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It seems Gearbox Software has more love on the way for Borderlands players, if these newly sighted Trophies are anything to go by.

Raquel and Oscar from Bilbao, Spain, send us a trio of hacks. I’m pretty taken by the bench, composed from Lack side tables and Adel drawer fronts. Nice one. If you have a tight corner, this is definitely a solution you can consider.

Kitchen bench
Bench for the kitchen, made with four Lack side tables (4,99€ x 4 units= 19,96€), covered with Ädel drawer fronts taken from the as-is section (0,50€ x 44 units = 22,00€). Everything fixed with carpenter’s glue and small metal squares. All the set for 41,96 €. Very cheap!! The back is topped with ceramic mosaic.

Carved Snudda
The Snudda lazy susan, carved by my father. Smart!

Reusable shopping bag
From the Elisabet fabric, hand sewn.

For tight muscles, sore muscles or tender trigger points, on treatment option is to use a natural pain relief gel like icy hot, bengay, or biofreeze.

A recent University of Louisville study compared Biofreeze and ice, and their effect on pain, blood flow, and muscle function.
While they both reduced blood flow, Biofreeze Natural Pain Relief Gel actually did it much quicker. Both the ice and Biofreeze reduced pain. The one difference was that Biofreeze showed significant increase in muscle function where the ice did not.

Biofreeze works similar to ice in how it helps to heal. Ice therapy initially constricts local blood vessels and decreases tissue temperature. This constriction decreases blood flow and cell metabolism, which can limit hemorrhage and cell death in an acute traumatic injury.
The fact that Biofreeze was able to help restore muscle function was significant because allowing muscles and ligaments to work like they should reflects that nerve function is also better.

In our Central CT office, we use ice after muscle therapy and sometimes following adjustments, or we give home icing instructions. We also do the same with Biofreeze. The reason is to speed the healing process. We have found both to be natural means of getting our patients better faster. One of the nice things is that you don’t need to be in the office to use them; both can be utilized right at home.

Additional Reading Resources:

• How to Treat Tight Muscles Using Biofreeze
• Hot and Cold Therapy for Pain Relief
• My Trapezius Really Hurts, How Do I Find Relief?
• Neck Muscles Most Responsible For Your Stiff Neck And Trigger Points: The Levator Scapulae and Trapezius
• Treating Neck Pain without Surgery or Medication

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.

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London, Envirogen Recruitment Solutions

A fantastic opportunity with a real global blue chip company. We are looking for an experienced Energy Policy Advisor to be based in London.

Job Purpose

Support the management of stakeholder relationships in order to understand and influence energy policy within the United Kingdom and European Union.
 

Key Accountabilities
Lead understanding in development of UK and European policy and regulatory instruments for renewable energy and linked climate change issues.
Track the business, technical and commercial threats and opportunities from emerging instruments for renewable energy and climate change, taking account of developments.
Develop Company lobbying positions consistent with Company policy and ambitions. Ensure that the companies interests are fully represented and promoted, including representing the Company’s views in a variety of forums.
Identify the need and provide supporting analysis to influence the key decision makers in the energy environment and support the development of Energy Branch energy policy positions.
Provide regular updates, advice and guidance to management on energy policy issues.
Document policy compliance issues affecting Energy Branch, analysing the compliance requirements. Ensure the requirements are communicated to the Business Operations team.
 

Scope of Role
This post is empowered to take decisions necessary to the performance of the Job Purpose and Key Accountability areas of this role.
The post will also be expected to contribute to decisions related, for example, to changes in major processes or accountabilities, which will be made by the manager of the Strategy, Regulation & Planning team.
 

Key Knowledge and Skills Required
A wide and developed knowledge of the UK Energy sector, particularly in terms of environmental legislation, market operation, regulation and compliance requirements.
Detailed understanding of renewable energy policy & legislation.
Strong analytical skills and a demonstrated ability to provide detailed analysis in support of business decisions.
Understanding of the development of International and European regulatory instruments looking to address climate change, including the Kyoto Protocol.
Detailed knowledge of Energy Policy issues.
Experience in lobbying and developing legislation through political channels.
Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to develop a strong network of contacts in industry and Government.

 

 

I’ve been following in recent weeks the horrifying bill in Uganda that would allow for death sentences for LGBT people with HIV and life sentences for others. While some are still predicting that the bill will pass, the international outrage over the proposal seems to be growing, and there’s still hope that Ugandan lawmakers will wake up to the human rights atrocity they’re committing and change course on this law.

Protesters will rally against the bill tomorrow outside the Ugandan High Commission in London, on International Human Rights Day.

Michael Jones wrote last week on the change.org Gay Rights blog that a high profile Ugandan Christian leader is urging leaders to abandon the bill, comparing it to a “gay genocide.” (And this is from a guy who calls homosexuality ‘unacceptable’ and ‘sinful’). Michael also reported that Sweden has announced it will cut aid to Uganda if the bill passes. Other countries should follow Sweden’s lead.

The bill goes even further than the death and life sentences I mentioned above. It also includes prison sentences for people who fail to turn in LGBT acquaintances, and even for landlords who rent to LGBT people. It’s a witch hunt.

(more…)

This should throw some cold water on the 'weak dollar explains the market' camp. This includes even many professional traders, who frequently just sort of adopt market memes and start repeating, with short memories and a lack of investigative effort. As long as they're making money, and it seems to be due to their skill, then nobody complains.

Yet here is a long-term correlation between the U.S. dollar and stocks, from Morgan Stanley.

Actually, stocks have usually rallied while the U.S. dollar was strengthening. More importantly, it's clear that overall the correlation reverses pretty often, and suddenly. Thus the dollar seems pretty undependable as a signal for stocks. It looks pretty right for a bit... and then it's completely wrong.

Morgan Stanley: First, there is now a tight inverse correlation between the dollar and equity markets. This is unusual: Exhibit 2 shows that equity markets and the dollar usually are positively correlated (so dollar strength goes hand-in-hand with rising equities). Consequently, this correlation could weaken if the dollar strengthens because US growth and rates are expected to rise.

(Via Morgan Stanley, 'Dollar: Ouch', Gerard Minack, 9 December 2009)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• PIMCO: Strong Dollar Supporters Will Create The Next Crisis
• Dollar Worriers: Are They Legitimate, Or Just Cranks Who Hate Obama?
• "Use Google To Make 1000s Of Dollars!" People Sued By Google

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Sedan, Chrysler, Luxury

There’s a Chrysler UK site with the moody, Twilight-esque image you see above called “CHANGE is coming….” It heralds the date of January 1, 2010, and since it has a picture of the Chrysler 300 we’d like to think there will be something new announced for the six-year-old sedan. Perhaps that high zoot dash teased at the New York Auto Show will greet us along with the new year. However, since we haven’t seen anything of it or the car since, it could be something more generic.

Which would be a shame, because we have a long list of wishes for the 300, and we’d be thrilled to discover the Pentastar folks had worked through even a quarter of it. The Detroit Auto Show‘s press days begin on January 11, so we’ll be keen for whatever preview Chrysler has coming. But we do wonder why the UK gets the announcement duties while Chrysler’s U.S. site is silent. Regardless, stay tuned… Hat tip to Aaron

[Source: Chrysler UK]

Chrysler UK says “Change is coming” on New Year’s Day originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problem that brought the banking system to its knees, you’ll recall, was that loan losses wiped out the banks’ equity. 

To remain solvent, banks are required to maintain certain ratios of equity to debt, and the losses on the banks’ boneheaded loans knocked these ratios below the required level.

Normally, when a company’s equity gets wiped out, the company’s bondholders start picking up the tab.  The bondholders are higher in the capital-structure pecking order than the equity holders, so they get their money first, but, normally, this money isn’t guaranteed.   If the bank is so colossally stupid that it wipes out all its equity, then bondholders (usually) have to pay the price.

But when the US government rescued the banks by pumping them full of taxpayer money, they invested the taxpayer money in the form of equity.  As they did so, they protected the bondholders to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar.

This was outrageous–morally and otherwise.  The bondholders were free-willed adults who had voluntarily loaned money to the banks so the banks could lend it to anything with a pulse.  These (extremely well compensated) free-willed adults were saved from paying the price for this stupidity because they scared Tim Geithner the government into thinking that the world would end if they lost money.

Specifically, the bondholders and bankers persuaded the government that they were TOO BIG TO FAIL.  And this concept–the taxpayer must bail out any bank big enough to make headlines–has basically become written into the Constitution.

This is a disaster for everyone but banks and bondholders.  It makes a mockery of the whole premise of capital markets and capitalism–that a good balance of incentives and risk will cause people to behave in a reasonably intelligent manner most of the time (and pay the price if they don’t).  It exacerbates the “moral hazard” that academics and Fed chairmen are always mumbling about (“heads we win, tails the taxpayer loses, so roll away…”).

Banks have understandably fought tooth and nail to prevent any reform of the current system.  For example, banks have argued vociferously that a calamity will befall the country if banks are forced to increase the amount of equity they are required to hold relative to their debt. (What calamity?  Less profit and smaller bonuses.).  And now that the stock market has somewhat recovered, no one cares about financial reform anymore, so bankers stand a good chance of preserving the status quo right up until the next financial crisis.

At this point, the odds that we’ll get any reform at all seem next to nil, but there’s a simple solution that could fix the whole problem.  Shockingly, this solution has actually begun to be implemented in Europe.

What’s the solution?

Debt that automatically converts to equity when a bank’s capital ratio falls below the required level.

What does that mean?  It means that equity holders will still get hit first if the bank makes dumb-ass loans.  But it also means that if the bank makes so many dumb-ass loans that its equity gets wiped out, bondholders, not taxpayers, will pick up the rest of the tab. 

How does it work?

When the bank’s equity falls too far, some of the convertible bonds convert to equity, thus restoring the bank’s capital ratio.

This happens automatically, without bankruptcy or fuss.  It happens without surprise.  It happens without threatening to bring the whole economy to its knees.  It happens without Congressional moaning and hand-wringing and without Treasury secretaries dropping to their knees to beg and plead. 

Bondholders who buy these bonds–now called CoCo’s, or “contingent convertibles”–know full well what they are buying, and the bonds are priced to reflect the equity conversion risk. Lloyds just sold a bunch of these in the UK, and there was a market for them.

To fix the banking system, all regulators would have to do would be to require banks to issue enough CoCos that they could withstand financial Armageddon without the taxpayer getting involved.  The banks’ ability to make huge bets (and huge bonuses) with small amounts of equity would be preserved, so perhaps the bank lobbyists would agree to stand down for a while.  The world could rest assured that SOMETHING had been done to prevent the same mess from happening all over again.  And we could all return to peace, happiness, and prosperity.

---

The FT has an excellent interactive tutorial on bank capital and CoCos here >

 

Graphic: FT

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Young Bank Of America Analysts Forced To Sleep On Beds Made Of Bubble Wrap (BAC)
• Banks Hide Shipping Losses With ‘The Hamburg Valuation’

Remember earlier this year when Latvian blondes decided to hold a march to lift the spirits of Latvia and rescue its economy? It didn’t work.

—–

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvia’s economy shed 19 percent of its value in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, the country’s statistics agency said Wednesday, highlighting the woes in the European Union’s worst economy.

Latvian Statistics said that the third quarter fall in gross domestic product was led by a severe drop in retail trade, down 28.7 percent year-on-year, and construction, down 36 percent.

From January to September Latvia, which is suffering its worst recession on record, saw its economy shrink a total 18.6 percent, the agency said.

The Baltic state is undergoing a drastic correction after four years of stellar growth that followed the country’s membership to the EU. In 2006 the economy grew a dizzying 12.2 percent.

In the past year, however, Latvia’s government has been forced to slash expenditures, raise taxes, and sign onto an emergency bailout loan worth euro7.5 billion ($11 billion) with international lenders in order to prevent bankruptcy.

Unemployment, meanwhile, continues to climb, and last week Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, said Latvia has the highest rate of joblessness in the bloc, at 20.9 percent.

Government officials and economists have said the economy would hit the lowest point sometime this winter, with economic growth likely to resume in 2011.

Latvia’s GDP is expected to fall approximately 18 percent this year, and another 4 percent in 2010.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Everyone’s Freaking Out About Greece Today
• The Ongoing Carnage In Ireland And Spain Shows What Life Is Like For Countries That Can’t Print Like Crazy
• The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default

We’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately getting ready for holiday entertaining and just enjoying the chance to putter around while the weather outside is frightful. The only downside? Sore back, aching shoulders, and tired feet! The company GelPro makes a series of floor mats that promises to relieve the fatigue from being on our feet all day, and over the last two months, we’ve put one of their new designer mats to the test.

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Mozilla has finally released the long overdue update to its desktop email client Thunderbird. After a few years in development and a long beta stage, the final build of Mozilla Thunderbird 3 is now available for download. The latest version is a major upgrade and packs a lot of new or improved features, which should be greatly appreciated by those who haven’t been using the beta version, like tabbed emails and an overhauled search tool.

“Thunderbird 3 represents more than two years of development from hundreds of developers, security experts, testers and localization and support communities from around the world,” David Ascher, CEO of Mozilla Messaging said. “Thunderbird 3 continues its history of giving users the most flexibility and control to get through their email faster and have it simply work the way they want it to plus many of the new features take the best of web mail and bring it to the desktop.”

So, what have two years of development brought for Thunderbird? As you can expect, there are quite a lot of features, though not nearly as much as the two years schedule would have you believe, but the biggest and the ones most likely to make a difference for the users are the tabbed email capabilities, which allow users to switch between different emails and different sections of the client, and the improved … (read more)

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs

We’ve spilled some ink about CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer before, the financial expert who – as The Daily Show pointed out – missed the whole Great Depression 2.0 thing. Of course, it’s not fair to single out Mr. Cramer, as 99 out of 100 economists thought credit default swaps based upon ill-conceived home loans to people with lousy credit was a sure-fired, long-term money-making bonanza.

Regardless, Jim Cramer is very bullish on General Motors’ new interim CEO and former Southwestern Bell exec, Ed Whitacre. Says Cramer of Ed, “He was fierce and proud and was going to do whatever was necessary to rebuild the greatness of this once amazing company.” Sounds good to us. Especially if Mr. Whitacre applies that devil-may-care acumen to doing-better-but-still-ailing General Motors. GM’s problem is, for every Cadillac CTS-V, there’s a Chevrolet Aveo.

Put another way, for every Ed Whitacre, there’s a Fritz Henderson. Or ten. Still, if Jim Cramer is to be believed, Whitacre is an “assassin of the bad.” Unions? Watch your butts, as “he’s going to take it to them.” Senior management might even be in worse trouble, as Cramer says, “He doesn’t need you. He likes to run the place with a shoestring administration.” Again, we hope Cramer’s right. But we also know that those ten Fritz Hendersons are dug into GM’s corporate structure like Alabama ticks.

[Source: Blogging Stocks | Image: Rusty Jarrett/Getty]

Mad Money host Jim Cramer calls Whitacre ‘assassin of the bad’ originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crowcon’s Tetra:3 CO2 portable multi-gas detector has won the Safety Innovation “Top Selection” Award at the Security and Safety Awards held at the Sicurtech 2008 Expo in Italy. Of the many entries for the Safety Awards, the Tetra:3 CO2 was chosen by respected independent judges from seven finalists for the Innovation Award.

Photo: http://halmapr.com/crowcon/ssa.jpg (580kb)
(Photo caption. Left–right: Fabio Dadati, President of Fiera Milano; Professor Oliviero Tronconi, Jury President; Tim Wilkes, Crowcon’s Marketing Manager; Fabio Binelli, CEO of Fiera Milano)

“We are delighted that the innovative design and functionality of the Tetra:3 CO2 has been recognised with this Award,” said Crowcon’s Marketing Manager Tim Wilkes. “The product was introduced in response to customer requests for a compact, multi-gas monitor that offered protection from carbon dioxide alongside that of other gases. It is based on the popular Tetra:3 platform, acknowledged as one of the most easy to use products on the market.”

Like the standard Tetra:3, the new CO2 variant is designed for use in demanding industrial environments, particularly where wet conditions might be experienced, and with its large, top display and simple, single button operation, requires minimal user training. Initial customers have included many breweries and wineries, where the recognition of carbon dioxide as a toxic threat rather than just a potential asphyxiant is growing. However, the company is also receiving enquiries from other users in areas at risk from toxic gases.

Now in its second year, the Security and Safety Awards recognises products that demonstrate excellence in the fields of safety and security. The Safety Innovation Award considers features such as functionality, performance and technology and market standards. The jury of six leading scientists and industrialists was chaired by Professor Oliviero Tronconi from the Politecnico di Milano.

Crowcon, a Halma company, is a world leader in portable and fixed gas detection instruments. For more news stories about Crowcon and to subscribe to the company’s RSS News Feed please visit the News Blog at: http://halmapr.com/news/crowcon/ .

PBOX 100 is a low cost Fan-less Embedded Computer System which is based on the Intel Atom N270 CPU and 945GSE Chipset. With DVI/VGA output and expansion via PCI and Mini PCI, PBOX 100 is a great low-cost computing solution for applications which require long-term CPU support, superb reliability and flexibility.
Designed as a low cost multi-purpose Industrial Computing platform, PBOX 100 is equipped with an on-board 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and GMA 950 Graphic Engine. To increase functionality, PBOX 100 is equipped with one PCI slot and one Mini-PCI slot enabling connection to a variety of peripheral devices and expansions cards.
To enable a wide variety of application to be addressed, PBOX 100 measures just 300mm x 194mm x 51mm and boasts DVI and VGA outputs. Storage is available via a 2.5” HDD, SATADOM and IDE/SATA interfaces. PBOX 100 will find applications within a wide variety of environments including VOIP, automation, digital signage, security gaming/entertainment and communication.
The PBOX 100 is just part of the Nexcom range of Industrial Computing Solutions which boast long-term support, high-performance and exceptional reliability. Other products in the Nexcom range include Single Board Computers, Passive Backplanes, Embedded CPU Boards, ETX and Fan-less Embedded Systems.

Newport’s Oriel IQE 200 measurement system allows researchers to measure External Quantum efficiency (EQE) also known as Incident Photon to Charge Carrier Efficiency (IPCE) as well as Internal Quantum Efficiency (IQE) for solar cells, detectors, or any other photon-to-charge converting device.

The system utilizes industry standard, durable Oriel components for the light management engine. Each model of the IQE-200 system provides a “turnkey” solution by providing the light source, monochromator, detectors, related electronics, software and PC in a preconfigured, assembled and calibrated format. A variety of accessory modules are available to provide positive sample positioning, temperature control, electrical probing capabilities and light bias. The IQE-200 incorporates a novel detector geometry which splits the beam allowing for simultaneous measurement of EQE and the reflective losses to quantify IQE. In addition, an accessory detector can be mounted which allows for measurement of Transmission through the cell for those samples on a transparent substrate. The unique design of the AC system meets the requirements outlined in ASTM Method E 1021-06.

The IQE-200 accessories customize the system to perform QE measurements incorporating temperature control, light biasing, and even motorized mapping capabilities all controlled by our new QE Commander ™ software system. Adding a source meter also allows for point measurements of the IV response of the cell. In conjunction with motorized mapping, it allows the user to “map” the IV performance of the cell under test in a user definable pattern.

All Oriel components are from Newport Corporation, an industry leader in light sources, spectroscopy products, precision motion control, and continuous wave solar simulators.

On this year´s Achema, Verder introduced the new dosing pump Verderflex Aura. This innovative tube pump is extremely quiet, self-priming and prevents gas entrapments within the pump head. The technical features allow for very precise, timer controlled dosing. The lock out function also ensures that the correct dose is always supplied with no possibility of overdosing. An easy tube load mechanism eliminates the possibility of trapped fingers when loading the tube onto the rollers.
The Verderflex Aura dosing pump delivers flow rates up to 5 l/h with a maximum pressure of up to 4 bars. Different tube materials offer the best possible chemical resistance to a wide variety of fluids. This innovation from Verder is designed to offer high performance in the smallest of packages, this pump is ideal for dosing chlorine in swimming pools, leisure centres and spas.

The US80 is a heavy duty portable pipe bevel-ling tool designed for high quality portable bevelling, facing and machining on pipe and tube from 3.5” ID to 14” OD (80 to 360 mm). Each standard tool plate accepts multiple tool bits allowing up to four simultaneous machin-ing operations. Such operations may include bevelling, facing, counterboring, compound bevelling and OD chamfering on heavy wall materials.
The US80 features a self-accepting torque system and an integral drive motor. The ro-bust US80 is capable of performing repeatable high quality weld preparations on all machi-nable alloy pipes, including stainless steel and other high nickel alloys

Machining capacity: 80 mm ID – 360 mm OD
Clamping capacity: 80 mm ID – 355 mm ID
Machine funcitons:
bevel, face, counterbore or multiple angle bevel (I, V, J bevels)
Clamping: manual, with key
Expansion: 25 mm
Feed: 60 mm travel, manual
Weight: ca. 40 kg
with pneumatic drive

CONTACT AND INFORMATION

PROTEM SAS
ZI LES BOSSES
F-26800 ETOILE SUR RHONE
FRANCE

TEL +33 4 75574141
email : [email protected]