text:
We departed from Detroit, MI on July 31st 2007 and Ended up in San Francisco. CA a few days later
Q: What is ammonia?
A: Ammonia is simply Hydrogen and Nitrogen (NH3). Notice there is no carbon (C) in "NH3". That means when you burn ammonia, it cannot release carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or other greenhouse pollutants.
Q: Why use ammonia for a vehicle fuel?
A: Ammonia is one of the few practical liquid high-energy density non-petroleum fuels that we will ever have. The laws of physics and chemistry limit the ways in which we can transfer energy efficiently. Ammonia is one of the few chemical compounds which is a liquid, rapidly releases energy in combustion and has a high energy density by volume. All of these parameters are needed for powering vehicles in a practical manner. And as wonderful added bonus, ammonia generates no greenhouse gases or carbon particulate emissions.
Q: Where do you get Ammonia?
A: Ammonia occurs naturally only in very small amounts. Almost all ammonia is manufactured. Most people are surprised to find out that ammonia is the 4th largest manufactured and transported commodity in the United States. This is because ammonia is used for fertilizer for growing many of the foods here and around the world. Because so much ammonia is used by farmers everywhere, ammonia is available almost everywhere. On the trip across the US, the NH3 Car "filled up" just once at welding supply store in Wyoming, about half way between Detroit and San Francisco.
Q: What is needed to manufacture ammonia?
A: Ammonia can be made from air, water and a source of energy. Nitrogen from the air, and hydrogen from the water. Really!
Q: Can ammonia be made from renewable or "green" energy sources?
A: Yes. This is one of the huge benefits of ammonia as a fuel. You can't make crude oil or gasoline at any price. When it's gone, it's gone forever. But ammonia can be manufactured from any source of energy including great renewables like hydro-electric, solar or wind power! And manufacturing ammonia does not involve shifting vast quantities of land from producing food to producing plants for biofuels.
Q: What are the emissions from a converted ammonia fueled vehicle?
A: The emissions from the burned ammonia are nitrogen and water vapor. When operated dual fuel, the gasoline or other hydrocarbon may still generate a small amount of CO and CO2, etc. However, this emission is typically reduced by roughly 60 to 70%.
Q: Is ammonia Dangerous?
A: All fuels and energy sources, including even charged batteries have some potential hazard associated with them. However, ammonia will not explode like gasoline, natural gas or hydrogen. In fact, it is difficult to get ammonia to burn, even though it makes an excellent fuel for cars and trucks. Ammonia vehicle fueling and storage takes place safely without any human access to the ammonia liquid or gas, just like the fueling process for natural gas vehicles. Also, ammonia does not represent a long term toxin to cellular biology, whereas gasoline is quite poisonous. Ammonia is classified as a caustic substance, which means inhaling it
or getting it on your skin isn't healthy, but overall it is far less dangerous than gasoline.
Q: Is ammonia a liquid or a gas?
A: Ammonia quickly turns to a gas when exposed to air. But ammonia is easily and indefinitely stored as a liquid at about 150 PSI , a very low pressure which doesn't require special high pressure tanks like hydrogen.
Q: How does ammonia use compare to natural gas?
A: Ammonia contains no carbon and releases no green house gases, but natural gas does. So, although natural gas is somewhat cleaner than gasoline, its use still releases green house gases in significant quantities. And one day natural gas will run out and there won't be any more, but ammonia can always be manufactured.
Q: How does ammonia use compare to Hydrogen as a fuel?
A: Although hydrogen has received a lot of press recently, it has several fundamental technical problems which will always dramatically limit its practical rollout for vehicular use on a broad scale. These problems are not limited to the fact that hydrogen's energy density is a tiny fraction of that of ammonia by volume. This means that you'd have to refuel your hydrogen vehicle as much as 7 times as often to go the same distance on hydrogen as you would using ammonia. Hydrogen must also be stored at very high pressures (ie. 10,000 PSI), or at very low cryogenic temperatures. Both high pressure storage and cryogenic storage require significant additional power input, further reducing hydrogen's energy efficiency. In fact, when we burn ammonia, we're actually burning hydrogen, since that's the element in ammonia that combusts and provides the energy.
© 2007-2008 NH3CAR.com, All rights reserved
Ammonia FAQs
Conversion FAQs


text:
For others blogging is a hobby, a creative outlet. If only a few people ever read and comment on what is written that is OK because the goal is personal expression and satisfaction. If others come along for the ride, great. If they don't it isn't a big deal.
Then there are those who dedicate a fair amount of time to researching, writing, and promoting their site. They write for personal reasons but also work to build traffic and maybe generate a little income, enough to cover some expenses. They have enough ego involved to want to generate increasing levels of traffic and recognition. They don't get as deeply into keyword research, link building, and many of the tricks that professionals use but more so than someone who blogs just for purely personal reasons. Let's call them semi-professional bloggers.
This last group is the one I believe I belong to. My writing is an important creative outlet for me. I spend at least three hours a day, sometimes more, doing something blog-related. My writing for other web sites, book sales, Amazon Affiliate checks, and an occasional ad on the blog itself generate some money each year. It is enough to cover expenses, pay for a new computer and printer ink, but is not a significant source of satisfying retirement income. That is OK because I am not willing to turn blogging into a job.
I just passed a significant milestone a few days ago, at least for me: over 500,000 total views. Having half a million clicks is small change for the professional bloggers but I think is good for a semi-pro in a rather narrow niche.
Which brings me, at last, to the point of this post. I have been writing about building and living a satisfying retirement for almost three years. I think I have covered virtually every topic and concern several times over. Unlike the majority of retirement-oriented bloggers I don't spend time dealing with in-depth financial issues. Too many others cover that subject much better than I could. Also, I believe a successful retirement requires much more than just financial issues. I attempt to cover all parts of what makes this stage of life happy and fulfilling.
So, here's my question to you: where do I go from here? Good friend and fellow blogger, Barbara Torris, recently decided to stop writing exclusively about retirement. She has been in this niche a lot longer than me and began to feel the same way: What else is there to say that doesn't bore me and my readers?
I have no plans to abandon the satisfying retirement niche that I have worked hard to establish. Since retirement is a time of constant change and evolution I can continue to find things to write about.
But, I'd also like to expand my topic selection a bit. Obviously, with the new RV and the number of trips Betty and I have planned for the next several years I will have all sorts of opportunities to write about those adventures. Betty's photographs and our adjustments with Bailey, our dog, adapting to weeks on the road will give me all sorts of ideas. Too much emphasis on that, however, will take me out of the retirement niche and into the RV universe. If a reader isn't interested in RV travel then a little goes a long way.
Over the past year or so some of my writing has been a bit more personal. The response to those posts is usually good. One problem is I had a happy childhood in a two-parent household with no major traumas or events and a very happy 36 year marriage so I don't have a lot of angst to expose.
I have touched on my spirituality and its role in my happy retirement. But, a little of that can go a long way, too. Much like the RV posts, my spiritual development is really only interesting to some people. Others will be driven away.
So, I would appreciate you putting on your thinking caps and giving me some ideas on topics and subjects you think I might be able to write about and you'd like to read. Importantly, they don't have to be restricted to retirement.
Would you find movie reviews interesting, where to find streaming movies on the Internet, maybe more book reviews? How about a discussion of home maintenance or financial record keeping? Any issues concerning marriages or grandkids?
How about something that interests or concerns you that has nothing to do with retirement directly, but is more related to having a satisfying life? Maybe lists of great blogs in other subjects?
OK...fire away. What can I write about that would keep you coming back and keep me blogging away?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
5 Stripe Sweatpants
Aviator Nation
Aviator Nation
Or 4 installments of $39.00 by Or 4 installments of $39.00 by Or 4 installments of $39.00 by Or 4 installments of $39.00 by Or 4 installments of $39.00 by afterpay Learn more about Afterpay
Estimated Delivery : Oct 05 - Oct 06
FREE Shipping
- 50% cotton, 37% poly, 13% rayon
- Elastic waistband with interior drawstring
- Elastic hem
- Front embroidered logo
- Stitched patch accents
- Fleece fabric
- Made in USA
- Revolve Style No. ANAT-WP3
- Manufacturer Style No. WSPRS5
Who doesn't have an obsession with vintage clothing? Paige Mycoskie, creator of Aviator Nation sure does. That's why she began studying the art of authentic vintage clothing and starting creating her own line of tee's, sweatshirts and hats to give the world that well worn feeling of so long ago.
If an item you would like to purchase is out of stock, you can place a Special Order Inquiry. REVOLVE will then check the availability and obtain an approximate arrival date for the item, if available. Typically, it takes up to 3-4 weeks to verify this information.
Placing a Special Order Inquiry is absolutely free and there is no obligation to follow through with a purchase.
- You will be notified by email once we receive the item.
- You may cancel at any time without penalty
- Your card will ONLY be charged when your order is shipped.
- Availability is not guaranteed.


text:
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Hunt Emerson on Fred's Bed
This week's Beano features a revamp of one of its old strips. Reprints of the Tom Paterson Beezer strip Fred's Bed had been running in The Beano for a couple of years but now the strip has been given a makeover with an all new series illustrated by Hunt Emerson.
The reprint had always proven popular with Beano readers but the source was finite, so commissioning new strips was always likely. (I drew a brand new episode for the 2007 Christmas issue.) The new version of Fred's Bed has a few changes to the original; Fred himself has been redesigned and he now sets his alarm clock to control where he travels in time instead of the random occurrence in the original strip.
Hunt Emerson is a natural for the strip and I'm sure it'll continue to prove to be very popular with Beano readers!
The Beano No.3480 is currently available from supermarkets and newsagents. 32 full colour pages for £1.25 Other strips in this issue include Minnie the Minx drawn by Ken Harrison, Lord Snooty the Third illustrated by Nigel Parkinson, Johnny Bean drawn by Laura Howell and Super School drawn by myself.
Visit Hunt's website here:
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
ELEPHANTMEN No.18 out this week
Now back on a regular monthly schedule the latest issue of Elephantmen (No.18) arrives in comic stores this week from Image Comics.
Who are the "Elephantmen"? As the official website explains...
"They are the survivors of genetic engineering experiments and indoctrination by Doctor Kazushi Nikken and MAPPO, a sinister organization which sought to create suprahuman weapons of mass destruction.
Freed and rehabilitated by the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, the 'Unhumans' now live amongst men. Legitimized by the 'Elephantmen' act, they are nevertheless denied the right to bear arms and must survive on their wits alone.
But regardless of the roles they accept in the concrete jungles built by man, Hip Flask and his kind are treated with suspicion and contempt by the species that created them, and cannot always rely on one another for reassurance or friendship."
The Elephantmen comic book series, written by Richard Starkings and illustrated by top talents such as Ladronn, Moritat, Boo Cook, and Rob Steen, has won the accolades of fans and pros alike. The latest issue features the beautiful artwork of Marian Churchland (above) and a preview of several pages can be found here:
Elephantmen also carries various back up features. Often, ex-Marvel UK editor Richard Starkings will run articles on his favourite British artists and comics, and a semi-regular back up humour strip in the comic is my Brickman series. Currently I'm producing the Brickman: R.I.P. serial for the comic and part two appears in this issue. Mortar, Brickman's Daughter, investigates the death of her father, - with deadly results. Co-starring my old Marvel UK character Combat Colin!
Elephantmen No. 18 features a cover by J. Scott Campbell and a flip cover by Marian Churchland, both shown here. The comic will be in comic book speciality stores on Wednesday (USA) or Thursday (UK) priced $3.50.
Visit the Elephantmen website here:
See more of Marian Churchland's amazing artwork here:
J Scott Campbell's website:
Official Brickman website:
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Last chance to get CRAZY!
Just a final reminder, today is your last chance to buy the issue of Toxic which contain the brand new Crazy Comics supplement - 16 pages of all new British comic strips. This is a one-off supplement destined to become a collector's item.
Crazy Comics features a bunch of new strips and by visiting http://www.toxicmag.co.uk/vote you can vote for your favourite which may then return in future issues of Toxic. As other creators have been plugging their characters on their blogs here's a shout out to my character The Clump - a two page strip in Crazy Comics written, drawn, coloured and lettered by myself. The Clump originally appeared as a character in my regular Team Toxic strip in Toxic but this is his first solo appearance. Vote CLUMP if you want to see more! Ay thenk yow.
Toxic No.137 bagged with Crazy Comics and a bunch of free gifts is now available from Asda, Tesco, WH Smith etc. priced £2.99... but be quick! The next issue of Toxic will be out tomorrow (Wednesday April 22nd) so today is your last chance!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
FROM THE TOMB back from the dead!
As regular readers of this blog will know I'm a big fan of Peter Normanton's horror comics feature magazine From the Tomb. (See reviews of previous issues here and here.) Therefore I was concerned to hear recently that as part of a controversial streamlining measure on smaller publishers Diamond distributors have decided to drop the magazine from their catalogue. As many comic stores across the Western world use Diamond as their exclusive supplier it effectively means that From the Tomb will no longer be available in many comic shops. This was the final nail in the coffin for the publication, if you'll pardon the pun, and the mag was cancelled.
However, the good news is that like any good zombie From the Tomb has risen from the dead, due to an anonymous benefactor who stepped forward to pay for the print costs on the next issue (No.27, cover above). From the Tomb is available by subscription and the upcoming issue will be limited to just 500 copies at £6.00 each ($17.00 overseas). A three issue subscription will cost £17 (UK) or $50 (overseas).
More details are on the flyer below. If you're a fan of horror comics old and new, or are interested in the history of comics in general, or just want to learn more about the horror comics genre, please subscribe and support this very worthy publication. Some copies will appear in UK comic shops from a different distributor but under the current economic climate shops are likely to cut back on such independent titles, so it's probably best to subscribe and make sure of your copy.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Dennis and Gnasher in new tv series
Months in development, a brand new Dennis the Menace cartoon series is coming to Children's BBC sometime this year. The 52 x 11 minute episodes of Dennis and Gnasher are a joint effort by Scotland's Red Kite Animation and Australia's Sticky Pictures studio.
A trailer for the new series is now on the Red Kite Animation website, click HERE to view it.
The website promotion states:
"Dennis and Gnasher believe the world is truly their oyster and that kids should make the rules. They are active, creative and possess a charming, cheeky self-confidence which gets them both into and out of trouble!
Dennis and Gnasher is a series for 5 to 10 year olds, where the irrepressible energy and enthusiasm of childhood is celebrated. The series, Dennis and Gnasher, is based on characters from The Beano comic, published in the UK by DC Thomson."
As you'll see, the style of Dennis and Gnasher have been changed somewhat for the new cartoon. The familiar striped jumper and short trousers remain, but Dennis has a more open and less aggressive face than Davy Law's traditional comic design. (Although to be fair, similar changes were made for the previous Dennis and Gnasher series a few years ago.) Dennis' hair is now swept forward rather than his unkempt spiky look and I can't help feeling he looks "softer" than the Menace we know. (Bizarrely he reminds me of my Brickman character now!)
More significantly, there's no mention in the promotion or the series' title of Dennis being a Menace! Too "negative" a term for today's safe children's tv perhaps? More likely it's simply been dropped to avoid confusion with the Hank Ketcham American Dennis the Menace, which was also adapted for animation years ago.
Although the changes may unsettle older fans of the character the new Dennis and Gnasher tv series should help to boost sales of The Beano and its companion comic BeanoMAX. It's likely that for the sake of consistency the style of the cartoon series will influence the look of the character in the comic, again angering traditionalists. However, the crux of the matter is that The Beano is primarily read by children, and holding on to those readers is what's most important. In that regard a major new CBBC series can only be benificial to the comics. Watch this space for future developments!
Official BEANO website: http://www.beanotown.com/
The Beano is published every Wednesday, price £1.25.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Reaching for the unattainable
In these days of shrinking magazine and newspaper sales one would expect retailers to do their bit to help publishers sell as many copies as possible. After all, higher sales are in their interests too. Therefore it's puzzling as to why the new shelf displays in some High Street retailers actually put the comics OUT of the reach of their target audience.
Witness the photo above. The smart new displays give the comics more breathing space than they had before but the height of the shelves puts certain titles way out of the reach of children! Whilst the nursery comics are on the lower shelves easily within view of young children, the top shelf contain The Beano, BeanoMAX, Dandy Xtreme, Toxic, and others - at a height of approximately six feet! How is the target audience of 7 to 11 year olds expected to even notice those comics, let alone reach them? Established readers might strive to look for their favourite comics (and ask a parent to reach up for a copy) but how can a 7 year old discover Toxic or The Beano for the first time when it's positioned a couple of feet above his head and way out of his eye line?
In 1986 retailers "top shelved" Oink! comic because they bizarrely considered it unsuitable for children. Now, The Beano etc are receiving the same limitations in some stores but this time it's because of bad planning rather than censorship. Is it any wonder comic sales are falling? And how much shelf rent are these retail giants charging the publishers for this "service" anyway?
Spies, Footballers, Knights, and Elephantmen
As you may have read on other blogs Egmont Magazines UK (publishers of Toxic) are launching four one-off "Souvenir Specials" reprinting British comic strips of the past. The first in this line of Egmont Classic Comics is out now: Roy of the Rovers.
The Roy of the Rovers comic has 64 pages, with a glossy cover and nice interior paper that Egmont describe as "tactile". The special includes selected football strips from the 1980s featuring Roy of course plus Billy's Boots, Mighty Mouse, Tommy's Troubles and others. The drawback is that the strips are all parts of continued stories, and there's no follow up issue. However the comic is clearly aimed at the nostalgia market so I'm sure the 30 somethings it's targeted at will appreciate this peek into the past. (Although as the comic is racked with the children's comics I'm not sure how most of them will notice it.)
Future Egmont Classic Comics will be Battle Picture Weekly in June, Buster in September, and Misty in December. Like Roy of the Rovers, all are exclusive to WH Smith and not available anywhere else. Cover price £3.99.
Titan Books have just published their latest Modesty Blaise album: The Lady Killers. Reprinting material from 1980/81 by Peter O'Donnell and Neville Colvin the reproduction isn't brilliant due to the source material but the high quality of the work is still evident. £11.99
Panini UK have now published the delayed third volume in their classic Captain Britain series. Captain Britain: The Lion and The Spider (£15.99) collects the final originated CB strips from Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain weekly (Nos. 239 - 247), Marvel Team-Up 65 / 66, and, at last, the British Black Knight series from Hulk Comic Nos. 1, 3-30.
The Black Knight is included because it featured the return of Captain Britain. It's a great little series which originally ran in tightly paced three page episodes in 1979 when Dez Skinn was revamping the Marvel UK weeklies into more traditional looking British comics. Hulk Comic was the outstanding superhero title of that period with mostly all new material commissioned by Dez. The splendid combination of Steve Parkhouse on script and John Stokes (and later with Paul Neary) on artwork made The Black Knight an exceptional strip and it's wonderful to see the first 29 episodes in this collection. Hopefully a Black Knight book will collect the remaining strips at some stage.
Last but not least the latest issue of Elephantmen (No.17) came out last week and is now back to a monthly schedule. Packaged by Active Images and published by Image Comics this 32 page US comic features script by Richard Starkings and artwork by Moritat and Rob Steen. There's a choice of covers; one by Rob Steen, one by Erik Larsen, - and on the back cover is the latest episode of my Brickman strip.
It's been 30 years since Brickman first appeared and I'm marking the anniversary year by killing him off! Yep, don't miss Elephantmen 17 for the first part of Brickman R.I.P.! Coming up in future months, the Battle for the Trowel and the NEW Brickman!
For more details on Elephantmen visit the official website here:
Official BRICKMAN website:


text:
This is historical material "frozen in time". The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
The White House
April 15, 2009
Fact Sheet: Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 15, 2009
Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 15, 2009
Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
The Administration has released the names of three Mexican organizations against which the President has decided to impose sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the "Kingpin Act") (21 U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182). Kingpin Act targets, on a worldwide basis, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and operatives.
The Kingpin Act became law on December 3, 1999. Its purpose is to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and to prohibit all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals. The Kingpin Act authorizes the President to take these actions when he determines that a foreign person plays a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. Congress modeled the Kingpin Act on the effective sanctions program that the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") administers against the Colombian drug cartels pursuant to Executive Order 12978 issued in October 1995 ("Executive Order 12978") under authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA").
The Kingpin Act requires that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency coordinate to identify drug kingpins and propose them to the President for sanctions. The Department of Homeland Security and the Directorate of National Intelligence are also included in the process. The Act calls for the President to report to specified congressional committees by June 1 of each year on those "foreign persons [he] determines are appropriate for sanctions" and stating his intent to impose sanctions upon those Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Act. While previous Presidential determinations have been tied to the statutory June 1 timetable, the President may also identify Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers at any other time pursuant to the Act.
Under the Kingpin Act, the President may identify foreign entities as well as foreign individuals as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers, or "kingpins": a foreign person is defined in the Act as "any citizen or national of a foreign state or any entity not organized under the laws of the United States, but does not include a foreign state." Likewise, the President is not required to designate Colombian persons exclusively under Executive Order 12978, and may impose sanctions on a Colombian individual or entity under the Kingpin Act, which is intended to be global in scope.
The long-term effectiveness of the Kingpin Act is enhanced by the Department of the Treasury's authority (in consultation with appropriate government agencies and departments) under the Act to make derivative designations of foreign individuals and entities that provide specified types of support or assistance to designated traffickers, or that are owned or controlled by such traffickers, or that act on their behalf. This authority broadens the scope of application of the economic sanctions against kingpins to include their businesses and operatives. Including this year's action, the President has named a total of 78 Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers since the first set of kingpins was announced on June 1, 2000. The Department of the Treasury's OFAC has issued a total of 496 derivative designations pursuant to its authorities under the Kingpin Act; these entities and individuals are subject to the same sanctions that apply to kingpins.
Individuals who violate the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and/or fines pursuant to Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Entities that violate the Act face criminal penalties in the form of fines up to $10 million; officers, directors, or agents of an entity who knowingly participate in a violation of the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 30 years in imprison and/or a $5 million fine. The Kingpin Act also provides for civil penalties of up to $1.075 million against individuals or entities that violate its provisions.
Foreign Narcotics Traffickers Identified for Sanctions
The foreign persons that the President has identified today as appropriate for sanctions pursuant to the Kingpin Act are:
Sinaloa Cartel
Los Zetas
La Familia Michoacana
These names are being added to the list of kingpins first announced in June 2000 and updated every year since then. A complete list of individuals and entities sanctioned under the Kingpin Act can be found at www.treasury.gov/ofac.


text:
Baby formulas are a sign that your little ones are ready to accept substances other than breast milk. This is a great sign but also a stage where parents are to be careful in selecting the right formula. Many citizens refer to formulas they can easily find in supermarkets. Little do they know that they are very costly and the least friendly to the budget. The reason to this is because the brands you find in the supermarkets embed the price of advertising along with it. This is the price you pay too making it extremely expensive if you take the time to total the amount.
If you are looking for an alternative baby formula you have come to the right place. These baby formulas are highly nutritious and most of all certified by the FDA like any other baby formula you find in the market. The only thing different is that you don't pay for the extremely high prices. Instead you are offered coupons to make it easier on the budget and still acquire the best formulas of the best taste. Your little ones deserve the best. If you agree, you are welcome to visit the webpage and see what various options await you.
The infant formula brands that you are provided with here come in plenty. To name some of them, there is the added rice formula with enriched ingredients to help the growth of your baby. There is also the premium, sensitive, advantage and gentle baby formula, each with different approach in supporting your baby's development and growth. There is also the organic version of formula and last but not least packaged formulas for travels. Now that you have an idea of what is in store for you make best use out of the coupons! They will truly relieve your budget.


text:
The study: Nicholas Bloom and graduate student James Liang, who is also a cofounder of the Chinese travel website Ctrip, gave the staff at Ctrip's call center the opportunity to volunteer to work from home for nine months. Half the volunteers were allowed to telecommute; the rest remained in the office as a control group. Survey responses and performance data collected at the conclusion of the study revealed that, in comparison with the employees who came into the office, the at-home workers were not only happier and less likely to quit but also more productive.
A Significant Improvement in Performance
The challenge: Should more of us be doing our jobs in our pajamas? Would the performance of employees actually improve if companies let them stay home? Professor Bloom, defend your research.
Bloom: The results we saw at Ctrip blew me away. Ctrip was thinking that it could save money on space and furniture if people worked from home and that the savings would outweigh the productivity hit it would take when employees left the discipline of the office environment. Instead, we found that people working from home completed 13.5% more calls than the staff in the office did—meaning that Ctrip got almost an extra workday a week out of them. They also quit at half the rate of people in the office—way beyond what we anticipated. And predictably, at-home workers reported much higher job satisfaction.
HBR: And how much did Ctrip save on furniture and space?
It estimated that it saved $1,900 per employee for the nine months.
Lower attrition rates make sense—working from home gives you more flexibility if you have kids and so forth—but how do you explain the productivity increases? Why would people get more done out of the office?
One-third of the productivity increase, we think, was due to having a quieter environment, which makes it easier to process calls. At home people don't experience what we call the "cake in the break room" effect. Offices are actually incredibly distracting places. The other two-thirds can be attributed to the fact that the people at home worked more hours. They started earlier, took shorter breaks, and worked until the end of the day. They had no commute. They didn't run errands at lunch. Sick days for employees working from home plummeted. Search "working remotely" on the web, and everything that comes up will be supernegative and say that telecommuters don't work as hard as people in the office. But actually, it's quite the opposite.
So Marissa Mayer, who famously banned working from home at Yahoo last year, was wrong?
It's not so simple. There are lots of factors that could lead to such a ban, including a culture where remote workers tend to be slacking because of low morale. Also, we were studying call center work, which is easily measured and easily performed remotely.
Did workers know they were being measured for productivity? Could there have been a grace period when they were trying to prove that working at home works, after which their efforts tailed off?
That's an important concern. Ctrip tried to address it by running the experiment for nine months. The positive impact of working from home was pretty constant over that entire period, suggesting that it wasn't driven just by some initial burst of enthusiasm.
Will knowledge and creative workers also be more productive at home?
The more robotic the work, the greater the benefits, we think. More research needs to be done on creative work and teamwork, but the evidence still suggests that with most jobs, a good rule of thumb is to let employees have one to two days a week at home. It's hugely beneficial to their well-being, helps you attract talent, and lowers attrition. JetBlue allows folks to work as far as three hours from headquarters—close enough to come in now and again but a much bigger radius from which it can draw applicants. When I asked the people at JetBlue about this policy, they said it helped them gain access to educated, high-ability mothers who wanted flexibility in their jobs. The airline believes this policy has improved the quality of its workforce.
Who else likes the work-from-home option?
People who have established social lives—older workers, married workers, parents. We found that the younger workers whose social lives are more connected to the office tend to not want to work from home as much. Right now the employees who spend significant amounts of time working from home are on either end of the income spectrum: solitary, per-hour workers like call center reps, proofreaders, and developers, whose output can be easily tracked; or professionals and senior managers, who presumably are highly self-motivated.
Is there anyone who can't or shouldn't work from home?
Absolutely. Not everybody wants to or is disciplined enough to. At Ctrip, it was a self-selected group, so they were all motivated to work from home effectively, and that's how it should be. Some people opted out after the nine months were up—and they tended to be the poorest performers of the remote workers. They had tried it and figured out that it wasn't right for them. But the company still ended up with the best, most motivated home-based workforce.
I can see managers resisting these findings because it's harder to feel in control of remote workers.
It's in middle management where there's resistance.
How do you overcome that?
One of the reasons Ctrip did its experiment was to persuade some skeptical managers that flexible work arrangements wouldn't hinder business performance—to have data that proved the case. I tell executives all the time to exploit natural opportunities—for example, severe weather that prevents people from getting to the office—to measure how productive employees can be at home. Any disruption that offers a chance to have people work remotely is an opportunity to see how effective they are off-site.
Having every employee working from home two days a week sounds chaotic. How do you schedule a meeting?
There are two valid ways to handle the problem: One is to rotate the days at home so that a certain percentage of workers are always in the office. That's the way to go if you're focused on saving space and reducing your real estate costs. The other option is to schedule mandatory in-the-office days. That way there's no confusion about when you can access staffers in person. There are pros and cons to each.
I'm starting to wish I had interviewed you in my underwear while sitting at my kitchen table. Maybe it would have been a better interview.
Just because you work at home doesn't mean you can't get dressed. But sure, next month, do the "Defend Your Research" interview from home and compare the results. Nothing beats testing.
Interview by Scott Berinato


text:
Newly Reviewed
Günther Herbst Blending the seemingly irreconcilable — high art and the economically disenfranchised — British artist Günther Herbst paints small, nearly photorealistic still lifes depicting the makeshift structures that shelter London's homeless. In Tottenham Court Road, the oil-on-board painting that's the exhibition's sole point of focus, an abandoned cardboard shelter capitulates to its own vulnerability, buckling under the weightless strain of autumn leaves and assorted blown refuse. Vacillating among meticulous realism, brushy expressionism, and Mondrian-hued geometric abstraction, the otherwise diminutive work capaciously embraces a wide amalgam of stylistic approaches, each bearing the freight of its own historic and theoretical associations. Close consideration (as this deliberately isolating venue invites) may allow for more inspection than the work can bear. Enjoying the aesthetic merits and art-historic pastiche of this undeniably skillful painting feels, well, wrong in light of its subject matter — as though one has unwittingly become complicit in an even larger lampoon of the politically aloof art world itself. What exactly would be the ultimate outcome of this work? Activism? That nebulously heightened state of being called "awareness"? Whatever the case, Herbst has succeeded in reopening the whole can of worms. Through August 11 at Isolation Room/Gallery Kit, 5723 Dewey Avenue; 314-660-6295 or www.isolationroom-gallerykit.com. Hours: by appointment.
Tom of Finland A self-taught Finnish native who sought creative refuge in 1960s Los Angeles, where he was able, miraculously, to make a living drafting pencil-rendered cartoons of eroticized gay machismo, Tom of Finland straddled taboo and popular appeal long before the likes of Madonna and Lady Gaga. A former anti-aircraft officer and commercial illustrator, Tom (a.k.a. Touko Laaksonen) harnessed essential qualities from both fields, making uniformed dress as suggestive as negligee and a clear, graphic line evocative of Norman Rockwell, Marvel comics, Vargas Girls and Warholian Pop Art. In this exhibit of his relentlessly simple and strangely delicate drawings, finished works are interspersed between incomplete sketches. Square-jawed males with barrel chests, broad shoulders, petite waists and other proportional impossibilities appear in solitary, glorified repose or explicit couplings. Yes, the work was made to titillate — but hell, so was most Greek and Roman art. And like his classical forebears, Tom graces every male figure (and Tom's is a male-only universe) with a placid, enlightened-looking smile. The finished works exhibited here are much more demure than the sketches, the more overt sexual acts receding beneath dim erasures and incomplete limbs while suggestive gazes, sawed-off logs and rakishly angled sailor caps resonate in full black-and-white detail. This is where the work rises above genre: it's sheer bizarreness. In a motorcyclist's tilted hat, a single rolled-down leather boot or an outfit consisting of white gym socks and high-top sneakers, a microcosm of style and desire is written. How Tom's beefcake homoeroticism became a standard-issue brand is another story — but such is the course of any enduring style. Through August 6 at phd Gallery, 2300 Cherokee Street; 314-664-6644 or www.phdstl.com. Hours: noon-4 p.m. Thu.-Sun. and by appointment.Ongoing
A Is For... In this playful and affecting group exhibition curated by Gina Alvarez, the relationship between art-making and child-rearing is explored through that fundamental building block of communication: the alphabet. Twenty-six local artists were each assigned one letter as point of departure and, often in collaboration with their offspring and spouse, off they went. John Sarra has crafted a low-lying table with F's for legs; Lindsey Obermeyer embroiders a swarm of H's in the manner of old Americana; architect Matthew Jeans contributes a massive K made of engineered Plexiglas of the type used for building models; Jim Ibur crafts a porcelain vase full of eyes (for I). The array of materials and approaches are as diverse as the artists' concisely written reflections on their lives as parents. Tom Huck contributes a linocut tattoo design for one of his fictional characters (a crossed devil's tail that forms an X) and admits to envying his daughter for her imagination. His wife, Anne Teeger Huck, goes the linocut route as well, rendering swirling words that begin with Q — a nod to inquisitiveness that complements her assertion that her kids bring her back to the most basic joy of making art: beginning with a simple line. Eric Repice builds a massive M from handmade paper, explaining that he often borrows art supplies from his daughter. The list goes on, with letter-bearing gems contributed by John Early, Jana Harper, Robert Longyear, Jason Hoeing, Dionna and Daniel Raedeke, Ken Wood, Amy Rosen and more (not to mention a poster by Eric Woods of Firecracker Press). Through August 13 at the Millstone Gallery at COCA, 524 Trinity Avenue, University City; 314-725-6555 or www.cocastl.org. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., noon-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun.
Analogue Inverting the equation wherein mass-produced items are considered the antithesis of all things unique and handmade, this succinct group exhibit draws together a collection of artisan-crafted big-box items made by five contemporary artists. St. Louis-based Ryan Thayer's my building has every convenience fills three shopping carts with outsize hollow drywall forms. The tricolor lineup makes the familiar seem strange, the tall white inserts heightening the carts' bright colors, polished steel and elegant geometry. Caleb Larsen's One Person, Three Days — Survival Kit lays out the products suggested for inclusion in FEMA survival kits. Arranged on the gallery floor in descending size, the boxes, bottles and cans begin to express the bold formalism of their design, shape and palette, transforming items that were chosen for their critical usefulness into useless aesthetic objects. Juxtaposed behind them on the gallery wall are two vacuum-formed plastic molds of concrete sidewalk slabs by Ethan Greenbaum. The flattened and dirt-flecked hangings comprise an apt foil to the streamlined products otherwise on view, suggesting in their rough-hewn utilitarianism a rawer brand of abstraction. Helmut Smits fills a Coca-Cola bottle with 0.26 gallons of oil, which appears nearly indistinguishable from the soda. Conversely, Zoe Sheehan Saldana performs the most painstaking illusion in three items selected from her "Ersatz" series. Her lifejacket, for instance, crafted by hand to industry standards, elevates the notion of "machine-made" to a level of life or death, versus the lovely but functionally superfluous art object. Also showing: Terra Firma, an elegant site-specific installation by St. Louis-based artist John Early that points a pinewood bike ramp toward a skylight while the sounds of the Voyager space probe fill the space — suggesting the extremes of human limits and potential. Through July 22 at the Luminary Center for the Arts, 4900 Reber Place; 314-807-5984 or www.theluminaryarts.com. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat.
Cosima von Bonin: Character Appropriation A giant stuffed chick, slumped and vomiting on itself while straddling an enormous rocket; a large stuffed lobster, its heavy claws flopped over what appears to be the base of a chic, modern table; two tires trapped in a custom, wall-hanging white cage: Scale is everything — a means to the humorous and pathetic alike — for German conceptual artist Cosima von Bonin. In this mini-survey of work from the past ten years, certain material themes re-emerge — fabric, most significantly, and music-related electronics — as well as situational ones — the flaccid, the frayed, the privately composed. In von Bonin's world everyone has a theme song, often of a looped and electronic variety, optimally heard through large headphones. Sound works by her collaborator, electronic music producer Moritz von Oswald, accompany nearly every piece. Dense with stuff, the exhibit takes on a new dimension: With its mildly bubbly, mildly hypnotic score, it begins to feel like a high-end boutique, artfully staged and filled with desirable objects. Here's where von Bonin excels: "appropriating" the motifs that are so common to our everyday experience that they're no longer recognizable, and reconfiguring them in odd, endearing and darkly comic ways. And how tired it leaves us — like that big chick, sick and hanging its head. Through August 1 at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards (on the campus of Washington University); 314-935-4523 or www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily (closed Tue., open till 8 p.m. Fri.).
Cryptic: The Use of Allegory in Contemporary Art with a Master Class from Goya Taking the late surreally satiric prints by Francisco Goya as a point of departure, guest curator Laura Steward presents six contemporary artists as inheritors of the historic trope of the use of allegory. A tone of febrile foreboding is set from the get-go: At the entrance to the exhibition is a life-size, wild-eyed ape by Folkert de Jong, carved out of foam-core, dripped in oil-black paint and grinning widely, with a sidekick of sorts clinging to his back. In the next gallery, these same apes dance in an enormous ring, their elusive Cheshire gazes mirrored in two paintings by Allison Schulnik, "portraits" of demurely poised apes similarly slathered in inky and skin-like reticulating paint layers. Selections from Goya's "Los Caprichos" and "Los Disparates" frame these works in a tradition of dark satire: the ape appearing again, for instance, in an etching where he's painting the portrait of an ass. In the adjacent gallery, Erika Wanenmacher's truly horrifying human figures — one made of crudely stitched-together coyote coats, another pierced through with glass eyes — propose yet another fatalistic comment on the state of man. Their harrowing presences draw out the darker dimensions of Dana Schutz's oddly comic work — lush paintings of figures devouring or subjecting themselves to assorted forms of self-debasement. Bookending the exhibit are two films: one by Hiraki Sawa featuring a dreamlike interior haunted by the shadows of miniature carnival animals; and one by Javier Tellez in which the ancient allegory of six blind men describing an elephant is reinterpreted in contemporary New York. This closing work by Tellez holds the most optimism: The six New Yorkers approach the enormous animal with an affirming curiosity regarding the unknown — perhaps the most benevolent of human capacities: that of wonder. Through August 14 at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-535-4660 or www.contemporarystl.org. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun.
Currents 105: Ian Monroe Washington University alum Ian Monroe returns as this year's Freund Fellow, exhibiting a new body of work inspired by Minoru Yamasaki's original 1956 design for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Using sheets of aluminum, upon which pristinely cut pieces of colored vinyl are applied, these austere, painterly collages depict a nearly obsolete culture of flight populated by immaculate fountains, phone banks, lounges and business-attired travelers. Scenes of the architect and his design team at work, pens in hand and sleeves rolled up, appear as abstract reductions of original archival photographs. Monroe's slick renditions heighten the original utopian ambitions for the terminal. While perhaps it's difficult to recall amid an era of groping security checks and dim anxiety, traveling by air was once a crowning progressive achievement. Monroe's works are rife with nostalgia for this older era's Modernist faith in technology, his attentive craftsmanship and bold, midcentury palette drawing out the timelessness of its design. The exhibit — which includes a large-scale sculptural installation — exudes a material presence that complements the stuff of the airport accoutrements depicted, aligning itself in tactile spirit with this pre-digital culture of architecture and design. Through July 31 at the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive (in Forest Park); 314-721-0072 or www.slam.org. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sun. (10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri.)
Dreamscapes This exhibit subtly trains the viewer to navigate the Pulitzer's inimitable space as though it were an exquisite dream recalled. De Chirico's Transformed Dream sets the stage: a train in the painting's high horizon line directing one to unforeseeable locales. Nearby sits a piece by Janet Cardiff: a black rotary phone you pick up to hear the voice of the artist relaying her dreams. A golden, recumbent Brancusi head rests on a plinth, while at the gallery's far end, Magritte's Invisible World hints at a watery vista beyond its French doors and the imposing gray stone that blocks them. Here is where you reach the hinge in this surreal sonnet: Arriving at the Pulitzer's water court, you see Magritte's stone in solid form: Scott Burton's Rock Settee, which overlooks the narrow, placid reflecting pool and a swath of city beyond. Only now do you pause to consider the multitude of portentous cues inhabiting the masterworks curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra has assembled, transforming the museum into a dreamlike tableau vivant. Highlights include Do Ho Suh's diaphanous fabric staircase to nowhere, two late, dark paintings by Philip Guston, an early suite of Max Klinger's "Glove" etchings and the nebulous Wolfgang Tillmans forestscape that marks the dream's end. (A series of programs exploring the exhibition's theme will unfold through the spring and summer, on Saturdays at 1 p.m.) Through August 13 at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, 3716 Washington Boulevard; 314-754-1850 or www.pulitzerarts.org. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Wed., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre This suite of 58 etchings by the anomalous French-Catholic artist George Rouault was created between 1914 and 1927, while the artist witnessed the ravages of World War I. They're once again on view, testing the durability of their impact and their consideration as the masterwork of their maker. Formerly a stained-glass artisan, Rouault employs a heavy black outline that, when liberated from metal and glass, wavers with crude sincerity and expressive imprecision. The figures in this series — often depicted in intimate or solitary groups against depthless backdrops — are saturated in deep, sooty tones of a sort that only printmaking can create. A liturgical sensibility suffuses the pieces, beyond outright biblical allusions; all subjects appear frozen in mute pantomime of every heavier variety of suffering, their bodies arced in symbolic gestures of penance or endurance of man's plight. While Rouault never fit comfortably in any of the codified artistic movements of his time, it's clear that his influence was felt among German Expressionists — Max Beckmann particularly. That said, Rouault is utterly his own — creating a strange, wrought world of Christ figures, carnival clowns, kings and weary skeletons cloaked in every black shade. Through July 31 at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, 3700 West Pine Boulevard (on the Saint Louis University campus); 314-977-7170 or http://mocra.slu.edu. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sun.
Jim Schmidt Presents: Abstraction Former gallery owner Jim Schmidt applies his singularly discerning eye for all modes of abstraction in this guest-curated group exhibition of paintings, works on paper and a select few sculptures. Drawing from an impressive range of well-established to niche and up-and-coming artists, the exhibit presents a thorough excavation of the nebulous term "abstract," examining its every iteration, from procedural and calculating to immediate and expressionistic. The human form is clearly evident in Tendon Block by Jill Downen, a truncated piece of undulating white gypsum in her signature, suggestive style. The spirit of nature, in the sense of landscapes or unmitigated forces, informs Eva Lundsager's exuberant watercolor — saturated with lush, incendiary hues, a horizon line vaguely discernible from which a volcanic profusion cathartically spews. Several of Erik Spehn's meticulous and austere paintings punctuate the show, serving as tempered counter-arguments in their white-on-white restraint. Sue Eisler's elegant geometric sculpture, wrought expertly from bronze-oxidized wire, draws vantage points through which other works can be viewed. Among many highlights are a black-and-white graphite and crayon drawing by Terry Winters, Max Cole's painting of darkly studied linearity, two pink-saturated drawings of perfectly chaotic scribbles by Carroll Dunham and a near toss-away of a sketch by Jonathan Lasker in which looping ballpoint-pen marks crown looping Sharpie marks. Through July 30 at Philip Slein Gallery, 1319 Washington Avenue; 314-621-4634 or www.philipsleingallery.com. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat.
Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire — 50 Years in Photography This generous survey of the notable Brooklyn-born artist reaffirms the durable pleasures of black-and-white figural photography. A nimble chronicler of society's more extreme coteries, Fink moved among New York beatniks, Vegas gamblers, mid-century jazz musicians, the young Mike Tyson and other boxing strivers, rural Pennsylvanians and the lacquered elite of fashion, art and Hollywood. His preference for Caravaggio-esque high contrast dramatizes what is essentially an obsession with fugitive detail: the long, alabaster, manicured hands of a man clutching the back of a black-dressed blonde; a silver radiator in an angled swath of daylight; the heavy-lidded eyes of a lone woman in a crowd at the Cedar Bar; drops of rain on the black sedan bearing Coretta Scott King to the 1968 Poor People's Campaign. It would be easy to marvel at the fabled personalities and events chronicled here, but Fink's most anonymous subjects serve as the firmest testament to his peculiar eye — a complex gaze that is at once empathetic, excoriating and salacious. Intimate and disarmingly wearied self-portraits of himself, his wife, his child and dogs reframe a narrative that might otherwise tip completely into an obsession with cultural novelty. In the end, the show functions much like that other beleaguered medium — the novel — telling stories about living, loving and other less conclusive failures. Through August 20 at the Sheldon Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard; 314-533-9900 or www.sheldonconcerthall.org. Hours: noon-8 p.m. Tue., noon-5 p.m.
The Lonely Rainbow Few artists have as distinct and unswerving a gift for recorded sincerity as St. Louis-based Peter Pranschke. He's easily identified by his draftsmanship: drawings influenced by classic comic books in which he portrays himself in seemingly infinite configurations of all-too-human compromise. But Pranschke's not limited to drawings; he has produced pieces out of spliced Bible pages, found erasers, dental floss, tree branches, Band-Aids and, in this case, sleeping bags and old books — all of which manage to embody the sensitivity and personality of the artist. As the exhibit's title suggests, an air of semisweet melancholy pervades. First comes a comic strip in which Pranschke recounts his initial ambition to have every piece in the show match the dark-green hue of the Sheldon gallery's carpet, his failure to have done so and his and apologetic caveat that these works are a departure from his usual self-portraits — these, he states, are fragmentary narratives drawn from life but shattered so as to become unrecognizable. The disarming intro likewise detonates any straightforward approach to "reading" the exhibit. Thereafter unfolds a half-blindly optimistic, half-doomed series of scenes rendered on green grid paper in colored pencil. A workday lunch break, the checkout lane in an art-supply store, an office cubicle, a sidewalk gathering of smokers outside a gallery opening — all banal on the surface but truncated in key areas to suggest that, sadly, everything is not quite right. Interspersed between the drawings are needle-point images stitched into swaths of old dishtowels or napkins and simply titled Sleeping Bag. An enormous green sleeping bag with smoke rings stitched in bisects the exhibit like a hinge — or perhaps the big sleep made wryly manifest. Through September 10 at the Sheldon Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard; 314-533-9900 or www.sheldonconcerthall.org. Hours: noon-8 p.m. Tue., noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat.
partly cloudy with a chance of scattered showers In a series of candy-colored, tapestry-esque digital photographs titled "One Ordinary Day of an Ordinary Town," Mimi Kato portrays a world of petty daily rivalries, casual voyeurism and glossy brand-name consumerism, with herself as the sole actor. Wearing costumes as wildly varied as truant schoolgirl, meddling old neighbor and eerily ferocious giant rabbit, Kato enacts scenarios that draw upon traditional narratives of her native Japan as well as the stockpile of unfortunately universal pessimistic truisms about human behavior. In this pastel-hued, cookie-cutter town, nothing is safe from either minor calamity or corporate branding, be it laundry, the assessment of fresh produce at the market or an afternoon ice-cream break. As the sun rises and sets in this series, another suite of four images depicts the passing seasons, their imagery more spare and, as a result, more surreal. Spring brings cherry blossoms and bizarre drunken picnics; summer seems to lure hooded thieves and the urge to compare fresh cuts of red meat. Gifted with a seemingly limitless ability to assume every age, gender and small-animal species, Kato imbues this otherwise impossibly absurd world with enough shades of truth to keep it both freshly strange and unexpectedly trenchant. Through July 22 at Good Citizen Gallery, 2247 Gravois Avenue; 314-348-4587 or www.goodcitizenstl.com. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and by appointment.
Take 4 Drawing together otherwise radically disparate practices, this minimalist, elegant show highlights the elemental restraint and conceptual confidence shared in the work of local artists Juan William Chavez, Greg Edmondson, Jamie Kreher and Brett Williams. Chavez uses promotional shots from the dystopic 1980s sci-fi flick Blade Runner as his substrate and obscures the imagery in black charcoal dust and intuitive, iridescent brush marks; the effect is like a counter-clockwise historical loop, moving the items from their futuristic source back to the primeval theater of the cave. Edmondson's work has a raw simplicity that complements Chavez's appropriations, contributing delicate, abstract pencil renderings that alternately recall the patterns of nature or suburban sprawl; etched in small, fine lines, their arterial branches waver between cool precision and an apparent hand at work. Kreher has enlarged one of her signature portraits of architectural banality, focusing on a set of glass entrance/exit doors. Stacked and repeated on an enormous sheet of vinyl, the image takes on a more ominous dimension, suggesting ubiquitous surveillance or the overwhelming excess of similar nowhere zones in America. A colorful foil to all the rest, Williams' two videos (Blur 1 and Blur 2) feature bright-hued haloed lights that throb and flicker to an ambient soundscape. One is viewable on a flat video screen, while the other is projected from the gallery floor beneath an air duct grate. Both are evocative of memory's impressionistic focus — more sensory than specific — and lend an elegiac air to the exhibit, which seems, as a whole, bound by various forms of absence and attendant nostalgia. Currently showing at PSTL Gallery at Pace Framing, 3842 Washington Boulevard; 314-531-4304 or www.paceframing.com. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat.
What's the Use? This affecting two-person show by local artist Wonder Koch and New York-based Eliza Newman-Saul presents an elegant ode to life's inanity in the manner of High Romantic humanism at its concise and philosophical best. Newman-Saul contributes a series of large-scale pencil drawings of massive sinking ships. From a distance they appear like old black-and-white photographs, but upon closer inspection they reveal a peculiar, wavering hand that almost colors in the image's tonal gradients and allows all incidental handprints to remain, like marks of humility or deep resignation to the inaccessibility of any manner of success. Accompanying these works is a lilting video of a man scouring the Coney Island beachfront with a metal detector. His quest, too, appears wholly quixotic, inviting the viewer to see more merit in the odd beauty of his movements and the video's haunting, bell-like score. Koch's pieces act as the straight men to her co-artist's more languorous proposals. Handcrafting a series of flags, she creates a world of awkwardly proclaimed defeat — a profusion of tiny red flags bursting from a white gallery wall, their small poles made of twigs, their pennants made of deflated balloons, tufts of felt and sections of red labels scavenged from streets. In a rear, cordoned-off area of the gallery dangles a white flag made from the white stripes of American flags, stitched with the words "you win" in yellow fabric. In the gallery window hangs a medieval-style flag in black with red letters that read "It's Too Late." Not all is deadly serious, here, but nor is it all crass sarcasm. Both artists seem to celebrate something historical about the world's long, sad story — reaching back to the patient media of pencil and needle while starkly confronting, with sober if winking clarity, the horrific spectacle of failure, observable from nearly any angle. Through August 1 at Snowflake, 3156 Cherokee Street; www.snowflakestl.com. Hours: by appointment only.


text:
Chemists at the University of Helsinki have managed to manufacture new polymer-stabilised silver nanoparticles. The result is significant because the antimicrobial characteristics of silver are used in textiles, floor coatings and paints even though the impact on health of silver nanoparticles are not entirely known. Finnish researchers now think that exposure to silver can be reduced by chemically binding the nanoparticles to polymers. The research results will soon be published in a leading journal in the field, Colloid and Polymer Science.
Nanoparticles (a nanometre is equal to one billionth of a metre) are a topic of debate both in research and everyday life. The antimicrobial characteristics of silver, on the other hand, have been well-known for a long time and it has numerous commercial applications. Supermarkets carry an abundance of products with added silver or silver nanoparticles. These include antimicrobial textiles, containers, shower curtains, tabletops, floor coatings, paints and glues. Colloidal silver water for internal use as well as creams and deodorants, and even wound dressing products, containing silver that are used externally are also available.
In the US, the registration of new insecticides containing silver nanoparticles has raised debate about their safety. The question can be justifiably asked as to whether conclusions on the toxicity of silver nanoparticles can be drawn on the basis of earlier safety information on the toxicity of silver ions and metallic silver (1).
The method developed at the University of Helsinki is a solution to reducing the toxicity of silver. Nanoparticles can be manufactured through various methods that are based on reducing metallic salts, in this case silver nitrate, in the presence of a stabilising compound. Polymer-stabilised silver nanoparticles have been successfully manufactured at the Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry at the University of Helsinki. The work has exploited the laboratory's prior experience with gold nanoparticles and the expertise of the School of Science and Technology of the Aalto University and its European cooperation partners.
In Helsinki, the stabilising component used in the manufacturing process is a polymer with a reactive thiol end group. It is known that thiol groups bind effectively with silver, which enables the effective colloidal stabilisation of silver nanoparticles and binding to polymers. The polymer is in itself a soft, rubber-like acrylate, which contains a water-soluble block that enables silver ions to be released from the otherwise hydrophobic coating. The idea is that these silver nanoparticles could be used as a coating or its component.
Many mechanisms relating to the toxicity of silver to micro-organisms have been put forward. It has been demonstrated that silver ions react in cells with the thiol groups of proteins. There is also evidence to show that silver ions damage DNA by inhibiting its replication. Silver's ability to form extremely sparingly soluble salts is also considered one of its impact mechanisms. When the chloride ions precipitate as silver chloride from the cytoplasm of cells, cell respiration is inhibited. The antibacterial efficiency of silver nanoparticles is also well-known, especially against Gram-negative bacteria such as E.coli. The silver nanoparticles work by releasing silver ions and by penetrating cells.
Silver, silver ions and silver nanoparticles have generally been considered to be quite harmless to people. However, the most recent research has demonstrated that nanoparticles also penetrate mammalian cells and damage the genotype. There is even evidence to suggest that silver nanoparticles may actively find their way into cells through endocytosis. Inside the cell, hydrogen peroxide formed in cell respiration oxidises silver nanoparticles and releases silver ions from them, consequently increasing the toxicity. Thus, it can even be assumed that silver nanoparticles are cyto- or genotoxic. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that silver nanoparticles penetrate the skin via pores and glands. If the skin is damaged, this facilitates the penetration of silver particles through the skin.
It is therefore important that coatings containing silver nanoparticles do not release nanoparticles. According to Finnish researchers, the effect of the coating should only be based on silver ions dissolving from them. Consequently, nanoparticles should be as well bound to the coating as possible, enabling a reduction in the possible exposure to silver nanoparticles.
1) Erickson B.E. (2009) Nanosilver pesticides. Chemical and Engineering news, 87, 48, 25-26.
2) Niskanen, Jukka; Shan, Jun; Tenhu, Heikki; Jiang, Hua; Kauppinen, Esko; Barranco, Violeta; Pico, Fernando; Yliniemi, Kirsi; Kontturi, Kyösti. Synthesis of copolymer-stabilized silver nanoparticles for coating materials. Colloid and Polymer Science, in press. DOI: 10.1007/s00396-009-2178-x
Further information, Heikki Tenhu, Professor, tel. +358 9 191 50334 and +358 40 521 9690.
Minna Meriläinen, Press Officer, +358 9 191 51042


text:
Just healthy good wholesome food served by lovely staff
Breda Duffy5* Review from Facebook
Colin Biggs
Have eaten here on several occasions and I have to say I've never been disappointed..Always had a good dining experience and served from friendly staff..if I could 6 stars I would!5* Review from Facebook
Caroline Kelly
Love the food selection the Pantry offers. Healthy choices for lunch but also sweet treats when out with kids. Nice friendly staff welcoming staff also.5* Review from Facebook
Emma Dorgan
Honestly the nicest staff around, the girls in there are absolutely amazing at their job and run the place so well. Best coffee around too.5* Review from Facebook
Eleanor O' Flynn
Love this place we just go in for tea and coffee but the staff are amazing and so friendly5* Review from Facebook
Anne Callanan
Had lunch here yesterday absolutely divine. The pizza was delicious, also had the Tunisian orange cake... unreal so moist. Staff were lovely so helpful & friendly.5* Review from Facebook
Yvonne Mc Mahon
Amazing had lunch there with my friend and my 9 year old daughter food was gorgeous and staff were very friendly def recommend and will be back in to ye5* Review from Facebook
Thomas Aherne
Have to say. Been here few times now and excellent all the time.staff are very friendly and place is spotless.the cakes could be my down fall but what the hell...5* Review from Facebook
Marian Hughes
I actually cannot say enough good about this restaurant. Decor is fab, menu is fab, food is fab, it was spotless but top of the list was the staff, they were outstanding. An absolute find and will be going back5* Review from Facebook
Marie Connolly
Great place love the decor, we just had quick coffee and scones they were delicious, scones were massive, meals looked amazing! will definitely return, was also very reasonable.5* Review from Facebook
Chris Howard
Great place and very friendly staff and delicious food and coffee ! Highly recommended !5* Review from Facebook


text:
Two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda revealed for the first time she is a rape survivor, in a new interview in Net-A-Porter magazine.
"To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females; I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault," Fonda says.
Interviewed by fellow Academy Award winner Brie Larson, The 79-year-old "Grace and Frankie" star didn't specify when she was assaulted, but credited the women's power movement for changing the culture that led many women to blame themselves for sexual assaults.
"One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realize that [rape and abuse is] not our fault," she said. "We were violated and it's not right."


text:
For athletes accused of taking drugs, a Perry Mason of their own
Attorney Howard Jacobs, who has defended athletes from Marion Jones to US swimmer Jessica Hardy, believes the system is tilted too much toward antidoping agencies.
| Westlake Village, Calif.
On one side is a tsunami of officials, lawyers, law-enforcement agents, scientists, and rules bent on banishing performance-enhancing drugs from sports. On the other side is a man dressed in simple khaki pants and a polo shirt, sitting behind a wooden desk here in this posh Los Angeles suburb.
Meet Howard Jacobs, perhaps the preeminent US defense lawyer for athletes who have been accused of using illegal drugs. Track stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery sought him out when they were accused of doping. So did top US cyclists Tyler Hamilton and since-defrocked 2006 Tour de France champ Floyd Landis, as well as bobsledders, swimmers, and others.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Jacobs has faced a deluge of criticism for standing with them – not least of all from those within the powerful antidoping establishment. To some, he is the equivalent of a mob lawyer – a man who represents people who have cheated the system and, perhaps worse, cheated the world's youth of the ideals they're taught about sports and fair play.
But Jacobs, a former triathlete, is resolute. He believes many athletes are unfairly accused of cheating and, once tagged, wear the equivalent of a scarlet letter. He has become a human megaphone for pointing out flaws in a system he sees as tilted toward those who level charges – a job that carries a similar risk.
"If you're criticizing USADA [the US Anti-Doping Agency], it's because you're a doper or you have some financial incentive to do it," says Jacobs, describing what he says his opponents believe. "Which is ridiculous. It's as ridiculous as saying you can't criticize the war on Iraq."
The system set up to stem drug use in sports is a complex nexus of international law and athletic values that is carried out by an alphabet-soup of antidoping agencies worldwide. It has its own built-in set of checks and balances. The only problem is, one person's check doesn't always meet another person's sense of balance.
The genesis of much of the antidoping movement was an egregious scandal surrounding the Tour de France in 1998, when one team was caught with a carload of banned drugs. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), already plagued with rumors of drug use in many sports, was galvanized to act. Beginning the next year, numerous policing agencies bubbled up throughout the sporting world – most notably the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
A joint venture between governments and sporting entities, WADA spent four years fashioning a global antidoping code. All 202 countries in the Olympic movement and 570 sports organizations have signed on. Each year, the agency updates a list of banned substances.
Advocates say the regulations have become particularly important in an era when performance-enhancing drugs have spread everywhere from Major League dugouts to Pop Warner leagues. "It's one thing to pretend that it only affects eight people in the 100-meter final at the Olympics, but it doesn't," says Dick Pound, WADA chairman from 1999-2007. "It goes all the way down the pyramid."
Yet some critics such as Jacobs believe the WADA strictures are too inflexible and ensnare numerous athletes who aren't trying to cheat. Take the case of Zach Lund. Going into the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy, Mr. Lund was the world's top skeleton racer – one of those people who inexplicably launches himself head-first down an icy track on a sled at 80 m.p.h.
He had tested positive for a drug present in medicine he took to fight baldness, banned the year before because it can mask steroids. Lund, who had declared the drug on all his forms for years, was granted a reprieve from USADA and cleared for the Olympics. But WADA appealed the decision, and the case went to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Hours before the opening ceremony, Lund was kicked out of the Games – even though the CAS arbitrators agreed he had no intention of using illegal drugs. They said it was his responsibility to comply with WADA's list of banned drugs.
Jacobs, Lund's lawyer in the case, estimates that two-thirds of the nearly 50 athletes he's represented have inadvertently taken a banned substance, such as Ritalin – a prescription drug that athletes with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) can take if they fill out the right paperwork, which they often don't. "They're not trying to cheat," he says. "But they get caught up in the system, and they end up getting these incredibly long suspensions."
Jacobs sees other problems with the oversight regimen as well. Unlike in US civil court, he says he doesn't have the opportunity to question witnesses weeks in advance of a trial.
Often, the first time he hears the other side's evidence is during the sports arbitration hearing – and he often has to respond without witnesses himself, unless his client happens to be a "toxicologist," he says dryly.
"Howard ... just doesn't know the science that I do and I can't tell him what to ask," says Dr. Don Catlin, a top antidoping scientist who has many times faced off with Jacobs. "That's what's wrong in our system of litigation. All the cards are stacked for USADA because they have money to pay and can purchase witnesses."
But that can be difficult even with money. WADA's code of ethics prohibits lab directors from providing "counsel, advice, or information to athletes regarding techniques or methods to mask detection" of banned substances – a standard Dr. Catlin, former head of UCLA's Olympic Lab, interprets as an effective ban on testifying on behalf of athletes.
Yet defenders of the system dismiss Jacobs's complaints. After years of unchecked drug abuse, they've finally secured a modest foothold from which to clean up sports. Accused athletes are not their priority. Besides, some of the US justice-system safeguards that Jacobs touts don't apply to international cases, they argue.
"Americans are kind of nutty," says Jan Paulsson, a Paris-based lawyer and veteran CAS arbitrator. "I hear this all the time: 'The system doesn't have this, it doesn't have that.' Hold on – you're the only people in the world who have it."
Travis Tygart, head of the USADA, defends antidoping arbitration as a balance between efficiency and truth, designed to prevent "fishing expeditions" – defense lawyers drawing out hearings at great expense. "I have a lot of respect for Howard. He's a fierce advocate," says Mr. Tygart, who, growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., competed on the same swim team as Jacobs. "His job is just entirely different – using smoke and mirrors to get athletes off, whereas ours is a search for the truth to protect clean athletes."
If it weren't for serendipity, Jacobs might be working for Tygart today – having sought a job in 2000 with the newly formed USADA. But the slots were filled, and the agency suggested he try defending athletes to gain experience.
So in 2002, Jacobs represented a bobsledder who tested positive for nandrolone at the Salt Lake Olympics. Though the athlete was banned for two years, Jacobs helped him win a case against a supplement company whose contaminated product, he proved, caused the test results.
"It struck me that not all cases were intentional doping cases," says Jacobs. "It seemed to me it'd be interesting to do – maybe as a very small part of my practice." Today, he bills himself as one of the few defense lawyers specializing in the field. Over the years, he has tried to beef up his knowledge of the science of doping, even reading technical journals over breakfast.
Still, at one point, he nearly gave it all up. Just before the press conference on Lund's ejection from Torino, Jacobs received a verdict on another client – Mr. Hamilton, the cyclist. The two had spent 18 months shuttling around the world to prove his innocence, even uncovering e-mails from the test's originator questioning its integrity. Jacobs was sure he had it wrapped up. Then came the fax: Guilty as charged. Crushed, Jacobs called his wife in the US. "I don't know if this is worth doing anymore," he said.
But ultimately he decided it would be a disservice to athletes to walk away. "There's no one else that's really developed an expertise to the extent that I have," he says.
Ous Mellouli, a Tunisian swimmer who tested positive for amphetamines in 2006, is undoubtedly glad about that. With the help of Jacobs, who attributes the test results to taking a friend's ADD medicine to study for a test, the usual two-year ban was reduced, enabling him to go to Beijing as a medal favorite. "Occasionally," says Jacobs, "you get a result like that that makes you realize it's worth it."
• The last installment in this series runs Aug. 4. The first two parts ran July 14 and July 21.


text:
Artana Art Cards is a limited edition collector card series on Solana that showcases upcoming artists and designers from various backgrounds. The artworks are airdropped to a selected group of collectors and creators. With each drop, the edition size slightly increases and is currently at 160 editions. Artana Art Cards Edition #6 will feature Chromory. Chromory is a highly talented Japanese digital artist who is well-known for their captivating and visually stunning small animated stories. Their unique artistic style has caught the attention of prominent collectors in the space, establishing them as a rising star in the art world. Specializing in motion graphics and animation, Chromory's work takes viewers on mesmerizing journeys through kaleidoscopic landscapes. Through the clever use of shapes, shadows, and seamless transitions, Chromory's art transcends traditional boundaries, creating a mesmerizing visual experience that captivates and enchants viewers. Each piece of their work is a testament to their creativity and mastery of the medium, showcasing a truly unique artistic vision. Chromory's art has garnered significant recognition within the art community, and their creations continue to inspire and leave a lasting impression on those who have the privilege to encounter their imaginative and captivating animated stories. Artana is proud to announce our collaboration with Chromory for our next card series, number 6 called "Park. In total 160 editions will be airdropped to the Solana collector and builder community.
🎮 Hey Future Web3 Business Mogul! 🎮 Dreamt of owning a stake in the next big thing? Here's your rare chance to invest in a booming Web3 gaming business! - 🌐 Web3 Gaming Goldmine: We're setting aside a generous 12.5% of all our game's earnings for savvy investors like you. - 💰 Investment Opportunity: At $2,997 a pass, you're not just buying access; you're buying direct percentage of any volume on the platform. More profit every 3 seconds, and a fatter slice of the pie! Each pass represents 0.0125% of our game's total earnings. 📈 Our Initial Track Record: - A mere 30 days since inception: - An organic storm of 2.600.000 matic on Polygon Mumbai Testnet. - 1580 early-bird players hooked. - Each investor reaped a nifty 1645 matic on average. And we're just getting started. - 12k Followers on Twitter with Gold Check 🚀 Why Web3 Gaming?: - The global gaming market is on fire🔥, with a valuation exceeding $150 billion in recent years. - Web3 games are emerging as the future, leveraging blockchain tech to offer players ownership, real-world value, and unprecedented gameplay innovations. - Early Web3 gaming ventures have showcased over 500% growth in short periods. -Imagine this mix with a powerful and innovative defi. 🔥 But Here's Our Ace: We've achieved our initial figures with ZERO marketing. It's purely organic growth. Once our marketing engines fire up, we anticipate our numbers going stratospheric! 💡 A Business Investment with Repeat Returns: This isn't a one-off. As our game captures more players, expect your investment to yield consistently and grow year after year. It's the royalty treatment, but for business magnates. 🎉 We're not just offering a game; we're presenting a stake in a promising business set to skyrocket in the Web3 era. ⌛ This train's about to leave the station. Secure your business pass now! --- Gentle nudge: As with any investment, there's always an element of risk. Ensure you're well-informed and ready. Here's to visionary decisions and stellar profits! 😉
The Vampires are coming!!! THE DROP BEFORE THE GAME! Join the 1000 shadow legion and feast on the blood of your enemies, with the next Wolves of Rome NFT Drop—coming this SEPTEMBER 23TH!!! These 1000 occult vampire NFTs can be staked to gain our in-game currency Glorium, with which you can purchase cards and card packs. To qualify for a whitelist spot join our Discord! https://discord.gg/wolvesofrome-tcg WHITELIST MINT SEPTEMBER 22TH & PUBLIC MINT SEPTEMBER 23TH!!!
This ON CHAIN ALIEN is a collection of 10 000 NFTs. Each PFP is generated in SVG format with pseudo random colors. The items are hosted permanently on the POLYGON network with no external dependencies. This NFT collection is simple, reliable and utmost defiant.
The Origin Lifetime Pass is the highest tier of entry into Flames™ - an exclusive Alpha Group that provides members with the necessary tools, resources and services to succeed in the NFT and Crypto space. In addition to the Alpha, our mission is to bridge the gap between NFTs and the real world (Real Estate), bringing a new level of utility and undeniable value to the space. To build a place where connections are made and fortunes are forged.
The Origin Lifetime Pass is the highest tier of entry into Flames™ - an exclusive Alpha Group that provides members with the necessary tools, resources and services to succeed in the NFT and Crypto space. In addition to the Alpha, our mission is to bridge the gap between NFTs and the real world (Real Estate), bringing a new level of utility and undeniable value to the space. To build a place where connections are made and fortunes are forged.
NOOBLES is an NFT collection of 4004 pixel-style characters on the Polygon blockchain that celebrates the art of being a noob. In this collection, being a beginner becomes a valuable trait, forming a unique clan. Additionally, NOOBLES offers an online game that incorporates play-to-earn mechanics. By participating in the game, players can mine tokens with real-world value, which they can spend on NOOBLES.XYZ to purchase cool stuff, such as AI ACCESS.
The Cataldi Crown NFT is a CIP-68, utility, LORE COIN; commemorating a supply of gold coins (crowns) conceived by King Cataldi of The Ape Society and held in private reserve for a future time when a destabilization of currency or civilization might require another dependable form of exchange. Over time, King Cataldi has gifted some of the crowns to various families within the Ape Society. A band of pirate apes has stolen some of the crowns from King Cataldi's privateer trade ship, 'Queen of the Seas.' Pirates have sworn an oath to track down and mutilate every last Cataldi Crown. Privateers have sworn an oath of their own to recapture and recast every last Cataldi Crown to its original state. Holders of the Cataldi Crown NFT will have leveled access to a variety of utilities and collaborations within the Web3 space. All holders will enjoy membership within the Cataldi Guild, an NFT/Web3 think tank and support group, whose mantra is DIVITIAE EX ANIMO: Wealth is but an Idea Away.
Introducing "The AstroBen" Collection: Embark on an Extraordinary Journey through the Vast Universe of Fantasy Astronauts Prepare to be captivated by the enchanting realm of "The AstroBen" Collection, where the limits of imagination are shattered. Immerse yourself in a universe teeming with boundless creativity, where every NFT holds a captivating story, exudes a one-of-a-kind personality, and showcases an unparalleled artistic style. Get ready to embark on an extraordinary adventure that will ignite your curiosity and leave you in a state of awe and wonder.


text:
Oct 30, 2008
Oct 29, 2008
things we both have (11)
op 20:13 4 comments:
Oct 27, 2008
more from the woods
op 18:33 7 comments:
Oct 26, 2008
for a nature walk
today we went to the woods to go hunting for mushrooms. thanks to k. en w. for guiding us and for the warm welcoming and soup!
op 19:27 7 comments:
Oct 25, 2008
op 08:41 8 comments:
Oct 24, 2008
oh god, we love these products from montessori. it's so hard to make a selection. would be supernice to be teached with these materials! take a look at the website from nienhuis.
(by the way, this is our post 100!)
op 20:17 7 comments:
Oct 23, 2008
we want to go to london, to see these shops : labour and wait and shelf.
op 19:30 5 comments:
Labels: trips
Oct 21, 2008
found on the street
took a walk yesterday and passed by a school. there were about 15 big boxes full of these little notebooks from primary school. so many different ones!! it was a good day!
Oct 20, 2008
ARPAÏS du bois
look at these beautiful drawings from belgian artist ARPAïS.
she made 3 books so far and they are all really really nice. take a look at her website, her blog, and if you are in antwerp at her exhibition in gallery van der mieden. (we still have to check it ourselfs...)
op 11:23 9 comments:
Oct 19, 2008
things we both have (10)
op 23:23 6 comments:
Oct 17, 2008
Oct 16, 2008
Oct 14, 2008
Oct 13, 2008
blue and red
op 17:42 7 comments:
Labels: m + v, things we both have
Oct 12, 2008
tea for two
op 16:38 5 comments:
Labels: apartments, charlotte
pencils and erasers
op 11:09 4 comments:
Labels: collections, things
Oct 10, 2008
the puppet theatre
Labels: books
red nose
op 11:30 4 comments:
Oct 9, 2008
Oct 7, 2008
things we both have (9)
Oct 6, 2008
sundays are the best when there is a fleamarket. these things mieke found in an indoor fleamarket. maybe we can make a curtain from all these nice handkerchiefs, like hanna's.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Less than a week after the conclusion of Operation Pillar of Defense, and with Hamas boasting of an imminent increase in military aid from Iran, Israeli satellites have spotted a ship at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas being loaded with rockets and other military supplies ostensibly bound for Gaza, the British Sunday Times reported.This seems to confirm a report from Debka last week. I'm not a big fan of Debka, but the level of detail in that report certainly gives pause:
The report cites Israeli intelligence sources who surmised that the cargo, loaded a week ago, would be shipped to Sudan and from there smuggled over land to Gaza.
According to the report, the cargo may include Fajr-5 rockets of the likes already fired by Hamas during the recent conflict, and whose stocks were reportedly depleted by Israeli bombings. Also possibly included: components of Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, which could be stationed in Sudan and used as a direct threat to Israel.
"With a lot of effort, Iran has skillfully built a strategic arm pointing at Israel from the south," an Israeli source was quoted as saying.
An Iranian 150-ton freighter departed Bandar Abbas port Sunday, Nov. 18, with a cargo of 220 short-range missiles and 50 improved long-range Fajar-5 rockets for the Gaza Strip, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report. The ship turned toward the Bab al-Mandeb Straits and the Red Sea.Once again, everything is up to Egypt. If it wants to stop this traffic, it can. But the efforts so far have been half-hearted, and if anything, the recent turmoil in Egypt makes it seem less likely that the nation will take smuggling weapons to Hamas with the seriousness it deserves.
The new Fajar-5s have a 200-kilo warhead, which packs a bigger punch than the 175 kilos of explosives delivered by the rockets in current use with the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. To extend their range to cover the 85 kilometers from Gaza to Tel Aviv, Hamas removed a part of their payloads to make them lighter.
Tehran is sending the fresh supply of disassembled rockets to replenish the stocks its allies, the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami, depleted in their round-the-clock attacks on Israel since Nov. 10.
To throw Israeli surveillance off the trail, the ship started its voyage called Vali-e Asr owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, and was quickly renamed Cargo Star and hoisted the flag of Tuvalu. This South Pacific island nation, which lies between Hawaii and Australia, has a tiny population of 11,000, most of them Polynesians. Iran provides most of its revenue since earlier this year when Prime Minister Willy Telavi agreed to register Iran's entire tanker fleet of 22 vessels to Tuvalu, to help Tehran dodge the US-EU oil embargo.
Our intelligence sources have learned that four big Sudanese shipping boats sailed out of Port Sudan early Monday and are waiting to rendezvous with the Cargo Star and offload its missile cargo in mid-sea.
The Sudanese will then be told by Tehran whether put into Port Sudan with the missiles, or turn north and sail up the Red Sea to the Straits of Tiran to link up with Egyptian fishing boats which regularly ply this waterway in the service of Palestinian-Iranian smuggling networks. They would unload the missile cargo in a quiet inlet on the Sinai coast. From there, it would be carried to the smuggling tunnels running from Sinai under the border into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian teams assisted by Iranian and Hizballah technicians in the Gaza Strip would then assemble the new rockets and make them operational.
Through most of the voyage, two Iranian warships, the Khark heliicopter carrier and Shahid Naqdi destroyer, which are posted permanently in the Red Sea, escorted the arms ship until the cargo changed hands.
Again, this is something concrete that the US can do to pressure Egypt. It is anyone's guess as to whether they are twisting arms or saying "pretty please."
(h/t Josh K)


text:
Starting businesses need a(n) , Pleasantville
business Id registration ( business tax registration or business permit).
Starting businesses using a company name other than the legal owner's name need a(n) Atlantic County DBA Doing Business As Trade Firm Name Registration.
A business tax ID registration (occupationall business license ) and a DBA Doing Business As Fictious Business Name are ncessary for most businesses but if your business sells any taxable items, you will need a sales tax ID number. (A.K.A NJseller's permit, state id, wholesale, resale, reseller certificate).
If you are thinking of hiring help, you will need a tax id called a state EIN and an IRS tax id number called an EIN Employer ID Number.
I.e., a NJ Federal Tax Id Number and a(n) NJ State Employer Tax Number
Instead of filing a fictitious business name DBA Filing in
Pleasantville, Incorporate in NJ or form a(n) NJ LLC


text:
Home Owners Who Shop More Save More.
Are you tired of scouring the newspaper and MLS listing sites looking for homes in Florida? Tired of playing telephone tag with Realtors only to hear the home's already sold? Sit back, relax and let Bold Real Estate Group and our team of professional Realtors do the work for you! Just visit our website and check off the properties yuor're looking for. This service is FREE and there's no obligation!
View thousands of listings www.Northeast-Florida-Relocation.com, www.BoldRealEstateGroup.com, www.NewYork-Florida-RealEstate.com, www.PGAVillage-Homes.com, www.TheCascadesAtStLucieWest.com, www.HealthcareRelocationServices.com
Servicing: Port St. Lucie, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Stuart, Vero Beach, Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce, Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm Coast, Neptune Beach, Amelia Island, Atlantic Beach, Fernandina Beach, Saint Johns, Saint Augustine, Daytona Beach, Fleming Island and New York real estate.


text: Hi all! I found this: --------- BEGIN --------- Normally SpamAssassin runs the 'dccproc' program for each message that it processes. If you have 30MB RAM to spare, you may benefit from running the daemonized version of the DCC client 'dccifd'. I personally recommend you have a system with at least 384MB RAM to do this. Note that if you were unable to get DCC working before, enabling dccifd will not solve the problem and should not be attempted. to enable dccifd: vi /etc/spamassassin/local.cf and insert: dcc_home /var/dcc save and exit, then: vi /var/dcc/dcc_conf and change DCCIFD_ENABLE=off to: DCCIFD_ENABLE=on Then change: DBCLEAN_LOGDAYS=14 to: DBCLEAN_LOGDAYS=2 save and exit. --------- END -------- Is it possibile to integrate it with Ispconfig's spamassassin? I'm asking this because every email I receive, I get 100% used CPU for 2-3 seconds... Thank you!


text:
Fireflys, Singapore
Fireflys, Singapore belong to a local habitat of artisans skilled in several mediums, including the art of fire twirling. Fusing elements of theater, dance, music and fire in its repertoire, they have created a balanced ecosystem of rhythmic beauty. Using an iridescent display of biological order that still puzzles scientist to date, be enthralled as the Fireflys takes you into a fascinating realm of hypnotic magic and light. You can get more details about them at: http://www.fireflys.com.sg/Read More