text:
Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard Rates Packaging Sustainability
Beginning this month, the retailers Packaging Scorecard helps suppliers gauge the relative sustainability of their packaging.
By now, any food processor that expects to sell products through Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (www.walmartstores.com), Bentonville, Ark., has filled out the Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard, a tool the retailer developed to evaluate package sustainability.
February 1 was the scorecard's go-live date -- the date by which all suppliers to Wal-Mart and its Sam's Club subsidiary were to have entered their packaging data into the scorecard system. The retailer's 2,000 private label suppliers started working with the scorecard in February 2007.
By last September, more than 3,400 of the company's suppliers were working with the scorecard and had entered more than 13,000 products into the scorecard system, said John Fleming, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer, speaking at the Carbon Disclosure Project last fall. "There are suppliers of all sizes included in that number," he added.
The Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard evaluates the sustainability of packaging based on nine dimensions. They are: greenhouse gas emissions related to production, material value, ratio of servings to packaging, cube utilization, recycled content, innovation, the amount of renewable energy used to manufacture the packaging, recovery value of the raw materials and, finally, emissions related to transporting the packaging materials.
These criteria help Wal-Mart suppliers determine how their packaging innovations, environmental standards, energy efficiency and materials compare to others in their category. Each stock keeping unit (SKU) requires its own scorecard, and suppliers receive a score per package relative to competitive packages. The scorecard considers primary and secondary packaging as well as transport packaging such as pallets.
The scorecard effort has been led by the Wal-Mart Packaging Sustainable Value Network (SVN), a group of more than 300 leaders in the global packaging industry.
The Packaging SVN includes representatives from government, non-governmental organizations, academia and industry.
"Our goal is to achieve a 5 percent reduction in overall packaging by 2013. That may not sound like a lot, but think about the multiplier effect of our more than 60,000 suppliers around the world," Fleming told the Carbon Disclosure Project.
He added, "We estimate that the impact of our packaging effort will be equal to removing 213,000 trucks from the road and saving about 324,000 tons of coal and 67 million gallons of diesel fuel per year." The scorecard initiative is expected to keep 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and millions of pounds of trash out of landfills.
The scorecard initially is going live in the U.S., to be followed by Canada and eventually the other countries in which Wal-Mart does business.
Working out the kinks
Wal-Mart and the Packaging SVN have spent the past year working to perfect the scorecard, including its calculations and the assumptions and data used in the calculations.
"Wal-Mart's caveat to its suppliers is to not make any packaging changes based on a score they get on the scorecard right now, because much of the underlying scorecard data is in flux," says Brian O'Banion, vice president of the Fibre Box Assn. (www.fibrebox.org), Elk Grove Village, Ill., and a member of the Packaging SVN's Steering Committee.
"The formulas are being refined, and new data on the environmental characteristics of various packaging substrates is being researched by third-party groups such as the EPA and non-governmental organizations," he adds.
"Figuring out which packaging changes provide the greatest sustainability impact -- and which don't -- will be one of the big areas of interest after the scorecard goes live, I believe. Suppliers should note they can still get credit for packaging changes made before February 2008, but they won't know the true effect on their score or its relevancy until all the SKUs in a category have been entered," O'Banion concludes.
At the Packaging SVN meeting in December, Wal-Mart announced a significant change in one of the scorecard's core calculations. Initially, the scorecard evaluated the ratio of the amount of packaging material to the amount of product in the packaging, both measured by weight. But that approach didn't accurately convey the sustainability of certain product/package combinations.
Consider a concentrated product formulated to weigh less than a non-concentrated competitive product but which provides the same number of servings as the competitor. Under the old calculations, the product-to-package weight ratio did not reward the concentrated product for its smaller eco-footprint.
"Based on the old system, that package would have received a worse score based on product/packaging ratio," says Jeff Wooster, senior value chain manager at The Dow Chemical Co. (http://plastics.dow.com/plastics/na) in Houston.
To remedy the problem, Wal-Mart replaced the product-weight metric with the Consumer Meaningful Unit of Measure (CMUM). A CMUM refers to one serving, portion or use of the product. The revised calculation measures the amount of packaging per CMUM.
This modification to a key scorecard calculation "indicates the willingness of Wal-Mart to listen to input from their suppliers and their desire to get it right -- to have a system that works and does what they want it to," Wooster says.
Join the discussion
We welcome your thoughtful comments.
All comments will display your user name.
Want to participate in the discussion?Register for free
Log in for complete access.
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments


text:
17w, 5d. Sorry once again for the radio silence—it's been a bit hectic around here. We just returned from a family reunion at a North Carolina campground (a big change of pace for this city girl), and I'm starting my first full week as a stay-at-home mom once again. Yep, I left my awesome job last week—largely because of the blood pressure problems I've been having in this pregnancy.
While I had always thought that I would likely leave my full-time position as senior editor at Parenting.com some time shortly before this baby arrived, I didn't think I would do so five months before my due date. While I loved my job, one of the things that drives me completely batty in this country is our incredibly crappy parental leave system. Yes, I would have had job security for 12 weeks—which means a lot in this economy, I know—but returning to that job would have meant leaving my 12-week-old at home and trying to juggle a full-time job, two additional kids at home who still need their mom, and pumping several times during the workday, all while running on virtually no sleep. I'm incredibly lucky that I wouldn't have had to go back to work right away—we have the financial stability that allows me that flexibility—but few employers in the U.S. will hold a position open for longer than those 12 weeks, giving new moms few options in this arena. (I should add that this isn't my first SAHM rodeo—I was at home for three years after having our first son and went back to work full-time when our second son was 13 months old.)
And given that I had already come to terms with being at home full-time again at some point in the near future, when my midwife discovered I have high blood pressure, the maternal fetal medicine specialist she sent me to told me that I was at high-risk for preeclampsia, and nothing I was doing was helping to bring my BP down, my husband and I had several long and difficult talks about what to do. While I don't know for certain that leaving my job will help the situation, I know that avoiding two stressful subway commutes a day and relieving myself of a lot of job-related stress surely can't hurt (although listening to two kids whine and scream at each other this morning hasn't really helped either). Ultimately, it just came down to the fact that if I didn't do everything I could to try to make this pregnancy a healthier one for the baby and me, I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened. I'd like to avoid preeclampsia, bed rest, going into labor prematurely, having a stroke… all of the things that have been looming over me for the past several weeks.
My kids are delighted to have me back at home, as is my husband. I'm still figuring out exactly how I feel about all of it—I miss my colleagues, I miss some parts of the work, I miss people not whining at me for large portions of the day—but I think that making this sacrifice for this baby felt necessary for me. And I know it's just the first of many, as parenthood seems to be largely about making sacrifices—or at least compromises.
All that being said, I've got to figure out what to do with my kids (ages 3 and 5) for the next month, lest I find myself pacing in front of my old office building, fighting the urge to beg for my job back. Tell me what I should put on our summer bucket list!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I've had this problem befoer and am almost ready to go another route with having clients review my footage because this I can't trust CS Review to work. I opened Premiere and in my CS Review window the "sign in" button is greyed out and below it says "This feature is disabled. Please contact your internal IT for information." I have no internal IT. I work remote from my home office. Last time this happened I had updated premiere from a adobe update and to solve the problem I had to uninstall CS 5.5 production premium. This time I did not install any updates. I just opened premiere one day and noticed it isn't working. Anyone have this problem?
I have that problem too. Guess I need to keep using Vimeo for reviews.


text:
Tuesday, Dec. 11
Tuesday, Dec. 11
Meditation class — 10-11:30 a.m. every Tues., Family of Ellenville, 221 Canal St., Ellenville. Everyone is welcome; no previous experience necessary. Taught by Ellenville resident Ani Jane, a Tibetan Buddhist nun with more than 18 years of study in Buddhism and meditation. No charge, but donations are welcome. 201-805-8683.
Thursday, Dec. 13
Managing incontinence — 2 p.m., Gerald J. Skoda Extension Center, 64 Ferndale-Loomis Road, Liberty. Family caregivers and seniors are invited to join Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County Caregiver Resource Center. Guest speaker is Nicole Davis, board-certified adult and gerontological nurse practitioner with expertise in urinary incontinence and needs of the aging. Program presented by the Family Caregiver Alliance. RSVP to 292-6180.
Monday, Dec. 17
"Diabetes in Check" regular monthly meeting — 6:30-7:30 p.m., St. Anthony Community Hospital's second-floor conference room, Warwick. Guest speaker is ophthalmologist Dr. Mandes R. Kates, who will speak on eye care being essential for people for diabetes. Adults with diabetes and their caregivers are urged to attend. Reservations suggested. 987-5168.
Wednesday, Dec. 19
Holiday Open House — 2-6 p.m., Safe Haven of Pike County Inc., 500 W. Harford St., Milford, Pa. Light refreshments, holiday music and good cheer. 570-296-2827.
Free food-tasting and salsa lessons — 6-8 p.m., Family Partnership Center cafeteria, 29 N. Hamilton St., Poughkeepsie. Three short presentations will be made by a nutritionist, nurse/certified diabetes educator and primary care physician addressing easy ways to eat healthy over the holidays. Guests will have an oportunity to sample foods and ask questions. Presentations followed by an hour of salsa lessions. Space limited; registration required. To register, call Melania at 483-5710.
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013
New mom support group — 10 a.m.-noon Wed. starting Jan. 9, Orange Regional Medical Center, ground floor conference room, Conference Center entrance, 707 E. Main St., Town of Wallkill. New mothers and their babies up to 9 months old invited to attend. No siblings, please. Moms encouraged to share experiences, discuss questions, exchange ideas and challenges. Facilitated by Deborah Vermilyea, nurse lacation specialist, and staff of Rowley Family Birthing Center. 888-321-6762.
Sunday, Jan. 13
American Heart Association basic life support CPR course — 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Marasco Senior Center, 555 Union Ave., New Windsor. Fee is $75. 565-7750 or nwrecisfun.com.
Community CPR course — 12:30-5 p.m., Marasco Senior Center, 555 Union Ave., New Windsor. Fee is $60. 565-7750 or nwrecisfun.com.
Tuesday, Jan. 15
"How to Keep Track of Your Medical Paperwork" — 5:30-8 p.m., Desmond Campus for Adult Enrichment, 6 Albany Post Road, Newburgh. Bring a three-ring binder. $25 plus $10 materials fee. Call 565-2076.
Blood drives
Dec. 15 — 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Solid Rock Church, 20 Holloran Road, New Windsor. In honor of the Rev. Kevin Armstrong. 800-933-2566.
Dec. 17 — 2-8 p.m., Galleria at Crystal Run, 1 Galleria Drive, Town of Wallkill. 800-933-2566.
Dec. 17 — 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Orange County Chamber of Commerce, 3 Scott's Corners Drive, Montgomery. 220-2030.
Dec. 11 — 9:30-11:30 a.m., Orange County Department of Health, 33 Fulton Plaza, Middletown. This clinic is only for uninsured children between the ages of 2 months and 18 years, who must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Records of previous immunizations must be presented. By appointments only. 291-2330.
By appointment
Prostate cancer screening — Benedictine Hospital, 1058 Mary's Ave., Kingston. Registration is required. 334-3182.
No-cost breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings — For uninsured/underinsured women age 41 and older and uninsured/underinsured men age 51 and older. For more information, call YWCA Cancer Services Program Orange County, 561-8050, ext. 14.


text:
LAKELAND | Long before massage therapy was common in Polk County, Vicki L. Roy set up her solo massage establishment in South Lakeland.
LAKELAND | Long before massage therapy was common in Polk County, Vicki L. Roy set up her solo massage establishment in South Lakeland.
Roy, a therapist since 1993, has had her own licensed massage establishment, which bears her name, in the same location since 1995.
A former massage teacher, she is a good example of a profession in which 69 percent are in solo practice and 85 percent are women.
"It's fascinating work," she said. "The more I learn, the more fascinating it becomes."
Actual massage is only about one-third of what Roy, also a certified personal trainer, does with her clients.
About 70 percent is active isolated stretching, a method that involves holding each stretch for two seconds.
She is an avid proponent and became a teaching assistant at Aaron Mattes' seminars, who pioneered the technique.
Roy, a graduate of Suncoast School of Natural Health in Tampa, was one of about 128,000 massage therapists in the U.S. when she opened her office. The American Massage Therapy Association estimates there are 280,000 to 320,000 therapists and students now.
Roy found she loved giving therapy in her own office, but not some of the business necessities.
"When you do massage therapy, you do it because you want to help people," Roy said. "I found it very difficult when I got started to ask people to pay for the massage."
Although Roy learned to do that, she doesn't accept insurance, saying she "doesn't know the game."
What she does know is muscles and how muscle problems in one part of the body often cause pain in other parts.
Only 40 percent of the muscles in the body can be touched by the hands, she said, and, "Massage therapists should have a very good knowledge of anatomy.''
Massage establishments can offer specific types of therapy, from giving pampering to treating serious conditions.
Rather than do massage for relaxation, Roy focuses on pain relief, with sport and repetitive strain injuries a major interest. Her services include therapeutic massage and alternatives, such as medical massage for chronic and acute pain relief and sports massage, a combination treatment of deep tissue therapies.
Roy has one of the oldest licensed massage establishments of 230 currently operating in Polk County.
There were just a handful of them when hers opened, including Terry Kraemer's Therapy Center, licensed since 1988 in northern Lakeland; and the chiropractic Newberry Clinic in Winter Haven, with a massage license from 1990.
Nationwide, massage therapists get an average 632 hours of initial training and take continuing education.
"A lot of young people coming into the profession don't realize how much hard work it is," Roy said. "They're not investing enough time into improving their skills.
With her fresh-scrubbed, open face, Roy looks to be in her 40s. She said, no, she's really "that close to 60 but I don't like to talk about it."
Her office hours are by appointment six days a week. Most new clients come through personal referrals.
Roy already had a client base when she opened. Many were members of the Lakeland Runners Club.
"I met her at a race (in 1993) where she came and was giving introductory 10-minute massages to introduce herself," recalls Lakeland resident Bob Harter, who's still one of her clients.
"She got me through 15 marathons," he said.
"I needed all the help I could get. She's very good at finding where the problem is and working it out."
Roy found other ways to make herself visible and promote the profession.
She worked two seasons with the Lakeland Ice Warriors and she taught massage at Traviss Vocational Center.
She has volunteered 20 years with Polk's Senior Games and volunteers with Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.
[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @ledgerROBIN. ]


text:
The nation faces headwinds, as federal policy remains unstable, with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and component suppliers squeezed hard and forced to make startling price cuts.
Transmission bottlenecks still plague the industry, even as a few intelligent regulatory and policy decisions offer a ray of hope.
States have taken matters into their own hands and established renewable energy standards (RES) ahead of the federal government. These standards now have legal status in 29 states and Washington DC.
Electricity demand has slumped unlike any other time in decades, as natural gas prices hit rock-bottom and shale gas production ramps up.
For wind developers, power purchase agreements (PPAs) have become hard to clinch and contract prices have softened, despite it being a stellar time for utilities to be locking in wind.
Some major developers have actually halved their planned installations this year in the face of a continued bearish outlook for the industry.
The recession has exacerbated the volatility of the market and made it hard for companies to benefit from tax equity investments, where investors can offset credits against tax liability.
The US market in 2010 saw just 20 such wind transactions, totalling $2.7 billion — compared to $4.6 billion in 2008, yet still more than double 2009's paltry total of $1.1 billion.
Market still active
But, despite all this, the US wind market remains active, with exciting developments.
In April, search engine giant Google and Japanese trading firms Itochu and Sumitomo announced they were joining GE and Caithness Energy as owners of the world's largest wind farm, investing $500 million in the $2 billion 845MW Shepherds Flat project in Oregon.
The US is still the largest market in the world in terms of grid-connected capacity, although only by a whisker with China breathing down its neck.
Total US wind installations stood at just over 40GW at the start of 2011, generating 94.6 million MWh of wind power in 2010.
Manufacturers know the value of the US and scramble for a toehold on American soil.
In assessing the state of US wind, industry players usually cite the rollercoaster federal policy, saying the on-again, off-again production tax credit (PTC) and other uncertainties undermine project planning.
"It's a hard time to make a five-year business plan," says industry veteran Jan Paulin of Cielo Wind Power.
"I can barely make a two-year business plan — we have no idea what the market will look like on January 1, 2013."
Clarity needed on incentives
Even if eligibility for the government's Section 1603 financial recovery grant and PTC have been extended through 2011 and 2012 respectively, their looming expiry is one of the toughest challenges the industry faces.
The grant programme is unlikely to be extended further, because of fears about the federal deficit and posturing for the 2012 congressional elections.
In contrast, the PTC may well be lengthened — especially since, during a visit to Gamesa's nacelle manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania in April, President Obama unexpectedly called for it to become permanent.
If nothing else, that suggests the issue will be debated during the election cycle next year, which is good for wind as it increasingly becomes an accepted part of the US economy.
OEM's have faced the strongest headwinds. According to analysts Jefferies, for example, GE's turbine prices were down by an average 17% year-on-year in 2010.
That may be a global figure but as a supplier that sells turbines largely in the US, it is a good measure of what US manufacturers face. Nor is 2011 expected to be much better.
As Vic Abate, vice-president of GE's renewable energy business, has said, the US market is not expected to improve much until 2012 and even then growth will be sluggish.
However, he points out that he is highly bullish about the longer-term prospects and believes that wind is proving its resilience by staying the course in difficult times.
In the end, while the current issues are particularly tricky, the US wind industry will always have to overcome challenges of one sort or another.
That's a view held by many, including Tony Dorazio, senior vice-president of wind development at Duke Energy Generation Services.
Asked about the outlook for the industry's health, given the federal policy boom-and-bust cycle, he says: "I'm a business person. Markets change and if you don't adapt, you die."
And despite the headwinds, wind power in America is showing that it has what it takes to stay the course.
Ros Davidson is chief US correspondent of Windpower Monthly


text:
THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
A while ago I wrote a post, Visualize Disaster, prompted by a real incident we had at my office. Fortunately we came through it OK from a business point of view, but I took away an important lesson: it's very easy, whether your organization and your team is savvy about disaster recovery or not, to have significant blind spots with regard to recovery in the face of some large, unexpected outage. We have very clear direction and decent budgets to work with, and the safety and recoverability of applications and data is a real, primary objective at my workplace – and still this was a take-your-breath-away, eye opening kind of experience. Here are some common places I have seen such blind spots in my past work. Perhaps you can have a look around you and see if you see these wherever you are today, and maybe some ways to combat them:
I think most of us have worked at a place where the leadership is just oblivious to the idea that anything damaging could happen to their business from an IT failure. I did some consulting at a place where one of the owners flat-out told me, "I'm not sure all this technology really helps us. It's certainly not essential. We could go back to pencil and paper and be just fine." I knew just from watching their operation for a short time that if they lost their technology, they would probably go straight out of business. Their server was the type you see pictures of as jokes on the web – in an un-conditioned room, with an oscillating fan aimed at it, on a rickety shelf, shared password, etc.
This can be hard to combat. A typical organization like this would look at ideas like backup or disaster recovery, and immediately balk because it "sounds expensive" or "there isn't time for that, because it's not real work." And they aren't always small companies – one place I did work for had 1500 employees and essentially no DR strategy other than some half-hearted tape backups.
The only way I have gotten traction with these cases is to do two things:
The Ego blind spot is somewhat trickier. The place this can lurk is with capable IT staff who do have a mandate to make DR work, but whenever they are approached about discussing DR or testing their systems, may become defensive or make excuses. There can be an undercurrent in the conversation that insinuating that DR isn't "covered" by their systems is some sort of an insult. Often that undercurrent actually comes from insecurity – there may really be gaps in their systems that they privately worry over, but don't want to crack open and solve because either a. it's embarrassing or b. they don't relish the extra work and risk it could take to reconfigure a running system. These folks generally have the best intentions, but getting at the gaps in the technology can be a real problem, just because of personalities.
Here the only remedy I know of is sociological – the business continuity leader (or the IT team lead, if it's the same person) has to have the leadership skills to win these folks over. The technical staff have to be in a position where finding the DR gaps and improving their systems is something they perceive will provide an opportunity to demonstrate, and not threaten, their skills. It has to feel like a worthwhile project. It's almost impossible to get at the underlying problems any other way. The leader in this scenario will need their technical expertise, their on-the-ground view of how systems really work to even locate the issues, and for that, grudging cooperation will not do. Working DR has to become a real part of the staff's fully owned, personal priorities. If the person who knows the low-level detail about how a system works is armed with DR know-how, and committed to making DR work, the gaps will disappear. If, on the other hand, the technical people don't want to see the gaps, and the leadership isn't capable of seeing the gaps, the gaps will remain until some incident exposes them.
This is an interesting one – the Magic System blind spot is essentially a blind faith that some of the latest gee-whiz tech is the silver bullet that will save everything. "We have DR covered because we virtualized." "We have DR covered because we replicate." "We have DR covered because we load balance." "Disaster can't touch us – we have a SAN!"
I've seen naïve, young people succumb, I've seen leadership (the ones out of touch with the technology, generally) succumb, but surprisingly I have also seen savvy people I would never have expected succumb to this.
The remedy here looks simple to a staffer, but maybe difficult to a leader: no matter what a vendor claims or advertises, what we imagine a magical system can do, you must have someone available who, impartially, knows how that technology works enough to dispel the magic. All this stuff works for a reason. Using dedupe? Make sure someone on staff understands how that really works. Snapshots? How. Relying on virtualization for DR? Exactly how does that work? Only by unpacking how these systems do what they do can you be sure they will work at crunch time.
Lastly, we have the blind spot that is the nemesis of us all. The one present in every organization, extremely difficult to stamp out, "When we fail over, when the data center goes down, will it work?" This is a simple question, but here's why it is so difficult: every system has so many moving parts, each of which perhaps requires specialized knowledge, and a seemingly small detail that nobody thought of can absolutely wreck the DR process when you have a real incident. It's very easy to have a scenario where practically everything works except that one tiny thing that prevents it all working – the database is there, the web servers are up, we have network connectivity and name resolution but everyone forgot that the encryption key to the whoozit has to be loaded into the whatchacallit. It's really easy to miss something. And because the something that was missed is small, maybe nobody took it very seriously.
Remedies for this are more difficult. For some organizations with the finances, it might be possible to actually run multiple data centers and, in fact, fail production systems between them. That would ensure the design is sound. Most of us, though, have to use test systems and then just try our darnedest to be really careful.
If you can't test with production systems, the next best thing would be to have a pre-prod or staging system that is comparable to production where you can do rehearsals. Such a rehearsal can be a drill around some imaginary scenario, say "It's 5:00 am and Data Center A is on fire. (This is a drill.) Go."
Failing that, the only recourse – and it's much less accurate – is a careful and detailed tabletop visualization. Visualizations like this are great, and valuable, if they are run well. Vital ingredients:
Do you see one of these four blind spots in your organization? Others? Any tips or processes for stamping them out? I'd love to hear.
If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here
Subscribe to this post's comments using
Thanks to Allen Kinsel for hosting this month's T-SQL Tuesday > http://www.allenkinsel.com/archive/2011/06/invitation-for-t-sql-tuesday-19-disasters-recovery/


text:
For Student Groups, Academic Departments, Programs, Student Organizations, or other College-Affiliated Groups
What should I know about fundraising at Cabrillo?
- Cabrillo College depends upon the ongoing and generous financial support it receives each year from alumni, friends of the College, local businesses, foundations, and other donors.
- The Cabrillo Foundation coordinates all the fundraising appeals to all College constituents: alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, friends, local businesses, foundations, and corporations.
Toggle Text
- We need to make sure that all fundraising efforts complement and do NOT compete with the College's efforts to secure private gifts -- this support might be scholarships for our students, capital improvements, support for programs or clubs, etc.
- Students, faculty, staff, and College-affiliated organizations all play an important role in these relationships with our donors. We ask that you work with us to maximize the results for all of us at Cabrillo!
- Get started!


text:
Phillip1 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 106 diseños de 23 diseñadores freelance.
Social Media Engine
I am a social media speaker, coach and consultant. We are building an online social media training center and related technologies. Our aim is to look cutting edge, dynamic, memorable, and stand out when people see our name and logo.
Our target is is primarily made up up of small businesses and preparing to take on larger companies.
We really want this logo to stand out. Custom, dynamic, sharp, eye-catching, 2d, 3d, or dimension looks good. Below are a few notes and we've attached examples of logos that really catch our eye.
- The dominant color is dark metallic blue with orange or burnt orange. Possibly silver as well
- Logo will consist of the name SocialMediaEngine together or SocialMedia Engine . Tag line... Marketking Tools & Strategies For Profits
- Add 1, 2, or 3 engine gears into the logo somehow (see site graphic attached to get a visual)
- The logo will be used in a website header fitting into the dimension of approximately 200H x 550W, a banner that is 200 w
- Logo background should be white or transparent depending on design but feel free to display on different color backgrounds as well.
- Provided in all key formats for web and print use, & small, medium, & large... jpg, psd, gif, png (high res)
Please feel free to get creative, the goal is to make this logo really stand out.
No clip art and do not copy anyone else designs please.
We look forward to seeing your creations!
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Sorry, this item is not available anymore for purchase online. Please see our recommended replacement product.
Full business performance with a professional docking system for productivity.
Get full professional performance in a compact and lightweight laptop. The Latitude™ E6330 offers a 13.3-inch display and is designed for professionals on the move.


text:
When engaged in our favourite pastimes, an hour can feel like a second. But when you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second will seem like an hour. That's relativity. And when investors are on the wrong side of a market pull-back they can experience the same kind of relativity: a region that they previously held as a long term exposure suddenly becomes a painful liability. This shift of perspective often pushes investors towards indiscriminate selling. Emerging markets (EM) high-yield debt fast became that red-hot cinder in 2013 as tapering fears drove investors towards developed market (DM) debt.
However, as the spread ratio of EM high yield to DM high yield widened, we found there was still plenty of opportunity despite the prevailing pessimism. Our preference at the time, given that EM growth was slowing, was for higher quality global players – typically BBB-BB rated issuers with an EM domicile but significant operations in developed markets that generated substantial revenues. These types of companies stand to benefit from US dollar strength and are not overexposed to their local domestic economies.
Then in February 2014 the relative risk/reward dynamic began to turn: any decision to add EM risk was mostly predicated on the belief that DM high yield had become too expensive, particularly relative to EM debt (we analysed this opportunity in the March 2014 issue of Spectrum). As you can see from the chart below, the spread ratio of EM high yield to DM high yield subsequently declined but has now rallied back at an extreme level of 1.88.
Blowing out: spread ratio of EM high yield relative to DM high yield v 10-year Treasuries
Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg as at 6 January 2015.
So EM high yield again looks attractive on relative terms. However, in our view, the recent widening of EM spreads has been driven not by fears of US rate hikes (as in late 2013), but rather by general concerns over global growth and by the conflict in Ukraine.
This becomes clear when you look at the spread ratios for the three main EM regions: Asia, EMEA and Latin America. All three regions widened in tandem in 2013 on rate hike fears. But since March 2014, EM Asian debt (both HY and IG) has significantly outperformed both DM high yield and other EM regions – particularly EMEA, due to the conflict in Ukraine. Latin America also rallied but the re-election of Dilma Rouseff, whose interventionist policies spook investors, and growth concerns reversed sentiment.
So as in 2013, while we think there's a lot of value within the EM debt space, we believe that it's imperative to be very selective as idiosyncratic and geopolitical risk has increased over the past year, making security selection even more important. Furthermore, we still think that focusing on higher quality global businesses with BBB-BB ratings is the way to play the EM space.
Neil Williams Archive - Economic Outlooks
Ahead of the curve: Back to normal?


text:
Mascarada! from Jaya Ramchandani on Vimeo.
Monday, February 20, 2012
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
The irony of the relationship between technology and idleness
One of the purposes of everyday technology (mobiles, laptops, etc.) is to make us more efficient. But we rarely use our 'freed up&...
Jaya: http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_piff_does_money_make_you_mean#t-137501 i really hope i can push economic inequality as an agenda for my...
I've been running Sirius Interactive with two of my closest friends for almost 6 years now. Nice to see time pass so smoothly and su...


text:
home | metro silicon valley index | movies | current reviews | film review
AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: Life is hard, very hard in Naples in 'Gomorrah.'
Thug Life
'Gomorrah': the shame of a nation
By Richard von Busack
MANY FILMS are made about slums, but it's rare to see a film that's in open crusade against them. Slumming directors (and Slumdog Millionaire falls into this category) often just get a big charge from the squalor. The Italian film Gomorrah chronicles the poisoning of Italy by high-level grafters and small-time criminals alike. As presented by Martin Scorsese, this import seems to have been made by someone who wants to clean up the sewer instead of standing around gaping at it. It took a great deal of bravery to make Gomorrah, and director Matteo Garrone (who co-wrote with reporter Maurizio Braucci and others) is, in a sense, going up against his entire country. In this fictional film, every class of person is implicated in the overload of crime in the Naples region—a nasty slum that's been a nasty slum for centuries.
Most of Gomorrah unfolds in a grandly designed yet utterly shabby housing project, a concrete wedding cake. It looks like an immense Cancun luxury hotel after a dozen hurricanes. Essential to its design are those old Bauhaus "sidewalks in the skies," raised concrete corridors where the dispossessed mill around like prisoners. The place leaks like a sieve, and constant waterfalls drain everywhere. The film weaves together a quintet of stories out of this battlefront. Young Toto, a delivery boy for his mom's closet-size convenience store, is tired of running errands for coins. He gets a job with the local drug dealers, first as a lookout, later as a distributor for drugs. In another plot, two young antic idiots, addled by visions of Pacino in Scarface, take up some stolen guns and go on a minor crime spree. They're the story's clowns—crying clowns by the end of the film.
Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is in some ways my favorite character, since he has the least appetite for the criminal life. Ciro is a clerk for the local mob. In a dancing anxiety of tension, he brings money to the wives of those who took the rap or the widows of those who took the bullets. Everyone believes that they are being underpaid, and the rival gang is watching Don Ciro. The subplot about the rag trade is underwritten. You have to be on your toes to parse the action.
Garrone is outraged, but it hasn't made him inarticulate. He presumes the viewer is not a thug, and not in the mood to watch torture. When it comes, the violence arrives out of nowhere, and it's scary and it hurts. The film draws a contrast between Italy as it was and Italy as it is now: a land that once gave a living vs. a land that now gives you tumors. The mozzarella buffalo paddocks and the orchards are still standing, but they are surrounded; the noble marble quarries are being filled up with barrels of unnamable toxic waste. In making that contrast between fruitfulness and desolation, Gomorrah could have been as self-important as the top man in this pyramid, the unsavory waste-removal magnate Franco (Toni Servillo); at the end of the film, the capitalist boasts, "I helped bring this shitty country into Europe!" But there's a peculiar serenity to Gomorrah. The filmmakers have this faith that exposure of corruption will change things. How very old-fashioned.
GOMORRAH (Unrated; 137 min.), directed by Matteo Garrone, written by Maurizio Braucci and others, photographed by Marco Onorato and starring Gianfelice Imparato, opens March 6 at Camera 7 in Campbell.
Click Here to Talk About Movies at Metro's New Blog
Send a letter to the editor about this story.


text:
Brown scores walk-off as Plymouth tops NorthWood, 4-3
PLYMOUTH — Freshman Bre Martin drove in Bailey Brown on an 0-2 count for the game-winning run, and Plymouth's softball team clinched a 4-3 Northern Lakes Conference victory over visiting NorthWood Friday night.
It was the second walk-off NLC win of the week for the Lady Pilgrims, who
"It was really exciting for our team to have a second walk-off victory in one week's time, and especially for Bre to come through. It was a great play for a freshman able to execute and support her team that way," said Plymouth softball coach Haley Church.
"It was exciting, a great Friday night."
NorthWood jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Katie Rhoade reached base on an error and later scored on a passed ball at the plate.
No more action occurred until Rhoads came up to the plate again in the third. Again she reached on an error and eventually scored on a double from Maddie Schwartz. Lexi Bergman scored on the same play, and Plymouth found itself in an 0-3 hole.
Plymouth buckled down defensively, however, and the Pilgrims finally found a way to rattle the bats in the fourth.
April Hampton reached base after walking, Britney Horvath was hit by a pitch, and Plymouth looked to have some life when Katie Berg earned the walk and loaded the bases.
Bailey Brown approached the plate in the clutch situation and came through with a timely hit, scoring both Hampton and Horvath, and Plymouth tied the score 3-3 when Katie Berg stole home on a wild pitch.
With the momentum appearing to shift, the visitors fought as best they could and managed to get runners on second and third in the fifth inning, but the Panthers couldn't cross home plate as Pilgrims freshman pitcher Haley Brown bore down to close the door on NorthWood.
Brown racked up 10 strikeouts while throwing just one walk and allowing five hits for the win in her first varsity start.
"As a freshman that's a really great start for her," said Church.
Both teams remained in a gridlock until the bottom of the seventh.
Bailey Brown opened up the final run needed by driving a single into center and advancing to second on the throw. Morgan O'Neal managed to get a base hit grounder into left field. Brown advanced to third, and O'Neal snuck in at second to make it exciting for Martin as she approached the plate with only one out.
Martin attempted to bunt, but it went foul. She swung at the next one to fall behind 0-2 in the count but stayed aggressive, making contact on the next pitch, and Bailey Brown took off for home as the ball dribbled back to NothWood pitcher Jodie Romer. Ramer tried to make the flip to catcher Paige Hershberger but couldn't execute, and Bailey Brown scored to secure the 4-3 win.
It was a much-needed victory for Plymouth, which had struggled in its last two outings following the walk-off victory over Goshen Monday.
Bailey Brown finished 3-for-3 on the day with a pair of clutch RBIs, and Morgan O'Neal continued her hitting streak by going 2-for-4.
"Just the way that we showed up today, we were a team that was ready to fight and ready to prove that we have talent and that we are capable of competing," Church said. "We had some great individual performances. I was really happy for Bailey Brown because she has not been producing the way she wants to at the plate, and today she went 3-for-3 and scored the winning run and had two RBIs too, so she was a part of three of our runs. That's great for her."
The softball girls now take a weekend break and prepare for a busy week with six games in six days.
At Plymouth
NorthWood: 102 000 0 — 3
Plymouth: 000 300 1 — 4
WP: Haley Brown; LP: Jodie Romer.
2B: Maddie Schwartz (N), Haley Brown (P), Bailey Brown (P)
Record: Plymouth 3-11 (2-0 NLC)


text:
In 2009, the Holocaust Memorial Center was honored to have been selected as one of only eleven sites in the United States to receive a sapling from the tree that grew outside Anne Frank's hiding place. During her nearly two years in hiding, her exposure to the outside world was limited to what she could see outside her window. "From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver," she wrote in 1944. "When I looked outside right into the depth of nature and God, then I was happy, really happy." Watching the chestnut tree cycle through the seasons offered Anne hope that one day humanity also would have another chance.Anne Frank's tree has reached the end of its 150-year lifespan, but it will live on through saplings planted around the world, including one at the HMC. The HMC's sapling will grow in a specially designed and secure garden on the campus. Visitors will see and experience the sapling from inside the museum as part of a new exhibit about Anne Frank.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.


text:
Spotlight Article:
Choosing an IR Camera
Which equipment specifications should you consider before you buy?
Keep Reading
Pressure Pans: New Uses and Old Fundamentals
archive CONTENT
Duct leakage continues to be one of the biggest home performance problems, so duct sealing retrofits are in steady demand. Here at Ecotope and Delta-T, we've discovered a way for advanced duct sealers to speed up their diagnostics. [continue reading]
DESLog Delivers Timely Answers about Home Energy Use
archive CONTENT
Blower doors, pressure tests, and other diagnostic tools are useful for assessing home performance before and after weatherization. [continue reading]
archive CONTENT
In the past two decades, many energy analysis software packages have appeared on the market. Most of these have been time-consuming, complicated to use, or unable to handle a sufficient number of variables. [continue reading]
Data Loggers: An Interview with Some Heavy Users
archive CONTENT
The first data loggers were human. When labor was cheap, students and others were hired to sit next to wattmeters and record the reading every 15 minutes. Data loss occurred for various reasons, such as boredom. [continue reading]
The History of the Blower Door
archive CONTENT
The blower door as we know and love it today springs from technology first used in Sweden in 1977, where it was actually a blower window. [continue reading]
Assessing The Integrity Of Electrical Wiring
archive CONTENT
Dense-pack cellulose insulation is a very useful and cost-effective technique for lowering both conductive and convective heat losses in a variety of housing types. [continue reading]
Sandra Wood
Top US Cities Considered the Most Energy Efficient
Many people recognize the need for increased efforts to reduce energy consumption and make communities cleaner. As cities strive to ...
Dave Yeager
Speaking the Same Language: The Importance of Open Standards in Energy Efficiency
Open standards provide the backbone for many markets and industries. The Internet itself could not exist without the collaborative, agreed-upon ...


text:
The Roxanne Towers, located in the heart of Myrtle Beach, provides beautiful oceanfront fully equipped and serviced condos. With the central location of The Roxanne Towers, you?ll be steps from The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, The Myrtle Beach Skywheel and the 14th Avenue Pier. Add to that and you are just minutes away from Broadway at the Beach, the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, and hundreds of other restaurants and shopping centers including Coastal Grand Mall.
The Roxanne Towers are proud to offer :
All of this while still being able for you to walk in and have that Personal Family Feel.
Please Note: All guests must be 25 years and older or be accompanied by a parent or guardian. No pets are allowed. Guests that do not rent directly through the Roxanne Inc. Rental Management, but instead rent from owners not on our rental program and/or their rental companies; will not be provided with assistance from the front desk and office for issues relating to housekeeping, maintenance or other services Roxanne Inc. provides our guests.


text:
Ford 4.5L SVO even fire engine complete from intake to pan with dry sump pump just add carb. It is fresh with about 6-8 1/8th mile passes. It is upgraded with diamond 10:1 pistons, copper head gaskets with o-ring/receiver grooves, custom turbo roller camshaft. It has all clevite race main/rod bearings, carillo rods, cnc ported heads, ported intake. It made right at 900 hp with 15 lbs of boost.
I also have the following spare parts included as a package deal. 1 spare set of bare ported heads, rocker rollers, head studs, 1 new turbo cam, 2-3 used n/a cams, 3 brand new untouched blank camshafts, and intake.
The engine and parts are located in Poplar Bluff, MO. $7500 FIRM. NO TRADES!!! email@example.com
complete 4.5 svo v6 engine with spare parts
Items for Sale - No Commercial Posts Please!
Moderator: opnwhl23
1 post • Page 1 of 1
- Posts: 119
- Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:48 am
- Location: Poplar Bluff, MO
complete 4.5 svo v6 engine with spare parts
2001 Ford Mustang 428 N/A on a true 10.5"
UPR, AJE, Diamond Pistons and more sold here!
UPR, AJE, Diamond Pistons and more sold here!
1 post • Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 1 guest


text:
Bushnell, the last town in Nebraska on U.S. Highway 30, is just nine miles from Wyoming and only 15 miles from Colorado on the south. It is as old as the railroad and named for the Union Pacific Railroad director Cornelius Scranton Bushnell.
The first depot in 1880 was a box car on the south side of the mainline. An "Eclipse" windmill with a 20 foot diameter wooden wheel, provided water for the locomotives. When there wasn't enough wind, a gas engine was used to keep the tower full. The only trees in the area were those planted near the tower and watered by the railroad employees.
James Newell, named postmaster in 1886, also built the first building about 1887 as a general merchandise store. Almost immediately the town was asked to change its name because it sounded too much like Rushville, so they chose "Orkney," a name that had been used for the eastern part of the village.
Soon the town's fortune diminished, and in 1893 it was reported the station had been abandoned and its agent removed to Omaha. However it is noted that in 1895 the post office went back to the name "Bushnell," and, although discontinued for a time, it was established permanently in 1903.
A disastrous train wreck in 1916 left two dead and many injured. An eastbound freight struck an engine at the west switch just as the "Los Angeles Limited" came through and plowed into the wreckage. The engine and several cars went down the embankment.
A petition carrying the signatures of "36 taxable residents," was filed with the board of commissioners in 1916 asking that Bushnell be organized as an incorporated village. The ordinances were formally recorded in 1918.
In 1919 Emery Howe had a franchised electric plant. Operating on "No pay, no current" house power for washing or ironing was available from nine till noon. There was none for commercial purposes. Twenty four hour service became available in 1920.
The Bushnell Telephone Company was organized in 1914 as a partnership and later as a corporation with the switchboard in George Hammond's residence where his wife, Maude operated it. In the late 1950s it was sold to Panhandle Telephone Company and dial phones were installed.
A man called "Shockey" built a number of four-room, square houses in the west part of town. They still carry his name and were so well built they are still occupied, some having been remodeled and enlarged.
In its heyday Bushnell had a full range of business; banks, general merchandise and specialty stores, a drug store with a nifty fountain, a grain elevator, cream station, pool hall, cafes, and the Reed Hotel. This building currently houses the Rebekahs and Senior Citizen Center. On Tuesday the seniors have a carry-in dinner. No one goes home hungry!
The Presbyterians built the first church in 1914. Other churches include Catholic and a Mission church that evolved into the present West Union Parish of the Methodist Church.
By the turn of the century the population of Bushnell precinct was 137. By 1920, 757; and now it is posted on the highway as 190. The Kimball County Bank serving Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska and the post office are the only businesses in town. Most young people have moved where they can find work. Recently a number of vacant homes have been purchased, primarily by retired people.
Baseball games, contests, and races for cars, horses, and people, were held on Bushnell Festival Days in the early twenties. "Bushnell Days" is still celebrated on the last Saturday of August with activities for all ages, a barbecue at the fire hall, and a dance.
Times changed. Students are transported to Kimball schools by bus. The four elevators are used for storage. Since the depot closed in 1971, a mobile unit based in Kimball serves the town.
Interstate 80 and other well kept roads provide easy access east and west. Its a ten minute drive to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and 20 minutes to Kimball. The telephone, television, satellite discs, gatherings of the community on special days, and the church, keep the town together.
By Salma Hammond, Box 8, Bushnell, NE 69128


text:
As you depart Falmouth, one of the oldest towns in Jamaica, drive by the many historical sites as your informative hostess gives you the details as to its rich past. After a brief orientation and being fitted with your life vest, board your kayak for a guided journey on the crystal clear Caribbean Sea to Dunn's River Falls. You'll be amazed and fascinated at the underwater world, its spectacular beauty, and the wide and varied array of corals and sea life. See the wonders of waterfalls and enjoy fantastic photo opportunities on your way to Dunn's River Falls. Upon arrival, your friendly hostess will lead you to your capable guides who will assist you in climbing the 600 feet of cool refreshing water as it cascades over natural limestone terraces.
Feel the excitement as you ascend the rushing waters as they plunge directly into the pristine Caribbean Sea. After enjoying the falls, you'll head to Dolphin Cove and experience all that it has to offer. At the conclusion of your tour you'll have the option of being dropped off at a local shopping plaza for shopping at your leisure and then make your own way back to your ship or return directly to your ship.


text:
TSA Agent Spills Grandpa's Ashes at Security Checkpoint + Laughs About It
Following my post from yesterday about TSA agents at JFK Airport leaving a metal detector unplugged, comes a story about another TSA agent in Florida. This agent was searching through the belongings of a man named John Gross, who was leaving Florida with the ashes of his late grandfather. His ashes were tightly sealed and clearly marked "Human Remains."
A TSA agent was searching Gross' bag and he told her to please be careful because his grandfather's ashes were in his bag. The agent picked up the jar and opened it. The she proceeded to sift through the ashes with her finger and then guess what — yep — she spilled it! Gross says about a quarter to a third of the ashes spilled out onto the ground.
Get this: the TSA agent did not apologize. In fact, she started laughing.
TSA rules state that a crematory container in carry-on baggage must pass through the X-ray machine at the security check-point. In fact, the rules go on to say that human remains are to be opened under "no circumstances."


text:
The Crew got a goal from Chris Birchall early in the second half and a little luck at the end to snap a two-game losing streak with a 1-0 victory over D.C. United on Saturday before 17,150 fans at Crew Stadium.
D.C. defender Chris Korb hit the left post in the 88th minute with a strike from 18 yards to deny United (10-7-3, 33 points) the equalizer as they lost a second straight match.
Columbus (7-7-4, 25) had lost three of their previous four, and looked unlikely to get a win in this one until Birchall, playing his sixth game since signing in May, scored his first goal as a member of the Crew, a minute after the halftime break. It was the second career goal in MLS for the Trinidadian international, who spent three previous seasons with the LA Galaxy.
Josh Williams started the play out of the back with a pass to Jairo Arrieta. The Costa Rican forward, making only is second appearance, held off a challenge and slipped the ball through to Birchall off a well-timed run.
Birchall dribbled into the left side of the box and connected on a low left-footed strike from 10 yards that beat goalie Joe Willis, playing for the suspended Bill Hamid.
The Crew momentarily thought they had the lead just before the break, but a controversial offside call nullified the first career goal for Williams in the 44th minute. Williams had a goal disallowed earlier this season for the second time this season and this one couldn't have been closer. Replays showed he was likely even with D.C. defender Brandon McDonald when Justin Meram struck a free kick from 40 yards. Williams snapped a header but his effort was voided by the referee assistant's flag.
The play capped an aggressive opening 45 minutes for the Crew led mainly by the return of midfielder Dilly Duka. His combination play with Eddie Gaven and Meram kept the pressure on United.
However, Dwayne De Rosario and United picked things up in the second half and wound up dominating in nearly every statistical category. They outshot the Crew 18-12, and outpossessed the home side 64.4% to 35.6%.
They nearly got something for their efforts just four minutes after Birchall's goal. Nick DeLeon forced Andy Gruenebaum into leaving a juicy rebound of his 18-yard shot. De Rosario pounced and put the ball away but was called for offside. Replays showed it was the right call though because the ball deflected off a Crew defender, it seems more controversial than it deserved.
A subplot of the match was D.C. coach not picking Gruenebaum for the All-Star team that faces Chelsea on Wednesday.
Gruenebaum had three saves to post his seventh shutout of the season. None of Gruenebaum's saves were as important as the punch away he made after an ill-advised clearance by teammate Sebastian Miranda in the 76th minute that presented Pontius with a wide-open goal.
After that, with a little help from the post on Korb's shot, the Crew had three points.
The Crew next host English club Stoke City in a friendly on Tuesday before traveling to Sporting Kansas City on July 28.
D.C.'s next MLS game is at home vs. the Crew on Aug. 4. In the interim they play Paris Saint-German as part of the Herbalife World Football Challenge on July 28 in RFK Stadium.
» Vote for the Lenkersdorfer Fine Jewelers Man of the Match
Lineups and boxscore (MLSsoccer.com)
Opta Chalkboard (MLSsoccer.com)


text:
Insure Your Future by Insuring What's Important to You with the Brenmark Insurance Group
Learn More
For All of Your Personal and Business Insurance Needs.
About Us
Contact Us
We will help you Protect what's really Important.
Let us help you to chose best Insurance policy for you and protect your FUTURE
Learn More
Contact Us
Give Your Family Peace of Mind When you pass away.
Get a Quote
Copyright ©2015 URL Directing.


text:
Gippsland 'open for business' after floods
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu is urging tourists to visit Gippsland this long weekend, despite flooding in the region.
He says the worst of the crisis appears to be over and the majority of Gippsland's holiday attractions are open for business.
The town of Lakes Entrance on the Gippsland Lakes has escaped damage from floodwaters and high tides overnight.
Other communities at Paynesville, Metung, Loch Sport and Raymond Island were also spared any serious flooding.
All of Gippsland's state forests have been closed for the weekend but national parks remain open.
"In terms of Gippsland, [it's] open for business and I know Gippsland's are looking forward to the long weekend, it's a good weekend for them in terms of tourism," Mr Baillieu said.
"Anybody who is going there, if they're going off the main roads should just check in advance," he said.
Andrew Marshall from Parks Victoria says anyone planning to visit this weekend should check the Parks Victoria website for the latest information.
"With Buchan, we expect to be open over the weekend. Royal Cave will be operating. Fairy Cave and some outlying areas will be closed until we can clear those," he said.
"At Cape Conran we've got West Cape and Salmon Rocks and the cabins open.
"But the camp ground is closed because we have got to check and clear a fair degree of tree damage."
The Raymond Island car ferry not running until Sunday because of high water levels in the lakes.
Topics: floods, tourism, travel-and-tourism, buchan-3885, paynesville-3880, lakes-entrance-3909
First posted


text:
Pelican, Oceanside
In December, Susan Kogan and her younger daughter, Millay, who was visiting from New York City, took a walk to the Oceanside Pier, where they saw two pelicans. "It's often said that the best trips [and photos] are made closest to home," said Kogan, who lives in Oceanside. She describes this pelican as "bright, warm and pert" and could not resist snapping the photo. She used an iPhone 4s.
Susan Kogan
Copyright © 2018, Sun Sentinel


text:
6 Ways To Deal With The Inevitable 'Swamp Ass' This Summer
Well, the summer is officially here! Today in the city it's supposed to be an obnoxious 97 degrees, but the way the heat and humidity settles in between the tall buildings, it will feel even stickier. I'm so happy I skipped town for a few days, because basically we have some potential swamp ass on the horizon.
Although the term "swamp ass" is associated with gamers (something I just learned!), it also is something that, in extreme heat, we probably all have experienced at one point or another. You're sitting somewhere and it's pretty damn close to 100 degrees, with the humidity at some ridiculous percentage level and your shins are actually sweating, something you didn't even know was possible, as well as the rest of your body. No matter how much you hydrate or run from the sun, excessive sweating in this heat is inevitable. You can feel the sweat pooling in your lower back, dripping from under your bra strap, slithering from your brow, and thanks to the backs of your knees, down your legs, too. By the time you go to stand to either hit up the loo, say hello to a friend, or order another drink, you realize you're in the land of the swamp ass. Not cool.
I first heard the term when my friend Ali used it one day after we'd been baking in the sun on Pearl Street in Boulder the summer after college graduation. I remember thinking that she was absolutely brilliant for "coming up" with it, and I immediately injected it into my summer vocabulary. I honestly thought that she had invented it until I was at SXSW a couple years ago and ran into some girls in a bar bathroom who doused themselves with powder all while complaining about the "fucking Austin swamp ass." Apparently, my friend Ali wasn't exactly the genius I thought she was; swamp ass was an international term. I had truly thought I had brought it back east when I left Colorado, finally offering something to the world of language, but that was not at all the case. It was a sad day for me.
The puncturing of my ego aside, what it comes down to is that swamp ass is a real thing that can happen to a lot of innocent people who are just trying to enjoy their life. When the temperatures rise and there's no air conditioning in sight, it can be a tough thing to handle. I'm not suggesting you can avoid it entirely, but you can at least try to limit the swampiness of your lower body and the wet splotches you could be leaving behind all over town by implementing some of the following things into your swamp ass preparation routine.
Photo: Someecards


text:
Submersible Pumps
The Orange Pumps engineering department & Certified Agents can design a Tailored System for your specific Pumping Requirement. Your Orange Pumps Agent can tailor a specific solution that can be made up of just Orange Pumps components, or could include custom products designed to fit your application. Below are the broad catagories of systems & products we design:


text:
What's New?
Selected Abstracts from JASIS&T
Editor's note: We invite JASIS&T authors to submit structured abstracts of their articles for possible inclusion in the Bulletin, particularly those that might be of interest to practitioners. ASIS&T would welcome reader feedback on the usefulness of this (or any other) Bulletin feature (email@example.com).
From JASIS&T v. 55 (11)
Bar-Ilan, J. & Peritz, B. C. (2004). Evolution, continuity and disappearance of documents on a specific topic on the Web - A longitudinal study of "Informetrics," (980-990).
Study and Results: This study analyzes the changes that occurred to a set of Web pages related to "informetrics" over a period of five years between June 1998 and June 2003. The results indicate that modification, disappearance and resurfacing cannot be ignored when studying the structure and development of the Web.
What's New? There are only a very few studies that monitor a set of pages for long periods of time (a year or more). In this study we not only monitored a fixed set of URLs, but also at each round searched for additional pages on the topic, which enabled us to learn about the growth of the topic as reflected through the collated results of the largest search engines.
Limitations: Monitoring a single query over time indicates the development of the specific topic; however in order to be able to fully characterize the dynamic processes that take place on the Web, additional, larger scale studies are needed.
Mustafa, S.H. & Al-Radaideh, Q.A. (2004). Using N-grams for Arabic text searching, (1002-1007).
Study and Results: N-gram matching has been assumed to be language-independent and should work for all languages. The purpose of the research, reported in this article, was to investigate this assumption using Arabic text. The results of using two N-gram strategies indicate that the digram method offers a better overall performance than trigram, in respect to conflation precision and conflation recall ratios.
What's New? The fact that Arabic is an agglutinative language with a complex affix structure involving prefixes, infixes and suffixes presents a special case for testing the general assumption of this study. Although the N-gram-based matching technique is straightforward, the inherent lexical structure of the language under consideration seems to pose some problems on the applicability of the technique. According to the experimental results, the N-gram conflation technique does not appear to provide an efficient approach to corpus-based Arabic word conflation.
Limitations: The results should be considered with two limitations in mind. The first concerns how the term conflation relevance was used in this study. It was confined to words that would be considered related by common stems rather than by common roots. The other limitation relates to the fact that the textual material used in the experiments was not exposed to any preprocessing regarding particles and high-frequency words.
Awazu, Y., & Desouza, K.C. (2004). Open knowledge management: lessons from the open source revolution, (1016-1019). (Brief communication.)
One might argue that the future of knowledge work is manifested in how open-source communities work. Specialists who collaborate via the exchange of know-how and skills to develop products and services will conduct knowledge work. This is exactly what an open source community does. To this end, in this brief communication we conduct an examination of open source communities and generate insights on how to augment current knowledge management practices in organizations. We share several guidelines on how practice can gain from an "open knowledge management framework" rather than the popular closed form found in organizations today. Our prescriptions look at how traditional problems with knowledge acquisition, sharing, application and maintenance can be minimized using lessons gauged from the open source revolution.
Olsen, K. A. & Williams, J. G. (2004). Spelling and grammar checking using the Web as a text repository, (1020-1023). (Brief communication.)
Study and Results: It was hypothesized that the vast text repository of the World Wide Web could be used to help resolve language decisions such as choice of words, expressions and word relationships for native as well as non-native users of a language. Since prepositions are particularly difficult for non-native English language users and, generally, are difficult for users of any language, a Web search engine was used to conduct experiments and gather data from the World Wide Web on the frequency of problematic prepositional phrases, such as "in the west coast," "on the west coast" and "at the west coast." To see if the Web would work for other languages, searches were performed to find the correct preposition in Norwegian. Several experiments were also performed to determine if the Web was helpful in determining preferred word choice and correct pronouns, e.g. "their car" or "there car." The results of the experiments supported the hypothesis.What's New? The use of the vast text repository on the WWW to overcome problems that grammar checkers, spell checkers and style checkers have not been able to resolve very well.Limitations: Statistical difference measures were not computed due to the overwhelming difference in frequency of occurrence of preferred phrases and the large sample sizes involved.
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Information Science and Technology


text:
Message Board
Edeet Ravel Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Ravel has written!
Author Ravel's Book Reviews
Ten Thousand Lovers
Twenty-year-old Lily, born on an Israeli kibbutz but raised mostly in Canada, returned to Israel in the mid 1970s to attend college. She became involved with Ari, an army interrogator who has remarkable success getting confessions and intelligence out of Arab and Palestinian prisoners without resorting to the violence that most of his colleagues employ, and has good Palestinian friends outside as well. The work is eating away at him, however, as Lily and...


text:
Reviewed By Heather M (SANTA CRUZ, CA) Reviewed for a 2011 Nissan Cube —4/9/2014 4:03 AM
I love them! I had bought several sets of seat covers from local auto stores and they didn't quite fit, they didn't wear well, they sagged. My neosupremes fit like a glove and were easy to install. I am delighted!


text:
Do you like casseroles? Is Cream of Mushroom soup a vegetable in your world? Do you consider JELL-O a side dish? Then this site is for you!
Although my arteries forced me to stop blogging at the end of 2014, there's lots for you to explore on the site, including over 250 recipes from over 60 community and church cookbooks. Some recipes are delicious. And some are…well, let's just say the journey is always interesting. And beige. Very, very beige.
Check out the index on the right hand side for recipes. And for more info about the world of cakers, click the tabs at the top.
I'm always happy to respond to comments or questions. I hope you enjoy your visit. And that any indigestion passes quickly. It usually does.


text:
Indian Rug Wallhanging
Hand woven in acrylic yarn, fine quality, tight weave, fantastic colors, and very durable. These look great on walls or floors. These are old Indian Outpost styles, each handwoven in Mexico. Each one has it's own unique patterns and colors.
Size: 30 in. x 60 in.
Ships within 3-5 business days plus time for transit.


text:
Using news accounts, a blogger and Google Earth enthusiast managed to pinpoint the Pakistani village where American forces recently rained death from above on a suspected terrorist.
Baitullah Mehsud, believe to be the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was the target of an attack near Zangari Algad -- which was easy enough to find using Google's database of satellite imagery.
The images from South Waziristan are out of date, originally taken in January of 2007.
But the speed with which Ogle Earth blogger Stefan Geens pinpointed the location using free, online tools is head-spinning.
And the treatise on modern warfare doesn't end there.
The missile attack was made by a remote-controlled drone aircraft -- which, soon enough, might be as easy to pilot as accessing the iTunes Store.
While a world away the military was taking out a target, back home in the States a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a new application for the iPhone.
No, it won't find restaurants near Zangari Algad on Yelp. Instead, it allows for soldiers in the field to control an unarmed, hand-thrown reconnaisance drone.
In other words, watch out terrorists -- we've got consumer electronic devices, and we aren't afraid to use them.
Image from Google Earth.
Jackson West wonders if the MIT project will be approved by the App Store.


text:
fill the exel with lot of data
Budget ₹12500-37500 INR
hey its a simple project u can do from your home and if u completed the work on time i will give u 2 projects every month
106 freelancers are bidding on average ₹20030 for this job
With respect to this project I would like to present myself as a candidate for your consideration. I have more than 7 years of IT experience. I have successfully completed few projects for US clients which involved web More
Hey! May i know what kind of job is this?I can spend more hours a day for freelancing jobs and if you can explain your project in detail, i guess, i can help you accomplish the [login to view URL]!!
Hello, I am an expert Freelancer who works with data entry, web scraping and many other fields. As I saw that the main factor of your projects are time. I can guarantee you delivering high accuracy projects on time, More
"Hello Sir, I am a Fresher in freelancer but i have a more then 3 years of experience in excel and data-entry. i am a best for your project because i know all functionality in excel like VBA macro, shorting, filt More
I can automatize it. I will write software which will do it automatically. Contact me...................
Hello Sir, I am an expert of Ms- Word, Ms- excel, Ms- Access, Ms- Power point and my typing speed is very good. I have 4 years experience as a data entry operator and also I do proofreading and internet research. More
Hi Sir, I have gone through your project description and i am very much interested in doing your project. I am sure i'll exceed your expectation. Thank you
I am excellent in data entry and other related jobs.I will complete the job as per your [login to view URL] to hear from you as soon as possible. Thanking you yours faithfully parvaiz alam
Hello there! I can start right now if it suits you Best regards ------------------------------------------------------
I am passionate freelancer. Good internet [login to view URL] in Excel I provide high quality work. You can see about my review of projects. I hope you will be surprised. less
Hi, I'm an expert with Excel. I have used it since it was published first time. Best Regards Erkki Oksanen
hi i am having good knowledge of excel,word and data entry. i will completed the task on time as per your requirement. let me know if you are interested thanks in advance
I am a native English speaker. I have a Bachelor's degree and more than five years of experience proofreading and copy editing for a newspaper. In addition to newspaper articles, I have experience editing and proofread More
Hello, I will be glad to work at this project, but I need more details. I can work more than a few hours daily and I respect the deadlines.
Hello, I am an expert in data entry and Excel. Just to let you know that I am new to Freelancer and keen to build my profile. I guarantee your project will be delivered on time and in the format you require. I would li More
Hi, I would like work with you on a long-term relationship. PM me the details on what needs to be done. Thanks Fellow Indian
Dear Sir, Being a professional, I see myself a competent freelancer to take and complete this task. Though I am new here but I have recently completed a project with the best quality and on time delivery, for details, More
currently i am doing nothing and your project will be my first project so i am confident that it should be done perfectly on time thanks
Work on excel every day for inventory and sales projections. Data entry job won't be a new thing.


text:
Things worth picking up for yourself or things for you to give to others this holiday season:
Isn't it Interesting how time flies! It is crazy in SAMELIA'S WORLD right now! And it probably is in your world, too! It's already time for the 2012 Hanukkah and Christmas holiday season!…Continue
Added by Samelia's World! on December 7, 2012 at 1:56pm — No Comments


text:
Great beer is the most important thing, but it's not the only thing needed to have a successful brewery. It's a business, and brewery owners need to be able to navigate employment laws, insurance and other issues.
The Mass. Brewers Association will hold a "New Brewer Boot Camp," at Jack's Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham on July 24 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The boot camp will have workshops throughout the day, talking about subjects such as employment law, taxes, POS, navigating the three-tier system, trademarks, working with the community, construction and real estate.
Speakers will include lawyers and insurance experts, as well as Rob Burns, co-founder of Night Shift Brewing and president of the Mass. Brewers Guild, Sam Hendler, co-founder of Jack's Abby and Adam Romanow, co-founder of Castle Island Brewing Company.
Space is limited and tickets are $25 for members and $40 for non-members and are available by clicking here.


text:
FLUSHING, N.Y. -- Barry University women's doubles team of Linda Fritschken and Emma Onila lost in the consolation round of the United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
The Bucs pair lost to the No. 3 overall seed and No. 1 duo in the reseeded consolation bracket, Brynn Boren and Zoe Katz of the University of Southern California, 8-4.
Some of the nation's top-ranked players are competing in the national event at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Bucs pair was the only NCAA Division II doubles team in the draw.
Onila and Fritschken won the ITA South Region doubles championship, the ITA Small College doubles title and the Super Bowl doubles crown. Onila was the runner-up in the ITA South Region singles tournament.
Barry's spring season begins Feb. 8 in a home match against Florida Tech during team dual competitions.


text:
Ranked #2 of 172 Books
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
First published in 1923, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the fictionalized biography of Jesse Livermore, one of the...more
Ranked #13 of 172 Books
New Market Wizards
Some traders distinguish themselves from the herd. How do these spectacular winners whose success occurs across a...more
Product not yet ranked
Stock Market Wizards
Following on from the success of bestsellers Market Wizards and New Market Wizards comes a third book in the series that...more
Product not yet ranked
Leg the Spread
In the Futures market, it's all about minimizing risk and maximizing your wallet. Buying something gives you one leg,...more
Product not yet ranked
Just One Thing
Today's best investment minds offer their proven investment advice With all the "noise" in today's financial markets,...more
Product not yet ranked
Market Wizards
The first of the two books by Jack D. Schwager in which he interviews the top traders of their day.
Product not yet ranked
F.I.A.S.C.O. is an insider's diary, a shocking education in the jungle of high finance in the 1990s, from New York to...more
Product not yet ranked
Rogue Trader
Rogue Trader takes us from Nick Leeson's humble beginnings as a Watford plasterer's son to the very heart of the...more
Product not yet ranked
Stock Market Profits
In investment, the individual is king. There is no restriction on information. Making the right choice is not enough....more
Product not yet ranked
Jesse Livermore - World's Greatest Stock Trader
Jesse Livermore is considered by many of today's top Wall Street traders as the greatest trader who ever lived. For the...more


text:
Power driving Giants' resurgence
PITTSBURGH -- The game runs in cycles. So it is that the hottest team in baseball can quickly go cold, felled, in the case of the San Francisco Giants, by the combo of the sport's first defeat at the hands of a walk-off replay review Tuesday night and a Tim Lincecum clunker Wednesday afternoon.
But when the Giants do begin their biggest series of the season, to date -- a four-game visit to a Dodgers team newly infused with and emboldened by Clayton Kershaw -- they'll do so with the top spot in the National League West and, in fact, one of the best records in baseball in hand.View Full Game Coverage
PITTSBURGH -- The game runs in cycles. So it is that the hottest team in baseball can quickly go cold, felled, in the case of the San Francisco Giants, by the combo of the sport's first defeat at the hands of a walk-off replay review Tuesday night and a Tim Lincecum clunker Wednesday afternoon.
But when the Giants do begin their biggest series of the season, to date -- a four-game visit to a Dodgers team newly infused with and emboldened by Clayton Kershaw -- they'll do so with the top spot in the National League West and, in fact, one of the best records in baseball in hand.View Full Game Coverage
And if you're not surprised by San Francisco's resurgence in another even-numbered year, you can at least be surprised by the manner in which the Giants have made it happen.
If the expectation was that the Giants would improve primarily through renewed excellence in the rotation or if the assumption is that the current record (21-13) was built upon outstanding showings from the stars, the reality of the matter is quite a bit different. San Francisco has, on measure, been a homer-happy team with some unexpected flaws in the lineup and some frustrations in the rotation.
That the Giants have won in spite of these quirks might just make them all the more dangerous going forward.
"I think, looking back at that first month, it was a good month," Buster Posey said. "But there's room for improvement, offensively and on the pitching side."
Some of the assumed rotation uptick after last year's weak showing on the starting front has occurred, thanks largely to the addition of the ageless Tim Hudson and his Major League-best walk rate (0.5 per nine innings). Hudson's 1.99 ERA has been a godsend in a rotation enduring Lincecum's command troubles (it took him 88 pitches to get through four innings Wednesday) and the current absence of Matt Cain after his sandwich-slicing snafu. In Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong and certainly Lincecum, the Giants have potential for better rotation numbers than they've posted, to date, and they showed it in a superb series last weekend in Atlanta.
What has been the pleasant surprise, though, is the proficiency in the power department that hasn't really been seen in San Francisco since Barry Bonds stopped depositing long balls into McCovey Cove.
The Giants have the second-best home run rate in baseball -- second only to a Rockies team that, you might have noticed, plays its home games in a ballpark significantly more welcoming to the long ball than is AT&T. They've already reached 39 percent of their 2013 home run total.
"I'm a little surprised at the number," manager Bruce Bochy admitted, "but I did think we would have more power than last year."
For one, San Francisco was counting on a more familiar first baseman's type of output from Brandon Belt. While his overall streakiness and decline in patience has been an issue, Belt has at least delivered on his power potential. The home run he sent deep into the right-center-field seats here Wednesday was his ninth of the young season.
The Giants have also been rewarded for their one-year, $6 million gamble on Michael Morse, in which they sacrificed defense in left for some bop at the plate. Morse has provided plenty of the latter early on, bringing back memories of his late-20s breakout with the Nationals and making us forget about his Seattle slump. He has eight homers and a .624 slugging percentage, essentially erasing all talk of a potential platoon with Gregor Blanco.
"He lengthens our lineup," hitting coach Hensley Meulens said. "He keeps it moving."
The lineup is kick-started by the continued, underrated excellence of Angel Pagan (.320/.353/.448), and it is augmented considerably by the improvement Brandon Crawford has shown against left-handed pitching (he's batting .400 off them after a .199 mark last season).
So it has not been totally dependant on pure power.
It's important to remember, though, that the power that San Francisco has shown so far does have the potential to diminish in a hurry, especially in today's pitching environment. Morse, in fact, had nine homers before May 2 last year yet finished the season with 13.
That's why the Giants know they need more than they've received both from their rotation and their lineup in order for the overall success to sustain. Hunter Pence, who has averaged 24 homers in his career, can't possibly maintain a .392 slugging percentage all season. Belt, who went into a 3-for-34 funk before heating up in Pittsburgh, will need to find a better way to marry that aforementioned power potential with his past plate discipline.
And then -- most prominently -- there's the Panda. Despite improved conditioning, Pablo Sandoval, who was out of the starting lineup Wednesday with what appears to be minor thumb soreness, is lugging around a .174 batting average in his walk year, and he's left the Giants scratching their heads.
"We've never seen him like this," Meulens said. "We don't know what's going on. It's hard to pinpoint anything. He works hard. Then when the game starts, you have to find a way to relax and repeat that. Hopefully he can snap out of it here soon."
The Giants bought themselves a return to the top of the NL West with their early power display, and it's probably not sustainable in their home park. But any decline in power production can clearly be offset by improvement from what have been the lineup's weakest links and by steadier input from the starting staff.
"We've come out of the gates pretty well offensively," Hudson said. "But you know what? I think our pitching is starting to click a little bit, as soon as we get Cain back from his paper cut. I think the strength of this team will probably still be our pitching, hopefully. But hopefully our offense can keep doing what it's doing, too."
Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his columns and follow him on Twitter at @Castrovince.


text:
Demand For Natural Colors Strong
As consumers scrutinize food labels for artificial ingredients of all kinds, natural colors are growing in number.
The main part of the first impression made by a food or beverage is its color. If the color is off, the taste and overall quality of the product will be substandard. That awareness has guided the coloring of foods for decades.
Now health-conscious consumers are taking the more-than-skin-deep part very seriously. They want appropriate color, but they want it "natural." Consumers are concerned about the foods and beverages they consume and how it affects their health and the health of their children.
"Foods and beverages are coming under fire for calories, preservatives, artificial additives [even] excessive packaging materials," says Doug Edmonson, director of marketing and technology for Sensient Technologies, St. Louis.
Food colorings especially have been subjected to increased scrutiny. After decades of controversy, a study published last year in the British medical journal Lancet concluded with greater conviction that artificial colors and additives could "negatively influence the behavior of children suffering from hyperactivity and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Note to Plant Ops
"Such news makes consumers choose food with an ever more critical eye," says Jeannette O'Brien, senior manager at GNT USA Inc. (www.gnt-group.com), Tarrytown, N.Y. GNT is a global producer of natural (fruit- and vegetable-derived) colors. "The trend for natural foods will undoubtedly become even more important in future years, and consumers increasingly are requesting information about the ingredients and additives in the foods they buy," adds O'Brien.
Not-so intuitive regulations
There is no such thing as "natural color," according to the FDA's current set of food colorant regulations, found in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), parts 70-82. There are likewise no regulatory categories corresponding to "synthetic" or "artificial."
"One of the peculiarities of the U.S. regulatory landscape is there are only two categories of food colorant: certified and exempt from certification," says food ingredient specialist Winston Boyd. "Since colorants are considered additives and not ingredients, they're not considered 'natural' to the foods they are in."
This is not the case if one chooses, for instance, to color strawberry preserves with strawberry juice, or pickled beets with beet juice, Boyd adds. In these cases the color is considered "natural" to the system and the products may thus be labeled "naturally colored." However, using beet juice to color strawberry flavored yogurt is to use an additive that is not natural to the food, so this yogurt is not "naturally colored."
FDA lists all permitted colorants in 21 CFR, parts 73 and 74. There are a total of seven certified food colorants, all synthetic: FD&C (Food Drug and Cosmetics) red dyes No. 40 and 3; FD&C yellow dyes No. 40, 5 and 6; blue dyes No. 1 and 2; and green No. 3).
"The exempt category includes the colorants most food technologists have come to accept as natural, such as annatto, turmeric, paprika and various fruit and vegetable juices," explains Boyd. "This category also includes notable synthetic colors such as titanium dioxide. Therefore, it's not sufficient to refer to 'exempt colorants' when one means naturally derived colorants. But the use of the term 'natural' persists as being most descriptive."
"There are several additional benefits for using colorants to protect food. For example, caramel color in a beverage emulsion helps to protect flavors from light degradation," says Jody Rener-Nantz, food science chemist for D.D. Williamson & Co. (www.naturalcolors.com), Louisville, Ky.
Taking a page from nature's book on guarding colors, Naturex Inc. (www.naturex.com), South Hackensack, N.J., created ColorEnhance, a water-soluble rosemary extract that increases the stability and enhances the color of products containing anthocyanins. "Co-pigmentation is a loose molecular association of colored anthocyanin pigments with nearly colorless molecules to produce an intensified and enhanced color," says Antoine Dauby, marketing manager for Naturex. "It's what occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables and flowers containing anthocyanin pigments. ColorEnhance deepens the hue of the natural color and develops a tea like note allowing its use in many applications."
Functional color
Another challenge to the natural color palette is to find products that act like "lakes," synthetics best suited for applications with insufficient moisture to dissolve dyes. There are two forms of FD&C color additives: the dye and the lake. The dye is a color additive itself. A lake is the dye form attached to an aluminum or calcium substrate to make it insoluble.
"The only natural pigments currently available are carmine (red) and titanium dioxide (white/opacifier)," says Jeff Greaves, founder and manager of Food Ingredient Solutions LLC (www.foodcolor.com), Teterboro, N.J. "Carmine is a very good color, but presents some issues in natural applications, as it is insect-derived and an allergen. Also, carmine is considered unkosher by most rabbinical organizations. Other natural colors do not provide opacity or an even coating."
Join the discussion
We welcome your thoughtful comments.
All comments will display your user name.
Want to participate in the discussion?Register for free
Log in for complete access.
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments


text:
Category: Religious News
France - Forbidden Veil
PARIS (AP) - France's interior minister says that since a ban on
face-covering Islamic veils took effect in April only six women
have been convicted and fined.
Claude Gueant said in an interview with the daily Le Monde
published Monday that no woman has been sent to a citizenship class
- another potential punishment.
Controversy surrounded the law. Muslim leaders, most of them
opposed to burqa-style veils, say it stigmatizes all followers of
Gueant says police cited a total of 237 women but only six were
convicted. He expressed surprise that nearly a quarter of the women
police questioned had converted to Islam.
Backers say the law is aimed at ensuring France's secular values
and gender equality and nipping radical Islam in the bud.


text:
Car Review
2012 Subaru Impreza: Long-Term Introduction
Subarus are like horror movies. Either you like them or you don't. And the people who like them really like them--maybe too much. Are we talking about horror movies or Subarus? Well, both. That's exactly why we're adding a 2012 Subaru Impreza to our long-term fleet.
Subaru owners are fiercely loyal, and for good reason. The cars have a reputation for longevity and the ability to tackle any road, even it's not entirely a real or visible road. Visit a state like Connecticut, Maine or really anywhere in New England and you'll find beat-up, sad-looking Subarus still grinding away on snow-covered main streets and unpaved, muddy back roads. Mileage in excess of 100,000 is common.
Of course, we won't be putting quite that many miles on our Impreza, but we're anxious to see how it holds up to the normal wear and tear of an urban commute and the surprisingly ice-prone Atlanta winter.
Our specific car is a 2012 Impreza Sport 2.0i Premium with just a few options. The base price for our tester is $19,595. We added the optional All Weather + Alloy Wheels + Moonroof package ($2,000), which includes the all-weather package (heated front seats, heated side mirrors, windshield wiper de-icer) and the Alloy Wheel Package (17-inch alloy wheels, leather-wrapped shift knob, leather-wrapped steering wheel, power moonroof). We opted for the Lineartronic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT; $1,000), which has a shift-it-yourself mode via steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters and a set of all-weather floor mats ($69). Total price including destination and delivery ($750) is $23,414.
That's a fair price for an all-wheel-drive compact wagon. Standard equipment includes steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, a tilt and telescoping wheel, USB port, Bluetooth, cruise control, power windows (with a driver's side auto up and down), remote keyless entry and 60/40 split rear seats. Standard safety features include 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS, electronic brake force distribution, front side-impact airbags, driver's side knee airbag, stability control and, of course, all-wheel drive.
A few features the car doesn't have: satellite radio, leather seats, fog lights, rear parking camera or a roof rack. Thankfully, many of these things are available through our local Subaru dealer. In the coming months, we want to add a few accessories to dress the car up a little.
So far we really like the car. As far as small cars go, this is one of the best. The CVT and 2.0-liter flat-4 engine make the car feel quick. The car's handling is fun, and the ride is comfortable. We opted for a light-colored cloth interior, which might have been a mistake, but time will tell for sure. The seats are certainly comfortable, and we like that you don't have to get leather to get heated seats.
Check back for more updates on our 2012 Subaru Impreza Sport. We're hoping to take the car to the snow, hit an autocross and maybe even take a few road trips before our time is up.