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26 June 2008
Super Setting(HKTDC Enterprise, Vol 07,2008)
Photo Frames & Albums
Suppliers of photo frames and albums agree that creativity is a major focus of interest
With innovative designs and appealing features, the latest crop of photo frames and albums is set to extract picture-perfect smiles from satisfied consumers.
A good example of this is the range from Winson Metal Photo-Frames Ltd, which includes a wide choice of stand-up frames.
"Model 4RAP905, for instance, is made from zinc alloy with an antique-pewter finish," says Assistant Sales Manager Connie Kuan. "It also features a flower design around a 4x6-inch photo window."
Similar specifications apply to model 4RAP955, except that it has horizontal lines instead of floral pattern on the sides, Ms Kuan adds.
Silver-plated metal model 4RSS685, meanwhile, impresses with its gleaming surface and two rows of beads surrounding a 4x6-inch photo window. Similarly, the two-tone iron model 4RSM680, with silver and matt-silver plating and four rhinestone crystals as part of a ribbon pattern around the photo area, also catches the eye.
"Our products are hand-polished and lacquer-coated for protection and fit into the market's mid- to high-end range," Ms Kuan advises. "They all have elegant velvet backings."
Winson Metal's frames come in different colours, such as antique brass, gold, gun-metal, red, black, purple, green or blue. "In fact, we can make any colour," claims Ms Kuan. "And we do both OEM and ODM."
Another manufacturer of frames and albums, Chiangmai Int'l Dec Ltd, Part puts a premium on environmental protection, turning mulberry paper into earth-friendly products.
"We use just tree bark to make the paper," advises Managing Director Songwon Lanyose, explaining that the production does not involve any tree cutting.
He further advises that the firm uses natural materials whenever possible, and that "the natural touch makes our products unique".
Mr Lanyose adds the factory keeps machinery use to a minimum and prefers handmade products. "We do about 80% of the work by hand," he says. "Customers regard these products as handicrafts, and part of Asian culture."
One example is a ribbon-decorated, ivory-coloured frame with onion skin visible in its rough-texture paper. On another flower-adorned, light-orange frame, tiny circles of bark are glued to the surface.
Wedding album model WD298-2328, meanwhile, features a white cover embellished with a ribbon-and-bow, rubber-tree leaves and tiny flowers.
"The flowers are real, and come from a hill-tribe agricultural project sanctioned by the Thai king," notes Mr Lanyose.
Measuring 28x23cm, the album holds 4x6-inch photos with varying numbers of pages. An 18-page version, for example, is unit-priced at US$4.50 FOB Bangkok.
"We can create special OEM items for weddings, births, holidays or any other occasion," Mr Lanyose says.
For retro fans, workers at Fuzhou Lulu Art Crafts Co Ltd scrape cardboard frames with sandpaper to create an antique look. "The scratched finish is proving very successful," claims company owner Jocelyn Chou.
Among the firm's hot sellers are frames decorated with jute string, wood beads, porcelain buttons and imitation flowers. Of these, model LU-8110 holds two 4x6-inch pictures while LU-8111 accommodates one. They are unit-priced at US$2.00 and US$1.50 FOB Fuzhou respectively.
Another collection features polka dots, cardboard images of gifts and balloons, ribbons and tags with words such as "My First Birthday".
Each model in this range holds one 4x6-inch photo and costs US$1.50. A blue model, LU-8258-A, is meant for boys, and a pink model, LU-8258-B, for girls.
Fuzhou Lulu also offers unusual frames with clothes pegs on horizontal ribbons to hold five photos. "These frames double as memo boards," Ms Chou explains.
Scrapbook fun
To encourage new creativity among photo keepers, Head Development Ltd offers scrapbook albums and kits. "With these kits, users can decorate album pages to suit their own ideas," explains Marketing Executive, Vicki Yeung.
The kits comprise stickers, tags, eyelets, ribbons, buttons and floral trims and other accessories to personalise and transform albums.
Kit model SB0751-88A, for example, provides the adornments for an album with 8x8-inch pages, while model SB0752-1212A fits 12x12-inch pages.
Special kits are available for different purposes, such as baby boys, baby girls and friendship. Others are planned for occasions such as St Valentine's Day, Christmas, Mother's Day, sporting events, graduations and birthdays.
Also based on festival themes are frames from Heng Tong Int'l Trading and Consulting Co, which are made from polyresin or ceramics.
Lots of love
Models 69882-35 and 69882-46, for example, are both red frames decorated with heart shapes which suit St Valentine's Day. The former has a cartoon-like girl gripping a flower basket and holds two 3.5x2.5-inch photos.
The latter, with the words "Love Forever", shows one 3.5x5-inch image. Both come with stands and sell for US$0.56 each FOB Hong Kong.
Among other products is stand-up model 1654, which boasts three-dimensional roses with leaves, stems and roots and a butterfly around a 2x3-inch photo opening. This frame costs about US$0.50 each.
"It is one of a flower series that also features carnations and other flowers in green, red, yellow, pink or other colours," says Manager Kan Ka Leung. "Within our limitations, we can create products in any shape."
Clearly, for buyers of the diverse assortment of well-designed and attractive photo frames and albums, hitting business targets is hardly a long shot.


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Hotel Slavie
Svobody 75/32, Cheb
Fast reservation
The three-star Hotel Slavia is located in the heart of the historic city of Cheb in a pedestrian zone. It offers comfortable accommodation, high quality hotel services, seating in a nice restaurant, and proximity to major spa cities.
- Free internet
- Breakfast
- Free parking
- Pets

subset: commoncrawl


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Safer Water, North Texas will have members speaking at the Plano City Council Meeting on Monday, 4/9/18.
Open to the public. If you would like to speak at the council meeting, you must call 972.941.7120 and fill out a speaker card before 5pm the day of the meeting.
Meeting Time: 7 p.m.
The Plano City Council begins with an Executive Session at 5 p.m., immediately followed by Preliminary Open Meeting, and the Regular Meeting at 7 p.m..
Meeting Location:
Plano Municipal Center
Council Chamber
1520 K Avenue
Plano, TX 75074
Watch a Meeting:
Watch City Council Meetings live on Plano TV, Channel 16 on Spectrum and Channel 30 and 31 on Frontier FIOS. You can also watch us on U-Verse.
Meetings are streamed. Watch Plano TV now! http://tx-plano.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=210


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Welcome to our earthship
Get Started Book
The Big Dig
Tyring Work
2 May 07
9th May 07
17 & 18 May 07
23 May 07
30 May 07
20 June 07
27 June 07
5 July 07
13 Sep 07
6 Dec 07
2 & 3 Nov 07
18 Oct 07
4 Oct 07
24 & 25 Sep 07
20 Sep 07
10 Jan 08
17, 18 & 19 Jan 08
7 Feb 08
20 Feb 08
28 Feb 08
8 Mar 08
10 Jan 09
19 Feb 09
26 Feb 09
Aug 2013
Adios my friends
Putting the lid on
Geodesic Dome
Time Out
Earthship Living
Ethical Fashion
Contact us
7 Feb 08
When we planted the onions last week we found these little beauties hiding under some broom. We think they're some kind of orchid but I can't find anything similar in my wild flower book, any ideas anyone?
Btw the onions have survived a week with no evidence of nibbling.
Greenhouse area
Our aim today was to thump enough tyres for the end wall of the greenhouse so we can finish the bond beam on that end. We also wanted to mark out the height for the tyre wall along the front face. This has to be very accurate because the glass front sits on it and needs to be as level as possible.
It was all going really well, we pounded 4 tyres for the end wall, we cut and nailed in the lath to hold the cement, we even cut and nailed in the lath for another end block too.
With the help of a ladder and a long piece of wood we worked out the height for the front face wall and marked it with some rebar and string. Then we went to the other end and started clearing the ground so we could set the level.....then we hit a rock.... a bloomin' huge and very hard rock. You can just about see the top of it to the left of the front three tyres in the pic below. Our pick axe was bouncing off it without even making a dent!
Now this rock couldn't have happened in a worse place because we had planned to build a solar oven into the front face of the greenhouse just where it is. My mind started mulling over how we could incorporate the rock into the greenhouse as a feature, it is a beautiful and very hard rock (did I say that already?). Anyway, we've sort of decided that the solar oven will have to go outside now, maybe in an outside cooking area under the covered terrace bit. As for the rock, we're taking our electric thumper with us next week to see how tough it really is. It may still win and become a feature....
Close up of metal lath which will hold the cement for the end l-block
Bailing wire holding lath in place
Our almond trees do need some serious work to get them healthy again. But they are producing some blossom which I couldn't resist taking a photo of.


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|Home : All Systems : All Stores : Search : About : FAQ : Links : Contact
Reviews and Information about Good Deal Games
|Good Deal Games Rated based on 3 reviews Write a Review
Address: 6616 Powers Road, Orchard Park, NY, 14127, USA Shipping: International
Phone: Not provided Contact: [email protected]
Description: Sells several rare systems. Also publishes new games for classic systems.
Sell Games/Systems For: 32X, 3DO, Arcadia 2001, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Bally Astrocade, CD-I, Colecovision, Dreamcast, game.com, Gameboy, GameGear, Genesis, Intellivision, Jaguar, Lynx, NeoGeo, NeoGeo CD, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Odyssey, Playstation, Playstation 2, RCA Studio II, Saturn, Sega Master System, SegaCD, Super Nintendo, Supervision, Turbo Grafx 16, Vectrex, Virtual Boy
|Great Service!
|Reviewer: Emu Dan on Thursday July 15 2004
|A Job Well Done
|Reviewer: Sherell on Thursday October 28 2004
|The BEST shop on the net!
|Reviewer: Tom on Monday November 15 2004


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Run! Run with all that you have to give. We may not be able to put one foot in front of the other as rapidly, or for as long as distances, as the dominating Usain Bolt or Jesse Owens back in the day (a former student at The Ohio State University, by the way). But that's not what the writer of Hebrews has in mind anyway. Because even if we can't physically run, our soul most certainly can, at a pace we can't even fathom. The Holy Spirit can most certainly make our soul, the entirety of our existence, the essence of our being; the Holy Spirit will implore us to take on this life, this race that is set before us, with all that we have to give.
And we are empowered to do so through this great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us, and those who remain beside us now. They are our teachers, our faith coaches, if you will. They are our supporters in the crowd, including family and friends, constantly cheering us on through all the disappointments and triumphs. St. John's has most certainly been blessed with generations' worth of witnesses in just over eighty-five years: decades of pastors, Sunday school teachers, Confirmation classmates, sisters and brothers in Christ. They laid the foundation of love and compassion for a church to continue its ministry not only for its members but for the surrounding community and beyond. Their witness continues through the ages, as we still hear their stories, including their precious sacrifice of time in dedication to this family of St. John's.
However, this "cloud of witnesses," as it's called in Hebrews, isn't referring to so many gathered in the heavens, but it's the encouragement and support that engulfs us like a cloud. We cannot escape how much they love us, how much they want what is best for us. Those witnesses, our sisters and brothers in Christ, are one of the closest connections we have to Jesus Christ Himself, Who loved us so much to the point of death. And we call them witnesses, those who have gone before us and those with us now, because not only have they seen first-hand the love of God at work in their life, but they couldn't possibly resist sharing it with us as well. Because of them, because of their witness that inspires us, we run. We run with all that we have to give in this life and beyond.
But it's not so much about speed, about getting to a finish line before anyone else. In the Scripture, it's about perseverance. It's about making our drive, our service as a disciple of Jesus Christ thrive all the way to the end. No sin, fear, worry, age, disease, lack of confidence in personal abilities should weigh us down from running with all that we have to give. That's the thing with this race of a faith journey that lasts a lifetime: we're not running from anything. We're not running from the devil, from evil, from ourselves even with our past mistakes. Jesus already took care of that. We're not meant to look back to the point that it affects how much we keep going forward in joy and thanksgiving. Through the resurrection Jesus has set us free to run, run all the way to the end and beyond.
That doesn't mean we won't need some help along the way, not simply from the cloud of witnesses surrounding us in the crowds, including our faith coaches, family, and friends. We'll need some nourishment with water, dipping into our baptism all the way from the starting line, that made us active participants in this family in Christ as children of God. We'll also need the gifts from God of bread and wine as the Son's body and blood, broken and shed for us. We'll take all the help we can get, especially from Jesus Christ Himself. This race of a faith journey wouldn't be happening at all without Him.
The writer of Hebrews describes our Lord as a "pioneer, the perfecter of our faith." He is our true pioneer of this life, because He's been through it all before. He's been through the anguish, the turmoil and ridicule, and ended it all with a miracle that shapes this race we call life thousands of years later. We don't have to run a certain speed. We don't have to take the exact same path. Regardless of how it's done, Jesus runs alongside us as the Holy Spirit. He remains beside us through every step, every moment, every breath, all the way to the end and beyond.
And yes, He is most certainly the "perfecter of our faith." That means we don't have to be. We don't have to run this race of a faith journey perfectly. We will fall along the way. We will step in other people's paths. We will mess up from time to time, to be sure. Nevertheless, Jesus will be right there to pick us up each and every time: through bread and wine, through water on our forehead, through a great cloud of witnesses. We are not meant to run this life-long journey alone. That was never part of God's plan when we were claimed out of the waters of baptism and set free from the starting line. We're running in a cloud engulfing us with love and compassion, and we can never escape it. God will not have it any other way. Our soul will run with all we have to give because of that amazing grace, and Jesus will be right there all the way to the end and for what lies beyond that finish line. And for that Greatest News of all time, we give thanks to God indeed! Amen.
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Office: 269-422-1449
Cell: 269-615-1613
Rev. Dennis Smith, Interim Pastor
Office: Tue - Fri: 9 a.m. - Noon
We are a proud congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), including the North/West Lower Michigan Synod.


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Most of the time rather almost every alternet year this question is going to rock the engineering students who are in Information Technology or Computer science background. I am writing this post for the students who need a quick answare on this.
What is the difference between Servlet and CGI ?
CGI is very initial attempt to work with client server architecture.A CGI creates a new process every-time it receives a new request from client.This can be written in various language.Basically a heavy weight process
|Servlet is more advanced for client server architecture As it is proved by java,it process a new thread upon getting new request. It is lightweight process
|Number of process for any server is predefined,hence multiple request if , went to the server and server could not process it , there may be a loss in process via request
|Thread is a light weight process it is true but there is no limit for that,hence there is no loss in process.
|CGI executes the processes in their own OS Shell, doesn't have concurrency conflicts. but creation of OS shell is a heavy weight process.It takes a higher time to be created. Process life cycle takes a lot of time to complete and it effects response time of the server (goes high.)
|The first time a Servlet is requested, it is loaded into memory and cached. From then on, the same Servlet instance is used, with different requests being handled by different threads. Thread lifecycle is very short hence improve the server response.
|CGI is mainly for text processing application where less or no security or object orientation process required.
|Servlet is for Enterprise application where mostly we use object orientation
|CGI servers requires to start a new interpreter for every request which eats up the resources and probable process
|Upon request a new thread is opened so no need to open interpreter.
|There might be a chance Client submits a request to CGI that terminates before responding.The browser will be still in waiting for information mode.
|Not possible in Servlet
|Any bug can not crash the web server
|Any bug can is easily caught by exception handler.
|CGI is not scalable moreover programming language is platform dependent.If you change operating system,the CGI process may fail.we need to recompile everything for the new OS.
|Powered by Java.Hence highly scalable and servlet programming is platform independent as long as the JVM is running and supported by OS.
|No separation between presentation and business layer.CGI cannot read and set HTTP headers, handle cookies, tracking sessions.
|Business layer and Presentation layer is always different as Servlet can read and set HTTP headers, handle cookies, tracking sessions.
|CGI can process only one request
|Servlet can process multiple request.
|CGI is not based on pooling (which hold no external resource but occupy memory i.e. not destroy after used) Its container managed pooling object.
|JVM supports pooling of objects so as Servlet.
|CGI creates its own memory space for every request viz process.
|Servlet shares the memory space.
|Advantage of CGI is that it can precess and run any script any given point of time.
|In servlet any script first get translated into java then it gets compiled and run.


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A mother doesn't become a mother overnight – she evolves, adapts, shedding skin after skin. The day those two pink lines appeared, so literally, matter-of-factly, before my eyes, I met the woman I'd soon become. You made me me, and I thank you for it.
. . . You know you're a mom when your Mother's Day post is all about your kid! Check out the rest of my post for Westchester County Moms Blog here!


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You can combat muscle pain with a massage blend containing the high camphor content of this rosemary variety. By increasing your circulation, it encourages rapid healing. At Inshanti, we carry three different rosemary oils—rosemary ct camphor, rosemary ct 1,8 cineole, and rosemary ct verbenone—identified by chemotype (ct), different chemical characteristics that develop based on the altitude and temperature where the plants are grown. Rosemary camphor is said to benefit cardiac fatigue, palpitations, low blood pressure, and circulatory problems of your extremities. And this oil is certified organic.
Plant Parts: Leaves and Twigs
Botanical Family: Lamiaceae
Chemical Family: Ketones, Monoterpenes, Oxides
Country of Origin: China
Method of Extraction: Steam distillation
Cultivation Method: Wild Crafted
Aroma: Fresh, Herbaceous & Camphoraceous
Note Classification: Top/Middle
Cold & Flu Remedy: Massage (use above recipe) into chest and neck area to relieve cold symptoms such as coughs, congestion, aches and pains, and bronchitis.
Diffuser: This is a great oil to diffuse. It will enhance mental clarity, lessen fatigue, kill those nasty germs in the air and improve respiratory congestion.
*Inshanti Fact – Until recently many French hospitals used Rosemary to disinfect the air.
Headache Relief: Blend rosemary ct. 1,8 cineole with peppermint and lavender as an excellent treatment for alleviating headaches.
Massage Oil: Blend 10–12 drops of rosemary to 1 oz. of carrier oil (olive oil or any vegetable oil). This is a superior massage blend to relieve muscular stiffness, cramping, lower back, and aches and pains of the joints, and lessens the symptoms of arthritis and rheumatism. The energizing qualities of pure Rosemary oil make it helpful in warming the extremities.
Shampoo: Add a drop of rosemary in your hand of shampoo and wash your hair. This is a great blend to use in the morning. It is uplifting, refreshing, invigorating, and stimulates and strengthens the mind. How about that to start your day!!!
Rosemary is a small evergreen shrub with thick aromatic and linear leaves and is native to the Mediterranean region. The plant grows abundantly in the wild in Spain, France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia and Tunisia, however, most of the oil is produced in Spain, France, and Tunisia.
There are three major varieties of rosemary, identified by their chemotypes (based on chemical characteristics) and their primary country association:
While all rosemary has chemical traits in common, each chemotype has a higher intensity of one chemical compound that makes it more suitable for specific health issues. Inshanti carries all three varieties so you can choose the chemotype to target your personal concerns.
The ancients used rosemary in place of the more costly incense in their religious ceremonies. It was customary to burn rosemary with juniper berries to purify the air and prevent infections. Rosemary was known to have a stimulating effect on the mind and to be useful as a memory aid. Consequently, the herb became known as a symbol of remembrance.
Rosemary has traditionally been used in skin and hair care. It is extensively used in hair care products as it is reputed to stimulate hair growth and prevent premature baldness. It is also used for the prevention of dandruff.
Until recently many French hospitals used rosemary to disinfect the air.
There are no reviews yet.
Protect your family from infections with this unique blend of four thyme oils crafted to create a powerful antibacterial germ fighter. Benchmark thyme is gentle on the skin so you can safely use it on your children.


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MetamaterialsView this Special Issue
Review Article | Open Access
Metamaterial Sensors
Metamaterials have attracted a great deal of attention due to their intriguing properties, as well as the large potential applications for designing functional devices. In this paper, we review the current status of metamaterial sensors, with an emphasis on the evanescent wave amplification and the accompanying local field enhancement characteristics. Examples of the sensors are given to illustrate the principle and the performance of the metamaterial sensor. The paper concludes with an optimistic outlook regarding the future of metamaterial sensor.
1. Introduction
Metamaterials are manmade media with all sorts of unusual functionalities that can be achieved by artificial structuring smaller than the length scale of the external stimulus [1]. They have provided many possibilities for exploring unknown physical phenomena such as reverse Vavilov-Cherenkov effect [2], negative refraction [3], cloaking [4–7], concentrator [8], perfect lens [9], and negative compressibility [10]. In recent years, sensing applications of metamaterials have attracted a great deal of attentions. It is well known that conventional optics suffer from Abbe diffraction limit, since they are only capable of transmitting the propagating components, and the maximum resolution in the image can never be greater than half a wavelength. In a pioneer work, Pendry [9] demonstrated that phase of propagating waves and the amplitude of the evanescent states could be restored by the perfect lens made up of materials with negative index of refraction and thus giving rise to a resolution below the diffraction limit. The essence of the perfect lens lies in the evanescent wave amplification induced by the negative refraction materials. It has been achieved experimentally by Grbic and Eleftheriades [11] using transmission line metamaterials. For the metamaterial slab with thickness of and loss of , the resolution will be [12]. If the loss approximated zero, infinite resolution could be realized. Although the loss metamaterials cannot be eliminated, and perfect lens does not change the decaying character of evanescent wave, the idea of far field perfect imaging through converting evanescent waves to propagating waves has been proposed and demonstrated experimentally [13, 14]. On the other hand, the amplification of evanescent wave has been shown to be able to enhance the interaction between wave and mater and then increase the sensitivity of sensors [15]. A large number of researches about metamaterial sensors have emerged over the last several years. Schueler et al. [16] reviewed the metamaterial inspired composite right/left-handed transmission line microwave sensors. Chen et al. [17] reviewed metamaterials application in sensing with an emphasis on split ring resonator-based sensors. Our group has been dedicated to the study of metamaterial sensors for a long time, and a great portion of works have been done [15, 18–29]. Zheludev [30] analyzed the future development of metamaterials and pointed out that sensing application represents a growing area.
In this paper, we make a review of the metamaterial sensors with an emphasis on evanescent wave amplification and the concomitant effects. In Section 2, the generation of surface wave at the boundary between negative and positive materials is revisited, and examples of metamaterial planar waveguide sensors and surface whispering gallery mode sensors are given to illustrate phenomenon of evanescent wave amplification for sensing application. In Section 3, sensors based on planar metamaterial arrays with enhanced sensitivity for the detection of mechanical deformation, graphene atomic layer, and for label-free image of biochemical samples are introduced. In Section 4, examples of sensors based on stacked metamaterial structures are given to illustrate the subwavelength imaging characteristic. Section 5 focuses on the metamaterial sensors based on a single metamaterial particle with the advantages of fabrication simplicity and experimental robustness. In Section 6, the other kinds of metamaterial sensors such as the sensors based on squeezing and tuning effect of epsilon near zero materials and the open cavity are illustrated. In the last section, a conclusion is given.
2. Evanescent Wave Amplification
In 2000, Pendry [9] found that negative refraction makes a perfect lens due to the amplification phenomenon of evanescent wave. To give a vivid picture of this phenomenon, we revisit the slab waveguide model shown in Figure 1(a). In the case of time harmonic field and lossless, that is, both and are all real numbers, suppose that magnetic field is polarized along the y-axis and TM wave travels in the -direction. When a layer of metamaterials is covered on the surface of the guiding layer as shown in Figure 1(b), evanescent wave at the boundary between the metamaterial layer and the cladding layer will be amplified. This can be proved by deriving the dispersion equation of this structure. Figure 2 shows the distribution of along the -axis of the simulation model. It can be seen that the evanescent wave in cladding layer is enhanced by metamaterial layer [15].
2.1. Planar Waveguide Sensor
Waveguide sensors have found a wide range of applications such as the detection of harmful gases [31] and chemical analytes [32]. Such sensors are also known as evanescent wave sensors because of the evanescent wave entering into the analyte whose refractive index is to be measured. Due to the interaction of the analyte and the evanescent wave, changes can be observed in the absorption or phase shift of the light propagating through the waveguide, giving an indication of the concentration of refractive index of the analyte. The amplification of evanescent wave forms the basis for increasing the sensitivity. Many researchers have attempted to increase the penetration depth and strength of evanescent wave by bending or tapering the optical fiber [33–37] and altering the light launching angle [38]. Horváth et al. [39, 40] have shown that penetration depth of evanescent wave can be increased by using reverse symmetry configuration that the refractive index of the aqueous cladding is higher than that of the substrate material. Taya et al. [41] investigated the sensitivity of asymmetrical optical waveguides with nonlinear cladding and substrate, of which the permittivity displays a Kerr-type response. They show that sensitivity of the nonlinear planar asymmetrical optical waveguide sensor is higher than that of the conventional asymmetrical optical waveguide sensor. Through inserting a layer of metamaterials with negative permittivity and negative permeability between the cladding and the guiding layer, they found that the sensitivity of the waveguide sensor can be dramatically enhanced [42]. We [18] studied the dispersion equation of TM mode planar optical waveguide with metamaterial layer and showed that the sensitivity of this waveguide was much higher than that of traditional TM mode planar optical waveguide sensor. Recently, the nonlinear planar optical waveguide sensor with metamaterial layer is proposed by our group [19, 20], and both the TE and TM mode dispersion equations are derived and analyzed in detail. We demonstrated that metamaterials combined with nonlinear waveguide will further enhance the sensitivity of the optical waveguide sensors.
Figure 3(a) shows the schematic diagram of a four-layered waveguide sensor model. It is supposed to be infinite in both the - and -direction. The waveguide consists of four layers, from the top to the bottom, which are semi-infinite nonlinear cladding, metamaterial layer, guiding layer, and semi-infinite nonlinear substrate, respectively. Thickness of the guiding layer and the metamaterial layer is denoted as and , respectively. Permittivities of the four layers are , , , and . The TM mode nonlinear cladding and substrate are supposed to be Kerr type. Normalized magnetic fields of the nonlinear planar waveguide sensor with and without the metamaterial layer are simulated and compared in Figure 3(b). We can clearly observe that there is a sharp increase of evanescent field at the boundary between the metamaterial layer and the nonlinear cladding. The magnetic field intensity at the surface of the metamaterial layer is about 2.46 times that of the waveguide without the metamaterial layer. For the TE mode nonlinear planar waveguide, the evanescent application phenomenon can also be obtained.
Sensitivity () of the sensor depends on the modal effective index () change rate with respect to the change of cladding index (), that is, . Through differentiating the dispersion relation of the nonlinear planar waveguide sensor, the sensitivity can be obtained. Sensitivity versus for the nonlinear optical waveguide sensor with metamaterials () and without metamaterials () is plotted in Figures 4(a) and 4(b). In the case of normal symmetry (), sensitivity increases with guiding layer thickness and reaches a maximum value at a point around nm and then decreases gradually. Here, and are the asymmetry parameters. In the case of reverse symmetry (), the sensitivity decreases monotonously with . Comparing the two figures, we can conclude that metamaterials can improve the sensitivity of the optical waveguide sensor, and the optical waveguide sensors with metamaterials in reverse symmetry mode has much higher sensitivity. For TM and TE mode optical waveguide sensors with metamaterials, the sensitivity as a function of is simulated and shown in Figures 4(c) and 4(d). In the case of normal symmetry shown in Figure 4(c), an optimal guiding layer thickness is observed at around 60 nm for TE mode, while the optimal guiding layer thickness for TM mode sensor is about 220 nm. In the case of reverse symmetry shown in Figure 4(d), sensitivity decreases gradually with , and the thinner the guiding layer, the better the performance of the sensor. Therefore, the sensitivity of TM waveguide sensor in reverse symmetry configuration possesses much higher sensitivity than TE waveguide sensor.
2.2. Surface Whispering Gallery Mode
From the previous analysis, we can conclude that the sensitivity of the planar waveguide sensor can be greatly enhanced by metamaterials due to the amplification of evanescent wave. Interestingly, we find that when the dielectric slab covered with a layer of metamaterials with negative permittivity and/or permeability is bent over to form a four-layer cylindrical waveguide as shown in Figure 5(a), the evanescent wave can also be amplified [21]. Figure 5(b) shows the cross-section of the cylindrical waveguide structure. Electric field distribution in the cross-section of the dielectric waveguide coated with a layer of metamaterials at the eigenfrequency of THz is plotted in Figure 5(c). Figure 5(d) displays the electric field distribution in the cross-section of a conventional dielectric waveguide. It is clear that for the metamaterial-assisted microring, maximum electric field of WGM moves to the surface of the metamaterial layer. This is named as surface whispering gallery mode (SWGM). It exposes a strong evanescent field to the surrounding, and thus this region will be quite sensitive in dielectric environment. Besides, SWGM can also be generated on the inner surface of a hollow dielectric waveguide and the surface of a circular or elliptical dielectric cylinder when coated with a metamaterial layer [22–24].
The SWGM sensor has been demonstrated to have much higher sensitivity than that of conventional WGM sensor. To give a quantitative illustration for the sensitivity of the SWGM sensor, resonant frequency, frequency shift, and factor of the SWGM in dielectric sensing are simulated and compared with the traditional WGM sensor, as shown in Table 1 [21]. For the WGM sensor, the average frequency shift to an increase of 0.02 in substance permittivity is only 13.25 GHz, and the sensitivity (defined as resonance wavelength shift over the refractive index change unit) is about 1.4 nm/RIU. For the SWGM sensor, the response to an increase of 0.02 in substance permittivity is a significant resonant frequency downshift of 187 GHz in average, and the sensitivity is about 29 nm/RIU, which is more than 20 times that of the WGM sensor. This is due to the amplification of evanescent field which ensures a strong interaction between light and substance. Interestingly, the sensitivity of the SWGM sensor can be further enhanced by increasing the thickness of the metamaterial layer. Figure 6 shows the relation between resonant frequency and substance permittivity for different metamaterial layer thickness (). When the thickness of metamaterial layer is 0.05 m, the average frequency shift in response to a 0.02 increase in substance permittivity is about 42 GHz, and the sensitivity is 5 nm/RIU. When the thickness of metamaterial layer is 0.2 m, the average frequency shift will be 204 GHz, and the sensitivity can be increased up to 50 nm/RIU. This is because much more power is transferred to SWGM with increasing metamaterial thickness. Recently, we have demonstrated theoretically that when a layer of Au film is deposited on the microring instead of the metamaterial layer, SWGM can also be excited when the excitation frequency is lower than plasma frequency [45].
3. Planar Metamaterial Array
Planar metamaterials consisting of subwavelength resonators have been proposed for thin dielectric film sensing. To achieve higher sensitivity, the sensor needs to have a sharp resonance in its frequency response and a high concentration of electric field to enable the detection of small changes in dielectric environment. When analyte is deposited on the surface of the resonators, the effective permittivity at the gap of each resonator is increased. Then, the gap undergoes a significant change in the charge distribution and capacitance, which can be observed from the transmission resonance. This sensing mechanism has been demonstrated experimentally and successfully applied to a range of planar metamaterial sensors [43, 44, 46–51]. For example, Melik et al. [48] demonstrated that the metamaterial-based strain sensors are highly sensitive to mechanical deformation, due to the large transmission dips and high quality factors. The detection of a single atomic layer of graphene was realized by Papasimakis et al. [49] based on the metamaterial sensor made up of an array of asymmetrically split ring resonators. Liu et al. [51] showed that the metamaterial sensor fabricated using gold film may serve as a highly efficient localized surface plasmon resonance sensor in the near-infrared with sensitivity of 588 nm/RIU.
An intracellular plasmonic label-free imaging by exciting multimode resonances in spilt-ring resonators is proposed by Lai et al. [43]. Figure 7 shows the SEM images of the designed SRR samples which were fabricated by standard e-beam lithographic and lift-off processes. One sample contains unit cells, and each unit cell consists of SRRs. All SRR unit cells contain exactly identical SRR pattern from cell to cell. To demonstrate the performance of the planar metamaterial sensor, bioimage of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) based on the fundamental resonance signal of SRR at the wavenumber of 1850–2400 cm−1 was conducted and compared with conventional imaging technology. Figure 8(a) shows the conventional optical microscopic image of the hMSCs grown on the SRRs samples. The black part in the background refers to the SRRs structure. In this case, any detail of the inner nucleus and organelles cannot be revealed without the labeling process. Figure 8(b) shows the confocal fluorescent optical microscopic image of the hMSCs, in which the nuclei of the hMSCs can be observed. However, such a labeling process is typically expensive and time consuming, impeding the practical application of real-time diagnosis. Figure 8(c) displays the intracellular image of the hMSCs by the SRR platform. It does not require the labeling process but directly detects the change of plasmonic resonance of the SRR fluctuated by the local attachment of the targeting bioagents. In the experiment, transmission and reflection were characterized by a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer equipped with an infrared microscope in the wavenumber range of 400–8600 cm−1, and the corresponding mid-IR images were captured by a focal planar array detector. All measured spectra have been normalized with respect to the reflection spectra of an aluminum mirror. In Figure 8(c), the region colored in red represents the nucleus. This is corresponding to the greatest shift of Resonant frequencies and the strongest reflection intensity. The other colored parts mainly refer to the cytoplasm, corresponding to the smaller shift of resonant frequencies. In short, this study demonstrated the feasibility of using SRRs for constructing the refractive index distribution of hMSCs to obtain images of the target cells. The SRR platform possesses many advantages beyond other optical microscopy such as label-free and real-time diagnosis.
A metamaterial-based terahertz (THz) sensor for thickness measurements of subwavelength thin materials and refractometry of liquids is proposed by Reinhard et al. [44]. The sensor operates in reflection geometry and exhibits a strong frequency shift of a sharp Fano-type resonance minimum in the presence of a dielectric sample. The magnitude of this shift depends on both the refractive index and the thickness of the sample. The unit cell is a square with an edge length of 140 m, consisting of four metallic crosses on top of a 10 m thick dielectric matrix with a relative permittivity . Each of the crosses is titled by an angle of 22.5°. Details about the geometry parameters are shown in Figure 9(a). When excited by a horizontally polarized THz wave, the distribution of currents and charge is shown in Figure 9(b). Figure 9(c) is a microscope image of the fabricated metamaterials. In order to experimentally prove the capability of the sensor of measuring the thickness of thin sample materials, silicon layers () with thicknesses between approximately 50 nm and 1 m were evaporated on top of the metamaterial sensor, and the reflection spectra were measured using THz time-domain spectroscopy. Figure 10(a) shows the variation of the Resonant frequency of the sensor as a function of silicon thicknesses. The sensitivity of the sensor has a maximum value of approximately 0.4 THz/m for very small layer thickness, and the thickness resolution is 12.5 nm, which corresponds to approximately 1/16000 of the THz wavelength. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the metamaterial structure as a liquid sensor, resonant frequencies in the presence of different liquid sample substances are measured as shown in Figure 10(b). The refractive index sensitivity is 0.43 THz per refractive index unit.
In the previous cases, the sample substances that deposited on the surface of the metamaterial give rise to a shift in resonant frequency due to the change of capacitance. In a recent work, Kenanakis et al. [46] studied the sensing capability of a metamaterial structure made of a pair of square metal slabs as shown in Figure 11. The whole structure contains unit cells. Each side of the pair is printed on a separate FR-4 boards placed facing each other at a distance , with the printed metallic structures facing outwards. The space of thickness between the two FR-4 boards is filled (or partially filled) with the materials of interest. To demonstrate the sensing capacity of the metamaterial structure, transmission spectrum for air, low density polyethylene (LPDE), FR-4, and p-type silicon are measured and compared with numerical simulation, as shown in Figure 12. Aside from the very good agreement between simulations and experiments, we can observe in Figure 12 a quite large shift of the magnetic resonance to lower frequencies as the permittivity of the dielectric between the slab pair changes from 1.0 (air) to 11.90 (silicon). Besides, the metamaterial structure is also applicable for measuring the thickness of thin dielectric layer placed between the slabs of the pairs. The experimental results show that a very thin layer of LDPE with thickness of 0.1 mm can lead to a Resonant frequency shift as large as 0.5 GHz, indicating the large sensitivity of the design.
4. Stacked Metamaterial Structure
Unit cells of metamaterials are usually stacked together to make novel electromagnetic devices [1, 37–39]. Besides, it has been demonstrated that the stack of metamaterial particles or particle arrays is capable of increasing the interaction between wave and matter and then enhancing the sensitivity of sensors [52]. Liu et al. [53] experimentally demonstrated a nanoplasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency using a stacked optical metamaterials. Results show that plasmonic structures enable large field strengths within small mode volumes, and this may pave the way towards ultracompact sensors with extremely high sensitivity. Seo et al. [54] reported the experimental observations of trapped mode resonances in stacked symmetric electric ring resonators separated by dielectric inserts. This opens an alternative way of forming sharp resonances in a symmetric metamaterial structure which may have potential applications in sensor design. Han et al. [55] studied the transmission properties of stacked SRR arrays, and sharp resonance coupled with field concentration phenomenon, which satisfy the requirement of an effective senor were observed. Aylo et al. [56] investigated the transmission and reflection spectra of periodic and random stacks comprising positive index materials and negative index metamaterials based on transfer matrix method, and the effectiveness of this structure as a pressure sensor was demonstrated.
On the other hand, the stack of metamaterial structures has been demonstrated to be able to realize perfect lens and to enhance the resolution of sensors [57, 60–63]. For example, an impedance-matched, low loss negative index metamaterial superlens was reported by Aydin et al. [62]. It is capable of resolving subwavelength features of a point source with a 0.13 wavelength resolution. Yang et al. [63]. studied the potential of quantum metamaterial for subwavelength imaging applications in the mid-infrared. FDTD numerical simulations demonstrated the negative refraction along an air/metamaterial interface, and a sub-diffraction-limited image of a structure that is ten times smaller than the incident wavelength. A novel microwave nondestructive evaluation sensor based on a negative index material lens constituted of stacked SRR structures for detection of material defects was proposed and fabricated by Shreiber et al. [57]. A sketch of the sensor system is illustrated in Figure 13(a). The lens is made up of a stack of double split resonators. Simulation models of the 1D and 2D lenses are shown in Figures 13(b) and 13(c). The author investigated the performance of the metamaterial lenses for the detection of material defects which were small relative to wavelength. In the sensor system, the sample is positioned at the focus spot of the lens. The defect in the sample will induce some significant changes in the energy density detected by the monopole. Ideally, the same monopole could be used to detect the reflected signal, but because the metamaterial is lossy, an additional monopole was placed on the other side of the lens to detect the reflected signal from the sample. Experimental results show that both the 1D and 2D lenses are capable of detecting a 3 mm (0.037 λ) diameter through a hole in a fiberglass material sample based on analyzing the receiving power of the monopole, but the image obtained with the 2D lens is much sharper. Figure 14 shows a comparison of the focusing spot size obtained for the 1D and 2D lenses. The 1D lens yielded a focus spot size of 0.7 λ, whereas the focus spot for the 2D lens is about 0.48 λ. On the other hand, due to the influence of metamaterial loss, the transmittance of the 2D lens is much lower than that of the 1D one, and then the 1D lens allows for a longer sample standoff distance and higher transmission. Therefore, the choice of the lens to be used in a sensor is prescribed by the specific requirements of the testing system.
5. Sensors Based on a Single Metamaterial Particle
In a pioneering work, Fedotov et al. [64] demonstrated that the "trapped mode" resonances could be excited by crossing the symmetry of double split resonators. Metamaterials of this type are known to show Fano antisymmetric resonant lines in transmission with enhanced local fields that appear "trapped" in the gap of the unit cells. Based on this characteristic, a metamaterial particle-assisted thin film sensor was proposed and demonstrated experimentally by Al-Naib et al. [58]. It consists of a single mode rectangular waveguide and a single asymmetry double split resonator (aDSR), as shown in Figure 15(a). In this device, the excitation of "trapped modes" leads to an extremely sharp resonance. Then, at the resonant state, the electric field concentrates in the gap of the ring (see Figure 15(c)), and this region becomes sensitive in dielectric environment. To evaluate the performance of the sensor, the aDSR was coated with a 17.8 m thick layer of photoresist in four degrees of coverage, and the transmission coefficient was measured as shown in Figure 16. The circular aDSR features a resonance shift of 9, 24, and 48 MHz for the single-covered square, the two covered squares, and the full coverage, respectively, demonstrating the enhanced sensitivity of the sensor. Since only a single aDSR is required, the design of such a resonant sensor is quite flexible. Besides, the aDSR is located in the waveguide and shielded against environmental influence, so that the measurement is robust and highly reproducible.
Following the work of Al-Naib et al., great efforts have been dedicated to study the sensors based on single metamaterial particles. For example, He et al. [65] proposed and demonstrated the implementation of tip-shaped split ring resonator in microwave thin film sensing. An evanescent microwave probe composed of a single SRR excited by a simple rectangular loop is proposed by Ren et al. [66]. It has the advantages of simple fabrication and low cost. Numerical and experimental results show that the presence of the single SRR enhances the evanescent field concentration in the close proximity of the probe, and then the sensitivity of the probe is improved substantially. Our group [25] reported a double negative material particle-assisted microwave sensor and demonstrated that when a pair of -shaped particles is located in a rectangular waveguide, the transmission can be greatly enhanced, and such a novel sensor possesses much higher sensitivity than that of traditional microwave sensor. Besides, we investigated the influence of shape and asymmetric parameters of the aDSR on the performance of the sensor [26]. Results show that the spectral response and the Q factor of the sensor can be flexibly tailored to design requirements by adjusting the asymmetry parameter or the topological structure of the resonator. Recently, we reported an optimized design concept for a microwave resonant sensor based on stereocomplementary asymmetric split resonator (CASR) [27]. In terms of its special structure characteristic, the stereo-CASR can be perforated on a copper sheet, and thus the influence of the substrate losses on Q factor can be eliminated. Figures 17(a) and 17(b) show the electric field distribution and the corresponding power flow on the surface of the resonator at the resonant state. We supposed that the sample substance was deposited in the low gap of the structure and the spectrum was simulated, as shown in Figure 17(c). It is seen that the spectrum moves to the lower frequency side with the increase of sample permittivity. The average frequency shift with respect to a small change of 0.1 in sample permittivity is about 123 MHz. The relation between resonant frequency and sample permittivity plotted in Figure 17(d) reveals a good linearity of the sensor. Moreover, the simplicity of such sensing structure enables its utilization in a wide frequency range by simple rescaling, which opens up avenues toward flexible designing of sensors with superior sensitivity.
6. The Other Kinds of Metamaterial Sensors
The other kinds of metamaterial sensors include sensors based on the squeezing and tunneling effect, combined right/left-handed metamaterial transmission lines (CRLH) [16], metamaterial probe [67], and open resonator [28]. The CRLH sensor is a popular concept for the microwave region. It utilizes metamaterial transmission line unit cells as building blocks and can be exploited to allow for different sensor applications, such as the measurement of mass flow [68], level [69], permittivity [70], strain [71], and the velocity of granular materials on belt conveyor systems [72]. More details relating to this kind of sensors can be found in the review article of Schueler et al. [16]. The metamaterial probe proposed by Boybay and Ramahi [67] consists of a rectangular waveguide with a layer of single negative or double negative metamaterials covered at one end. Due to the application of evanescent wave, it is capable of sensing the target object such as cracks on aluminum plates with subwavelength resolution. The open resonator was firstly proposed by Notomi [73] based on the ray theory in 2000. It consists of two homogenous double negative metamaterial (DNM) squares in the air. Later, the resonating modes in the open resonator were demonstrated numerically by He et al. [74] using the finite-difference time-domain method. Open resonator has been widely applied in dielectric sensing and laser cavity. Recently, we designed and fabricated a novel open resonator using metamaterial transmission line medium [28]. The open resonance effect which is generated by multiple negative reflections is demonstrated experimentally. Figure 18(a) shows the schematic graph of the open resonator. The two DNM squares are colored in blue. Effective permittivity and permeability of the background double negative media (DPM) are equivalent to those of the air. A photograph of the open resonator designed based on LC network is depicted in Figure 18(b). The unit cell of the DPM region consists of four surface-mounted inductors in series and one capacitor in shunt to the ground, while the unit cell of the DNM region consists of four surface-mounted capacitors in series and one inductor in shunt to the ground, as shown in the amplified view of Figure 18(b). Simulation results of note voltage distribution obtained based on the software ADS are shown in Figure 18(c). The concentration of voltage at the junction of the DPM square confirms the open resonant characteristic of the structure. Figure 18(d) displays the measurement results of note voltage distribution. Compared with Figure 18(c), the discrepancies are most likely due to tolerances and components losses introduced in fabrication. The field concentration phenomenon observed at the resonant state reveals the highquality characteristics of the metamaterial open resonator, which may provide many possibilities for designing sensors with superior performance.
The squeezing and tunneling effect of electromagnetic waves transmission through narrow channels filled with epsilon () near zero (ENZ) metamaterials was demonstrated theoretically by Silveirinha and Engheta [75]. Since the wavelength of radiation inside the ENZ metamaterials is extremely large, waves propagate inside the ENZ material with no relevant reflection losses at abrupt bends or junctions. The theory of energy squeezing and tunneling through an ultranarrow rectangular metallic waveguide was experimentally verified by Edwards et al. [76] using a microwave setup consisting of three distinct regions in a rectangular waveguide with a narrow channel. Alù et al. [59, 77] showed that the phenomenon of energy squeezing and tunneling through a narrow waveguide channel can be used for accurate dielectric sensing application. Figure 19 shows the simulation model of the permittivity sensor, which consists of an ultranarrow rectangular channel connecting the two sections of a waveguide. In this way, the ENZ-related supercoupling effects can be achieved using conventional materials filling in the channel. The infinite phase velocity of the mode near its cut-off results in a uniform and a strongly enhanced electric field along the channel. As a consequence, a small cavity region with permittivity located in the channel will perturb the tunneling effect clearly and then introduce a significant shift in ENZ-related tunneling frequency. The transmission spectra are shown in Figure 20. From left to right, the curves correspond to the materials with relative permittivity varying from 1 to 2. The peak at about 1.8 GHz is a Fabry-Perot resonance, which is strongly dependent on the length of the channel. Additionally, the squeezing and tunneling effect is independent on the shape of the waveguide. We [29] studied the tunneling of electromagnetic field through a 3D coaxial waveguide channel filled with ENZ materials and showed that the varying of sample permittivity from 1 to 3 will result in a frequency shift of 100 MHz on average.
7. Conclusions
With the development of metamaterial science, sensing application of metamaterials has attracted more and more attention. The amplification of evanescent wave at the boundary between positive and negative refractive index materials not only allows for subwavelength resolution in optical imaging, but also increases the sensitivity of the planar waveguide sensors and the whispering gallery mode sensors due to the enhancement of the interaction between wave and matter. Sensors-based metamaterial arrays and particle(s) utilize the local field enhancement and resonant characteristics of metamaterials to achieve high sensitive detection. Besides, simply rescaling the size of metamaterial particles allows for the design of sensors from microwave to optics. Although metamaterial loss cannot be eliminated, reducing the size of metamaterial arrays and using the stereoparticles instead of the planar ones are all effective measures for reducing the impact of losses on sensor performance. We believe that with the development of the research of evanescent wave and the concomitant effects, sensors with excellent sensitivity and subwavelength resolution might be brought by metamaterials in the future.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 61161007 and 61261002), the Scientific Research Fund Major Project of the Education Bureau of Yunnan Province (Grant no. ZD2011003), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant no. 20125301120009), and the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (Grant no. 2011FB018).
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Copyright © 2013 Jing Jing Yang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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This week we discuss the film "Teen Witch," Michael CROSSES THE LINE, the Quintessential Stud Muffin Joel Gertner, Skittles, the Creed reunion and a special intervention regarding Lawrence's unhealthy interest in the movie "Teen Witch."
Category: Episode
Episode 005 – Ferris Bueller's Day Of
Ferris Bueller's Day Of – A heartfelt Very Very Special Episode discussing the loss of 80s icon John Hughes and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Lawrence and Michael dive deep into this classic.
Episode 004 – Random 80s TV Throwdown
Michael and Lawrence are back with a "very special" episode of The Awesome 80s podcast, including such discussion topics as She's the Sheriff, Willy Galt, iCarly, Michael A. Fox, Dana Plato, and "The Bicycle Man" episode of Differen't Strokes.
Archive – Episode 002 – Just One of the Guys, Gender Roles, Redheads, more OJ, and Larry King stops by
(Reposting the first two episodes on the new site)
This week Michael and Lawrence discuss the movie "Just One of the Guys" and special guest Larry King stops by to reenact a famous moment in American history. One small production note – the audio is a tad low until about the 5 minute mark. We're still working out the technical details here at the Elizabeth Shue Podcast. Please leave any feedback or questions you have for these two bodacious dudes in the comments section below.
Woah dude,
Art the Technician
Archive – Episode 001 – Cocktail, Adventures in Babysitting
(reposting the first two episodes from the old site)
totally awesome topics of discussion: cocktail, revenge of the nerds, breakfast club, adventures in babysitting, jeremy piven, the implausible time line of ferris bueller's day off, and much, much more.
totally rad,
art the technician
Episode 003 – The Secret of My Succe$s, Michael Jackson, Bubbles, Bahrain
And we're back with a new, easier to remember name and a fancy new website. In the third (or first depending on how you look at it) episode Lawrence & Michael discuss The Secret of My Succe$s and have a completely insane conversation about Michael Jackson and his journies to Bahrain. Enjoy.


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Menopause is often referred to as "the change of life." Yet this transition period encompasses many changes, from those you barely notice to those that may make daily life challenging - or even keep you up at night.
Regardless of what menopause is like for you - every woman experiences it differently - you don't have to go through it alone. You don't have to wonder what's happening to your body, and you don't have to suffer through bothersome symptoms.
At MultiCare, you have options.
In addition to visiting your regular MultiCare family medicine provider, midwife or OB-GYN when you need care and support during menopause, you can also see board-certified nurse practitioners at MultiCare who focus on menopause treatment. Our specialists partner with you to help you find relief and navigate the ups and downs of menopause.
In addition to in-person visit options, MultiCare offers virtual menopause care appointments. A virtual video visit allows you to talk to our nurse practitioners from the comfort of your home or office via user friendly video chat. You do not have to be a current MultiCare patient to have a virtual appointment for menopause care.
All MultiCare's women's health providers are ready to provide you the care and support you need as you go through menopause.
To schedule an in-person or virtual video appointment with our menopause specialist nurse practitioners, call MultiCare Tacoma Women's Specialists at 253-403-5432.
Or find an OB/GYN or Midwife near you.
Find the right provider to help you manage your menopause symptoms.
Download The Girl Stuff Guidebook today for help with everything from annoyances of menopause to the awkwardness of incontinence.


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2017 Volunteers
Our Volunteers
Last year, volunteers donated their time and skills to the Hillsboro Farm To Table Dinner. It took more than 50 volunteers to pull this event off successfully, and we literally couldn't have done it without them.
Please help us to thank all of our volunteers and volunteer organizations from 2016! Many are returning for this year's Farm to Table Dinner, and their help and support is greatly appreciated.
We are looking for a total of 70 volunteers. There are two volunteer shifts, half of the volunteers will come early to help with set up and stay to serve. The other half will serve, and stay after to help with clean up. Volunteers will be rewarded with a VIP Volunteer party with food and drinks from the dinner post-event! Volunteers must attend one of two mandatory training sessions on either Wednesday, July 12th or Thursday, July 13th.
If you'd like to be involved, please sign up to volunteer here! You can also email Wendy at firstname.lastname@example.com. We would love to have you on our team!
Our Volunteer Committee Members:
Our Volunteer Committee Members:
Ashley Wirthlin Mumm; Marketing, Program & Image Design
Owner, Ashley Mumm Marketing| Co-Owner, Mumm Masonry LLC
Mary Hatz; Farm & Restaurant Lead
Sanne Stienstra, Sustainability & Waste Management
Green Business Coordinator, Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling
Gus O'Bosky; Farm Help
How Many Volunteers Does it Take to Make this Dinner Happen?


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The Hollies, built in 1856, was extensively & tastefully modernised in 2014 for the 21st century. We focused on creating a warm and relaxing atmosphere while keeping, adapting or re-instating many original Victorian features. The house is set well back from the road, with plenty of parking just outside.
Both of our bedrooms are on the first floor, up the sweeping Victorian staircase, and are traditionally furnished with the only fitted item being the headboard! They offer views of the surrounding hills and our 3 acres of gardens and woods, which you are free to explore.
If you require a ground floor room, our Lodge may be available for B&B, so please ring to enquire.
Electric cars may be charged by the conservatory, where we also have water & electric supplies for a self-contained caravan or Motor-home. (Sorry, no shower or toilet available.)
A stone built cycle store is available. Motor bikes can be securely left around the back of the house if prefered.
In setting up The Hollies we had a simple philosophy:- If it annoyed us somewhere else, we didn't do it!
Our Lodge is fully accessible for wheelchair users, as well as the fully able, with adjustable height sinks and worktop. Holly Lodge is a 4* Gold self-catering facility which can sleep 7 guests in 3 rooms – a flexible one downstairs, and a double and triple upstairs.
The main house and lodge may be booked together for retreats etc. Please contact us directly for this.
View Access Guide.
One King-size Double &
One Twin/SuperKing Double room
En-suite facilities with power showers
WiFi internet access
HD TV (and scenic outdoor views!)
Hospitality tray and fresh milk
Full Westmorland Breakfast
One Dog per room welcome (no charge)
Boot Room (with shower for dogs)
The Hollies is in a Dark Sky Area
Wildlife haven with pond and wildflower meadow
Accessible ratings H2, V1
Here at The Hollies, we offer a delicious cooked breakfast full of locally sourced ingredients.
What's in your Westmorland Breakfast?
- Cereals, Porridge and fruit juice to start
- Gloucester Old Spot Bacon, Kitridding Farm
- Cumberland, Westmorland, Pork, or Black Pudding Sausages from Local Farms
- Haggis slices, (we're part Scottish!)
- Eggs, from local poultry
- Butter from Eden View Farm
- Tasty Tomatoes, Beans and Mushrooms
- Hash browns
- We also have vegetarian & gluten free options
- Fairtrade Tea, Coffee & Chocolate.
We request that you make your breakfast choices the evening before so we can have it hot and ready for you at your preferred time.
Breakfast in the main house for couples only staying in the Self-Catering Cottage is available at an additional charge. Access to the dining room is through an adjoining door, so you can keep your slippers on!
The Hollies has a 5 Star Hygiene rating.


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High-cost Mortgages Just Got Cheaper
The size of loans that can be guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae was raised today by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The new, higher loan limits will stay in effect through the end of the year, allowing the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), to buy much higher-priced mortgages in some areas of the country.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mortgage costs just got cheaper for buyers in high-cost areas.
The size of loans that can be guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae was raised today by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The new, higher loan limits will stay in effect through the end of the year, allowing the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), to buy much higher-priced mortgages in some areas of the country.
Also today, the size of the loans that the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) can insure was raised by Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Real Estate home listings, foreclosures, home values
What's Hot: Foreclosure Markets | Hot Neighborhoods
Find: New & Existing Homes | Home Values
Autoscar reviews, price quotes, safety ratings
What's Hot: Affordable Hybrids | Top Safest Cars
Find: Dealer Rebates | New Car Search | Used Cars
Travel bookings, destination guides, user reviews
What's Hot: Cruise Ports Close to Home
Find: Travel Guides | Cruise Search | Deals
Both moves will lower borrowing costs for buyers of higher priced homes, and aim to boost flagging real estate markets.
Best time to buy a home in four years
Previously, Fannie and Freddie could only insure mortgages of up to $417,000, called conforming loans. That meant, assuming a 20% down payment, that only buyers of homes costing $521,500 or less were eligible for mortgages with GSE backing.
Foreclosures Hit All Time High | Home Equity Drops Below 50% | Best Time to Buy in Four Years
The new loan limits for Fannie and Freddie vary by area based on local median home prices and go as high as $793,750 in Honolulu. (For details, see table below).
Loan limits for FHA-insured loans were even lower; no more than $362,790. Now mortgages of up to $729,750 will qualify for FHA insurance.
The problem was that there are whole swaths of the nation where the typical home cost far more than that, and non-conforming or "jumbo loans" carry interest rates of about a point higher. For a $500,000 mortgage, that's an additional spending of $330 a month.
It's a Buyer's Market! Search Home Listings
In many parts of the country prices are much higher. In San Jose, Calif, the median priced home costs nearly $850,000, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Realtors. In San Francisco, the figure is nearly $780,000; in Anaheim, Calif.; $657,000; in Honolulu $625,000; and in the New York metro area, $525,000. That means more than half the loans in those markets would not qualify under conforming loan limits.
"Families in high-cost states have been priced out of FHA-backed loans," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said earlier today, in a speech before the Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "This has created a vacuum, filled by exotic subprime loans."
During the liquidity squeeze that began during the summer of 2007, jumbo loans became very difficult to find even for well-qualified borrowers. that made it hard to buy homes in certain regions, freezing up real estate markets.
By making it easier for buyers to get loans, regulators hope to get these markets moving again.
The new loan limits affect 71 metropolitan areas, as well as 21 counties outside of those metro areas.


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Find an eventAdd your event. It's free »
Curious About Colchester?
- Where:
- Colchester Town Centre, Starts: Balkerne Gate, Colchester, CO1 1PT
- When:
- 1 January to 30 June
- 10:00am
- Every:
- Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
- Next On:
- January 26th 2020 at 10:00am
- How much:
- £5.99 - £7.99 for up to four people
- Contact:
- email@example.com
- 01159502151
Are you curious about Colchester? Looking for an unusual and quirky activity which gets you out in the fresh air whatever the weather? Take one of our self-guided walks with a treasure hunt theme – looping around the better-known sights, as well as some of the more unusual and quirky ones, which combined make Colchester an unmissable place to explore!
You'll get everything – detailed directions, maps, clues (with answers in the back!), and interesting snippets about the history of Colchester and the people that have shaped it.
Buy or instantly download from https://www.curiousabout.co.uk/colchester.html and explore in your own time. One booklet is enough for four people of all ages to enjoy.
Enter code Press20 at checkout for 20% off any two or more Curious About Walks.


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Lost is a television phenomenon! From its shocking beginning with a plane crash on a seemingly-deserted island, the show has kept viewers guessing with mystery after mystery. And each time one answer is revealed, more questions are raised!
The ABC drama will end its successful run in 2010 with the highly anticipated sixth season. Be a part of the exciting adventure with original fan-designed official Lost t-shirts!
We've got designs with your favorite characters including Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Locke. Miss Charlie?
Look like a real island resident with a Dharma Initiative shirt or Hanso Foundatation swag.
Show off your love for Lost with great original fan-created Lost t-shirt designs!
Looking for another TV show? Check out more TV Fan Tees


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Peter J Hosey
News / Updates
Theatre Photography - Services
Theatre Photography - Getting Started
Hire Me
Stage and Theatre
Other Photography
Wild Flowers
January 2016
Hi everyone,
It's been while since my last update but you've probably noticed that the site has changed again. Yes, not my fault this time. We had to change it to make it more mobile friendly and thankfully all the work has now been done -- hope you all like the new layout / colours etc. If not drop me a mail and let me know what you'd like changing or indeed any ideas to make things better.
Apart from the new web site I have a stack of new images to add, so keep an eye on the portfolio section. In particular some images from the Kabaret Ani Mru Mru show. If you're not Polish you may not have heard of these guys. They are excellent comedians and the show was completely sold out. Don't forget you can always come and say hello if you're visiting the theatre - it's been great meeting so many new people these last few months and hearing their kind words of support for my work. Thanks to everyone.
August 2015
Hi everyone,
Well as promised, the Theatre & Stage section of the site has been opened. I've added a few images but will be uploading more as time goes by.
There are a host of exciting new shows lined up for the Autumn / Winter season at the Albany and if you're going to see any of them, please feel free to say hello, you can usually find me towards the rear of the theatre. Until then, take care.
June 2015
Hi everyone,
What a fantastic month June has turned out to be. There have been some amazing shows at the theatre during May / June all of which have been keeping me very busy. There's been Karl Loxley - his first ever concert, Nicki Gillis from Australia with her 'Ladies Rock' Tour and of course many other great shows.
A lot of people have been asking when am I going to put the images on the site, well, I will be opening a new section on the site soon which will be called 'Theatre & Stage' to showcase some of the images.
Workshops 2016
Hi everyone,
I did run a couple of workshops last year (2015) and am looking to build on their success for 2016. We are still working out the deatils of what to run and when and this will depend on the general interest raised. The wildflower workshops general start around May and last for a whole day (about 6 - 8 hours). We normally start in the car park of a local nature reserve here in Coventry which has a large lake full of swans, ducks and a few other waterbound birds as well a large selection of wildflowers. There are even a few horses on private ground nearby.
Workshops are normally limited to about 4 people per session and include an over view of equipment, how to shoot in bright sunlight, getting down and dirty to where the flowers are, and of course lots and lots of questions.
The workshops are suitable for all ages and skill levels and the park is also dog friendly. There is a canal side pub nearby for those who fancy a meal and a pint or just bring along your own.
If the weather is good what better way to spend a summers day then amongst the flowers and bees.
If you are interested in attending one of the workshops please email me and I will send you details nearer the time.
Workshops will only be run if there is enough interest, so please do let me know if you are interested.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Bands / Groups / Musicians / Drama
Hi everyone,
As part of my stage and performing arts work I am really keen to collaberate with bands / musicians / drama groups / dancers / etc.
I have worked within a large range of the performing arts and also across a wide diversity of skill sets from amateurs to celebreties.
If you're looking for something different to make you stand out and be seen then lets work together to make it happen.
Images can be used for a whole range of purposes from facebook all the way through to large glossy promotional posters.
If you would be interested in working with me please drop me a mail.
Talk to me and lets see what we can do.
Site designed and built by Peter J Hosey - All images copyright Peter J Hosey


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Chubbiestech (98.5% positive feedback from 185,000) via eBay once again offers the manufacturer refurbished Harman Kardon Onyx Studio Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for $59 shipped. That's $340 off the original list price, $60 less than Amazon's listing for a new one and tied with our previous mention for the lowest we've seen.
It has Bluetooth 3.0 technology, a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and a speakerphone for taking hands free calls. Rated 4.8/5 stars from over 200 Amazon reviewers and a 30-day warranty applies. expand full story


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Car Mods Made Simple
70Y.co.uk is the finest place to be for car enthusiasts such as myself who love to tweak and modify our vehicles. Finding the top places for certain modifications can be extremely cumbersome, with this site it would no longer be an issue. We are dedicated to providing users with expert advice and genuine customer experiences in order to ensure that the services you are getting are of the highest quality.
Here at 70Y we provide the user to the best places to modify any aspects of a car, ranging from remapping to audio augmentations. We ensure that only the top rated and well established businesses are the ones specified for your needs as a customer.
The site will enable businesses to establish themselves and gain additional customers through reviews and recommendations which would then encourage growth, thus leading to overall better quality modifications for you as a customer and increased exposure for businesses. A win-win situation for both parties.
The best part is that the site is completely free to use and will remain as such, as it is a platform for a community of car enthusiasts to bring the first-rate talent to the very top.


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What's for Lunch?
Included in the price of tuition, our students receive healthy meals provided by our on-site chef. All of our meals provide nutritious choices and a great start for a healthy lifestyle while also meeting dietary requirements.
Welcome to our center! At Bright Horizons on the Golden Mile, we recognize how important early education is in your child's development. Our talented teachers and NAEYC-accredited program provide the perfect environment where children can learn, explore, and prepare for school. Our well-designed curriculum allow teachers to nurture each child's individual strengths and prepare them for their future. For example, our newly rennovated Playground fosters creative expression, and our Enrichment space encourages exploration and problem solving in our STEM Lab. With a convenient location (minutes from Rt. 22) and ample parking, we make drop off and pick up as smooth as possible on busy days. Stop by for a visit!
Kristyn Loeffler - Center Director
Enhanced exploration of early math concepts introduced through engaging activities and songs
Science lessons through actual digging, planting, cultivating, and growing
Tools and extra exercises to practice putting A,B,Cs into print (preschool and above)
Yoga, balance, dance, climbing and more to support physical expression, interests, and skills
ASL-inspired signs for our youngest learners to communicate before verbal skills take off
Experimenting with tomorrow's skills in activities that go beyond our regular curriculum
Included in the price of tuition, our students receive healthy meals provided by our on-site chef. All of our meals provide nutritious choices and a great start for a healthy lifestyle while also meeting dietary requirements.
Our families come from nearby communities, including Plum, Murrysville, and Monroeville. Located near Sheetz gas station on the Golden Mile Highway, we're easy to get to for drop-off and pick-up.
Children graduate Bright Horizons programs with the skills they need to succeed in private or public school. In surveys, kindergarten and first grade teachers report that Bright Horizons graduates are enthusiastic learners who are socially and academically ready for the years ahead.
Your child's health and safety are our top priority. Our centers have strict guidelines for cleanliness and security and we're proud to be recognized as a health-and-wellness model for child care centers by the Partnership for a Healthier America.


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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I got an award!
Am I cool or what?! My phtograph blog got an award. Check it out here, especailly if you want to know 7 randome things about me :)
Posted by Tami at 1:02 PM No comments:
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Birthday Party
This isn't really a great photo shoot...or a photo shoot at all. I just need a way to get these pictures that I took to my sister...
Posted by Tami at 10:07 AM 2 comments:
Monday, November 1, 2010
Halloween Fun
We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. It started out with double (because there was pumpkin in them and they look like pumpkins :) pumpkin pancakes. I hope to make a family tradition. They were yummy!
Then we headed up to my parent's house where we
had a Halloween party with the family.
We had some good food and played some games.
The kids had some great costumes. I know most of you don't care to see all my family in costume but this is mostly for my brother and sister in law. I took these pictures with them in mind so they could see everyone even though they weren't able to be there.
**Spence's costume is at the end! So keep scrolling down,
you won't want to miss it!!**
These two dress up as twins :)
Captain Thunder Pants!
Just so you know Spencer won the "cutest kids costume" at our ward party.
I was just a little proud!
I mad the costume using my new silhouette machine. It was Nate's idea for him to be captain thunder pants. I was unsure about it because I wasn't sure if it was...appropriate. But everyone I asked seem to think it was a good idea. When my mom said she thought it was a good idea, I finally gave in.
Posted by Tami at 11:13 AM 4 comments:
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Tom.novellino needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 111 designs submitted by 35 freelance designers.
We sell thousands of art images that can be customized on canvas in various ways, including gallery wrapped, painted sides and framed canvas.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.