Vermont Dairies Scramble to Find Feed After Irene

Flooding from Tropical Storm Irene swept away some bales of hay Doug Turner grew to feed his dairy cows and ripped open others, contaminating them with muddy water. When the water receded, he had to mow down a third of his corn, which had turned brown and moldy.

In most years, Turner grows all the hay and corn his 45 cows need, but like a number of Vermont farmers, he's struggling to find feed this winter after the August storm damaged a third of his crops. The timing of the destruction couldn't be worse. Feed prices have risen nationwide amid a hay shortage caused by drought in the Southwest.

Turner,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, 56, got 63 bales of hay from Maine for $40 each,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? including delivery. But he needs 75 to 100 bales more, and he expects it to cost more. If he can get the hay, he'll likely pay about $6,000 for feed this year — an expense he doesn't usually have.

"I've located some more (bales), but I also have to locate more money," Turner said.

Vermont has a long dairy farming history, although it has been losing small family farms in recent years because of low milk prices and high feed and fuel costs.

While the Aug. 28 storm flooded only 6,000 of the state's 92,000 acres of feed corn, the water was concentrated in certain areas, hitting farmers there hard. In some cases,VulcanMold is a Injection mold and injection molding manufacturer in china. the water flattened their plants. In others, silt left by the flood contaminated corn and the dampness fostered mold.

Many farmers are now scrambling to find feed, buying from friends who were luckier or looking to neighbor states. In a different year, they might get feed from New York or Pennsylvania,China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. but those states also were hit by Irene and then by Tropical Storm Lee. There's grain in the Midwest, but the farther it's shipped, the more it costs.

Vermont Agriculture Secretary Chuck Ross said the feed shortage is adding to hardship already suffered in the storm that killed six and damaged more than 500 miles of roads, damaged or destroyed dozens of bridges and inundated several communities. Ross estimated in September that crop losses and damage to farms exceed $10 million. A final tally is still being determined.

"It's going to put them under strain," Ross said, referring to the farmers who need to find replacement feed. "I mean they're already under strain."

Most farmers will need feed until May or June, when cows can graze again. If they keep their cows in barns year-round, they'll need feed until next fall.

Even if farmers get all the feed they need, they aren't in the clear. The state has encouraged all of its 1,000 or so dairy farmers to test stored corn for mycotoxins, which thrive in damp conditions. Mycotoxins are molds that can make cows sick and one found in warmer climates is considered a carcinogen.

The University of Vermont Extension recently opened a testing lab to provide quick and free screening of feed.

"It's just that mold issue it's out there for many farms. Even if they didn't get inundated with Tropical Storm Irene,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, it was wet," Deputy Agriculture Secretary Diane Bothfeld said.

Vermont farmers say they have been receiving help. Those who have hay and corn are sharing with those who don't. Offers of feed have come in from Canada, Maine and New Hampshire.

David Ainsworth, 57, of South Royalton, typically grows all the corn and hay for his 50 cows, but this year, he lost most of his corn. He bought eight acres worth of corn at a cost of $50 to $55 per ton, but then he got hay free from a neighbor.

The Privileges of China’s Elite Include Purified Air

The elite upper class members of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing have always had special privileges over those without membership, ranging from organic produce to better medical institutions, causing envy amongst ordinary citizens.

The ordinary citizens of Beijing seem to be well-informed on what the elite have that they don’t; however, the idea that the elite breathe the same polluted air as everyone else might not be too accurate.

The Broad Group, a Chinese company, produces machines that filter the air, thus purifying it. The company advertises the presence of its purifiers in many places where many officials live and work,China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. including the Great Hall of the People and the Chinese presidential office.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992,

“Creating clean, healthy for our national leaders is a blessing to the people,” boasts the company’s government-endorsed advertising.

Despite the Chinese government’s support of it, the Broad Group’s advertising campaign has spurred much criticism from lower class Chinese citizens.

“They don’t have to eat gutter oil or drink poisoned milk powder and now they’re protected from filthy air,” said a post on Sina Webo,Facts and Cures. Cures for all types of Hemorrhoids. China’s most popular blogging service. “This shows their indifference to the lives of ordinary people.”

Many find the idea of purified air specifically for China’s elite outrageous, especially when pollution can cause so many health problems.

“Pollution affects the cells of the human body,” said Mrs. Martinez, a teacher in the health academy and a retired nurse. “Chemical substances in the air attack the DNA in cells, and when the DNA is under attack, the cell undergoes something called a mutation, which can be the beginning of cancer.”

The United States Embassy’s air monitoring device has reported extremely hazardous levels of pollution in the Chinese atmosphere, even though Chinese readings deem it only “slightly polluted.”

The readings released by the American Embassy are based on very small particulate matter, measuring less than 2.5 micrometers, because of its ability to enter the lungs so easily. Chinese readings are based on particulate matter at a minimum of more than 10 micrometers,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker,Promat solid RUBBER MATS are the softest mats on the market! which includes visible sand and dust.

Despite the government’s fear that releasing readings based on smaller particulate matter could potentially worsen the image of some cities, the government does seem to be moving towards releasing more detailed data on pollution to the public. The ordinary citizens of China have a right to know what they are breathing in.

It isn’t surprising that the lower class Chinese resent the elite for their purified air. Clean air is something to be envied, especially somewhere with extreme pollution like Beijing.

China toy factories face troubles

Hong Kong’s plastic toy factories face tough conditions, squeezed between weak markets overseas and rapidly rising wages and costs in their mainland China factories.

In interviews at the recent Hong Kong Toy Fair, the world’s second-largest toy exhibition after the Nuremburg International Toy Fair in Germany, local plastics executives and industry leaders struck tones somewhere between caution and pessimism.

Looking at the numbers it’s easy to see why: The global toy market grew only 1 percent in 2011, according to market research firm NPD Group, and the head of the Hong Kong Toys Council estimates local factories will see only 1 percent growth this year.

Add in wages in Chinese factories going up 15-20 percent a year, labor shortages, and other rising costs, and toy factory executives said they have no breathing room.

“2011 was a disaster for the toy industry overall,” said Lawrence Chan, chairman and CEO of Hong Kong-based plastic toy maker Wynnewood Corp. “The first half of last year was unbelievably bad. It hurt most of us.China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development.”

Hong Kong is the world’s second-largest toy exporter, and along with mainland Chinese firms, make up by some estimates 70 percent of world toy production. Hong Kong firms have substantial toy production in the Pearl River Delta region around Guangzhou.

Yeung Chi Kong, executive committee member of the toys council and vice chairman of plastic toy maker Blue Box Group, predicted that Chinese factory wages would rise 15 percent this year, after going up 20 percent each of the last two years.

China’s strengthening renminbi also rose 5 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2011, which added another 3 percent to factory production costs, he said. Raw material costs for plastics, metals and cotton also have risen.

“I am seeing a lot of badly run factories going out of business, leaving the cream of the crop,” Yeung said.

He and other Hong Kong toy factory executives at the Jan. 9-12 fair called on toy brand owners to accept higher prices to ensure quality. But Yeung also urged toy factories to treat workers better, upgrade management systems and invest more in automation.

“In the mainland in the last 30 years,FIRMAR is a Malaysia Injection Moulding Manufacturer and Plastic Injections Components Manufacturer, we have gotten used to hiring more workers” to solve a problem, Yeung said.

From interviews with toy brand owners, however, it seems unlikely they’ll accept much in the way of higher prices.

Canadian plastic action figure maker Round 5, for example, said it was very aware of problems facing the Chinese injection molding factory it contracts with for production, and is working to address them, but toy retailers are not accepting higher prices.

“We definitely feel the labor shortage,” said Barron Lau,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, CEO of Markham, Ontario-based Round 5, which has licenses to produce Bruce Lee action figures,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, among others. But, he said, “Retailers keep our price steady. We have to eat the costs.”

The shortage of workers in Pearl River Delta toy plants means orders that used to require four-month lead times now require six months, complicating his company’s planning,We are passionate about polished tiles. he said.

China’s higher costs had some toy factories elsewhere in Asia seeing opportunities.

In Taiwan — where factory wages are still much higher than mainland China but have been flat over the last decade — the rising costs in China could bring business back, said Meiko Wang, sales manager with Cyber Giant Enterprises Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of plastic ride-on toys in Tainan.

But executives of several factories from Taiwan, Korea and elsewhere in Asia said they had not seen much movement of toy orders from China.

One longtime toy industry analyst, Jane Zimmy with NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, N.Y., said she was skeptical that much production would leave China, even with higher costs.

Zimmy, who has followed the industry for 30 years, said toys increasingly have substantial electronic components that require skilled manufacturing and strong supply chains, which is hard for lower-wage countries to match.

“Moving the production processes is pretty complicated,” she said, noting, for example, that the production lines for popular toy tablet computers like the LeapFrog have many of the same requirements as manufacturing iPads.

It’s a point echoed by others at the fair, including Round 5’s Lau. He said that while Vietnam and India are sometimes mentioned as alternate locations for making toys like his PVC action figures, they lack the infrastructure, supply networks and experience of China.

Security lessons to remember for 2012

Hack attacks, cloud security missteps and rising threats on social networks are just some of the more notable security challenges that had plagued both IT professionals and everyday consumers in what was an eventful 2011.

As the brand new year unfolds, ZDNet Asia spoke to several security insiders and distilled eight key lessons learnt and what kinds of security posture and know-how enterprises and online users should take note of.

In today's security landscape, IT security is no longer solely in the hands of the tech department but should be extended to every single person in the company, said Christian Funk, malware analyst at Kaspersky Labs.

He said in his e-mail that regular training for employees will greatly help reduce the risks of a security breach via malware and targeted attacks. It is also important to showcase real-life cases and examples to make such training efficient offer practical tips, he added.

"This is especially crucial in modern times where we increasingly process data on mobile devices. It is substantial to create policies to define what data is allowed to be processed on these devices and what is not," Funk asserted.

John Ong, South Asia regional director at Check Point, added that employees need to know that network and data security breaches will only increase. Anthony Lim, regional director of SecureAge,FIRMAR is a Malaysia Injection Moulding Manufacturer and Plastic Injections Components Manufacturer, also noted that in spite of investments in technology, education and enforcement to mitigate these risks, such attacks will persist.

Moving forward, Ong urged users not to "shrink back" from being accountable and responsible for organizational security.

"They have to be aware of security threats, best practices, and most of all, apply these practices diligently and militantly," he said.

"When bad things happen, users must be proactive in reporting such lapses and intrusions to relevant supervisors, so that disaster or incident recovery can be done promptly to reduce risk."

On the backend, the malware analyst said updating installed systems is crucial for enterprises. This is because breaches are often successfully conducted by exploiting software vulnerabilities on both client- and server-side systems, he explained.

The situation is made more complex as companies are creating more online services and Web sites, which makes it difficult to ensure all of them are updated on time., Funk noted.

As such, he advised companies to come up with a holistic approach for software update management and configuration of all systems, specific to their purpose and technical environment.

"Default configuration may work, but are rarely the optimum [solution]. Poor configuration makes it as easy as outdated software for cybercriminals to breach through [one's systems], he added.

Beyond updating one's system, Vincent Goh,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & Mold Maker, Asia-Pacific vice president of RSA, the security arm of EMC, said companies should not rely solely on signature-based intrusion detection (IDS) and prevention systems (IPS) as these are not sufficient to protect the network environment.

This is because while these tools help identify and prevent against known threats, there is always the possibility of an unknown virus that had escaped notice from the systems to infiltrate the network.

So instead of a passive security system, IT administrators and users must look into identifying unusual patterns in behaviors and understanding the information flow,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, Goh said. "Rather than assume the environment is well-protected with antivirus and anti-spam, one should always be on the lookout for anomalies," he added.

Public ire and fallout from high-profile Secure Socket Layer (SSL) attacks on providers such as DigiNotar and Comodo reached an all-time high in 2011, according to Eric Hoh, vice president of Symantec's Asia South region.

At the same time, malware threats arising from compromised or stolen SSL certificates are also on the rise, he added.

As a result of these breaches, enterprises and consumers are demanding better SSL security from certificate authorities (CAs) and Web site owners. This, in turn, has compelled service providers to start implementing further protective measures against social engineering malware and malvertising, the Symantec executive said.

Hoh also pointed out that rising cloud computing adoption has contributed to two notable security missteps among enterprises as well.

Firstly, with cloud computing, organizations generally tend not to address security and governance issues until the project is completed. Secondly, organizations do not verify or test the security robustness of provided by cloud service vendors, he noted.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992,

With these in mind, the vice president advised organizations to build internal policies, processes and security protocols into every step of planning, design and deployment of cloud services to ensure enterprise data is kept safe and remain in compliance.

"Select service providers which can meet your organization's security policies this will help align your business goals with the capabilities of the service providers," Hoh said.

The proliferation of mobile devices, particularly smartphones, last year was notable, said Hoh, citing a Gartner report that predicted smartphone sales will exceed 461 million by end-2011. Unfortunately, this growth also caught the attention of cybercrooks, which led to a significant increase in the amount of mobile malware, he pointed out.

"Looking back, it is undeniable that 2011 was the first year mobile malware presented a true threat to enterprises and consumers," he remarked.

Another impact on enterprises would be security risks posed by employees that bring their own devices to work, he noted. Tablet adoption by employees, in particular, is a "major concern" as the uptake rate is outpacing organizations' ability to secure and manage information access on the platform, the vice president said.

CIOs have responded by shifting their focus on security risks from within their organizations, he added.

Social networking sites have a role to play in increasing risks from within organizations too, as these have become a hotbed of cybercriminal activities, noted Effendy Ibrahim, Norton safety advocate & director of consumer business at Symantec Asia.

In his e-mail, he cited the company's Internet Security Threat Report 16 which found a growing sophistication in the type of attacks that rely on social networking sites. For example, online crooks would use these platforms to post shortened links, which masks the actual destination, thus misleading users to visit malicious Web sites.

In the year ahead, users must recognize such dangers that are posed on social media sites, Ibrahim stressed. They should be proactive in being stringent over who they allow on their online networks, set privacy options to the highest levels, choosing strong login passwords, and being careful of the links they click on, among other precautions, he advised.

Looking beyond enterprise security, Symantec's Hoh said small and midsize businesses are setting themselves up for cyberattacks, particularly since targeted attacks had become more prevalent in 2011.

Citing Symantec's 2011 SMB Threat Awareness Poll,China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development. he noted that SMBs think they will not be attacked due to their small size. However, the reality is that 40 percent of all targeted attacks have been directed at companies with less than 500 employees, compared with 28 percent on large companies, he said.

'Iowa nice' comes with its own cuisine

Think about it. Rather than taking time to get to know a person or a place or a thing on its merits, a stereotype allows us to simply make sweeping generalizations that exaggerate certain qualities while ignoring facts that contradict what we already “know” to be true.

Take the recent kerfuffle known as the Iowa caucuses. The caucuses are rife with stereotype as presidential hopefuls — and the national media talking heads forced to follow them — fall all over themselves trying to find those “perfect” Iowa images to serve as a backdrop for the stories they want to tell. These folks don’t need to find the “real” Iowa. If you’re a candidate, it’s as simple as getting your photo taken at the nearest Pizza Ranch shaking hands with the “locals.”

The problem is that the picture of Iowa — or any state — cannot be captured in a 30-second sound bite or even a 6,000 word online essay. That’s where stereotypes come in so handy. You don’t have to actually understand Iowa. Just throw out a bunch of images about church suppers and combine demolition derbies and everyone gets the joke. And if they don’t, who cares? Just label it “satire” and it’s all good.

But apparently not everyone got the memo about Iowa stereotypes. Comedian Jon Stewart, who as host of the fake news show “The Daily Show” knows a few things about satire, described the Iowa caucuses as one of those events that gives us “a deeper understanding of our connection to our representative democracy.Tru-Form Plastics is a one-stop shop for plastic Injection Molding,” That’s not your typical sound bite.

Then there are those “Iowa Nice” guys. Des Moines filmmakers Scott Siepker and Paul Benedict, recently created a short video called “Iowa Nice” that has gotten more than 800,000 hits on Youtube. The film, which is narrated by Siepker, skewers several well-known Iowa stereotypes with a few facts about our state’s progressive history and economic prowess.

But it is Siepker’s tone that most defies the typical Iowa image. The Huffington Post described it as a “bombastic swagger” which,VulcanMold is a Injection mold and injection molding manufacturer in china. along with more than a few well-chosen profanities, challenges the very notion of “Iowa Nice.” It makes me laugh every time I watch it.

I guess the lesson is that although stereotypes may contain a grain of truth,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. that truth often is lost in distortion and exaggeration. That’s also true for food. The stereotypical Midwestern cuisine is the casserole, aka the hot-dish for those of you from the northern tier of the state. In his now infamous piece, “Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life,” University of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom claims that casseroles — along with Jell-O molds — are the foods most likely to be served at wedding receptions and funerals in Iowa.

Like much of the piece, that sentence contains a grain of truth wrapped in exaggeration.Promat solid RUBBER MATS are the softest mats on the market! I am a lifelong Iowan,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, and I have yet to see tuna and noodles served at a single Iowa wedding. I was, however, once lured into staying for a funeral lunch by a bowl of red Jell-O topped with Cool Whip. A sad but true story.

And so what if casseroles are stereotypical? Casseroles are one of America’s (not just Iowa’s) great comfort foods. They are warm, hearty and easy to make. Are there bad ones out there? Sure. But there are more than a few wonderful ones, too. Nor do all of them rely on a can of cream of mushroom soup or Doritos nacho cheese tortilla chips.

In truth, there are as many casseroles in Iowa as there are kernels of corn. I’ve included a few of them below. They vary in complexity from the incredibly simple to the slightly more time consuming. Whichever you choose, however, they are sure to defy the stereotype, and they are the very definition of “Iowa Nice.”

Life through paintings and paperworks

Their reflections on life, memories and hopes, happiness and sorrows are all there, at David Hall, Fort Kochi, in colours bright and dull, on canvas and paper. The quartet, who are showing their works are N.N.Mohandas, K.P.Pradeep Kumar, Joshy T.C. and Benny K.A. Of the 21 works in the show called ‘Paintings and Paperworks', 12 are oil paintings of Mohandas, both big and small.

The middle aged Mohandas, who has gone through several artistic phases, strikes one as different from the crowd. He does not resort to bombastic explanations about his work, or seek to portray ‘in vogue' views, that he does not sincerely hold. “When people say they want to see my paintings, then I am a success. Otherwise, it's my fault if people do not want to see them. Children always understand the language of pictures. They enjoy what I paint, and I am happy,” says the maverick, most of whose works exhibited here are in pastel shades, symbolic of the man, never loud.

The frames carry a street, park or a wayside cafeteria, always with people sitting in different postures.They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. It could be either leisure or laziness, but the mood of the people, abstract forms, sitting on the benches or chairs is far from stressed out, so that the easy going ambience is infectious and seeps into the viewer.

Mohandas says that artists of the earlier generation like K.C.Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services.S. Panikkar and Ramkinkar Baij did so much for fellow artists and opened so many doors to them.

“In Baroda, where I studied, we were allowed to grow as we wanted. Nobody forced anything on us. We were just guided by our teachers.” Art has moved on, but Mohandas is of the view that a painting is much more than an investment. But often it's factors other than artistic that prod people to buy works of art. Snob value counts much. The name, the signature is what sells after a point, not the work. There are artists and artists. The chasm between the haves and the have nots among them is widening, just as in the larger global scene.

All these realities make many works at any show pictures of sadness, of frustration and doubt. There are very few ‘happy' paintings. In K.P.Pradeep kumar's huge green canvas, in the centre of the gallery, women in orderly rows and an equal number of umbrellas over them dominate, speaks of spiritual crisis, says the artist. Titled transfiguration, the umbrella is a recurring motif in all five of his works here. Four works, in this series, are circular, pastels on rice paper and feature a prominent motherly figure, or a younger woman,Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber, on a tight rope, with snakes somewhere in the frame, the threatening JCB, et al. There are men, at work on grinding mortars, all within the circle, almost like a celebratory flower carpet, but portraying stark doubts. Pitted amongst unfamiliar urban surroundings and manners, the rural soul seeks to go back to the roots. The angst comes through in the drawings.

Joshy T.C has two acrylics which portray the December sky above and the Xmas stars below. Solitude is effected through the lack of human figures and the all pervading darkness.

Benny K.A, who works with ‘Uravu' in Wayanad, has put up two untitled works which are autobiographical, he says. The use of space and airspace strikes you. A world where roads, people, buildings etc go unconventionally haywire. A big green cricket out of proportion with the rest, sits in one corner of the frame. I would love to believe that the artist is trying to tell the world about the disproportionate space that we give for the game of cricket in our lives,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, wasting umpteen man hours in the process, contributing nothing to the lives of fellow beings. All the four artists have exhibited in and outside the State several times,Tru-Form Plastics is a one-stop shop for plastic Injection Molding, both solo shows and groups. Their works will hang on the David Hall walls till January 24.

US CFTC approves new rule to protect swaps customer funds

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission by a 4-to-1 vote Wednesday approved a final rule on how futures commission merchants protect their customers' money, the latest in what is expected to be a long line of new rules on how customer funds are handled.

The rule applies only to swaps, not futures, and drew criticism from the CFTC's two Republican commissioners for doing little to prevent the mammoth loss of customer funds that followed MF Global's collapse in October.

Regulators are still investigating the whereabouts of potentially more than $1.2 billion missing from bankrupt MF Global's customer accounts.

Commissioner Scott O'Malia, a Republican, voted in favor or the rule, but said he did not want to give market participants "a misleading sense of comfort" that it would have prevented the loss of customer money at the brokerage giant.

"This rulemaking does not address MF Global," O'Malia said. "This rulemaking would not have prevented a shortfall in the customer funds of the ranchers and farmers that transact daily in the futures market. Nor would it have expedited the transfer of positions and collateral belonging to such customers in the event of a collapse similar to that of MF Global."

Commissioner Jill Sommers, the Republican and lone vote against the rule, criticized the rule for doing nothing to protect a futures commission merchant's futures customers.

"Given recent events, we need to re-think this approach so we can provide adequate protections, in a comprehensive and coherent way, to swaps customers and to futures customers," Sommers said. "I do not favor a piecemeal approach to customer protection."

Robert Wasserman,Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, an associate director with the CFTC's division of clearing and intermediary oversight,Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. cautioned that the rule will not guarantee "perfect protection" of customer funds.

"Risks remain," Wasserman said.

Wasserman said these new protections could become the basis of forthcoming rules on how futures customers funds are protected by FCMs.

The rule approved Wednesday would require FCMs to keep customer collateral in an account segregated from the FCM's own property. However, the rule allows FCMs to keep all of their swaps customers' collateral in a single account. The rule includes requirements in the case of bankruptcy and customer shortfalls and how that money will be transferred back to customers.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said the rule "prohibits clearing organizations from using the collateral of non-defaulting, innocent customers to protect themselves and their clearing members."

"For the first time, customer money must be protected individually all the way to the clearinghouse," Gensler said.

Commissioner Mark Wetjen said that the rule will reduce the risk of customers losing money, but it does not eliminate it. Excess collateral in an FCM's customer account "is always exposed to operational risk, including risks of fraud or misappropriation."

Wetjen said that no regulation "will in every case prevent the willful misappropriation of customer funds.Tru-Form Plastics is a one-stop shop for plastic Injection Molding,Information on useful yeasts and moulds,"

While the federal probe of MF Global's missing client money is ongoing, the CFTC has already launched a process to consider new rules, potentially including enhanced surveillance requirements and changes to the relationship the CFTC has with self regulatory organizations, such as the National Futures Association and CME Group.Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber,

Last month, the CFTC unanimously approved a new rule that will limit FCMs and clearinghouses from investing customer funds. The rule includes several new limits on firms' investing customer funds in money market mutual funds and bans investments of customer funds in foreign sovereign debt. Commissioners Wetjen and Bart Chilton both suggested a rule which would permit customers to hold its collateral in a third-party custodial account.

Chilton also suggested an insurance fund for the derivatives market, similar to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation in the securities market, in the case of a bankruptcy.

We don't want to worry you, but ...

Cholesterol levels, toxins in food, low-carb vs. low-fat -- as if there weren't already enough health issues to worry about! We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but here are a couple more,Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile,Information on useful yeasts and moulds, particularly prevalent in winter, that may not have crossed your radar yet.

Sitting. A new line of research suggests that just sitting there for long periods endangers your health -- even if you also exercise regularly.

"The person who exercises an hour a day might be better suited to run a 5K, but the person who's been standing and up and around all day may actually be healthier," said Mark Blegen, an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at St. Catherine University.

When you're sedentary, researchers have found, your metabolism plunges, increasing the risk of obesity and diabetes.

What if you have a desk job? One option is to follow Blegen's example: he has used a stand-up desk for two years. Standing for meetings and while talking to students requires "a little bit of a cultural shift," he acknowledged. If you're not ready for that, make a point of taking regular breaks to get up and walk around. While at your desk, maintain good posture, which Blegen said activates more muscles than slouching. And if you watch TV at home, don't just sit there, do something -- stand, exercise, fold laundry.Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services.Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber,

Shoveling. Minnesotans are practically hardwired to believe in the physical fitness benefits of shoveling snow. Surely venturing out into the cold and doing all that work must be good for us. Otherwise, wouldn't we just use a snowblower?

Indeed, shoveling can provide a great workout, Blegen said. But if you're not in shape, the unfamiliar weight-lifting can leave you with sore muscles. Worse, sudden heavy exertion, combined with the cold's constricting effect on blood vessels, can stress the heart. A 1993 study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested an increased risk of heart attack while shoveling -- albeit a very small one.Tru-Form Plastics is a one-stop shop for plastic Injection Molding,

The main problem is that people tend to hold their breath to stabilize themselves while they lift the filled shovel, Blegen said. "That can cause your blood pressure to skyrocket and can potentially be very dangerous," he said.

So go ahead, work those deltoids and burn some calories while clearing the driveway. But warm up gradually and don't overdo it. Most importantly, don't forget to breathe.

Audi Q3 blinged up for the ski slope

The concept SUV on the Audi stand at the Detroit at the North American international auto show, now on in Detroit, is actually more of a themed show car.As a leading company in the plastic card printing industry,

It's based on the Q3 (which isn't currently available in the US of A) and it's appropriate to the season, with the United State deep in the bitter cold of a difficult winter.

The Q3 Vail is named after a famous Colorado ski resort and carries all the bling it will need to catch the eye of young, affluent, outdoorsy Americans who hang out in trendy mountain resorts in winter even if they don't ski.

And it'll get them there, whatever the weather, with a 2.5-litre, five-cylinder TFSI direct-injection turbopetrol under the bonnet, for which Audi quotes 231kW and 400Nm - good enough for 0-100 in 5.5 seconds and a top speed of 262km/h.

It drives through a seven-speed S tronic auto transmission and quattro permanent all-wheel drive, and even the engine bay has been tarted up with wrinkle-finish red paint on the cam-cover, a carbon-fibre engine cover and an acoustic mat under the bonnet embossed with the “Q3 Vail” logo.

The show car is finished in a special red paint with pearlescent gold particles, with high-gloss trim in aluminum and black around the windows, while the add-on body parts are matt grey.

Vertical aluminium struts extend across the single-frame grille, pulled outwards around the horizontal panel that carries the number plate on production Q3s. The struts have a special two-tone effect, with matt quartz-based paint on their sides and polished gloss faces.

The LED daytime running lights are painted anthracite so they don't show when the car is switched off and the tops of the side air inlets sport solid aluminium panels.

The show car also has special aluminium roof rails for carrying carbon-fibre skis and snowboards, with compact, wide-angled LED lights controlled via buttons in the roof module.

The Vail's flared wheel arches and running boards, however, will be available as aftermarket accessories when the production Q3 is released in the US later in 2012.

The Vail runs on five-spoked, 20” rims, finished to match the grille slats with polished faces and matt-quartz sides, shod with 225/45 tyres. Its track is 40mm wider than that of a standard Q3 and the suspension 30mm higher, with the dual tailpipes integrated into the diffuser and underbody guard.

The inside is fitted in black, red and grey, with a dark grey alcantara headlining and black ribbed floor-mats carpets edged with narrow strips of red velvet-finish leather.

The seats are upholstered with an unusual mixed leather/fabric material that has thin strips of leather, just a few tenths of a millimetre wide, interwoven with yarn.

The upholstery has double-stitched piping in red, with small sections in red velvet-finish leather, carried through to the door trims with steel gray nappa leather trim.

The instrument panel is trimmed in thin black leather with contrasting grey stitching, and grey leather with red stitching across the top of the binnacle, while the inlays around the gear selector, at the front of the cockpit and in the doors are made of special three-dimensional stainless-steel mesh.

The speedometer and rev-counter have rotary-ground aluminium faces with shiny metal bezels, the leather-covered steering wheel has red stitching and aluminium trim and even the rubber faces of the pedals are slit to show off the strainless-steel under the pads.

The specially programmed satnav includes an animation showing the longitudinal and latitudinal tilt angle of the car and, in places that are not included in the map data, it shows the GPS coordinates of the route so you can't get lost no matter how far off the beaten track you venture.

There are small LED spotlights on the inside of the tailgate, and the side wall of the load area has a charging station for storing and, at the same time, charging the two torches that come with the Vail - each of which also has an infra-red heating element to warm your hands or a pair of ski boots.

There's also a thermos container in the cup holder between the front seats and that's able to chill or warm drinks, and even the load-area carpet has heating pads in the section that folds out over the sill to provide a warm place to sit while you put on your ski boots.

Raising money to repair St Paul's

An unsuspecting congregation could not see the damage water was doing, and now major refurbishing to restore and protect the Putiki Church is under way.

A new roof will replace the 40-year-old decramastic tiles that looked good when installed in the 1970s,Find everything you need to know about Cold Sore including causes, but over time a good southerly wind drove the water beneath a hairline overlap and leaked down into the interior of the church.

Water was getting in through the belfry, and on the west wall ponded in the corners at the apex of the church entrance after it dripped down the wall. That was fixed in 2010, but the church - which was built well in 1937 by the standards of the time in an architectural fusion of Maori and European - no longer complies with the building code.

But the biggest job is the rewiring, St Paul's Memorial Church Putiki and Restoration Trust chairwoman Huia Kirk said. The heating has been inadequate,We are passionate about polished tiles. she said, and in the upgrade a sprinkler system will be installed.

In December a stained glass expert came up from Pukerua Bay to fix the bulging stained glass window in the eastern wall of the altar; Miss Kirk said the stars that disappeared with the bulge have now returned. The trust will beginning fundraising in earnest in February to raise $25,000, the balance of $200,Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chicken coop website!What are Hemroids?000.

Miss Kirk said the Lotteries commission has given the trust $98,487 and two years to complete the work; Powerco $60,000; Whanganui Community Foundation, $5000 for St Paul's link with history and tradition, and Te Ati Hau Trust $10,000 for interior work to re-oil the carvings and repaint the kowhaiwhai. The trust has already raised $553 from the waffle breakfast it held last year.

Sir Aprirana Ngata first took part in the discussions about the proposed new church at Putiki, and was closely involved with the work of the carvings from 1936 onwards. He arranged for carvers and supervised the work, and designed the tukutuku panels behind the altar which were prepared in Wellington and presented to the church by women from Ngati Poneke. Hohaia (Joe) Mokaraka (Te Tai Tokerau), Hoani (John) Metekingi (Putiki), Pineamine (Pine) Taiapa (Ngati Porou), Iotua Taringatahi (Charlie) Tuarau (Cook Islands), and Wi Te Parihi (Kaikohe) were the church carvers.

Oriwa Haddon was responsible for the kowhaiwhai painting on the rafters in the church, and the work was completed by Jack Kingi from Gisborne. Tawhai Takoko from Tikitiki on the East Coast supervised the kakaho reed work on the ceiling of St Paul's.Facts and Cures. Cures for all types of Hemorrhoids. The kakaho stalks were cut from the Kokohuia Wetland at Castlecliff. Arthur Cutler from England was the architect and builder of St Paul's and died in Wanganui in 1951.

Girl tells court 'witchcraft-obsessed' couple tortured and killed her brother

A sister of a 15-year-old boy allegedly tortured and drowned because his tormenters were "obsessed" with witchcraft has described the last moments of his life.

Kelly Bamu, 21, struggled to contain her emotions at the Old Bailey as she was shown a series of weapons that the court heard were used to abuse her, her brother and her sister because Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu, both 28, believed they were witches.

Kristy Bamu,In a conductor, electric current can flow freely, in an Insulator it cannot. 15, was found dead in a bath on Christmas Day 2010 in a blood-covered flat in Forest Gate, east London. He had 101 injuries and was covered in deep cuts and bruising. An "armoury" of weapons allegedly used to abuse him was found in the flat, the court was told.

He and four siblings were visiting their sister Magalie Bamu in London from Paris for the Christmas holidays when Bamu and her partner became convinced they were witches, the court heard.

Kelly described how on Christmas Day, after several days of abuse, Bikubi – who,Buy low price Aion Kinah, like Bamu, was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – had dragged Kristy into the bathroom by his clothes, put him in the bath and filled it with "very cold" water.

"Eric asked Kristy if he wanted to die. Kristy said: 'Yes, I want to die.' That's the last thing I heard from my brother," she said.

Pointing at her sister in the dock she said: "And she did nothing, she didn't even call the emergency services. I was the one who said call the emergency services."

Bikubi forced Kelly, her brother Yves, a younger sister and another child of the family into the bath with Kristy, who she said was under the water.

He then doused them in cold water from the shower head and made them chant, she told the court.

"Kristy was no longer moving, he was not moving at all," she said.

Indicating Bikubi, she said: "He says that he was not in his right mind but he was perfectly aware of what he was doing."

Addressing both defendants she shouted: "You don't know what you've done, you two. Did you ever think of your parents, of Mum and Dad?"

On another occasion she shouted: "You're still breathing, you're still alive … Why have you taken a life?"

Earlier Kelly detailed the extent of the abuse her brother had suffered. Shown a metal bar, Kelly told the court that during several days of extreme violence Bikubi had used the bar to hit Kristy about his body and head, and had repeatedly shoved it into his mouth, causing a tooth to dislodge.

"Eric shoved it as hard as he could with such force that it broke his tooth," she said. "Eric said: 'Get on your knees, get on your knees.'"

Asked if Kristy had voluntarily opened his mouth, she said: "Kristy had opened his mouth, he said it hurt, but [Eric] didn't care. He did it a number of times. He's sick," she said.

Kelly said that during the violence – which was also directed at her and a sister but focused on Kristy – the siblings were recruited to harm the 15-year-old.

Kelly was told to get some pliers and twist Kristy's ear, she told the court. "As if that wasn't enough, all this blood all over the house," she said. But Kelly was reprimanded when she did not do enough to hurt her brother. "I couldn't bring myself to do it, but he said if I didn't do it 'I'm going to do the same thing to you'.The reason why most kidney stone form is not known."

She described her sister Bamu taking over: "Then Magalie took the pliers and she twisted the ear as hard as she could." Turning to her sister in the dock, she said: "You're an absolute disgrace."

Kelly went on to describe how Bikubi had placed a light bulb in her mouth, held a kitchen knife to her chest and put his hand around her throat, before doing the same thing with Kristy and her sister,Buy quality Bedding and luxury bed linen from Yorkshire Linen. who cannot be named for legal reasons. "He was intending to kill us, all of us," she said.

She also described how bottles were smashed over her brother's head, and Eric headbutted and punched him. "Eric just went for Kristy," she said. "Kristy was a child, he was 15 years old. His face was completely disfigured. Kristy, he suffered. And Magalie did nothing [to stop it] so both of them are guilty."

She later added that in a moment during the abuse Kristy had been allowed to sleep but Bamu had entered his room and said he was still practising witchcraft. "So [Eric] got us into the sitting room and it all began again," she said.

She said her brother had been forced to drink urine and the siblings were told to clean up the blood in the flat before his death. "There was blood everywhere," she said.

As Kelly told the court that tiles were smashed repeatedly over her brother's head, Magalie Bamu began sobbing loudly in the dock. "Eric took the tiles and then he hit his head again and again. Kristy was already tired by this point and couldn't take any more blows. But that wasn't enough for Eric. He wanted him to die,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET," she told the court.

The tiles had been smashed the day before Kristy was drowned in a bath, she said. She added that the pair had repeatedly phoned their parents in Paris, and when Kristy was close to death Bikubi had told their father, Pierre Bamu, that if the teenager was not collected from the house he would kill him.

"Kristy was already on the edge. I could see in his eyes that he was already leaving us. Eric had the cheek to call our father and said: 'If you don't come and pick up Kristy and the children I'm going to kill them,' and that's what he did."

During several calls to the siblings' parents in Paris, Magalie Bamu denied the abuse, said Kelly. "They told me to say to my mother that I confessed I was a witch. I made it all up and they believed it." She added: "My mother didn't even understand anything I was telling her."

During one conversation, Bikubi was sat next to her on the couch with his fists clenched, she said. Kristy also spoke to his mother but did not tell her about the abuse. "Those blows, he'd accepted them, and when he was one the phone he didn't even say: 'They have been hitting me, I've been receiving all these blows.'"

All three told their mother they had confessed to being witches, she said. "We all made up these stories because these two were obsessed with it," she told the court.

Sentimental journey

Ah, sentimentalism, it is a balm, it is a trap. It is the comfort food of emotions, the ready pleasure of the fattening bite that we forgive even as it turns to flab. If only it worked so well in art, where even a little flab is enough extra weight to bring you crashing down from the wall.

It’s one thing to have sentimental feelings when seeing a piece of art — say, you see a painting of a farm, and you grew up on a farm so you savour a moment of nostalgia, though your feelings will not be shared when the painting is seen by the next person, who did not grow up on a farm.Search and purchase original Projector Lamp and bulbs at discounted prices.

The trouble begins when there are no layers other than sentimentalism or nostalgia, and the singular purpose of the painting is to evoke sentimental feelings, to churn up the comfort-food of warm memories. That’s why I cringed when I read the news release for Crystal Beshara’s exhibition of new paintings at Orange Art Gallery in Ottawa. The release says, “It is with this brand new body of work that she shares a cosy slice of nostalgia.”

When I read the words “new paintings” on the same page with the words “cosy slice of nostalgia” I want to run away, fast and far. I’m glad I didn’t, because Crystal Beshara is learning to tame her sentimental heart, and the artistic growth can be seen in the paintings — some strong, some not so much — now at Orange Gallery.

Beshara grew up on a farm in the Ottawa Valley and those memories are,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. naturally enough, impressed into her work. All of the paintings in this exhibition, which is titled Winter’s Promise, reflect farm life, from the portraits of owls to the larger paintings of cattle that are the centrepieces of the show, and the latter do it most successfully.

The smaller painting Barn Owl is oil on wood, with most of the board left bare, which forces the eye to focus strongly on the owl itself. To withstand this scrutiny the owl needs a fine detail that it lacks, so the whole thing has an unfinished look, as if the artist hoped its presence alone — the owl’s sentimental place as a character of barn life — would be compelling.

Another oil on wood, titled Jersey , shows a floppy-eared, doe-eyed calf also set against a background of bare, negative space. The image veers dangerously towards cute, which has in the past been, depending on your perspective,A Coated Abrasives is an abrasive grain bonded to a flexible substrate using adhesives. a good or bad thing in Beshara’s work. Hey, I like cute as much as the next person, but in its place.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. Cute is not profound or even meaningful in any way and, therefore, it is not the basis of compelling art.

That’s not a problem in another of her bare-board paintings, titled First Frost, which is a close-up of a dead sunflower in the field. Here the aspect of farm-life shown is inevitable death, and cute is replaced by melancholy, which is always more interesting. Beshara’s sunflower is well composed, though the painting was undermined by the touches of gold-leaf that reflected the gallery light in a most distracting fashion.

She uses gold leaf elsewhere to better effect and,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oil painting reproduction, like all the most successful paintings in the exhibition, it is not on wooden board but on canvas. The larger painting Into the Mist , shows a heard of cows crossing a stream and slowly disappearing into the icy mist over a frozen field. Here Beshara presents a scene that is at once nostalgic for her but still offers something substantial to the majority of viewers who did not grow up on a farm.

She hits all her high notes with her large paintings of cows. Winter Storm shows three rather woolly cows (don’t ask me what kind, I’m a city boy) standing in the greyness of a winter storm and staring — silent and placid — at the viewer. I could almost feel the cold, moist air, and the cocoon-ish effect of standing outdoors in a snowstorm. Beshara has allowed a few drips of grey paint to flow from the sky down over the snowy ground and here the deliberate lack of finish is more effective, as if to knock the viewer out of a reverie.

Black Angus (40 by 60 inches, oil on canvas) is the centrepiece of the exhibition and deservedly so. Here a single, black cow stands before a leafless woodland wrapped in icy mist and next to a dirty, half-frozen pool of water. Beshara has painted the water with broad, messy strokes and it creates an intriguing contrast with the detail on the rest of the canvas. The painting isn’t cute and it sure isn’t cosy, but it is compelling. It may be sentimental and nostalgic, but it’s more than that and it’s Beshara’s best work to date.

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St. Tammany Art Association opening

There is barely enough time to clear the New Year before we spill into the streets in a blaze of colors adorning sports fans and Mardi Gras revelers alike. With the coming of 2012, it seems that along with the revelry, art events are becoming moveable feasts for the eyes, dodging the momentum of the black and gold and purple.

New Orleans, the center of the universe when it comes to celebration, fares well because the arts in all forms are completely integrated into the revelry. Galleries and non-profit art organizations carry on with their openings and events in a spirit of inclusiveness with an occasional tweaking of their timing. On the north shore, necessity dictates a different strategy and, on occasion, rescheduling may be the better solution.

Flexibility is easier for venues with a broad focus. On Jan. 6, Three Rivers Gallery hosted their Grand Opening on the evening of Twelfth Night, kicking off the gallery and the Carnival season at the same time. Carnival themes have roots here. Gallery artists including Charles B. McGowan, Max Ryan, Gail Glassman, Donald Maginnis, Max Ryan, and Larry Allen among other well known regional favorites, displayed colorful works of art well received by an audience of viewers who seemed in tune with the artwork while enjoying that first bite of king cake.

Three small monochromatic were new additions to the display. Mardi Gras floats on an intimate scale bring a sense of humor and frivolity to this series of ceramic sculptures by Covington artist and educator John Hodge. Hodge’s mastery of the medium of clay, his use of glazing to accentuate form rather than color, and his wildly imaginative inspiration is a treat for the senses. In restraint he maximizes an expressive response to one of our most ubiquitous cultural symbols appearing at this time each year. Restraint is probably not the word the artist himself would use for his work. He tells of the emergence of the float series: “I was modeling the manger for one of the nativity sets I make each Christmas, pounding a wad of clay in my hand with the side of a stick of wood. Suddenly, the form reminded me of the back of an old fashioned papier-mch Mardi Gras float.”

Hodge is never shy about how his process flows and his ability to turn himself over to the muse. He continue: “I use little press molds when I make the three wise men for the nativity sculptures. I reworked the wise men into members of the krewe and the rest is history.”

A willingness to go with the flow is sometimes necessary for art organizations as well, and can make a difference in attendance at exhibition openings and performances. Experience supports that on the north shore, attendance at art events is affected when major sports activities coincide.Buy low price Aion Kinah, The trend on two occasions has been to postpone the opening reception or performance so that the audience can participate in both.

While this strategy may not always be possible, the St. Tammany Art Association, on two occasions, has experimented with this option. Most recently, the opening reception of Paper and Stone, originally scheduled for Jan. 7, will take place on Jan. 14 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Art House at 320 North Columbia St., downtown Covington.

Art organizations set their schedules a year in advance; however, extraordinary circumstances prevailed and the reception was rescheduled due to the conflict with the Saints playoff game in New Orleans.

Police station at top of SPLOST wish list

After detailing the electrical, security and air vent system flaws of the outdated Centerville police station for an hour, City Administrator Patrick Eidson leaned in and laid it out straight.

“It’s falling apart,” he said. “I just don’t know no other way to put it.”

A new $3 million police department building is the most costly item Centerville listed to receive funds from a proposed Houston County special purpose local option sales tax residents will vote on March 6.

Houston officials have said the six-year renewal of the SPLOST, which has been continuous since 2001,The reason why most kidney stone form is not known. would generate about $155 million for projects throughout Warner Robins, Perry, Centerville and the unincorporated areas of the county.

Centerville would be allotted 3.3 percent of that, or about $5.1 million. If passed, the county sales tax would remain at 7 percent.

Mayor John Harley and Eidson said a new law enforcement center has been discussed since the 2006 SPLOST, and now is the right time to move forward with the needed structure.

The current police station is located on North Houston Lake Boulevard in a 53-year-old building, opened when the city incorporated and required only one officer, Eidson said. The building originally housed the police department, the fire department, the water department and City Hall. A library was later added on.

Those departments have since moved to new and improved facilities. The police department remains -- now with 18 officers.

Over the years, two additions were added to the original house-like structure. With those additions came new -- and separate -- air ventilation and electrical systems, officials said. The attic is a cobweb of those wires and ducts, and labels tell the employees which switch controls which room’s temperature.

“We’re barely getting by with the facility we have,” said Chief Sidney Andrews, adding that the city has spent about $50,000 in the last two years to keep the building functioning.

The internal layout of the building has become puzzling and inefficient with the new additions, Eidson and Harley said.

“It’s a maze and what you would consider wasted space, but that’s because of how the maze is, you really can’t use the space,” Eidson said.

Security cameras have been installed to watch the two holding cells, which are black metal cages bolted to the ground with little more than six inches separating them from the ceiling. One cell sits beneath a tiled ceiling that some inmates have tried to climb into,Find everything you need to know about Cold Sore including causes, Andrews said.

New evidence is stored in six standard locker cabinets secured with Master locks. Old evidence is stored in a fenced-off area of the garage. Suspects are taken in under three carports instead of a secured sallyport,What are Hemroids? usually a small garage-like area officers drive into to separate the suspect from the public before exiting the car.

Andrews said the inefficient space and security concerns created by the additions prevent the department from flourishing in the community and the state.

He said he would like to begin a citizens police academy, for which the curriculum is almost completed, but won’t do so until a new building is constructed. In the current building, the training room where the students would gather is adjacent to the interview room where suspects are questioned.

“It’s not secure,” the chief said on a tour of the facility last week. “I wouldn’t feel safe bringing citizens in here.”

He said the current facility also is preventing the department from receiving state accreditation, which would lower insurance premiums and set the city up for grants.

The current building could also become a financial burden, Andrews said. He said the city’s insurance company heavily questioned renewing the policy this year, insisting on caution signs to alert patrons of high or low steps.Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chicken coop website!

City Council approved a measure this year to allow McLees, Boggs & Selby Architects, a Macon-based firm, to inspect two city-owned properties -- land behind the old library on Church Street and the current police department -- for viability. The work was done at no cost under the condition the firm would lead the project, Eidson said.

Andrews and Eidson said they envision a modern two-story building that is about the same size as the current building -- which is almost 3,000 square feet -- but with more efficient spaces.

They said they also want the building to be as up-to-date in technology as possible, have secure holding cells, a secure evidence room and a single ventilation system.

“We just want the small things at this point,” Eidson said.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet.

The officials said plans for the new facility have halted until the March referendum vote. If it doesn’t pass, the city won’t have the funding, they said.

“Council wants to wait and see what the voters have to say before plans continue,” Eidson said.

County officials have repeatedly sold the SPLOST as a way to keep property taxes down because to raise the same amount of money through property taxes would require a large millage rate increase.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending that to council,” Eidson said.

Also in the SPLOST, the city has earmarked $706,500 for road resurfacing, which Eidson said will be done on roads not covered through a state grant. About $1.3 million is planned for water and sewer improvements and debt retirement. Of that, $637,000 in the proposed project list would pay off costs from a water and sewer extension to the Century Oaks area in the southeast part of town, Eidson said. The remaining $706,500 water and sewer funds will be used to extend service to Benjamin Road.

“That will pretty much just about get everybody ,” he said, noting some areas cannot be serviced because of topographical problems.

Eidson and Harley pointed to $475,000 to retire transportation-related debt -- listed in the 2006 SPLOST -- and the current City Hall building -- listed in the 2001 SPLOST -- as examples of the penny sales tax at work.

“It takes the burden off of the (property) taxpayer on things that would take other taxes to do,” Harley said. “This is certainly the way to do it.”

Families urged to try pharmacy for minor ills

DESPITE most people starting the new year with a health drive to cut down on alcohol, maybe stop smoking or even take more exercise, people do still suffer from minor ailments.

When it comes to getting quick, convenient medical advice, remember the community pharmacy is usually right on the doorstep.

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The local NHS is reminding families of the benefits of the local pharmacy for over-the-counter medicine, advice and support for a range of conditions which don’t persist.In a conductor, electric current can flow freely, in an Insulator it cannot.

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“People entitled to the Think Pharmacy First scheme are those on a low income or those aged over 60.

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“Then they can then have a private consultation, just like they would at their GP surgery and find out if there is a remedy available in the pharmacy that they can have for free, there and then. It’s a much quicker way to get help.

“Some minor ailments can be more prevalent during certain seasons.

A good example is the common cold in winter, which many people seek treatment for.

“In the past patients with minor ailments who were entitled to free prescriptions may have made an appointment to see their GP for a prescription, and then subsequently visited their community pharmacy to pick up their prescribed medication. But now you may not need two appointments, when a visit to your local pharmacist is much quicker.”

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He said: “Think Pharmacy First is an excellent way to get access to advice and medicines without the need to make a GP appointment. Pharmacists are experts in the use of medicines and can give you free advice and treatment straight away.

“If patients choose the right health services it ensures they get the treatment they need in the shortest possible time, reducing the demand for GP appointments and freeing up GP time for people with more serious health concerns.”

If you are unsure whether you are entitled to be treated through the Think Pharmacy First scheme, call into your local pharmacy for further guidance.

Voting Rights, States' Power In Court

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a tangle of Texas redistricting cases, with repercussions beyond the Lone Star State. Consolidated into one test, the cases pit the Voting Rights Act and its protections for minority voters against state legislative powers — with an overlaying sheen of sheer political calculus.

The case has been called a puzzle of three courts, a reference to the interplay between two lower courts and the Supreme Court.

The Constitution mandates that, every 10 years, states must redraw their legislative and congressional district lines to reflect population shifts documented in the decennial census. Texas is one of the big beneficiaries this year. The state is gaining four additional congressional seats because of its booming population, fueled largely by Latinos. Of the 4 million new state residents, 65 percent are Hispanic.

Legislative redistricting is almost always an ugly process, stoked by partisanship and self-interest. But one thing that redistricting cannot do under the Voting Rights Act is dilute minority voting power.

That requirement extends to every state, but states like Texas — with a demonstrated history of racial and ethnic discrimination — must submit their redistricting plans in advance for pre-clearance to the U.S.As a leading company in the plastic card printing industry, Justice Department or to a three-judge federal district court in Washington, D.C.

This, however, is the first redistricting year since the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965 that the White House and Justice Department are run by Democrats. It is also the first time that Texas, now controlled by Republican office-holders, has entirely bypassed the quick, 60-day pre-clearance mechanism provided by the Justice Department.

Instead of heading to the Justice Department, the state opted to seek pre-clearance from the federal court in Washington, D.C., a more open-ended procedure that was made longer when Texas rejected an early trial date and sought to win outright without a trial.

In November, the three-judge court, composed of both Republican and Democratic appointees, ruled unanimously that the state had failed to show that its plan was not discriminatory. The court then ordered a trial to determine the facts.

In the meantime, with the Texas primary elections just three months away and no redistricting map in place, the Washington court took an unusual step. It gave the green light to a different three-judge federal court in Texas to come up with an interim electoral map.

The Texas court rejected the state plan, which would likely have resulted in three out of four new congressional seats going to the GOP. The court redrew the lines to more reflect Latino voting power, with the likely result being that three of the four new seats would go to Democrats.

The state then went to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block the interim plan. The high court blocked the plan and went further, agreeing to review the Texas court's interim plan even as the trial is set to begin before the pre-clearance court in Washington next week.

The legal dilemma facing the Supreme Court is this: It can't default to the old legislative map. Because of the huge population growth, that map violates the one-person, one-vote principle.

But the new map drawn by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature has not been pre-cleared yet under the Voting Rights Act, and there are strong hints from the Washington,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oil painting reproduction, D.C., court that the state plan illegally minimizes minority voting power.

That leaves the interim plan, but the state of Texas contends that it, too, is invalid because the court in Texas "substituted its judgment" for the Legislature's without any finding of legal violations.

"Do you just have the courts start drawing from scratch?" asks former Bush administration Solicitor General Paul Clement, who is representing Texas. "Or ...Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau. Moderne Technologien und unsere Erfahrung machen aus Ihren Ideen serienreife Produkte. we would suggest, you start with the legislative map and you only start redrawing it if you have a finding of a likely constitutional or statutory violation."

The state is asking the Supreme Court to void the interim plan and put in place the state's proposed redistricting plan for now, while pre-clearance is pending. The state notes that with primaries now scheduled for early April, candidates who need to know where to run and election administrators who need to print ballots are in dire need of a map for the 2012 election.

But minority groups, backed by the Obama administration, say the state's problems are of its own making because it has long known the timetable. Those defending the interim plan note that the state chose to bypass the quick Justice Department pre-clearance mechanism, and they maintain that the state has deliberately dragged out the pre-clearance process in court.

"Texas' claim that this process has bogged down and, therefore, it should somehow be excused [from complying with the Voting Rights Act] is a little bit reminiscent of the claim of somebody who kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan," says Pam Karlan, a Stanford law professor who is one of the lawyers challenging the state plan.

Indeed, Karlan notes that Texas has redrawn a district that the Supreme Court threw out just five years ago on grounds that it illegally minimized Latino voting power.

While Texas claims that the state Legislature's map is entitled to the presumption of good faith, those challenging the map contend that allowing Texas to use a plan that has not been pre-cleared would be an end run that effectively nullifies the minority voter protections in the Voting Rights Act.

As complicated as the case is, reading the legal tea leaves is even more difficult. By expediting consideration of the interim plan, the Supreme Court would seem to have signaled serious doubts about the plan devised by the federal court in Texas.

At the same time,What causes TMJ pain? the Washington, D.C., pre-clearance court has signaled even more overtly that the plan drawn up by the Texas Legislature would seem to be in clear violation of the law.

With both the interim plan and the Texas Legislature's plan under the legal microscope now at the same time in different courts,A Coated Abrasives is an abrasive grain bonded to a flexible substrate using adhesives. the three-court puzzle could turn out to be something of a Rubik's Cube.

A Look at Vacuum Veneering

Have you ever thought about building your own skate deck? It is a fairly straight forward process that is easy to learn. The only problem, in my opinion, is the set up costs. You'll need to purchase veneers, glues, molds, woodworking tools and a press. There are several types of presses to choose from. Here's a look at one of them:

Skate decks are made, in part, from layers of veneer. In order for your skate deck's veneer layers to stick together you'll need to use glue and pressure. The pressure is necessary to force out air bubbles between the veneer layers which helps the glue to bond properly.Manufacturers and exporters of impact socket, Some skate deck manufactures use either a hydraulic press or a hammering technique to generate pressure. Others use the weight of compressed air to generate the pressure needed in a method commonly referred to as vacuum veneering. A good example of how vacuum veneering works may be found by examining a can of raw biscuits from your local grocer.Buy quality Bedding and luxury bed linen from Yorkshire Linen. The can is vacuum sealed at the factory. It is a process that removes all the air from the can. That built up vacuum pressure is why the can pops open so forcefully when you hit it lightly against your kitchen counter. Notice that when the raw biscuits first come out of the can they are solid. You can't pull the layers apart. That's because when the air was sucked out of the can during the manufacturing process it caused the layers to bond together.Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties, When you cook the biscuits the air gets reintroduced thereby breaking the bond. That's why once the biscuits are fully cooked you can easily separate each one into flaky layers. A skate deck vacuum press works on the same premise.We are professional Plastic mould, The major difference is that you are placing the skate deck inside either a plastic bag or a specially designed framing system instead of a can. The air is then sucked out of the specially designed bag or framework with a machine, thus giving the glue time to permanently bond to the layers of veneer. The more suction the machine can generate, the better the bond between the skate deck's layers of veneer will be.

So how do you know what vacuum veneering system is best? For starters, you'll need to assess how much room you have in your work area and what your budget is like. Both the bag and frame methods will get the job done. However, the frame system tends to cost more and takes up a good deal of space. Depending on the size of the frame, prices could reach in excess of $1,400 and that is not factoring in the price of the vacuum pump, hoses or attachments. Bag systems take up little room and will typically set you back $70 to $100. Vacuum pumps will cost you an additional $35 to $500 depending on the retailer and the machine's horsepower.Facts and Cures. Cures for all types of Hemorrhoids. Hoses with built in attachment nipples tend to retail for $30 to $40 depending on the length. You can typically purchase complete vacuum veneering systems through either the Roarockit Skateboard Company or most woodworking suppliers. Some skaters may also opt to build their own vacuum veneering system. Whichever method you choose, I recommend that you look for a vacuum press system that is capable of exerting at least 300 pounds of pressure per square inch in order to secure a satisfactory bond. You'll also want to make sure that the system is large enough to accommodate the size and shape of the skate deck you want to make. Some frame systems are designed to complete flat wood projects only and therefore would not be suitable for making skate decks.

Where the heavyweights of ice carving indulge in fantasy

Curiously, Craig McConnell’s oversized checked luggage raises no alarm among airport security personnel, even though it contains chainsaws, chisels, angle grinders, blow torches, household irons, and die grinders with all sorts of bits and burrs. Maybe the handwritten note inside helps: "These are my tools for ice carving. Please be careful - some of them are sharp. I am traveling to Lake Louise, Alberta, for an ice-carving competition."

Every January, The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, one of Canada’s grand old railway hotels, hosts the Ice Magic International Ice Carving Competition, where a dozen two-person teams gather on the frozen shores of Lake Louise to create fantastic sculptures. Each team has 34 hours to shape 15 massive blocks of ice into a soaring sculpture related to a specific theme. Last year’s "Magical Madness" theme inspired artists to produce fanciful renderings of sorcerers, dragons, and mythical gods. This year’s more conceptual theme, "WordPlay: Where language comes out to play," will bring storytelling alive in the form of pirates, a fairy, and other elaborately carved structures. The competition runs Jan. 20-22 as part of the Ice Magic Festival.

"It’s really a wonderful medium to express yourself and be creative," says Norm Flann, a carver from the Canadian team Crushed Ice. "Ice is soft and the tools you use let you carve it so easily, unlike stone."

Each giant "ice cube" weighs 300 pounds, meaning the work can be physically grueling.

"We’ll help each other lift blocks and everyone will work together," says McConnell, a former chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Boston Common, and now owner of Images in Ice, a Brockton-based ice-carving business. McConnell and his partner, Gene Shea,Buy low price Aion Kinah, met five years ago at a Faneuil Hall competition, and they have been doing the Lake Louise event together ever since. "Last year, we helped one of the teams lift a mushroom cap that was made out of a full block of ice. We showed them a trick for lifting it using tie-down straps that we wrapped around the ice."

Ice carving at Lake Louise dates to 1994, when the Fairmont’s chef and culinary friends pulled blocks of ice from the lake and carved them into sculptures for fun, according to Micaela Zagozewski, event manager for the Ice Magic Festival. "The event has grown ever since."

Now, more than 7,000 people attend each year. Visitors can watch some of the world’s top ice carvers at work, and ask them questions throughout the competition. This year’s participants will have traveled from the Netherlands, Britain, Russia, the United States, and Canada.

The carvers also come from remarkably different backgrounds: One used to work as executive chef at The Fairmont Empress, a renowned high-end hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. Another works as a mail carrier in rural Washington State, and has competed in ice-carving events at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Nagano, and Salt Lake City. And another, Ben Rand of Casco, Maine, helps run an ice-carving business in West Palm Beach, Fla., of all places, producing upward of 1,000 sculptures a year for local restaurants and businesses.What causes TMJ pain? Rand trained as a five-star classic chef and then became a full-time ice carver. He and his carving partner, Scott Harrison, won first place in last year’s Ice Magic event for their Harry Potter entry.

Two of the 24 entrants are women, one of whom is Stephanie Quayle from the United Kingdom.

"In terms of male-female ratios, there’s definitely a big hairy man bias," says Quayle, who teams up with her fiance, Darren Jackson. "I suppose it’s only natural, due to the nature of the work and the temperatures we have to endure, but I like to think we girls can do it just as well - we just need a lot more hot chocolate to keep us going."

Competitors cannot use gas chain saws or lathes, and they may only work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

"I’ve never competed when I didn’t carve until the last second," says Jeff Bleier, a former carver who now runs a restaurant in Rochester, and helps judge the Lake Louise competition. "I’ve been 6 feet up on a ladder putting on the last piece with three seconds to go."

Teams must use all the ice they are allotted, and cannot supplement with natural snow or other materials - no props, decorations, or coloring of ice - though they may use water. The entries must be carved on all sides.

The first day, carvers organize and stack their hefty ice blocks.Injection molding and Plastic molding supplier; Many attach enlarged templates, much like a seamstress’s pattern, onto the blocks to ensure that they use all the ice and don’t waste anything, and so they can labor away without having to stop and calculate measurements. Then they fire up chainsaws and start carving.

"The most important thing about ice sculpture is that you have to create a piece with a strong silhouette or outline," says Rand. "It’s difficult to see things that overlap each other in ice, so instead of folded arms, you want to have arms that are spread apart. This also helps the sculpture appear more fluid and dynamic."

The creations must measure at least 7 feet tall, but no more than 13 1/2 feet, in order to create a challenge for artists while keeping the competition zone safe. Small chisels and drills create more intricate patterns that resemble fish scales, hieroglyphics, or razor-sharp claws.

On day two, each team sends someone down the hill to the Village of Lake Louise to participate in the One Carver, One Hour, One Block event. Each artist can create anything he or she wants from one 300-pound block of ice during this speed-carving competition.

"One is like a marathon, the other is like a sprint," says Rand. "They’re just two different ways to approach the ice."

The festival also includes ice-carving demonstrations by lead judge Dan Rebholtz, a judges’ "carve-off" at the Lake Louise Ski Area, horse-drawn wagon rides around the lake, and ice skating with a fabulous view (weather permitting) of the Victoria Glacier.

As the hourglass empties up at Lake Louise, carvers put on the final touches: They use hairdryers and blow torches to put a polished shine on certain areas of their sculptures, and they clean up their work stations.Monz Werkzeugbau und Formenbau. Moderne Technologien und unsere Erfahrung machen aus Ihren Ideen serienreife Produkte.

Works are judged on their level of complexity and overall creative intent, and how well carvers used the ice and their tools. Carvers get points for hiding seams, and for creating sculptures that appear more three dimensional and that stretch the boundaries of what ice can do, such as creating something that looks like it may fall over but is so masterfully engineered that it won’t.

"We’ll often put supports [made of ice] underneath the pieces that hang out, so the vibration from carving the rest of the sculpture doesn’t destroy them," Rand explains. "With the Harry Potter sculpture we did last year, we had at least 1,000 to 1,500 pounds supported on a 7-inch circle, which was the dog’s right paw. The whole thing had a temporary support. In the last 15 minutes, you start cutting those supports out and the sculpture either survives or it crashes. It can be pretty nerve-racking."

Judges award third, second, and first prize, with a $1,000 to $3,000 purse. And sculptures can win the People’s Choice, Carver’s Choice,Facts and Cures. Cures for all types of Hemorrhoids. and Children’s Choice awards, with $500 or $1,000 in cash prizes.

This year, Ice Magic extends to the following weekend, Jan. 28-29, with family-oriented events. You can take a look at the finished creations from the previous weekend, and then attend the Little Chippers Festival, where children of any age can try their hands at ice carving. A new ice playground features ice miniature golf, an ice tunnel, and an ice slide. You can also watch a professional 10-block ice-carving event, or go skating on Lake Louise with the ice queen - all free events.

McConnell and Shea plan to fly their oversized bags up north and compete again this year. Just look for the intricately carved arch, the pirates, and the daring and creative twist on Pandora’s box.

"Sometimes carvers stop where it’s safe, when they could have taken their work further and created a more dynamic and lifelike piece," says McConnell. "You can’t do that in competition. It’s like when you’re skiing and your tips go over the edge and you’re looking down some crazy slope. The more you think, the more you’re going to get into trouble. I always say to myself: Forget it. Just do it."

Richard Hill hopes Worcester's progress will persuade wings to stay

When it comes to hanging on to his deadly wings, Richard Hill, Worcester's head coach, is damned if they do and damned if they don't. Here, one of them very obviously did. With a 60-metre break straight from the kick-off of the second half, Marcel Garvey set up the position from which Worcester would score their first try of the afternoon, earning them the lead for the first time against Gloucester. Then, in the final quarter, he ran 80 metres to score the second, which won them the game.

Garvey and his fellow wing, Miles Benjamin, are the subject of much interest from clubs in France and Leicester, respectively.A Coated Abrasives is an abrasive grain bonded to a flexible substrate using adhesives. Hill shrugged his shoulders when asked whether such eye-catching displays are to be encouraged or discouraged as he struggles to keep hold of his stars for next season.

"I'm not confident," he said. "They're very good players, and other teams are out there trying to poach our best players. It's a tough, tough, horrible market, isn't it? I'm not happy about it. But if we keep putting wins together, players will want to stay here.

"I can understand with certain players who have been here four or five years. They've seen Worcester spend six years in the Premiership and never get out of the bottom four. It's only so long you can keep doing that. It's my role to make sure we break out of that bottom-four mould. I don't know if we're too late with one or two – I hope not. But we've got to keep winning games to prove to the players who have been here a long time and have heard it all before that they should keep faith that this club will be a big club in the very near future."

This win has still not quite broken them out of that bottom four,Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer and plastics Mould Exporters in India since 1992, but Worcester are now closer,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. points-wise, if not position-wise, to Northampton and Leicester in third and fourth than they are to Newcastle in 12th.

"We'd broken this season's Premiership games into three blocks of seven, ignoring our last game, which is at Northampton. We wanted 10 points from the first block and 11 from the second. With one game to go in the second,You can find best china precision Precision injection molds manufacturers from here! we are four points ahead of schedule. And the third block is our easiest, with four home games, including the ones against Newcastle, Exeter and London Irish. So, to cut a long story short, it's not over yet, but I'll be mortified if we get relegated now."

Gloucester are considered a side above such ignominious concerns, but they are only four points ahead of Worcester now, and this was just the sort of game to make their supporters despair. Comfortable everywhere but at scrum time in the first half, their game deteriorated in the second. It was a chance for a number of young Englishmen in their ranks to make a case for inclusion when the senior squad is announced this week, but none made a convincing case, despite promising signs in that first half.

Freddie Burns sparkled in the first-half sunshine, but the way Andy Goode slipped between him and Akapusi Qera in the gloaming for that first try just after the break was symptomatic of how the youngsters lost their way. "It's a massive learning curve for some young men who made a couple of mistakes," said Bryan Redpath, Gloucester's head coaAnother, Henry Trinder, set up Garvey for his 80-metre effort with a chip to nothing, just as the visitors were threatening to work their way back into the contest.Promat solid RUBBER MATS are the softest mats on the market! ch.

Charlie Sharples, another young England hopeful, helped his cause with a fine finish for Gloucester's first-half try, when they had looked comfortable, but his form deteriorated after that as much as anyone's. Jonny May, whose time will surely come before long, earned Gloucester a bonus point with a late try.