Free energy-efficient makeovers coming to Southern Humboldt

June 30th, 2010
Home Improvement

Free energy-efficient makeovers coming to Southern Humboldt
In an effort to better serve rural residents in Humboldt County, Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) neighborhood sweep teams will be in Southern Humboldt on the weekend of June 26 and 27 to conduct free residential Compact Florescent Light (CFL) exchanges.

RCEA is offering Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers free home CFL lighting “makeovers.” According to sweep coordinator Heidi Benzonelli, “If you are using incandescent bulbs in your home, RCEA wants to exchange as many high power isolatorof them as possible for energy efficient CFL bulbs at no cost to you.”

“SoHum residents are encouraged to plan ahead to make things go more smoothly,” said Benzonelli. “First, look around your home to impact socketsee if you are using incandescent bulbs. Then, check and make sure they are not on a dimmer. Then call RCEA to schedule a residential CFL exchange. RCEA team members will come to your home and install new energy efficient bulbs for you at no PP fittingscharge. It’s that easy.”

PG&E customers who wish to participate in this program need to call RCEA toll-free at 800-931-7232 before Thursday, June 24 to schedule an appointment.

Participants will also receive information about other energy efficiency opportunities available in their community, including energy efficiency opportunities available for small businesses. “There is no catch, no gimmick, and no obligation,” said Benzonelli. RCEA wants to make sure rural residents get their fair share.

This opportunity is offered as part of RCEA’s local government partnership with PG&E known as the Redwood Coast Energy Watch. It is administered by PG&E and funded by California utility customers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

RCEA was formed in 2003 as a Joint Powers Association, representing seven municipalities (the Cities of Arcata, Blue Lake, Eureka, Ferndale, look for lights with more than just one led lampFortuna, Trinidad and Rio Dell), the County of Humboldt, and PE fittingsthe Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. RCEA’s purpose is to develop and implement sustainable energy initiatives that reduce energy demand, increase energy efficiency, and advance the use of clean, efficient and renewable resources available in the region.

Home & Garden | Software

Plant expands for 2 new customers

June 30th, 2010
Home Improvement

Plant expands for 2 new customers

SCOTTSBURG — American Plastic Molding Corp., a manufacturer of plastic injection molded assemblies, announced Friday it will expand its operations in Scottsburg, creating up to 50 new jobs by 2013.

The company, which makes assemblies for the home and office, automotive and agriculture industries, among others, will invest more than $1.5 million to lease and equip additional space near its current facility to introduce new product lines.

American Plastic Molding plans to add new manufacturing capabilities for automotive speakers and a sinus cleansing device as part of the project.

“American Plastic Molding Corp. is a longtime contributor to the Indiana economy and we appreciate that they will be growing in their home community,” said Mitch Roob, secretary of commerce and chief executive officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. “We look forward to working with this company as they create new opportunities in Scottsburg.”

American Plastic Molding, which employs more than 100 people in Scottsburg, plans to continue hiring manufacturing workers as new production space is identified. Production of the sinus cleansing device has already begun, with Many people wonder why they should undergo an upgrade to led mr16 bulbs in the first placethe automotive speaker components to start in July.

“Both of the newest customers indicated that our prices were slightly higher than from China and Mexico. However, they know that the delivery, quality and consistency are better from American Plastic. Many of the new projects had been produced in Mexico,” said Floyd Coates, president of American Plastic.

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KraussMaffei CEO optimistic about return to sales growth

June 30th, 2010

KraussMaffei CEO optimistic about return to sales growth
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (June 9, 2:15 p.m. ET) — The downward trend is broken, predicts KraussMaffei AG CEO Dietmar Straub, who expects the plastics machinery group to be back on a growth trajectory next year.

With incoming orders up 25 percent on the same time last year, Straub is “cautiously optimistic” that the plastics machinery maker has seen the worst of the downturn and predicts a return to sales growth in its next financial year.

Speaking in Zurich at a meeting to lay out the group’s plans for the K trade show, Straub said he expected sales for the period to the end of September this year to total around 750 million euros ($900 million).

That result will be slightly ahead of the 2009 sales of 742 million euros ($890 million) but a long way short of the record figure of 1.05 billion euros ($1.26 billion) achieved in its 2007-2008 financial year.

However, with incoming orders for 2009-2010 predicted at 800 million euros ($960 million), up from 644 million euros ($773 million) last year, Straub believes the group — which includes KraussMaffei, Netstal and Berstorff — is firmly back on a growth path.

“The rubber and plastic machinery industry in German was in deep recession until the beginning of 2010. This applied to most markets except China and to some extent India and it continued until spring of 2010. But we are now seeing a rise in incoming orders…we can say we have broken the trend,” he said.

Straub’s caution in his future predictions is due to factors beyond the machine makers’ control, especially ongoing uncertainty surrounding the euro-zone economies. That concern is tempered, however, by his certainty that the company has used the downturn months to improve its manufacturing capabilities.

“We have had to adjust capacities and control costs but we have also made investments,” he said, detailing a spending of 4 million euros($4.8 million) at the company’s main plant in Munich during the 2009 financial year. This included new painting lines and improved internal workflow capabilities.

Staffing across the KraussMaffei companies has been cut from around 4,000 before the downturn to 3,400 today. However, Straub said that all of its plants are now running on full-time schedules.

The company has also benefited from the more flexible working practices and improvements in management control that it has been implementing since well before the global financial crisis, he said.

While the economic picture is improving, Straub said that the plastics machinery market has “shifted irrevocably” in terms of geography.

“Growth is moving to the emerging markets. No one would have thought at the last K [2007] that our markets in the BRIC countries would be almost double that in the U.S. But Asia now accounts for 20 percent of our business volumes.”

As in previous global downturns, the U.S. is picking up earlier than other developed markets, but Straub is quite clear that it will not return to historic record levels due to the long standing shift of manufacturing out of the country to lower cost locations.

“This is the third phase of shrinkage [in the U.S. market]. It may go back to its pre-crisis levels but I do not expect it to go back to its record levels,” he said.

While recovery in Europe is expected to be slower, Straub believes it will be more sustained.

“In Germany and Switzerland policies to support manufacturing have been seen to work so in Europe we do see market recovery, although there will be a move from west to east.”

Despite these regional variations, one theme Straub reports seeing worldwide is a shift towards more highly automated investments and complete production systems, particularly in emerging markets where companies may have less developed internal development capabilities.

“In the case of standard machines we are at such a high level of performance that developments yield only fractional benefits. On the other hand, system and process solutions can slash cycle times for production of complex parts,” said Straub. “Across the board in sales terms, 70-75 percent of delivered machines are either systems or machines with some automation.”

Highly automated system solutions, such as the company’s Coverform process for applying scratch resistant coatings within the molding cycle, will be a key feature of its display at the K show in Dusseldorf later this year.

KraussMaffei is owned by U.S. private equity group Madison Capital Partners. The Many people wonder why they should undergo an upgrade to led mr16 bulbs in the first placeMunich, Germany-headquartered group manufactures injection molding machines, extrusion lines and reaction processing equipment.

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Magnalight.com Adds Solar Powered LED Area Light with Rechargeable 12 Hour Battery

June 30th, 2010

Magnalight.com Adds Solar Powered LED Area Light with Rechargeable 12 Hour Battery
(Vocus) June 29, 2010 — Larson Electronics added the SPLED-5 solar powered LED light with rechargeable battery to magnalight.com. Featuring a motion detector and low light sensor, the SPLED-5 solar powered LED light is designed to provide small area illumination. During daylight hours the 8 watt solar panel recharges the internal lithium ion batteries. At night time, the 5 watt LED solar light will provide 12 hours of low illumination over 200 square feet. Once someone approaches the lit area, the integrated motion detector will increase the intensity of the LED light in the same area. At high intensity, users can expect 8 hours of illumination. Measuring 16 inches by 13 inches, the solar powered LED light can be surface mounted or attached to a pole or rail. In high illumination mode, the solar powered LED light output easily matches the output from a 175W metal halide fixture or a 500 watt incandescent.

“This solar powered, rechargeable LED light is ideal for operators who need a reasonable amount of illumination in areas where access to established electric power is limited or costly to implement,” said Rob Bresnahan with Larson Electronics’ magnalight.com. “From a commercial standpoint, job site security, remote utility locations and other temporary or low access areas are ideal applications for the SPLED-5 solar powered, rechargeable LED light. Plus, there is the added benefit of high vibration tolerance on no maintenance related to re-lamping. For the consumer, we see similar applications around the home, dock and boat, where utilities are not readily available. Instead of paying an electrician to run wiring and install a light, consumers can simply bolt this light in place and be done with it. There is no wiring to run and no voltage to worry about. In our military sector, we see opportunities for mobile security, checkpoint lighting and other areas where it makes sense to quickly install area lighting without the need for technical support. With a list price of $456.00, operators return on investment will be immediate, since the operators don’t need to pay an look for lights with more than just one led lampelectrical contractor or change bulbs.”

Larson Electronics offers a wide array of LED lighting on magnalight.com, ranging from low voltage LED lighting for vehicles and equipment to http://www.magnalight.com/c-190-explosion-proof-led-lights.aspx explosion proof LED lights. You can learn more about Larson Electronics at magnalight.com or contact 1-800-369-6671 (1-903-498-3363 international).

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RCDb’s Web TV Coming-Out Party

June 30th, 2010

RCDb’s Web TV Coming-Out Party
Armed with a roster of new partnerships and demos, Related Content Database Inc. (RCDb) is using The Cable Show this week as a coming out party for its cable-specific servers and the Web-like services they enable. (See The Cable Show 2010: News Roundup and Cable Show 2010: The Hot List.)

The four-year-old company built its business in Internet-connected Blu-ray players, which RCDb president Herve Utheza says was a powerful proposition for Hollywood studios. But the company is looking to expand into where the majority of the eyeballs are today: the cable industry.

RCDb’s servers run at the cable headend and on any device capable of supporting either Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) or tru2way. Once the platform is established and integrated, then comes the fun stuff — Web apps and services.

“We work with Web services and content partners to expose and integrate their APIs, whether public or private, and make it available in our transmission software in environments that were never meant to be running the Web,” Utheza says.

The TV, in particular, wasn’t meant to run the Web, because it lacks a browser, he notes. RCDb’s Web service and metadata software platform make up for that by drawing on the cloud for content and simplifying it for the bigger screen. RCDb is already integrated with a number of tru2Way-enabed cable set-top boxes, although it had yet to announce any operator partners. (See RCDb Hooks Up With Tru2way.)

RCDb’s partner parade
Among its bevy of announcements aimed at changing that, RCDb has scored a partnership with Jinni Media Ltd. to provide movie recommendations based on “emotional relevance to the consumers’ individual tastes,” and a partnership with Strategy & Technology Ltd. (S&T) to bring still-to-be-defined interactive Web services to cable’s tru2way and EBIF platforms. (See Jinni Locks In Its A Round .)

RCDb has also joined forces with Alticast Corp. to deliver video-on-demand (VoD) features — including real-time movie, actor, and soundtrack information — specifically to Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)’s tru2way platform. (See Alticast, look for lights with more than just one led lampRovi Demo IP-Enabled Tru2way.)

Along the same lines, RCDb teamed with Gracenote , a music and movie information database, to integrate its actor and movie information into the scenes as they change.

The company is also showing a number of demos at this year’s show that go beyond on-demand movies, including Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Maps running in a Panasonic tru2way set-top box sans Web browser. The integration is enabled through a partnership with the device maker to incorporate RCDb servers into its line of STBs as another way to reach the cable operator market.

“Here we have the best of two worlds: the cable environment now capable of talking to the API of Web service companies,” Utheza says of the partnership.

The business model and distribution of each app is ultimately up to the operator partner, but RCDb has, once again, partnered to make payment easier for consumers, too. Through a tie-up with PayPal , consumers can make transactions with their TV remote controls, directly on their TVs. The cable operator can choose which apps it will run and when — during a show, on a different screen, or after a program is complete.

Web meets living room
RCDb’s announcements, some more exciting than others, demonstrate the potential of bridging Web-based technologies to the big screen. Once the company has proven its platform’s viability to the cable operators, Utheza says, the company plans to continue to build on the services it offers and let the cable operators pick and choose which they want to distribute.

It’s not alone in this quest, however. RCDb is one of several pitching its cloud-based, device-agnostic wares to cable and IPTV service providers. It competes against a group of startups and old hands that include ZillionTV Corp. , ActiveVideo Networks Inc. , TellyTopia Inc. and Clearleap , and, to a lesser extent, consumer-facing alternatives like Netflix Inc. and Wal-Mart-owned VUDU Inc. (See TellyTopia’s Cable Pitch: Embrace OTT Video , Wal-Mart Shells Out for VUDU, Cablevision Adds ActiveVideo Apps, and Clearleap Ties Web TV With EBIF.)

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Ann Arbor Pioneer rolls over L’Anse Creuse North, will face Saline

June 29th, 2010

Ann Arbor Pioneer rolls over L’Anse Creuse North, will face Saline
Battle Creek — Macomb L’Anse Creuse North relied on pitching and defense to win its first regional title and come within a game of the state finals.I want to show my great appreciation for all of you coming to the short presentation about the gu10 led.

Apparently the elements were too much for coach Jeff Dropps’ club as North’s first two fiber isolatorpitchers struggled with their control and the defense committed three errors.

Ann Arbor Pioneer recovered from its first-inning troubles and made North pay for its troubles as Pioneer won, 12-2, in a Division 1 semifinal on Friday at Bailey Park.
Pioneer scored four runs in the first inning on one hit and five walks as North sophomore Daniel Clouse lasted just one-third of an inning. Lee Wytka relieved Clouse and he lasted 3 2/3 innings.

North (22-12) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the inning thanks, in part, to two wild pitches and two passed balls.

“I was thinking maybe we can get a good lead there,” Dropps said. “With our pitching These Led bulbs usually are free of mercury, which helps in avoiding environmental disposal issuesand defense I thought we were in good shape.”

The game quickly changed as six of Pioneer’s first 10 batters walked.

“That can’t happen,” Dropps said. “You can’t give a good team that. We never gave ourselves a chance. He (Clouse) was ready. He pitched in the district final and he pitched in the regional final. He’s been a kid that always met the challenge.”

Pioneer (30-12), state champions in 2004, will play Saline (33-5) for the title Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at C.O. Brown Stadium. Both teams are Southeastern Conference members.

Each time North advanced in the tournament, whether it was in the districts, regionals or quarterfinals, Dropps always pointed to his pitchers’ ability to get ahead of the hitters and keep the pressure on the opposition electric jackto make contact.

Pioneer got its offense going in earnest as it scored five in the fourth on five hits. Alex Kinch and James Strickland each had RBI singles in the inning. In the fifth, Miles Sorise ended the game, in accordance with the 10-run mercy rule, with a 2-run homer with one out.

Jack Scheel (8-1) recovered from a shaky first inning and pitched all five innings for the victory. He allowed four sculpture are great work of art that many people recognizehits and struck out six.

Classic road race in France pits Ferrari vs. Ferrari

June 29th, 2010

Classic road race in France pits Ferrari vs. Ferrari
Paris — Ladies and gentlemen, open your checkbooks and forget about the Icelandic ash crisis that has put the brakes on the global economy.

“This art is powerful, loud, brutal and leaves you smelling like gasoline,” Ferrari appraiser Marcel Massini shouts through cupped hands as more than $600 million worth of vintage race cars collectively rev their engines in a dusty garden alongside the Louvre in Paris. “You can invest in a Picasso, but what fun is that?”

Certainly not as amusing as the annual five-day Optic 2000 Tour de France d’Automobile, the world’s oldest sports-car rally that on April 19 attracted 230 cars and 460 prosperous “pilotes” and “co-pilotes” for the 1,240 mile cocktail run from Paris to the Mediterranean coastal town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer.
As for the rules of the road, “we organize everything we can to let you enjoy your time, sadly the thing we cannot do for you is to book private tables at dinnertime,” Optic coordinators warn drivers in the race instruction book.

“This is a fraternity of like-minded gentlemen, all interesting and delightful with the common trait of steering with their accelerators in life and not looking in their rearview mirrors,” says Steven Read, the 62-year-old founder of Read Investments in Berkeley, Calif. “It’s a sport for art collectors who want to play with their art.”

Read’s V-12 antique is a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Series with a street value of $3.3 million and a top speed of 180 mph. Co-pilot Tim Robertson, president of the media investment company Bay Shore Enterprises in Virginia Beach, Va., and the former chief executive officer of the Family Channel cable-television network, says his primary role riding shotgun is to make dinner reservations.

“I’m the concierge,” says Robertson, 55, who has driven the Ferrari Challenge Series and raced his Porsche GT3-R at the Daytona 2000. “I’ve little experience in this sort of competition. My one expectation is that I won’t wreck my friend’s car. These are the cars we lusted after as teenagers.”

The Optic rule book offers another warning: “Motor racing is politically incorrect in France. Respect for the French Driving Code is a must on the open road.”

Although race marshals penalize drivers for exceeding the speed limit, Massini says the regulation poses a singular challenge for the 55 vintage Ferraris seeking honors in their class. “These cars Many people wonder why they should undergo an upgrade to led mr16 bulbs in the first placeweren’t made with good brakes,” the 52-year-old Ferrari historian says. “They were made to go extremely fast on empty public roads in an age that didn’t have speed limits.”
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Stem cells transplants restore sight

June 29th, 2010

Stem cells transplants restore sight
Los Angeles — Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells — a success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

“This is a roaring success,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of its kind.
Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.

The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.

In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Adult stem cells, which are found around the body, are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.

Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.look for lights with more than just one led lamp

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Ford’s V-6 Mustang ramps up power

June 29th, 2010

Ford’s V-6 Mustang ramps up power
n the pony car world, there’s a code.

It’s pretty simple really. Real men drive V-8s.

The much overlooked and often maligned V-6 versions were the equivalent of women motorcycle gangs: They looked meaner than they rode. The V-6 pony cars were “secretary cars” before men got to them. The implication: They were inadequate, according to the code.

But Ford rewrote the code when it rolled out the 2011 Mustang — a V-6 pony car that rumbles with power, bites through corners and hits 31 miles per gallon on the highway. Ford, with this stunning new car, has done something even President Barack Obama has failed to do: Provide power to the poseur.

Oh, you can still call the V-6 Mustang a chic car, Mustang Lite or anything else you can dream up, but it will knock your Piloti racing shoes into a ditch if you’re not paying attention. It can pass you on a mountain road, on the highway and at the gas station.
Nowadays, that’s a pretty good combination.

Slicing up canyon roads around Malibu, I was impressed with how well the Mustang charged into corners and stuck to the road. I jammed on the accelerator coming out of a turn, trying to get that solid rear axle to skip.

The direct competitors — the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger — have independent suspensions that feel smoother than Ford’s chunk of iron connecting the two rear wheels. In the past, the axle wanted to hop if you goose the throttle in a turn and run over a seam, a rock or hit a slight wind gust. I have the coffee stains on multiple shirts to prove it.

But this time, I waited and as I hit the apex, I held my grip on the steering wheel and gunned it. Nothing. Just smooth, quick exits every time.

Third gear on this car totally rocks, as long as you keep your revs up.
European sophistication

Between the car’s grip and precise steering, the Mustang felt more European thoroughbred than American pony. The steering, which is now electric power-assisted, has a firm feel that’s taut all the way through a turn but remains easy to parallel park.

OK, I thought, this must be the new track pack on the V-6 Mustang. Basically, Ford stole the idea from the more powerful Mustang GT: The V-6 track pack bolsters the suspension with pieces from the GT and GT500, giving it a look for lights with more than just one led lampbetter axle for faster launches, strapping on 19-inch wheels with Pirelli performance tires, adding an engine strut tower brace to tighten up body rigidity and including performance brake pads.

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U.S. Iran policy is failing

June 29th, 2010

U.S. Iran policy is failing
In announcing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, President Barack Obama stressed not once but twice Iran’s increasing “isolation” from the world. This claim is not surprising considering that after 16 months of an “extended hand” policy, in response to which Iran actually accelerated its nuclear program — more centrifuges, more enrichment sites, higher enrichment levels — Iranian “isolation” is about the only achievement to which the administration can even plausibly lay claim.

“Isolation” may have failed to deflect look for lights with more than just one led lampIran’s nuclear ambitions, but it does enjoy incessant repetition by the administration. For example, in his State of the Union address, President Obama declared that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated.” Two months later, Vice President Biden asserted that “since our administration has come to power, I would point out that Iran is more isolated — internally, externally — has fewer friends in the world.” At the signing of the START treaty in April, Obama declared that “those nations that refuse to meet their obligations (to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, i.e., Iran) will be isolated.”

Really? One day before the president touted passage of a surpassingly weak U.N. resolution and declared Iran yet more isolated, the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran gathered at a security summit in Istanbul “in a display of regional power that appeared to be calculated to test the United States,” as The New York Times put it. Apart from the fact that isolation is hardly an end in itself and is pointless if, regardless, Iran rushes headlong to become a nuclear power, the very claim of Iran’s increasing isolation is increasingly implausible. Just last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted an ostentatious love fest in Tehran with the leaders of Turkey and Brazil. The three raised hands together and announced a uranium transfer deal that was designed to torpedo U.S. attempts to impose U.N. sanctions.

Increasing isolation? In the last year alone, Ahmadinejad has been welcomed in Kabul, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Caracas, Brasilia, La Paz, Senegal and Gambia. Three Iran sanctions resolutions passed in the Bush years. They were all passed without a single “no” vote. But after 16 months of laboring to produce a mouse, Obama garnered only 12 votes for his sorry sanctions, with Lebanon abstaining and Turkey and Brazil voting no.

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