt” Rouse, assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at Iowa State University, and civil engineering graduate student Casey Faber designed a pole that not only resists cascading failures but also is cheaper and easier to use. The hinged poles don’t require a crane for installation, and if they’re exposed to an extreme load they could be repaired rather than replaced. They would resist cascading failures so utilities could eliminate expensive dead-end structures. And they would allow power companies to provide better and more reliable service.

The key to the technology is a new approach to structural design based primarily on deformation ability rather than strength, resulting in a nominally rectangular pole with a built-in hinge near the base. Metal plates on either side of the hinge act as replaceable structural fuses that stretch and buckle when the pole sustains an extreme load, allowing it to deflect while shielding the rest of the pole from damage. Tendon cables run up and down the inside of the pole to resist stretching and keep the pole upright. When a failure occurs, the fuses bend, the hinge pivots, the interior cables tighten, and nearby poles pick up some of the load. The researchers have successfully tested a prototype pole and are working to secure a patent. Utility and power structure industries have expressed interest in their technology, they add.

Source: PhysOrg.com

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Google today began pushing its Wave collaboration tool again, hoping to attract both users and developers with new features.

Firstly, for users, Google is dropping the “invitation-only” velvet rope from the collaboration tool, and now anybody can sign up just by going to wave.google.com and logging in with their gmail or Google account.

Just about six months ago, Google opened the beta of Wave to about 100,000 users, and the new tool was swept up by the media and users alike, both of whom struggled to succinctly describe what, exactly, Google Wave was and who it was ideally suited for.

In the official Wave blog, Stephanie Hannon, Product Manager on the Google Wave Team laid out five situations where Wave comes in handy: Business, Education, Creative Collaboration, Organizations and Conferences, and Journalism, and pushed out a video reminding us why Wave is useful.

For developers, some announcements about Wave were made during Google I/O today. You can now: run robots on any server (not just in App Engine) in the language of your choice; Use a robot to manipulate and retrieve attachments within a wave; “Wave This,” which lets visitors to your site create waves out of your content; Fetch waves on behalf of users with Wave data APIs.

Both Wave itself and its APIs are still in Google Labs, because, as Pamela Fox, Developer Relations, on the Google Wave Team said, “We think it’s important to stay flexible when creating a whole new paradigm in web based communication and collaboration. We want to be able to respond to your feedback, and we still have a lot left to do to make the vision a reality.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

New Jersey is going a shade greener, this time with an all green port. A new container port is being built in Bayonne, New Jersey. Being constructed together by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the port will consume energy equivalent to that used to power up 2,000 homes! But fear not! Put your skin back on, the wind will do the work of powering up this port, without exhausting the grid. The port is currently being chiseled out, and the wind turbines will follow suit. Five 288 foot tall turbines will be built on a 70 acre area just east of the Global Terminal. The port will play host to huge cargo ships increasing the cargo intake above its current 323,000 containers annually. After all, there isn’t a better way to power up a port than the wind itself, earlier responsible for powering up old sail-boats too.
Source

If you use Ubuntu (or other Linux distribution) and you wish to download some video from youtube.com into .flv file you can try using youtube-dl command line utility. It just downloads videos without any online applications, converters or etc. Type the following command in terminal to get it installed:

sudo apt-get install youtube-dl
Let’s imagine you would like to download the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2leg8mUE9rs (this is part of Military Parade at Red Square in Russia at 9th of May 2010). Just run youtube-dl download utility as follows:

youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2leg8mUE9rs

and in a few minutes you will get 2leg8mUE9rs.flv file that could be viewed using almost any video player like my favorite one VLC.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a diagnostic tool to detect heart attacks using a person’s saliva. The technology is being tested at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. John T. McDevitt, PhD, professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice, and his team at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, developed a microchip sensor called the Nano-Bio-Chip that analyzes saliva and looks for cardiac biomarkers of injury implicated in the heart attack. “We find salivary tests, when combined with electrocardiograms (ECG), can provide more accurate information than the ECG alone for patients with chest pain,” McDevitt explains.

Typically, when a heart attack occurs, emergency medical technicians or hospital staff use an ECG machine to review heart activity. If the ECG is abnormal, the patient is immediately moved to an area to be treated. Unfortunately, ECGs fail to correctly diagnose about one-third of patients having a heart attack. These patients are monitored carefully in the emergency room using additional blood tests to look for certain biomarkers to verify whether a heart attack has occurred. “We follow this same procedure but include the saliva test to determine whether salivary biomarkers will perform similar to blood markers in diagnosing a heart attack,” says Biykem Bozkurt, MD, professor of medicine at BCM and chief of cardiology at the MEDVAMC. “It is anticipated that saliva will be an alternative or complementary technique to blood drawing for early diagnosis of heart attacks — ultimately, for testing in the ambulance before arrival in the emergency room.”

To obtain a saliva sample for the Nano-Bio-Chip, health care providers swab a patient’s gums with a cotton-tipped stick. The saliva is transferred to the disposable diagnostic microchip, which is then inserted into an analyzer. Within a few minutes, the saliva sample is checked and results delivered. Manufactured with techniques pioneered by the microelectronics industry, the chips have the potential to analyze large amounts of biomarker data at significantly lower cost than traditional tests, McDevitt says.

Source:  EurekAlert!

Pennsylvania’s department of community and economic development (DCED) is partnering with the federal government to help commercialize emerging technologies and expand the commonwealth’s research opportunities, according to DCED Secretary George Cornelius. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority inked the five-year Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) to increase the flow of ARS technologies to Pennsylvania’s small businesses, colleges and universities, and research institutions. The authority is one of nine economic development agencies nationwide chosen to partner with ARS as part of the agricultural technology innovation partnership program network.

The agreement is designed to enhance product development, commercialization, and economic development opportunities for Pennsylvania companies. It also will help Pennsylvania’s companies and researchers access ARS’ national network of research labs, and IP. “Up-and-coming technology companies, entrepreneurs, and researchers are critical to Pennsylvania’s future,” Cornelius says. “This agreement will expand Pennsylvania’s research and intellectual property base.”

Source:  PR Newswire

Who said beer drinking is bad for the environment? It might have been, but beer manufacturing is clearing up its act, and choosing to go green, to produce the world’s favorite alcoholic beverage. Well, Anheuser-Busch have decided to use solar energy help them aide beer manufacturing. The brewery at Newark, NJ brewery will generate about 525,000 kilowatt hours a year of solar power. The array will be set up on the roof of the brewery and will power up the machinery used to make that cool glass of golden frothing liquid. The system, designed and installed by Orion Energy Systems is just another green initiative taken by the company. Anheuser-Busch also uses wastewater-to-biogas recovery systems at 10 of its 12 U.S. breweries. Cheers to the green beer!
Source

(DISCLAIMER: This guest post comes courtesy of OilPrice.com. BusinessInsider has not independently verified any of the report)

In an exclusive for Oilprice.com, the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) has learned from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sources that U.S. Navy submarines deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast have detected what amounts to a frozen oil blob from the oil geyser at the destroyed Deep Horizon off-shore oil rig south of Louisiana.

The Navy submarines have trained video cameras on the moving blob, which remains frozen at depths of between 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Because the oil blob is heavier than water, it remains frozen at current depths.

FEMA and Corps of Engineers employees are upset that the White House and the Pentagon remain tight-lipped and in cover-up mode about the images of the massive and fast-moving frozen coagulated oil blob that is being imaged by Navy submarines that are tracking its movement. The sources point out that BP and the White House conspired to withhold videos from BP-contracted submersibles that showed the oil geyser that was spewing oil from the chasm underneath the datum of the Deep Horizon at rates far exceeding originally reported amounts. We have learned that it was largely WMR’s scoop on the existence of the BP videos that forced the company and its White House patrons to finally agree to the release of the video footage.

The White House is officially stating that it does not know where the officially reported 10 miles long by 3 miles wide “plume” is actually located or in what direction it is heading. However, WMR’s sources claim the White House is getting real-time reports from Navy submarines as to the blob’s location. We have learned that the blob is transiting the Florida Straits between Florida and Cuba, propelled by the Gulf’s Loop Current, and that parts of it that is encountering warmer waters are breaking off into smaller tar balls that are now washing ashore in the environmentally-sensitive Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas.

Corps of Engineers and FEMA officials are also livid about the cover-up of the extent of the oil damage being promulgated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its marine research vessel in the Gulf, RV Pelican. NOAA stands accused by the aforementioned agencies of acting as a virtual public relations arm for BP. NOAA is a component of the business-oriented Department of Commerce.

Similarly, the Coast Guard, which takes its orders from the cover-up operatives at the Homeland Security Department, is denying the tar balls washing up on the Florida Keys are from the oil mass. WMR has been told the Coast Guard is lying in order to protect the Obama administration, which has thoroughly failed in its response to the disaster. The White House’s only concern is trying to limit political damage to its image in the electorally-important state of Florida while the Pentagon has spent between $25 and $30 billion on oil spill operations in the Gulf and the Atlantic to date.
 
WMR sources also report that the oil mass has resulted in dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that have cut off oxygen and killed massive numbers of marine creatures and plant life. Seafood wholesalers from the Gulf Coast to New Jersey and New York have been told that the supply of shrimp, oysters, and other seafood from the Gulf is severely in short supply and that they can expect a possible total cut-off as the situation worsens. The shortage will also affect the supply of seafood, especially shrimp, to national seafood restaurant chains like Red Lobster and Long John Silver’s.

There is also evidence that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean sank a drill to a depth of 35,000 feet at the Deep Horizon site some six months ago without the required permits from the federal government. WMR has learned from U.S. government sources that the drilling at 35,000 feet caused a major catastrophic event that required the firms’ oil rig personnel to quickly pull up the drill and close the drill hole.

However, the Deep Horizon re-sank the drill some six months after the unspecified “catastrophe,” resulting in another, more destructive chain of events following the explosion that destroyed the rig, killing eleven workers. When the Deep Horizon blew up, WMR has been told it also “blew down,” cracking the the sub-seabed pipe that may have been re-drilled to a depth of between 25,000 to 30,000 feet, again, without a government permit.

Government sources also report that BP is intent on recovering as much oil as possible from the undersea geyser rather than simply plugging and capping the well, which would then place it off-limits to further drilling. The Corps of Engineers reports that BP is playing a game with Obama, convincing him of the feasibility of “shooting junk” into the subterranean pipe, which would stop up the pipe with a manufactured chemical compound called “MUD.” However, WMR has been informed that BP actually intends to shoot cement into the pipe in an attempt to cap the well with the later intention of digging a trench for side drilling from the pipe to recover as much oil as possible. The technology that would be employed by BP is the same technology that was used by Kuwait to conduct slant drilling of Iraq’s Rumallah oil field — an event that helped trigger Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Corps of Engineers and FEMA sources also give a failing grade to both Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who stands accused of being woefully incompetent in handling the disaster, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Government sources say both secretaries should immediately step down or be fired.

This is a guest post by The Wayne Madsen Report from Oilprice.com.

Join the conversation about this story »

Two timely distance learning events are on tap next month, addressing two key challenges for licensing, tech transfer, and IP marketing professionals.

On Tuesday, June 8th, join an outstanding panel of experts for Use Social Media to Effectively Market Your Innovations. They’ll reveal how they are successfully utilizing social media to garner attention for their technologies, create an active community surrounding their innovations, and bring more licensees in the door. The webinar will be chock full of best practices, online examples, and dozens of planning techniques and execution strategies that are guaranteed to successfully showcase your IP to a highly targeted audience. CLICK HERE for complete program and faculty details.

The following Tuesday, June 15th, The Perfect Elevator Pitch: Sell Your IP in 3 Minutes or Less! features veteran VC exec Eric Nicolaides, managing partner of Wildcat Venture Management. Nicolaids, who’s given and heard hundreds of elevator pitches, will share his know-how and provide a blueprint for grabbing your prospect’s attention and securing that all-important first meeting. CLICK HERE for full details.

Also coming soon:

• SPECIAL 6-PART SERIES! Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors — Every Thursday, June 3rd – July 8th
• Prevent Faculty Disputes from Turning Into a Declaration of War — Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A while back I asked for submissions from theme developers. I feel like we go back to the same developers in this feature. While that’s not a bad thing — we go back to them because they consistently create useful themes — I also like to vary the pool from which we choose. While there’s one mainstay featured in today’s post, we also have something from John Konduros, who emailed me regarding his Groovy theme. We’ll lead off with that one.

(more…)

The titans meet, and produce enough of green energy to power up 1,800 homes. If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, get a hold of this. The giant 2.5-megawatt dynamometer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory supplied 12.6 million inch pounds of torque at Samsung’s 185,000-pound wind turbine drive train. When a giant meets a giant, the earth is bound to rumble and roar. And that’s exactly what happened at this largest full-scale dynamometer test of a wind turbine drive train ever done in the United States. The NREL 2.5-megawatt dynamometer is powerful enough to produce speeds up to 30 revolutions per minute. The test enabled the Samsung guys understand just how well their 250-foot-high “baby” would survive in harsh weather conditions for 25 years. One hell of a test, this one sure will help Samsung’s green dream fulfill.

Source

Materials: IKEA PS SPRAKA Spice Mill Black Qty 3

Description: Inspired by the modern design aesthetic of Marcel Wanders‘ New Antiques Collection and Front Design Group’s IKEA PS SVARVA Lamp, I realized that there is really Great design in Ikea’s latest Collection. So I decided to apply my own spin and create a coffee table.

1) Qty 3 Ikea PS Spraka Spice Mills in Black
2) One 33 inch round by 1 inch thick white laminate top
3) One 36 inch round Ogee edged glass top
4) 2 feet by 2 inch unfinished wood crown molding with a slight angle cut into 8 inch pieces (The angle helps to tilt the Spice Mills out just a bit to take the table from ordinary to inspired.)
5) Three 2 1/2 inch wood or mdf screws
6) Twelve 1 inch wood or mdf screws
7) Three clear silicone self-adhesive bumpers
8) 120 grit sand paper
9) Gorilla Glue
10) Permanent Black Marker

Process
1) Pre-drill one hole in each spice mill 1 1/2 inches from the bottom end of the mill. Drill at approximately 60 degree angle in order for the drill bit to exit near the center of the base. Touch up drill holes with the permanent marker. (You will have to allow for countersinking the screws)

2)Take the 3 – 8 inch pieces of crown molding and center them on the bottom of the Spice Mills, apply a little glue if you like. Then take 2 – 1 inch screws and attach the molding angle side down to the spice mills.

3) Measure and mark placement of each of the 3 Spice Mills on the underside of the white table top.

4) Now sand the laminate table where attaching the three 8 inch pieces of crown molding. Apply a line of glue to molding then place them unfinished side down and screw into place with 2 – 1 inch screws equally spaced. Then secure each leg with a 2 1/2 inch screw into the bottom of the laminate table.

5) Leave table upside down to allow for the glue to dry.

6) Invert newly constructed table, mark placement of the silicone bumpers and attach them.

7) Place the 36″ clear glass top inverted on the table.

~ john b