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Monday, October 06, 2008
I Just Read A Comic Book So I Think We Should All Live In A Railroad Freightcar With A Lot Of Windows
I remember reading a Robert Heinlein essay from the 1940s on how absurd it would be to have your car hand-built in your driveway by a collection of artisans, and how homebuilding as practiced was equally absurd. I think he was right.I suppose that's better than the script-kiddies who think Gene Roddenberry is John the Baptist for our generation; but just.He's linked to the most tired old trope in architecture: Let's build houses in a factory! You know, instead of letting cavemen make it out in the landscape! It will be all gadgety and glittery and you'll be able to plug your iPod into the toilet or the wallpaper or the driveway without a dongle!
Me and Donald Fagen have heard all this crap before:
I've taken issue with what passes for architectural analysis at Wired before, and I'm not going to stop now.
Prefab is "modernism's oldest dream," curator Barry Bergdoll says. Since the industrial revolution, architects have been in thrall of the idea that houses could be built in factories, like any kind of widget. But reality hasn't been extremely cooperative. Whether because of conservative public tastes, unachievable economies of scale, or designers' less-than-stellar business acumen, their utopian visions have mostly remained fantasies.
Don't you just hate it when reality is uncooperative? Their "utopian visions" have remained fantasies because that's exactly what they are. Unmoored from the real world in real-time or the future, they identify a problem that does not exist, suggest solutions that are worse than the imaginary problem and have internal inconsistencies that make them null anyway, and then try to ram their goofy ideas into the public sphere over and over. Normal people don't want to live in an expensive, desolate, cramped, bleak, lifeless terrarium. Film at eleven.
Mass production of houses is an ancient idea, and has already been accomplished to death:
Levitt was able to offer these houses so cheaply because he was applying construction methods perfected in the deployment of prefab housing in the armed services during World War II. Bill Levitt had served as a Seabee during the war, and he learned the techniques of rapid construction using standardized parts, tightly controlled suppliers of goods and services, and a workforce with highly specialized skills. Like the Army's builders, like the Seabees, Levitt took the mass-production assembly line and converted it so that workers moved from site to site doing their specific targeted tasks. Life, Newsweek, Time, and many other magazines delighted in the story of the painter whose sole job was to paint the window sills of each house; but the example was an apt one, for by moving crews of workers sequentially from house to house, Levitt avoided the necessity of craft workers, unions, and the rest. In addition, his program could tolerate high labor turnover, a dreaded feature of the new prosperity after the end of the war. If one worker left, another could be quickly hired and trained as a replacement.
Economies of scale for cookie-cutter housing were roped and branded the better part of a century ago. There is no more mechanized, technologically astute, nimble, large-project process in America than single-family home building. Why don't you call up Apple and tell them you want a big black rotary knob on your iPod? You tell your general contractor you want to move bearing walls in your house when it's half built. Who would take longer and charge more money to accomplish your request? Only Bill Gates can afford to order an iPod with a rotary dial. I see pregnant women in flip-flops moving bearing walls in their own homes on HGTV every night.
The Levittown houses are the very houses that the factory housing apparatchiks sneer at while they try one more time to round us all up and force us to live, alternately roasting and freezing, in the terrarium daytime and fluorescently lit darkness of their glorified stackable FEMA trailers.
Look at the video linked to the article.
At least Lawrence Sass from MIT knew enough to choose a New Orleans Shotgun House to make, which is an essentially humane place to live. But where's the value added? He plops a CNC router at the jobsite and routs the panels. Whoopty. That house could be made by a framing foreman and a handful of willing grunts in less time and for less money than any prefab deal. The spindlework on a shotgun house was pre-fabbed in factories and shipped to the job way back in the 1800s. Where's the value added, Lawrence? You're not bringing much.
The rest of the video is just have the same tired old the house is a machine nonsense we've been hearing since 1910, and it ends up looking like the galley kitchen in a 747. Please note that the houses these people make never have anything that looks like humans or their possessions about. I'm sick of people with Martin Bormann accents talking about how ve mussht maik howsays dat ahr masheens fvar livink und the yoomans musht be made to leev in tem fuhr zehr own gut!
People watch high-school dropouts portray businessmen in Wall Street and think that's how the economy is run. People join PETA because they saw Bambi and think animals can do long division. People read glorified comic books like Heinlein's and think it would be good public policy if you were required to kill big alien bugs before you could vote, and we should make a 124,000 pound thing in a factory and then drag it to your houselot.
I know exactly how a house was built in the 1940s. I know exactly how a house is built now. Robert Heinlein had no idea what he was talking about then. He has absolutely nothing to offer about the topic now.
Ever read any Heinlein? I have. Here's a part of a plot synopsis from Wikipedia of one of his:
Their alien kidnapper is nicknamed "Wormface" by Kip, who refers to the species as "Wormfaces". They are horrible-looking, vaguely anthropomorphic creatures who do not recognize other species as equals, referring to all others as "animals". Wormface has two human flunkies who had assisted him in capturing the Mother Thing and Peewee, a preteen genius and the daughter of one of Earth's most eminent scientists. The Mother Thing speaks in what sounds to Kip like birdsong, with a few musical notations in the text giving a flavor of her language. However, Kip and Peewee have no trouble understanding her.
Kip, Peewee, and the Mother Thing try to escape to the human lunar base by hiking cross-country, but they are recaptured and taken to a more remote base on Pluto. Kip is thrown into a cell, later to be joined by the two human traitors, who have apparently outlived their usefulness. Before they later disappear, one mentions to Kip that his former employers eat humans.
You know, you read that, and think: that's the guy I want picking out tile with me and my wife.
19 comments:
Yeah, Heinlein envisioned a world that appealed to a 16-year-old boy: lots of action, faux higher ideals, and plenty of indiscriminate sex. In that kind of world, who cares what your house looks like?
Remember who else was writing at the time...
A person who idealized 18th C. yeoman craftsmanship in the form of sturdy and comfortable Hobbit Holes.
Funny that these two "escapists" are still defining our internal struggle for the new and the old in our homes.
- Janet said...
Hm. Pre-fab house companies are very successful in Canada. But the building techniques are pretty much the same as those used outside, so maybe that doesn't count.
They tend to be very well-built, as they have to be able to take the strains and stresses of being transported to the right spot. And they are pretty much indistinguishable from any other house on the block.
Our first house was a pre-fab (although we weren't the first to live in it) and it was a fine little house. With a beautiful wrap-around hardwood wall with diagonal planking, perfectly beveled at the corner. That wall was one of the things that sold me on the house.
- Anwyn said...
Travis Clark, you and I should chat.
- blake said...
Ooh, Sip's trollin' fer trouble.
I don't get the Heinlein worship, my own self.
But you know who wrote an incredible paean to mobile homes? John Steinbeck, in Travels With Charley. It's clear he thought the mobile part was the thing, and mobiles never really lived up to that.
Blake's right. Heinlein fans are rabid. I should know, I am one.
I'd rather start a flame war over abortion than get into a Heinlein / Clarke / Asimov fight...
But there's a good reason he has so many fans.
His books are just much more fun to read than most of the pantheon of sci-fi writers.
I get the others, I enjoy Heinlein.
Not that I would take his advice on house-building, or sexual relationships for that matter, but I'll never surrender "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
Wow, I feel like a "Stranger in a Strange Land" here except for the Steinbeck reference.
Has anyone seen the prefabs made from shipping containers? CNN did a story.
Huf in Germany make very good pregab houses. As do Scandihus (or something) in Sweden.
- blake said...
I also like "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", but I'll take, oh, Van Vogt over Heinlein. And Ray Bradbury, though he's always been more of a fantasist.
- Eric said...
Well, I think Lewis Mumford was talking about this in 1929. (I just happened to read his "The Brown Decades" recently) And even then, Mumford thought that the issue of housing for 'the masses' (for lack of a better word) was not going to be solved by the Stickleys or the Wrights. It seems to me that he didn't have a real answer--other than identifying some things that he thought all families would want in their dwelling--light, space and some nature. But like I said, Mumford didn't seem to have a solution.
I'd like to know why builders are not 'updating' (again, for lack of a better word) some of these older designs from the 1920's 30's and 40's, never mind the 50's or 60's.
I mean, go and google 'ranch house plans' or something similar and look at any contemporary house plan website and the houses they're advertising. THEY. ARE. UGLY. What is wrong with architects today?
Two points...(well many really, but broadly categorized into two areas..hey, I didn't get the Ph.D. for nutin!)
1. Prefab. A lot of the reason that the prefab discussion is moot is that is already here. Trusses, manufactured joists, lumber, kitchen cabinets, etc. It's all pre-fab. And, it's mostly good. Our homes may not be modular utopian fantasies but our kitchens sure are, and we have far more choices than ever before. I can't afford hand-drawn plaster moldings, but the foam stuff is pretty impressive. All of this makes for richer more detailed homes.
The prefab age arrived, it just didn't arrive in the form the utopianist, Gropius, Mies and others imagined. In fact, it made homes more diverse, not more uniform. As always, there is the process, prefab, and the goal, which was utopian societies. We took the one, and not the other. And we only adapted it the way it made sense, aesthetically, practically, economically, logistically, etc.
For example, pre-fab kitchen cabinets are easy to ship. Pre-fab houses, not so much.
So Prefab is really here, just not in the way the modernists had hoped (Thank God)
2. We really need to do something about the developing world and pre-fab seems to be the only answer. So yeah, they're cargo boxes and railway cars, but they are vastly superior to mudhuts. And though Fathy tried to pioneer a native architecture, develop local skills, but it is just far too labor intensive. We shouldn't over-romanticize tradition and craftsmanship at the expense of actual humans and their standard of living. There's a reason frame housing replaced timber construction. It's faster, cheaper, easier etc. We need to bring that to everyone, or help them to figure it out themselves. (Not sure which is easier, giving them the pre-fab housing or giving them the skills and a few more Home Depots.)
So, there is a place for pre-fab, but as usual, we can take it without re-inventing man and nature. As Sipp, pointed out, a lot of those balusters and moldings of the 19th C. were the first era of pre-fab. Things will get slicker, quicker, better (and worse) but generally better if you give people the options, without having to remake the human animal, history or tradition.
- Sam said...
Great article. Thanks.
- SippicanCottage said...
Thanks, everyone for reading and commenting.
Eric-I think that there were more really good house designs in the interwar period than any other in America. I have a pile of planbooks from the twenties and they're loaded with excellent, livable, humane plans.
To answer your question "What's wrong with architects today":They are entirely disinterested in single family houses except as freak shows. All those designs you see aren't even generally done by architects. They are just "designers." No formal architectural training. There was one guy in Vegas, whose name escapes me, who was their demigod. Just sat there all day drawing snouthouse variations to stick on slab lots in the desert.
I went to architecture school, but quit -- mostly because absolutely nothing about single family homes, except freakshows and brutalist caves, was ever discussed or allowed. I told the story of it here: Are You The Verb
It's the reason I burst out laughing reading the article. They mention Buckminster Fuller.
Yeah! Let's live in domes! And wear silver jumpsuits! We'll shower with fog!
Travis- Really excellent comments.
- Thud said...
sipp...I'm working on a wet room in a basement at the moment...this showering with fog...just exactly how does it work?
- Daniel Newby said...
What Travis Clark said!
It would be neat to see injection-molded prefab wall panels. Use modular molds arranged by robots to provide a wide variety of options. Use flow-through injection to orient fiber strands in structural members. Plastic binders could be used that termites and ants choke on. Integral sheathing or gussets could keep the panels perfectly square. Post-It note glue could be applied to the inside surface to hold the vapor barrier during construction. Holes could be factory drilled for wiring. Etc, etc, etc.
"People read glorified comic books like Heinlein's and think it would be good public policy if you were required to kill big alien bugs before you could vote, ..."
Or hold elected office, and the public service jobs were not all military. I would not mind trying out a ruling class who had all willingly spent a couple of years, e.g., tending an obscure and unpleasant agricultural data station. As compared to our likely future president, who proposes mandatory volunteer service for all with a straight face ...
- GeorgeH said...
A juvenile novel and an article both written over 50 years ago are not the best of Heinlein.
- beewax said...
Excellent post. I agree with Travis "We really need to do something about the developing world and pre-fab seems to be the only answer". Prefab building is an extension of industrializing the construction industry which is ongoing and when robotic construction is utilized e.g.Discover: The Whole-House Machine or Contour Crafting, the "value added" at least for ASAP shelter is a great one.
Sipp thinks my comments were "excellent?"
(Moment of fan-crush to follow)
I will dancing around the house all day now.
To Sipp (and everyone)
That was more positive encouragement than I received from my advisor in three years while writing the dissertation.
That made my day,
- blake said...
Feel good, Travis: That was a truly fine exposition.
I recognize in Sipp's original post the pride of a craftsman, and agree with that on many levels. But a freight car beats nothing.
My mom is anti-Wal Mart. She doesn't like cheap crap. But as I point out to her, there are things that we don't care about, and having cheap crap available allows to save our money to buy quality where it matters (to us).
We once looked at a house just outside of Philadelphia that was going for 800K. This place was a mansion. We spent a lot of time admiring the hand-rails on the staircases and checking out similar fine point.
But out here, if you went to the equivalent house (necessarily on tiny property), besides it costing twice that, it would be poorly built, with lots of cut corners.
That ticks me off.


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cbmac necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 16 diseños de 6 diseñadores freelance.
These are iBeam brand watches but the finished product will feature the name of the celebrity, their logo or the charity.
I am the inventor of these watches (4 US patents) and every watch has a hidden magnifying lens and flashlight built in for reading and seeing in the dark. This is my private inventory and I want to do something with them to help people in places like Haiti, Africa and the US. I know a few great musicians that want to help and this will be a way for them to use their fame to promote a unique watch and contribute a portion of sales to groups that are directly helping people.
The target audience has primarily been people over 50 because of the useful features of the watch. See http://www.shopdfi.com to see how they work. But the watch is also loved by musicians, sound and light technicians, outdoor people, tattoo artists, doctors, pilots and anybody that can use instant light and magnification. This site is more for people who want a fashionable watch with hidden features and want to help people along the way. The site should be classy, kind of tech, and global in look.
Basically we need a home page and one landing page template. We will want to change the watch styles on the home page and template.
Homepage: The home page will be called mckaywatches.com – watches that give more than time. We will need to show 1 featured watch and 3 additional watches. Below each watch on the home page we will need a little info about the specs of the watch, the price, celebrity and the charity they support and there should be a link to the celebrity and the charity. Also on the home page we want to show a video clip .
Landing page template: We need a landing page to show 3 different photos of the watch, specs, a buy now button, and an area to talk about the artist and the charity they support. On the very top of the home page we should have a logo panel and three photos showing how the watch works . Again see http://www.shopdfi.com. for a rough example. Basically we want a site similar to the http://www.Shopdfi.com site but much classier and better designed. Feel free to use other images to improve the look. We need the final to be a clearly labeled PSD File, we will do the coding. This is my first project with 99designs and I hope to have many more right away so any help will be greatly appreciated and I will check the progress at least daily. Thank you, Chris. A couple of sites I like.

subset: commoncrawl


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Democrats consider boycott after GOP-heavy House approves Benghazi panel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives voted along party lines on Thursday to set up a committee to investigate the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Unhappy Democrats were considering boycotting the panel.
The House voted 232-186 to set up a 12-member special investigative committee. It is expected to be chaired by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy and include seven Republicans and five Democrats.
Democrats had sought an evenly divided panel, but Republicans prevailed with the argument that they should have a majority on the committee because they were elected to majority status in the House.
Armed militants attacked U.S. diplomatic posts in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Republicans accuse the administration of doing too little to repulse the attacks and later creating a smokescreen around the events to protect President Barack Obama's image as tough on terrorism and help boost his re-election chances in November 2012.
Although there have been numerous investigations by congressional committees and a State Department "Accountability Review Board," Republicans say the Obama administration has not provided all the relevant information about the reasons for the attacks and how the administration responded to them.
"Our committees sought the full truth and the administration tried to make sure they wouldn't find it," House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers before Thursday's vote. "Which meant they tried to prevent the American people from finding the truth as well."
Democrats say Republicans are continuing to focus on the Benghazi attacks for political reasons, especially to harm the reputation of Hillary Clinton, a potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who was secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks.
"One more committee weighted in favor of the majority is not going to do any better. We have bottomed out on Benghazi," said Representative Louise Slaughter of New York.
She expressed outrage that some Republicans were using Benghazi to raise campaign funds: "Have you no shame?"
Democrats said they were undecided on whether to take part in the panel so long as the ratio of Democrats to Republicans is not even. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Democrats had made some proposals to Boehner's office for other ways to ensure fairness in the committee.
"We've suggested if you don't have even numbers, you could still ensure bipartisan support for subpoenas and other informational requests," Van Hollen said.
Representative John Lewis Of Georgia said: "We're still debating, but I lean toward participating. We should be at the table. We should be in the room."
Representative Adam Schiff of California, however, said, "I don't think we should" participate.
The resolution said the committee would investigate "all policies, decisions an activities that contributed to the attacks on United States facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, as well as those that affected the ability of the United States to prepare for the attacks."
The panel would also probe the response, as well as internal administration communications about the attacks, the resolution said.
Seven Democrats voted for the formation of the committee, and no Republican voted against it.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
[Image via Agence France-Presse]


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Style File - Lady Gaga
THINK of Lady Gaga and an array of headline-grabbing ensembles immediately come to mind.
Few wouldn't be able to recall the outfit comprised entirely of raw meat or her custom-made telephone hat or fire-shooting bra. And although her style veers towards the outrageous, she has proved as popular with designers as she has her band of loyal little monsters. Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld and Nicola Formichetti have all created bespoke pieces for her, while she champions upcoming designers as often as she'll pick pieces by Alexander McQueen or Saint Laurent.
Here, we take a look at Lady Gaga's unique style.


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Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Vietnam is still under control, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said at a press conference Tuesday (October 25), despite the rising number of new HFMD cases.
The disease has killed 137 people, mostly children, out of 77,895 infections in 63 cities and provinces across the country this year.
Gastrogeräte Verleih
budget hotel kl


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When Less is More: Turret-Press Tool Sharpening
A change in slitting tools at Dedoes Innovative Manufacturing increases turret-press uptime, while use of cluster and special-application tooling delivers additional productivity benefits.
Dedoes punches 2000 tons of cold-rolled mild and stainless steel each month, much of it requiring slitting with its turret press, an Amada 357 Vipros Queen. The company depends heavily on its slitting tool to accurately size sheets into components used in filtration cabinets and other products. It recently switched slitting tools (opting for a tool from Mate Precision Tooling, Anoka, MN), and was able to reduce tool sharpening by a factor of four to one. "The improved durability of the slitting tool has eliminated numerous trips to the tool grinder," says Vaughn, "which means a huge reduction in downtime.
"Tooling is extremely important to us," Vaughn continues, "because it has a major impact on all aspects of our operation, including quality and fabricating speed, labor utilization and, ultimately, profitability. When a tool delivers maximum efficiency and life, scrap is minimized and machine uptime maximized."
Special Application: Cluster Punch Tooling
Special-application tooling plays a vital role at Dedoes, such as this nine-hole cluster punch used to punch thousands of 0.1875-in.-dia. holes in 14-gauge Type 304 stainless steel.
Switching to a cluster-punch assembly seemed a logical move, but the assemblies can be expensive, with a pricetag in the thousands of dollars. Questions arose:
• How can we proceed with some assurance that the productivity payback will measure up to expectation?
• How do we determine the right number of punches in the cluster assembly?
• Can reliable projected savings be realized ahead of time to justify the cost of the new tooling?
• How certain can we be about the performance and quality of the new tooling?
Answers to these questions came quickly as Dedoes ultimately invested in a nine-hole cluster punch from Mate.
M2, Heattreated
Tool design started with the tooling material itself. Dedoes' cluster punch is made of M2 tool steel that resists the abrasive effects of the stainless steel by reducing heat buildup in the punches. To obtain optimal tool performance, Mate heattreats its punches in NC-controlled furnaces. This combination of high-grade tool steel and heattreating results in punches with excellent compressive strength and high wear resistance. Further, punch points are machined with a ¼-deg. back taper to reduce friction during the stripping phase of the punching cycle, further extending tool life.
Another concern when punching stainless steel is slug pulling, addressed by the tool's special hourglass shape that creates a pressure point acting as a one- door to prevent slugs from pulling back out of the die. Once squeezed through this pressure point, slugs fall free from the tooling. Dedoes finds this important to maintaining uninterrupted top press speed, which for the Vipros ranges from 270 to 400 hits/min.
Lastly, Vaughn notes that the fully guided design of the tooling system prevents the occurrence of side-loading and twisting forces, avoiding premature tool-edge cracks, dulling and galling. Fully guided tooling provides a tight clearance between punch and stripper, optimizing rigidity.
"And," Vaughn says, "the knurled edged on the stripper plate really helps when handling the tool. It doesn't slip in your hands. These may seem like little things, but by making our processes more efficient with our punch press tooling, we can be more competitive by offering lower prices and higher quality."
In addition to the slitting tool and cluster punch, Dedoes also uses Mate louver tools for computer cabinets; embossing tools for floor pans; and lance and form tools to enable cabinet assembly."All of these special-application tools allow us to reduce the number of fabricating operations without sacrificing quality," says Vaughn. "We spend less time sharpening our tools and have experienced improved nest yields, while reducing our setup time and improving the edge quality of our punched holes." MF
Article provided by Mate Precision Tooling: 763/421-0230; www.mate.com.
See also: Mate Precision Tooling
Related Enterprise Zones: Fabrication, Tool & Die
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text:
Amphawa Floating Market Samut Songkhram
Saturday Night at Amphawa afternoon Floating Market, the second most popular floating markets among tourists near Bangkok.
The Gigantic Dragon Building Suphan Buri
Dragon Descendants Museum in Suphan Buri Province.
Khlong (Canals) Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
Thailand's most popular floating market, very touristy, that you can take a long boat around the canals.
Touring the Temples Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai City Temple Tour, beautiful and historic amazing temples, most of them are of the Lanna style.
Wat Tham Suwan Khuha Cave Phang Nga
Wat Tham Suwan Khuha Cave and the reclining Buddha, in Phang Nga Province, Southern Thailand.
Secret Buddha Garden Koh Samui
Magic Garden and Heaven's Garden and Tarnim Magic Garden in Koh Samui, in Surat Thani Province, Southern Thailand.
Pranburi's Old Market Saturday market
Enjoy walking at this market, 40 minutes from Hua Hin in front of Pranburi Railway Station.
Fishing Village Cha Am
A traditional fishing village that is located on the north part of Cha Am Beach.FreeCurrencyRates.com


text:
01489 550999
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For over 25 years, Portek have been manufacturers, designers, importers, and distributors of agricultural and garden machinery products.
We stock their Quiksplit high speed kinetic log splitter and their ingenious Logmaster heavy duty saw horse.
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- testing of the body part materials for strength and density (shell test);
- gate tightness tests (leakage test);
- environmental leakage tests (including gland seals), backseat test;
- operation test (functional test).
Tested items
- gate valves;
- ball valves;
- butterfly valves;
- check valves;
- plug valves.
Tested unit connection type
- flanged (according ASME B 16.5, ASME B 16.47, GOST 12815 etc.);
- welded ends (according ASME B 16.25, GOST16037, etc.);*
- set of sealing adapters available.*
* Upon customer request.
Maximum clamping force, t
Min./max. distance between the moving and stationary cross-heads, mm (″)
220/2800 (8/110)
Distance between the columns, mm (″)
1620 (64)
Overall dimensions (LхWхH), mm (″)
5500х2000х2000 (216x78x78)
Weight, kg
- Clamping of tested valve is provided by hydraulic cylinder. Optionally test bench can be equipped with proportional clamping control system, which excludes axial compression applied to the valve body during clamping by hydraulic cylinder, during high pressure testing.*
- Clamping unit can be provided with radial sealing type or self-sealing adapters.*
- The two-sided gate sealing during tests does not require the tested valve rearrangement, which significantly reduces the test time.
- The bench is equipped with a special system for air removal from the tested valve, which improves safety, productivity, reliability of the obtained data, and obviates the need for additional air drain.*
- The bench is equipped with the water-collection tray with stainless steel tank.*
- The test preparation time is significantly reduced by using the high-pressure quick-connect hoses.
- The bench is quickly adjusted to face-to-face dimensions of valve by using the hydraulically or electrically driven cross-head.
- The patented design of the self-sealing adapters exclude axial compression during the tests, which ensures the test reliability, protects the valves against deformation, and extends the valve life.*
- All water-wetted parts are corrosion-proof.
- The bench can be equipped with replaceable sealing adapters.*
- Increased-diameter hoses reduce the time of the valve filling with the test medium.
- Test bench can be equipped with valve lifting platforms for valve positioning and support during testing.*
*Upon customer request.


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I recently formed a little mini-band kind of thing with a girl playing Ukulele(and singing), with myself on Cajon. We're currently trying to build a repertoire. We have about 7 songs so far that we can play. I'm looking for more songs like these that are suitable for a small acoustic setup like ours that don't require other instruments to sound good. I figured I'd ask if anyone here had some good suggestions.
Currently we play:
West coast - Lana Del Ray
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Royals - Lorde
Lucie in the Sky of Diamonds - The Beatles
song suggestions for Ukulele-Cajon setup
It's only cool if no one's heard of it.
Moderators: SecondTalon, Moderators General, Prelates
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
- freezeblade
- Posts: 1398
- Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:11 pm UTC
- Location: Oakland
Re: song suggestions for Ukulele-Cajon setup
Can you sing? if so, some Kings of Convience could possible, and pretty awesome, however a bit slow.
Amanda Palmer - "Ukulele Song" would be perfect.
Amanda Palmer - "Ukulele Song" would be perfect.
Belial wrote:I am not even in the same country code as "the mood for this shit."
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Signal to Noise
Jan 30 2011
A couple of years ago someone I know mentioned the term 'signal to noise' when talking about social media and my tweet stream in particular. His comment indicated that he thought I was putting out more noise than signal, which was probably true. I used to tweet a lot more than I do now and he said this during South by Southwest Interactive when everyone was tweeting. Currently, most of my tweets are just links to my blog posts. I had already been using twitter for some time and he was new to twitter. I had close to 2,000 followers and was following maybe 700 people at the time and he was probably following 50 people so, in proportion, my tweets appeared more often in his twitter stream than most people's appear in mine.
It's true that social media tools have provided a platform for noisiness. People put out a lot of noise and seemingly irrelevant information about themselves and others. But people are noisy in person whether they are talking a lot, writing a lot, or paradoxically not saying anything at all. There can be a lot of 'noise' in silence. When I say 'noise,' I mean information. Some people can decide that what a person is saying or not saying is irrelevant and dismiss it as mere noise, but, in my opinion, there is always 'signal' in there somewhere. Whether we want to spend time or care to understand the signal and what it's telling us is another thing.
Interestingly, a company called Mass Relevance (Austin Startup blog post), recently launched and funded here in Austin, seems to me to be trying to separate signal from noise based on one of the executives answers to a question in the blog post:
Q: Only a small fraction of social status messages (like tweets) get viewed. Is there real value in that data?
That's exactly the point. More user generated and social content is being created than we can consume. The future is in finding relevance, curating for context, and syndicating this to the right audience at the right place. A good analogy of the value of all this data is like web analytics. If there's only two web analytics report you view about your web site, is there value in the rest of the log data? Of course there is, you're just not getting at it. We know that there's tremendous untapped value in data, as there is in social content. The value is in how to aggregate, curate, display relevant content, create participation around the conversation, and analyze how it drives real business metrics. And it's more than just technology. We have the expertise, service and support to make this work for large companies.
I wish them luck in finding relevant, poignant signals for their clients. I just hope people don't stop looking at and listening to people directly instead of just sifting through their words on a social media platform. If you pay attention, you can pick up very strong signals directly from a "noisy" person that can help you work with and manage people and even understand your customer better than just what they write down in 140 characters or less. As they say, close to 80% of human communication is non-verbal and never gets put on a computer screen or paper.Author: Aruni | Filed under: blogging, entrepreneurship | Tags: mass relevance, social media, south by southwest interactive, twitter | 2 Comments »


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David Banis & Alexa Todd receive funding from the Mazamas
Their grant proposal was one of eigth to be funded out of thirty three applications. The $2,435 grant will be used to support their project, "Mapping Landscape Values and Activities of Visitors to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington". Watch the Geography Department "news" for results of their research!
More information about the Mazamas at www.mazamas.org


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Next year the Great Victorian Bike Ride will return to the Great Ocean Road with a ride from Mt Gambier to Geelong.
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The Great Ocean Road is one of the most popular routes on the Great Victorian Bike Ride, and next year for the ride's 30th anniversary it'll return to that spectacular piece of the Victorian coastline.
There will be a couple of differences to previous excursions in that area - for example, the ride will start across the border in Mt Gambier.
From there the stops will be Nelson, Portland, Port Fairy, Port Campbell, Gellibrand, Birregurra, Torquay, and Geelong.
There'll be a couple of serious hills in there as well including Laver's Hill.
The route was announced to a packed tent at the Traralgon campsite on this year's ride by Event Organiser Darren Allen from Bicycle Network Victoria.
There were cheers when he mentioned there wouldn't be any unsealed roads next year!
The ride will also break the magical 600 kilometer barrier, extending to 610 kilometers.
I also asked Darren about this year's ride so far, particularly the difficult fourth day where the rain ruined what should've been a real highlight, but as he says the riders are incredibly resilient with most battling through a very challenging day.


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'Duck Dynasty' stars
will close state fair
The Kentucky State Fair opens next Thursday with a lineup of stars, including country star Toby Keith and a show featuring oldies stars such as Gary Puckett, but the big event might be one nobody wants to duck.
Good Ol' Boys to perform at Waddy concert series
A music series featuring bluegrass/gospel entertainers will continue at 7 tonight at the shelter at Waddy Baptist Church, featuring the Good Ol' Boys from Mount Eden.
Voice-audience participation is encouraged for the second half of the program. Concessions will be available with proceeds to benefit the Waddy Baptist Church youth group's summer camp experience.
Admission is free. Bring lawn chairs or blankets.
From 1956-1959, Peter Palmer practically lived in the fictional town of Dogpatch as the star of both the Broadway and Hollywood productions of Li'l Abner, based on the popular comic strip that ran from 1934-1977.
Now, more than 50 years later at the age of 81, Palmer lives in Shelbyville and can most often be found at a different kind of dog patch – the Red Orchard Dog Park.
"I'm not retired," Palmer says with a laugh. "The calls just don't come anymore."
The Shelbyville Horse Show Jubilee hits full stride this weekend as it commands downtown Shelbyville for a community celebration.
The jubilee got off to a rousing start with a breakfast on Thursday morning and the reception for the Youth Art Show on Thursday night.
But the weekend accelerates quickly at 6 tonight when musician Will Husband will entertain in a Street Party Concert in the parking lot at 627 Main Street.
Shelby children's choir to be on 'Great Day Live'
The Shelby County Community Children's Choir – commonly known as SC3 – will appear Tuesday on Great Day Live, the morning news magazine on WHAS-Ch. 11 in Louisville.
The show airs at 9 a.m., and according to choir leader James Ray Morgan, the group of elementary- and middle-school students will sing two songs.
The show is hosted by Terry Meiners and Rachel Platt.
Waddy concert series
When Walter Herd s retired from the military and returned to Kentucky from Afghanistan in 2007, he noticed a trend that concerned him – few people at home, even his friends, seemed to understand what the military was all about.
"They learn about soldiers from Hollywood movies," said Herd, who lives in Simpsonville.
A veteran publisher from Shelby County this fall will return to book shelves with a unique look at the history of Shelby County and its northern and southern neighbors.
William E. Matthews and Historic Kentucky Inc. is releasing Historic Postcard Art – Shelby, Henry, Spencer counties – 1900-2013, which contains more than 200 postcards issued as long ago as the early 20th century. The cards tell much about the rich history of the three counties.
Rob Fest brings music to 2 stages at park
The third annual Rob Fest, which benefits ASAP (adolescent suicide awareness and prevention), will be from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Clear Creek Amphitheatre.
A music festival with two stages, featuring Nashville recording artists Aly'an, the day also includes bouncies for kids, food, and a live and silent auction (featuring a Pitino-signed basketball).
The cost will be $10 per carload. For more information, call 502-220-0751.
Tickets on sale for 'South Pacific'
Tickets go on sale today for Shelby County Community Theatre's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.
The musical, directed by Cyndi Powell Skellie, with musical direction by Lynne McReynolds Chenault, will be staged at 7:30 p.m. on July 19-20 and July 26-27 and 2:30 p.m. on July 21 and 28.
Tickets are $15 adults, $12 seniors and $10 students. For more information, call 502-633-0222. SCCT is located at 801 Main St. in Shelbyville.
Tickets for 'South Pacific' go on sale today at theater
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The Sentinel-News is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Shelby County and Shelbyville, KY, and the surrounding area.


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QUITO (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung ailment that could worsen at any time and is being checked regularly by doctors, the Andean country's ambassador to Britain said on Wednesday.
Assange, 41, whose website angered the United States by releasing thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing.
"He has a chronic lung complaint that could get worse any time. The Ecuadorean state is covering Mr Assange's medical costs and we have arranged for regular doctor visits to check on his health," Ambassador Ana Alban told a local TV network during a visit to Quito.
British authorities say Assange will be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy. The building, located just behind London's famed Harrods department store, is under constant police surveillance.
Ecuador said last month it is worried about Assange's health and asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage to hospital from the embassy if he needs medical treatment.
That would allow him to return to the embassy after treatment with refugee status.
Assange took refuge in the embassy after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. Ecuador granted him asylum in August and said it shared his fears that he could be sent from Sweden to the United States to face charges over WikiLeaks' activities.
U.S. and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against him, nor launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
Assange is said to be living a cramped life inside the modest diplomatic mission. He eats mostly take-out food and uses a treadmill to burn off energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for the lack of sunlight.
On Tuesday, the Australian former computer hacker accused "hard-right" U.S. politicians of pressing European credit card firms to block more than $50 million (31.2 million pounds) in donations to WikiLeaks, and said that had forced the website to reduce the volume of documents it posted online.
Speaking to reporters in the embassy's gilt-corniced conference room, Assange said his stay there had been "difficult in many ways" and that any resolution of the standoff would be "a matter of diplomacy."
He refused to comment on his health or how long he may have to stay in the embassy, declaring those subjects "off-topic."
In late August, Assange said he expected to wait six months to a year for a deal that would allow him to leave the embassy.
Editing by Daniel Wallis and Jackie Frank


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I am using diffmerge for already two years on my windows machine.
Setting up diffmerge as my default git diff and merge tool was done according to : http://coding4streetcred.com/blog/post/ ... t-DiffTool
However I have noticed that on Linux systems (tried on Ubuntu) and MacOS diff functionality acts strange.
When I run 'git difftoold -d branch1..branch2' command, distinct files are not shown in line (considering left and right side), so I cannot just easily double click on the file and see differences (that's how diffmerge acts on windows). Instead, I have to copy path for each file (left and right side) in order to compare them which feels very annoying Is this how diffmerge should work on Unix systems or I am missing something in my configuration?
files diff looks strange in Unix systems
Support for our DiffMerge utility.
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Can you show me a screenshot of what you see?
What happens if you perform a Folder Diff using only DiffMerge without Git involved? Run DiffMerge and open up the folder diff and use anything or make a test. Does it look or behave differently?
Beth Kieler
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Conservatives falsely attacked Clinton's remarks on tsunami relief effort
Research ››› ››› ANDREW SEIFTER
Numerous conservative pundits attacked former President Bill Clinton for his December 28 remarks to the BBC Radio 4 program Today about the December 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people in South Asia. For example, on the January 3 edition of FOX News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter leapt on Clinton's statement that "I think it's really important that somebody take the lead" in coordinating relief efforts to claim that he was "attacking" President Bush and "milking" the tsunami in order to remind people of "what a big heart he has." And on December 29, nationally syndicated right-wing radio host Neal Boortz described Clinton's remarks as "phony compassion" from a "famous publicity whore."
But Clinton did not attack Bush in his comments to the BBC (see transcript below). Moreover, Clinton's comments on the tsunami disaster relief operation were only a portion of the interview, which dealt also with the broader topics of world poverty and international aid. The interviewer explained that, while "guest editor [musician and activist] Bono wanted to hear from [Clinton] about aid and economic reform," "when we did speak, we had to talk about the tsunami and its aftermath as well."
On the day the BBC broadcast the Clinton interview, the Bush administration took a veiled shot at the former president. As The Washington Post reported on December 29, after the administration increased U.S. relief efforts to $35 million from the initial commitment of $15 million, a White House official explained Bush's delayed involvement in publicly handling the tsunami relief effort: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.'"
Numerous conservative media figures followed with attacks on Clinton. On December 29, Boortz responded to the BBC interview by telling Clinton to "shut up and go away." On the December 29 edition of CNN's Crossfire, co-host Robert D. Novak said: "Unlike Bill Clinton, George W. Bush doesn't jump in front of the TV cameras every time there is a disaster large or small to tell the victims he feels their pain." In a December 29 column titled "Clinton Talks Tsunami; Bush Administration Provides Aid: Guess Who is Criticized?" conservative columnist and radio talk show host Steve Yuhas attacked the media and Clinton as "the man that Europe loved and that America impeached." Also December 29, the right-wing website NewsMax.com reported that Clinton "st[ole] the media limelight" from Bush. On December 30, the conservative magazine The American Spectator labeled Clinton a "Bush humiliator" and quoted an anonymous former Clinton staffer as saying the interview was "classic Clinton." On the January 3 Rush Limbaugh Show, nationally syndicated radio host Limbaugh accused Clinton of "try[ing] to undermine Bush." That evening on Hannity & Colmes, Coulter accused Clinton of "complain[ing] that Bush was too slow to respond" to the disaster.
Here is the portion of Clinton's BBC interview relating to the tsunami:
JIM NAUGHTIE (presenter): I spoke last night, on this subject [the tsunami] and on broader questions, to Bill Clinton, the former American president. Our guest editor [musician and activist] Bono wanted to hear from him about aid and economic reform as part of the poverty theme that he wanted to highlight on today's program. You'll be able to hear more of the interview at half past 8. But of course when we did speak, we had to talk about the tsunami and its aftermath as well. And here was Bill Clinton's reaction to the disaster:
CLINTON: Unbelievable. I saw the map today on how it worked. It was like one of these horror movies that we've been seeing. You know, it's also a great opportunity. I remember after the Turkish disaster [1999 earthquake], I actually went into the refugee camps in Turkey and sat in the tents and talked to the people. And as awful as it was, and it was really awful for those particularly who'd lost their loved ones, there was a sense of shared humanity and possibility. Not only because the United States and Europe and others had tried to help them in the aftermath, but because the Turks and the Greeks had helped each other. And so there was this sense that somehow, this horrible natural disaster had reminded us all that we have more in common than we do dividing us. And then, what happens is, the emotional pull of the cause weakens as time passes.
So, I think on this Asia issue, there will be an enormous outpouring. People will give money. They will send food and clothes, and they'll do whatever they're supposed to do. And then life will begin to creep back to normal. I think it's really important that somebody take the lead in this. The E.U., the Japanese, the United States. And analyze what the real damages are, country by country, and what their capacities are to deal with them and then allocate responsibilities. I think one of the problems is when everyone takes responsibility it's almost like no one's responsibility. And one of the things I was thinking about, looking at that map today and seeing the damage going all the way to Somalia from the tsunami, and trying to imagine what it was like with that ocean going 500 miles an hour, is that maybe what we should do is to try to get specific countries or groups of countries to take responsibility for particular countries that were hurt. And I think if you did that you'd have a better chance of seeing the responsibilities fulfilled over a period of time, even when the emotional tug waned.
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We're not one to delve too deep into the various Wi-Fi security profiles out there. For one, we're speaking out of league and can't offer pros/cons to each one and two, it's just not something we hear a lot of from our readers. But there are a few of you out there and for them, certain protocols like EAP-TLS is important.
The good news is that Microsoft is conscious of the need for EAP-TLS for Wi-Fi security (especially important for enterprise) and it looks like it will come to Windows Phone at some point, but it's not high on their priority list...
In a Twitter direct message with a customer, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore revealed the info in an exchange on the topic noting that the lack of EAP-TLS is "something we are aware of and following up on. Not in the very near future but likely coming at some point."
The fact of the matter is Microsoft does have a list of priorities for Windows Phone where some things are higher than others. For instance, we have it on good accord that better podcast support is on that list but it's not very high. That doesn't mean Microsoft doesn't want to do it it just means they have to triage what they can and cannot do in a realistic time frame for releases. As a consumer, none of that is directly important—you just want "stuff" and you want all of it. But being a program manager, these are the tough decisions that need to be made.
We're not convinced from a basic consumer standpoint that EAP-TLS support is more important than say a proper notification hub. But we certainly see why people would rank it high on their own list.
For those of you who don't know about EAP-TLS (we don't blame you), it's considered to be one of the most secure Wi-Fi connection protocols out there. It's not widely deployed anymore due to the client-side certificate (and being slightly more complicated) but it is universally supported by all wireless LAN manufactures. So being universally available and considered the strongest security out there, we can see why folks would want it on their Windows Phone.
Will it make a difference in the end to straight up consumer sales? We're not too sure but here's hoping that it comes at some point.
Source: Rajesh R. (Twitter)


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Personalised Number Plate InformationAll the information you need to buy or sell your registration number
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Each number plate has 1, 2 or 3 letters and one or more numbers. Number plates listed here have recently been sold but we have many similar numbers. Please call us or visit our main number plate website
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Since their humble beginning in 1903, cherished numbers have continued to increase in popularity often adding the finishing touch to our prized possessions and very often prove to be a valuable investment.
The First Number Plate Ever Issued
A1 assigned in 1903
The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register, and to carry number plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration number plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.
You can find out where your personalised registration number plate was originally issued here.
It was 1980 when legislation was passed to allow Illinois drivers to order vanity and personalized license plates. As defined then, vanity plates contained up to six letters or the numbers 1 to 999. Personalized plates had a combination of desired letters and numbers. In the very first year, 24,000 state residents decided they wanted to pay extra to show off their vanity to fellow motorists.
Drivers were displaying personalized plates long before 1980 however.
There was no law that he could find before 1980 authorizing such plates. Instead, he figures it likely was a typical case of not what you knew being important, but who you knew.
There's no question, however, that it was 1907 when the Motor Vehicle Act, which required motorists to register with the secretary of state's office, became law. For a one-time $2 fee per vehicle, motorists received a round aluminum disk with a registration number to affix to their vehicles. (Drivers had to furnish their own plates until 1911. The disks were dropped in 1917.) From July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1909, the state registered 20,224 vehicles. Sidney S. Gorham, of LaGrange, was issued license plate number 1.
As you might guess, that "one-time fee" didn't last long. Probably realizing they had a cash cow on their hands, the state began charging an annual fee in 1909 and re-registered all vehicles.
More interesting plate trivia: In 1912, front plates were perforated so more air could flow through a car's radiator. Aluminum license plates were issued for the first time in 1950. The slogan "Land of Lincoln" debuted in 1954, although a requirement for showing Lincoln's image was dropped because it was deemed impractical at the time.
Purple and white plates were issued in 1964 to honor both McKendree College and Rockford College (as they were known then). In 1966, for the first time in 30 years, fees were increased 50 cents to pay for a new reflective coating. In 1977, drivers were able to complain about lousy photos on their licenses for the first time. The discontinuation of annual plates in 1979 ended a 67-year run, the longest in the United States. In 1985, all vehicles were charged the same fee ($48) rather than one based on horsepower.
DE51YRE private number plate for sale
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Record numbers of motorists are driving cars fitted with personalised numberplates amid a surge in "auto vanity".
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sold a record 374,968 registrations last year, up 12 per cent in 12 months and almost five times the total in the mid-90s.
The trade in numberplates made more than £110 million for the Treasury in 2016-17 alone, a record annual total.
The rise coincides with an increase in the number of registrations made available by the DVLA, combined with a sharp rise in the value of rare plates over the past two decades.
In an era when we're all supposed to be flaunting our individuality, the trend for personalised car number plates has apparently never been higher. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which sells new and never-issued registrations, sold 374,968 last year, an increase of 12%.
Among private dealers, who sell pre-owned plates, business is just as good.
"For the past five years, [the market has] been steadily rising." It is thought one reason is a personalised plate makes the age of the car less obvious. But he also says social media has played a huge part. "It's, 'Hey, everybody, look at me'," he says.
People post pictures of their new cars on Instagram, and adding a private plate "seems to be something that people can use to boost their social media reach".
At the entry-level end of the market, "registrations that start at £250, on average there are 800 of those sold every day." He says one fairly common customer is the parent who buys a personalised plate for their child on passing their driving test, to go with a new car. "My typical client would be someone in their 40s or 50s, they've got a bit of money sitting about and always fancied a personalised number plate."
At the extreme end, plates can fetch more than £500,000. In 2014, one classic-car dealer bought a "25 O" plate, reportedly for his Ferrari 250 GTO, for £400,000 (the final price, including fees, was £518,000) and a "250 L" for £130,000.
"The numbers that were selling for £1,000 in 1980 now sell for £150,000. What probably changed it was in the late 80s, when the government started to sell numberplates. We in the trade all thought it would devalue the numbers, but it didn't, it just got more people interested."
A personalised plate is "a prestigious thing. There's a little bit of vanity about it," says Saperia. As for those of us who believe it's the mark of a bit of a berk, Saperia points out that the DVLA's sale of personalised plates "bring more than £100m every year to the treasury".
The number plate 1D was bought for a record £352,000 at auction yesterday.
Tycoon Nabil Bishara won it in fierce bidding and plans to put it on his wife's Bentley.
His £352,411 offer beats the previous £254,000 best for a DVLA sale, set by 51NGH in 2006. The DVLA's Damian Lawson said after the auction in Claverdon, Warks: We're absolutely over the moon."
Britain's priciest car reg is F1, bought privately for £440,625 in 2008 by Afzal Kahn of Bradford, West Yorks."
Sharjah: Fierce bidding at a Sharjah Police licence plate online auction raked in Dh3.4 million for a single plate numbered "15", said Sharjah Police.
In total, Dh9.8 million was raised from the auction of 100 unique number plates.
Organised by Sharjah Police in collaboration with Emirates Auction from March 27 till April 1, the auction attracted the attention of bidders from across the UAE and beyond.
The online auction witnessed intense bidding on 100 unique number plates, including a pair of two-digit plates: 15 and 66, nine three-digit plates: 120, 121, 200, 202, 221, 313, 660, 801, 888, and 44 four-digit plates, featuring unique combinations such as: 2222 and 5000, in addition to 45 five-digit plates.
The highest bid on two-digit number went to plate number 15, which recorded Dh3,4 million, while plate number 66 recorded Dh1,2 million. The highest price for three-digit numbers went to plate number 888, which recorded Dh700,000.
The four-digit plate number 2222 was sold for Dh600,000 and the highest paid for a five-digit plate (66666) was Dh559,000.
Plate number 200 sold for Dh382,000, while the lowest bid went to plate number 89100 which sold for Dh6,000
The auction was viewed by 500,102 people via Emirate Auction's mobile app and website.
Reg Plate Auction - Day 3 News - £63,500 for 1 OOO
The third day of the DVLA cherished number plate auction is underway with a bang!
the registration plate 1 OOO has been sold to a telephone bidder for the sum of £63,500 hammer price!
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Dan Gibbs' secret weapon in his campaign to reclaim the state Senate seat in District 16 is the stamina of a long-distance runner.
A marathoner and ultra-marathoner who survived the Leadville 100-mile race in 2007, Democrat Gibbs is well qualified to knock on as many doors as possible in his vast district, which ranges from Grand County to Jefferson County.
If he isn't running or walking, Gibbs is driving his thrifty Ford Focus with 90,000 miles on it to a couple of meetings a day.
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Question: What would be the number of seeds per foot at planting to achieve the 600 to 650 plants at harvest ? I farm in southern Ontario Canada I'm on silk-clay, loam soil . I grow a lot of seed corn and some years I put wheat after corn. The only thing different I do is I work the ground with a set of disks and packers then plant. I look forward from hearing from you .
Answer: In your question you said 600-650 plants at harvest. You meant 600-650 heads per square yard, I'm sure.
Obviously the mechanics of obtaining head counts within this ideal range would be to target around 250-300 plants which survive the winter, each with around 2-3 tillers which produce heads. This strategy should provide around 600-650 heads per square yard at harvest.
The number of wheat seeds per square foot or square yard that you need to plant is very dependent on many factors. These factors obviously include seed quality/germination %, planting date (the biggest factor), then the fertility status of the field, if it's no-till or conventional, the previous crop, plus the brand and condition of the drill/air-seeder, which can have a big impact on stand uniformity.
With all this said, if you start seeding around October 1st around Ridgetown in Southern Ontario for example, I think you can seed around 300 live seeds per square yard (divide by 9 to get square foot), if you have good, conventional tillage conditions with minimal surface residue. If you are no-tilling into heavy surface residue I would bump it an additional 10-25% depending on the volume of material on the soil surface and how well the drill is able to position seeds in the soil.
If your planting date gets delayed until say mid-October, tillering and overall plant development will be reduced on account of the cooler soils, so the seeding rate will need to be raised to compensate for that. So, within this later planting date range, I would suggest seeding around 350 live seeds within conventional soils, bumping it another 10-25% as previously outlined for no-till.
I would also recommend placing P in the row at seeding time and remember, you can fine-tune your tiller densities/head counts by manipulating the N rates and timings in the early spring.


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Reality TV star Rob Kardashian has been sued by a photographer over allegations he snatched a camera from the snapper in March.
Andra Viak has accused Kim Kardashian's little brother of grabbing her device and taking its memory card after she snapped the 26 year old in Los Angeles on March 27.
Viak called cops and filed a report, and now she is taking legal action against the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star, according to TMZ.com.
Viak's lawyer tells the website, "While this case is still in the preliminary stage, it is clear from our investigation that Robert Kardashian's violent behavior and his use of force towards Ms. Viak was completely unjustified."


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Paula Fernandes - Care, General Care Projects in Kenya
The beginning
After somehow finding myself with a month off during December in between a career break and the start of a new job I was looking for an adventure that would be challenging, liberating and fulfilling at the same time not to mention escaping the cold London weather.
I signed up to Projects Abroad and within a week, I was mobilised to Kenya to work on a combination of projects including provision of care at the Haven of Hope orphanage in Nakuru as well as assistance in the Conservation project at Kigio Reserve. I had just enough time to top up on the basic vaccinations and pack the essentials.
Arriving in Kenya
At the airport in Nairobi I was able to make my way through immigration with ease. I recall laughing to myself at the baggage claim where whilst I was waiting for my backpack, a local next to me was picking up a massive smoked piece of boned meat that was wrapped in cellophane delivered on the baggage rail. "Welcome to Kenya" is what I thought!
I was greeted at arrivals by Projects Abroad staff member, Stan Ngaruiya's big smiley "Jambo", the blast of dry scorching heat and yelling voices of all the locals trying to get your attention for a taxi. Within minutes of leaving the airport I shrieked in excitement as I saw a herd of zebras and giraffes roaming in the reserve alongside the highway.
As we arrived in the city centre, we were surrounded with the hustle and bustle of local Kenyan life and we needed to wade through the traffic to get to the city centre where we could catch the "Matatus" which is a term used to describe the local mini-vans. We grabbed a couple of cold and much needed pineapple flavoured Fanta's and hit the road for the 3 hour journey to Nakuru.
The route to Nakuru was extremely scenic and colourful passing local farms of corn, maize and vegetables. We also passed Lake Naivasha, Lake Elementeita, Mount Longonot and the famous Lake Nakuru. The views of the rift valley were simply amazing.
My Kenyan host family
A further set of big smiley faces eagerly anticipated my arrival at my host home only to provide me with the warmest welcome. I was lucky enough to be staying with two other volunteers, one from Denmark and the other from Switzerland and needless to say we became the best of friends almost overnight.
My fondest memories include:
- The delicious dinners – usually traditional Kenyan food of Ugali, Mukimo and Nyama Choma and then the constant supply of fresh mangos and passion fruit.
- Waking up every morning to the sound of the roosters and bright sunshine.
- Late night chats with our host mum sharing stories and laughing constantly.
- Washing my clothes in a bucket outside in the sun surrounded by my host pets including puppies and a tortoise.
- Returning home in a tuk-tuk to find the front gate surrounded by a herd of local goats and trying to slowly make my way through them much to my host brother's amusement.
My care placement at Haven of Hope
If you ever wanted to experience the joys and simplicity of being a kid again – this placement was it! I got to spend my days with almost 30 kids aged between 7 months and 13 years old trying to keep them occupied with different activities, especially the bigger kids who were on school holidays. I was forced to be creative engaging in arts and crafts, cutting things and sticking things together, showing them how to colour in between the lines and attempting to draw some of the local African animals.
I also had to prove my fitness as they chased me around the playground constantly taking great pleasure in catching me! Highlights included singing and dancing with them to some of the favourite nursery rhymes, baking cakes out of sand with younger kids and painting around the house getting the kids to decorate their rooms.
The most amazing thing was that these kids all arrived at the orphanage with the saddest stories of abandonment yet they too had the biggest smiles I have ever seen and that happiness and energy was undoubtedly infectious.
My favourite memories at the orphanage include entering in the mornings to find a rush of kids running towards you to say 'howareyou' – yes it was one word to them and if there were two of us they would say 'howareyous', and listening to them yell out 'see you tomollow' when you left.
My second placement at Kigio Reserve
After being picked up on the side of the highway in a land cruiser and heading out to base camp, I surprisingly managed to quickly adjust to the limited electricity, limited hot clean water and bunk bed sleeping and embrace the absolute beauty and serenity of my new home within the wildlife reserve.
The daily activities were physical, educational and most importantly thoroughly enjoyable including researching and observing the endangered Rothschild giraffes, identifying the birdlife, taking records of biomass and vegetation around different plots in the reserve and also walking the boundaries to identify poaching activities. Downtime was spent mostly on the deck in the sun reading a book only being disturbed by the footsteps of zebras, giraffes, wild pigs and little antelope just metres away from you.
It was the kind of place where you started each day with a spectacular sunrise and ended each day around a fire looking up at the night sky catching the shooting stars.
Travelling around Kenya after my placement
Kenya is truly a beautiful country rich in wildlife and surrounded by some of the best national parks in Africa. Aside from travelling during my weekends whilst on the project with the other volunteers, I managed to sneak in a 10 day safari tour on my way home covering the base of Mount Kenya, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara.
My experience included the sights of a million flamingos covering Lake Bogoria, boiling an egg in the hot springs, watching cheetahs stalk their prey, watching a lioness attempt to hunt a cheetah, finding cheetah and leopard cubs and seeing all the big five African animals on most of the days. I also spent a few days with the local Masai tribe learning about their culture and the land they occupy.
An adventure of a lifetime
I was told by someone wise that such a mission would be "scary before, mixed in between and loved in retrospect'' and that's absolutely how it went.
Paula Fernandes
Dit ervaringsverhaal kan verwijzingen bevatten naar het werken in of samenwerken met weeshuizen. Lees hier meer over het huidige beleid van Projects Abroad ten aanzien van vrijwilligerswerk in weeshuizen en de overgang naar gemeenschapsgerichte opvang voor kinderen.
Dit verhaal is een persoonlijke ervaring van een vrijwilliger op dit project en dus een momentopname. Houd er rekening mee dat jouw ervaring hiervan af kan wijken. Onze projecten veranderen constant, omdat we inspelen op de lokale behoefte en we voortborduren op de behaalde resultaten. Ook verschillende weersomstandigheden kunnen de ervaring beïnvloeden. Lees meer over wat je kunt verwachten van dit project of neem contact met ons op voor meer informatie.


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BALTIMORE — Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration says $336 million in school construction funding and upgrades will be in the budget for the next fiscal year.
The governor made the announcement in Baltimore on Monday.
The budget will include $325 million for the state's Public School Construction Program. That will include $25 million for air conditioning in schools.
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown says in a statement that air conditioning is a necessity that helps fight against mold and allergens in the air. He says the administration won't rest until all 1,396 of Maryland's schools are safe places for children to learn.
The O'Malley administration says it has allocated $2.4 billion for school construction since O'Malley, a Democrat, took office in 2007.
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(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Delux Snug Dog Bed - Size 58
The Delux Snug Dog Bed features a Slipcover edged with piping and a pouch. Designed for pets who love to burrow and owners who want that extra "touch of style". The Slipcover is fully removable and washable as it is elasticated just like a fitted bed sheet. The Inner Mattress has a zip for easy filling and top-ups. All seams are overlocked or double sewn to ensure long lasting durability and prevent fraying. This product comes with a Two Year Guarantee.
Suitable for: Great Danes, Bernese and Pyrenean Mountain Dogs, Saint Bernard, Irish Wolfhound, Newfoundland
Pet weight: 50 to 55 kg Bed diameter: 58 inches or 147 cm Beans: 300 litres
What's included?
- Filled Sets: Inner Mattress filled with beans and a Plain Slipcover fitted over the Inner Mattress. Arrives ready for your pet to use.
N.B. This size Dog Bed is too large to post as a filled set.
You can COLLECT FROM US in Rowville VIC or order as an Unfilled set.
- Unfilled Sets: Inner Mattress and Plain Slipcover in flat packs. Beans not included. You fill it yourself. Filling instructions included. Beans readily available at major retailers e.g. K-Mart, Target. Beans needed: 300 litres
Want an extra Slipcover?
Go to the Super Delux Snug Set with TWO Delux Snug Slipcovers.
You SAVE 20% on the price of the second Slipcover by ordering both at the same time.
Have one on your dog bed and one in the wash
Fabric Colour Range:
- Slipcover: Choose any combination of fabric colours for the top and side of the Slipcover. Click here to see our fabric colour chart.
- Inner Mattress: Made in a neutral Light Khaki colour. The mattress is like your own mattress and not seen as it's covered over by the fitted Slipcover.
Want to see the actual colours, feel the fabric?
Click here to request a fabric swatch pack.
Includes all fabric colours.
Delivery times:
All our pet beds are made to order in Australia. Please allow 1-2 weeks for completion.
We will confirm an exact delivery date when your order is placed.
|Shipping Weight
Two Year Guarantee
At Barka Parka we are so confident of the quality of our product's workmanship and their durability, that we offer a full two (2) year guarantee against normal wear and tear, claw damage, persistent odours and flea infestation.
The two year guarantee covers only products made by Barka Parka.
Products included are: Plain Dog bed sets, Delux Dog Bed Sets, Snug Dog Bed Sets, Delux Snug Dog Bed Sets, Spare Slipcovers, Furniture Throws, Lap Rugs and Decor cushions.
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Existence of new neuron repair pathway discovered
Existence of new neuron repair pathway discovered
Most of your neurons can't be replaced.
Other parts of your body -- such as skin and bone -- can be replaced by the body growing new cells, but when you injure your neurons, you can't just grow new ones; instead, the existing cells have to repair themselves.
In the case of axon injury, the neuron is able to repair or sometimes even fully regenerate its axon. But neurons have two sides -- the axon (which sends signals to other cells) and the dendrite (which receives signals from other cells).
Melissa Rolls, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State and director of the Huck Institutes' Center for Cellular Dynamics, has done extensive comparisons of axons and dendrites -- culminating recently in a paper published in Cell Reports.
"We know that the axon side can repair itself," says Rolls, "and we know a bunch of the molecular players. But we really didn't know whether neurons have the same capacity to regenerate their dendrites, and so that's what we set out to find in this study."
"Our lab uses a Drosophila model system, where the dendrites are very accessible to manipulation," she says, "so we decided that we would start by removing all the dendrites from the neurons to see if they could regenerate. We didn't start with anything subtle, like taking off just a few dendrites. We said 'Let's just push the system to its maximum and see if this is even possible.' And we were surprised because we found that not only is it possible, it's actually much faster than axon regeneration: at least in the cells that we're using, axon regeneration takes a day or two to initiate, while dendrite regeneration typically initiates within four to six hours and it works really well. All the cells where we removed the dendrites grew new dendrites – none of them died; so it's clear that these cells have a way to both detect dendrite injury and initiate regrowth of the injured part."
Further inquiry
Having confirmed the neurons' ability to initiate dendrite regeneration, the researchers then set out to find the injury surveillance system used by the cells to detect dendrite injury.
"We wanted to know," says Rolls, "whether these cells were using the same kind of injury surveillance system for both the axons and the dendrites. In the case of axon injury, there's a kinase -- a signaling molecule -- called DLK that is known to be used to initiate axon regeneration in everything from soil nematodes to Drosophila to mammals. We confirmed that in the cells we were studying, the DLK signaling molecule is required for axon regeneration, and then we did the same experiment to see whether DLK was required for dendrite regeneration -- and it turns out that it's not."
Using a technique known as RNA interference (RNAi) to block the synthesis of the DLK kinase, and also by using Drosophila strains where the DLK gene is mutated, the researchers observed that the dendrites regrow normally without DLK. The researchers also used reporter strains to observe activity in the DLK pathway, and various loss-of-function approaches -- all of which showed DLK's involvement in axon regeneration, but never in dendrite regeneration.
"Since this paper came out," says Rolls, "we've tested a bunch of other pathways that are known to be required for axon regeneration, and none of them are required for dendrite regeneration -- which is kind of cool, because it means that these cells have a way that we didn't even know about to respond to dendrite injury, and it means we essentially know nothing about that process. We don't know how they sense the injury, or what they have to do to regrow dendrites. And so that's something we're now trying to figure out."
Rolls Lab
Rolls -- a faculty member of the Huck Institutes' graduate programs in cell and developmental biology, genetics, and neuroscience at Penn State – advises students from each program who also work in her lab and who performed the experiments for this study.
Li Chen
Li Chen, a PhD student in the Cell and Developmental Biology program, is studying the signaling mechanisms involved in axon regeneration and piloted several of the tools used by the Rolls Lab to distinguish axon and dendrite regeneration, including a reporter assay for the DLK pathway.
"Basically," says Chen, "I pioneered an assay to tell us about the activation of proteins in the DLK pathway; the reporter -- a fluorescent protein -- functions as a tool for us to know whether the proteins are activated or not after the axon is damaged, and my role was to test whether the reporter would work. Now that we've validated the reporter, we can do further assays to compare how cells are able to tell the difference between axon injury and dendrite injury."
Michelle Stone
Michelle Stone, a PhD student in the Genetics program and the paper's first author, performed the study's initial, foundational experiments -- characterizing the process of dendrite regeneration, testing for molecular requirements of regeneration, and confirming the ability of neurons to regenerate in both adult and larval Drosophila.
"I did all the initial studies," says Stone, "the first experiments of cutting all the dendrites off our neuron samples to see whether they would regenerate, and then quantitating how they regenerated. I also did experiments in live adult Drosophila, using a pulsed UV laser on a confocal microscope to cut off dendrites -- which was a little tricky, because it was hard to keep the adults from getting squashed on the slide -- but we were able to see that there was sprouting in those cells where the dendrites had been cut. Then I did the assays and other experiments showing that the DLK pathway was not involved in dendrite regeneration, whereas for axon regeneration it really is required."
Rich Albertson
Rich Albertson, an MD/PhD student currently completing his doctoral work in the Neuroscience program, was responsible for quantifying the extent of dendrite injury required to initiate regeneration and determining the significance of the injury's proximity to the cell body. Now he is beginning the next phase of the project -- identifying the molecular players required for dendrite regeneration.
With the help of a seed grant from the Huck Institutes Core Facilities, Albertson is using the Microscopy and Cytometry Facility's laser-capture microdissection system to sample individual injured neurons; from those neurons, Albertson extracts RNA samples for next-generation sequencing by the Genomics Core Facility.
"In my pilot experiments," says Albertson, "I've been doing a proof of concept using qPCR to investigate effects, at the RNA transcript level, of axon injury. Once we've sequenced the samples, we can align those short reads with the genome and count the total number of reads -- which will tell us how many transcripts are present and whether their numbers are going up or down compared to an uninjured control. We'll do this with neurons that have their dendrites cut off, and we'll find genes that are being upregulated or downregulated, and we'll then feed those data into our functional studies and test them to find which candidates are required for dendrite regeneration."
Collaborative advancement
The Rolls Lab has recently launched a new collaboration with a lab at UCLA to investigate the possibility of equivalent or similar dendrite regeneration processes existing in vertebrates -- with the hope of finding potential applications in several scenarios: stroke (which involves neuron damage in the central nervous system) and peripheral neuropathy (a loss of sensation in the periphery, often induced by diabetes or chemotherapy).
"We don't yet know in which, if either, of these scenarios dendrite regeneration will happen," says Rolls, "but this is an issue that we really need to resolve. Now that we've found that Drosophila sensory endings don't use the DLK pathway to regenerate, we want to look in the vertebrate system and try to figure it out. In an era when we feel as though we've identified most of the basic biological processes, it's fascinating to find that there's something we don't know, that our hypotheses were all wrong, and that things are, in fact, wide open for exploration."
Li Chen, a PhD student in the Huck Institutes' Cell and Developmental Biology program at Penn State, working at a microscope in the Rolls Lab
Michelle Stone, a PhD student in the Huck Institutes' Genetics program at Penn State, working at a confocal microscope equipped with a pulsed UV laser for severing fruit fly neurons, in the Rolls Lab
Rich Albertson, an MD/PhD student currently completing his doctoral work in the Huck Institutes' Neuroscience program at Penn State, isolating RNA samples in the Rolls Lab


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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one
– John Lennon, "Imagine"
Over the weekend, I saw a headline about Lynda Frederick, a 42-year old woman bullied during her time in high school who wrote a poem to her classmates about being bullied on the Facebook page for her high school class reunion. This morning, I investigated further and read this story in the Huffington Post, as well as a few other articles online about her and her poem. Her former classmates were so moved, some coming forth with apologies and raising money for her to travel and attend the reunion.


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One amazing roll + one serious challenge = lots of yummy lobster eating on Martha's Vineyard!
As we boarded the ferry to escape the city of Boston for a week of play on Martha's Vineyard, a challenge was set, who could eat the most Lobster Rolls.
This is New England and these people are serious about their lobster!
This wasn't just a challenge of who could eat the most, it was also a challenge of who could find the best lobster roll on the Vineyard!
I quickly joined in the challenge as who doesn't love the simple combination of fresh lobster meat, light mayonnaise and celery tossed into a deliciously toasted hot dog bun.
The Lobster Roll above came from the Seafood Shanty. A local bar serving up lots of fresh seafood and awesome ocean views! While the roll was delicious, it was a little heavy on the mayonnaise for my taste, and come to find out, I prefer my lobster rolls sans the celery!
The next Lobster Roll came from a restaurant in an awesome part of Martha's Vineyard known as Gay Head Cliffs.
The views there were absolutely picturesque. We picked Aquinnah, a spot right on the cliffs to enjoy another delicious roll with a great view!
This was my favorite lobster roll of the trip and I definitely feel that I deserve the award for finding the best lobster roll on the Vineyard!
Served with the traditional side of dill pickles and chips (Cape Cod chips nonetheless!), the meat was cold, tender and flavorful inside of a soft bun, minus the celery, with a little added lettuce.
Although there is only photographic evidence of two of the delicious Lobster Rolls consumed on Martha's Vineyard, never fear, I was able to take down 4 rolls while on the Vineyard to tie for second place. My former roommate made me proud by coming in first place with 5 1/2 lobster rolls!
Can't wait to return to this little island gem for beautiful food and magnificent sunrises!