Santorum wins Louisiana, trails badly in delegates

With all Louisiana precincts reporting, Santorum captured 49 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Romney. Newt Gingrich, was far back at 16 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 6 percent.

Although the victory gives Santorum bragging rights and 10 more delegates, it does not change the overall dynamics of the race. The former Pennsylvania senator still dramatically lags behind Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, in the battle for delegates to the party’s August nominating convention in Tampa, Florida.

The Saturday vote in Louisiana gave Romney five delegates and five will be designated as uncommitted.

With the state-by-state primary and caucus contests more than half complete, Santorum has won just 27 percent of the delegates. Romney has been accumulating delegates at a 54-percent clip. Most of the remaining states award delegates proportionally based on primary results, making it even more difficult for Santorum to close the gap.

The odds would seem to rule out nomination of Santorum. But as he savored his victory in Louisiana, the ultraconservative vowed to remain in the battle. Santorum was campaigning in Wisconsin, which holds its primary on April 3.

“Even though a lot of folks are saying this race is over, the people in Louisiana said,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, ‘No, it’s not.This page contains information about molds,’ They still want to see someone who they can trust, someone who’s not running an Etch a Sketch campaign, but one who has their principals written on their heart,What is a real time Location system ? not on an erasable tablet,” Santorum said Sunday on CBS television’s “Face the Nation.” “And I think that’s what helped us deliver the win in Louisiana, and I think we’re going to do very well up here in Wisconsin, too.”

Santorum was referring to a comment last week by a top Romney campaign adviser implying that once nominated “everything changes” for Romney “like an Etch a Sketch,” referring to a mechanical drawing toy that just needs shaking for the image to vanish. The comment implied that Romney would be able to move his positions more to the center of the political specturm in the general election campaign.

The remark fueled long-standing criticism that Romney, who has held more moderate views in the past on sensitive issues such as abortion and gay rights, molds his principles to fit political goals and lacks conservative convictions.

But the Republican establishment is increasingly coalescing around Romney’s candidacy out of concern that an extended nomination fight could hurt the party’s chances against President Barack Obama. The Democratic incumbent faces no serious primary challenge and his re-election campaign already is well under way.

An influential Republican senator said on Sunday that the nominating race was all but finished.

“I think the primary is over. Romney will be the nominee,” South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham told CNN. “The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. But she’s warming up.”

Romney has churned through the nomination contest with a huge financial and organizational advantage, further dimming the likelihood that Santorum will pull off the nearly impossible task. His campaign staff rubbed that in after Santorum’s Saturday victory.

“Rick Santorum is like a football team celebrating a field goal (a 3-point score) when they are losing by seven touchdowns (42 points) with less than a minute left in the game,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams, who was at Santorum’s sparsely attended victory party in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That state holds its primary on April 3.

Romney remains far ahead with 568 delegates to Santorum’s 273,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. according to an Associated Press tally. Newt Gingrich follows with 135 and Ron Paul has 50.

Romney is just short of half the 1,144 delegates it will take to clinch the nomination ahead of the convention this summer in Tampa, Florida, while Santorum is shy of accumulating a quarter of the needed delegates. His organizational disadvantage will show again in the District of Columbia primary, also on April 3, where Santorum failed to get on the ballot.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,

A loft with room for inspiration

Leafing through a 1960s shelter magazine recently, Linnea Gits landed on a piece about shibumi, a Japanese aesthetic. She tacked a list of its seven qualities to the chunky cork mood board inside the River West loft she shares with partner Peter Dunham, as a distillation of the values they have always lived and designed by: simplicity, implicitness, modesty, silence, naturalness, everydayness and imperfection.

Those principles influence every object — custom furniture, tabletop accessories, limited-edition prints — that the couple create for their almost 2-year-old design company Uusi. That sensibility also permeates the 2,500-square-foot live/work space that they gutted and rebuilt starting in 1996, in an industrial building once occupied by a furniture company.

A woodworker and furniture-maker, Dunham executed most of the rehab, with artful unconventionality. There is no living room, formal or otherwise. "One of these days we will get a sofa," Gits said with a laugh. The master bedroom occupies a sliver of the 2,500 square feet of second-floor space they lease,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, which affords a sprawling art studio and corner office. Dunham's wood shop stretches across 5,000 square feet in the basement.

Nonetheless, the interior feels warm and inviting in its cross between commercial and personal, spare and collected.

"Spaces are so emotional," said Gits, who focuses on graphic art, design and illustration. "They are sanctuaries, but they need enough tension to be inspirational."

"They also need to be functional," Dunham said, seated at the dark wood dining/conference table he built and topped with white laminate, both for appealing contrast and a neutral background for product photography.

Uusi — pronounced OO-see — means "new" in Finnish. But much of the freshness here comes from the couple's vintage objects. An edited selection of Springerle cookie molds dating to the 1800s (which they have baked with) and Japanese Kokeshi dolls adorn floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Another holds Danish craftsman Kay Bojesen's bulbous wood animals, some of which Gits' mother gave to her as a child. They informed a series of decorative wood animal figures Uusi produced for Design Within Reach stores.

"As a child, I never wanted to play with the (Bojesen figurines), but I liked looking at them and imagining what world they were from," Gits said.Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mould, "It's those things that are so crazy-weird that feed you and stick with you longer.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies."

"They start something," Dunham said.

Painted Benjamin Moore Atrium white,They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. original plaster walls adjoin new drywall where rooms were reconfigured. The floors are plywood transformed with custom finishes. Dunham stained the kitchen ones white, suggesting marble when sunshine floods through two skylights.

Above the kitchen sink is a wooden, wall-mounted knife block, an Uusi best-seller (and one purchased by Alinea chef Grant Achatz). "It's an example of something that looks so simple to make," Dunham said, but isn't.

Dunham and Gits remodeled the kitchen three years ago, replacing cabinetry above the counter with a long shelf for easy access to dinnerware and Dunham's vintage Belgian beer glasses.What is a third party payment gateway ? They kept the Tappan stove, inherited from Dunham's grandmother.

The shelf, and the lower cabinetry, bears a thick veneer of cypress, from staves Dunham salvaged from water towers across Chicago. The rings of the wood repeat along the shelf and lower cabinetry like the eddies of a pond across which a stone has skipped.

"This wood is anywhere from 300 to a thousand years old," Dunham said. "It's like some kind of fossil gem. You cut into these pieces, and you never know what you're going to see."

He has re-purposed cypress and redwood staves for commercial and personal purposes. Most recently, he shaped a paper-thin flitch into a lampshade that bathes his desk in warm, coppery light if he is working in the wee hours, as the couple are wont and able to do.

They do sleep, Gits assured. A full-size bed covered in a Missoni spread accommodates Gits (who is 5 feet 10 inches tall), Dunham and occasionally their two cats.

"Four years ago we were replacing our mattress, and I was so freaked by how big they had gotten, with 5 miles of pillow top. We just wanted a firm mattress. The store had purposely put this one on a Soviet-era bed," Gits said, smiling. "We're going to sound really Spartan! We're not unsensual people."

Don't let slugs take over your garden

As you get ready to get out and plant flower beds, and you might begin to see the early blossoms from the bulbs planted late last season, you might also start to notice garden pests. There are many garden pests I could discuss such as aphids, cucumber beetles, pill bugs and more, but for this article I will focus on the slimy mollusks of the pest world: slugs.

Slugs can be quite frustrating for gardeners because they shred leaves and sometimes defoliate entire plants. They eat by rasping with their mouth which scrapes the leaves. They lay eggs in the cracks of the soil.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. The baby slugs then travel through the soil and damage or destroy root crops, juvenile plants and germinating seeds.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.

These sluggish invaders are very different from the insects or larvae we typically see in the garden. Slugs are mollusks,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, so they have a very different body shape and composition than most of the other garden pests you typically see. Slugs can reach up to four inches in length, exhibit nocturnal behavior and prefer wet areas to thrive. Areas most common for slugs include gardens, basements,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. greenhouses and even flower pots. In order to battle slugs effectively you may need to take a creative approach, instead of just using a general pesticide.

First, it's important to understand that these gastropods depend on moist, humid environments to survive. They feed on molds, decaying organic matter, and of course, many of our garden flowers and veggies. If your garden bed area has specific pockets that retain moisture, then those areas are most susceptible to housing these slimy garden pests. Keeping mulch, which harbors slugs, away from the base of your plants will aide in keeping your plants safe.

A simple solution for dealing with slugs is to put down a newspaper or wooden plank over those humid or damp areas in the evening. In the morning you'll find that slugs have made their way to the underside of the material-you can then simply pick it up and dispose of the whole thing. You can choose to throw them directly in the trash can or into a bucket of soapy water.TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China. You can also attract slugs by placing halved fruit rinds such as grapefruit, lemon, lime, and melons-scooped out and place upside-down throughout the damp areas in your garden. Leave them overnight, in the morning turn them over to find a congregation of slugs housed in the underside of the rinds. Dunk the rinds in soapy water to remove the slugs, then toss the rinds in your compost pile, or reuse them again as you did initially to trap more slugs. Another low-cost, environmentally-friendly option is beer. Slugs are naturally attracted to beer. Bury a small bowl, pie tin, or tin can filled with beer in the yard near garden beds so that the opening is at ground level. This will act as a trap where slugs will fall in and drown. The same trap can be baited with a mixture of sugar-water and yeast.

Gene Therapy Shows Promise for Treating Beta-Thalassemia

Scientists have developed a gene therapy strategy that could feasibly treat both β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The technology is based on delivery of a lentiviral vector carrying both the human β-globin gene and an ankyrin insulator to improve gene transcripton and translation, and boost levels of β-globin production. The Weill Cornell Medical College-led team that reports on the development has in parallel devised a simple assay to predict how well individual patients are likely to respond to the treatment.

Stefano Rivella,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. Ph.D., and colleagues report on their achievement in PLoS One in a paper titled “Therapeutic Hemoglobin Levels after Gene Transfer in β-Thalassemia Mice and in Hematopoietic Cells of β-Thalassemia and Sickle Cells Disease Patients.”

β-thalassemia is caused by mutations in the β-globin gene which lead to either reduced β-globin synthesis (β+), or a complete lack of β-globin (β0). Sickle-cell disease (SCD), on the other hand, is caused by a mutation in the β chain that leads to synthesis of an aberrant form of hemoglobin, Hb S. The only definitive cure for either disease is allogeneic bone marrow cell transplantation, a procedure that, even if a suitable donor can be found, can cause rejection reactions in the recipient.

Building on the success of prior gene therapy studies in mice, and the first evaluation of gene therapy in β-thalassemia patient, the Weill Cornell-led researchers developed a new lentiviral vector, designated AnkT9W, which carries both the human β-globin gene and the erythroid-specific ankyrin 5’ hypersensitive (HS) barrier insulator.

Initial studies showed that mouse erythroleukemia (MEL) cells transduced with AnkT9W exhibited far greater hemoglobin synthesis than cells transduced with a T9W vector that didn’t include the ankyrin insulator. This enhanced hemoglobin synthesis was associated with increased levels of β-globin mRNA and translation. Importantly, the ankyrin element was stably integrated in the MEL cells.

The researchers moved on to test their vector in a mouse model of thalassemia intermedia, which is the less severe form of the disease.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Bone marrow cells from affected mice were transduced with AnkT9W and then reintroduced back into the animals. Encouragingly, therapy led to markedly increased levels of hemoglobin and red cell counts, together with what the authors call remarkable correction of the red blood cell morphology, and correction of liver and spleen morphology.

To demonstrate whether expression of chimeric hemoglobin could be sustained over the long term, the team then took bone marrow cells from the treated animals and transplanted them into a separate cohort of thalassemic mice, and then repeated the process to establish tertiary chimeras. Even in these animals expression of chimeric hemoglobin was comparable to that of the initial treated animals, “confirming that a sustained correction of the phenotype can be achieved utilizing AnkT9W.”

Given that the data so far indicated that AnkT9W enabled MEL cells to express the transgenic β-globin gene and led to efficient long-term correction of thalassemic phenotype in mice, the team tested the vector in an ex vivo-expanded population of peripheral blood-derived human erythroid progenitor cells (ErPCs). Transduced cells from patients with β+ thalassemia (i.e., that already produce some Hb A) started to produce levels of total Hb A (in other words transgenic Hb A plus endogenous Hb A) that were equivalent to those in healthy cells. Even totally Hb A-deficient β0 cells were capable of producing levels of transgenic Hb A comparable to about 55% of normal, after transduction with AnkT9W.

Overall, it was evident that β0/0 cells required higher amounts of vector to reach therapeutic levels of Hb, whereas Β0/+ and β+/+ cells already expressed some endogenous HbA and reached curative levels at lower vector copy numbers (VCNs). Blood tests prior to therapy could therefore provide an indication of how much vector they will need to achieve curative levels of Hb, the team writes.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, “We believe that analysis of erythroid progenitors transduced with different amounts of lentiviral vectors could be useful for testing the potential of each lentiviral construct prior to bone marrow transplantation.”

Results in CD34+ cells from SCD patients were similarly encouraging. These cells normally produce no Hb A, but instead produce a mutant Hb S. However, after transduction with AnkT9W,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. the cells reduced their production of both fetal hemoglobin and Hb S, and instead started producing transgenic Hb A.

"This study represents a fresh departure from previously published work in the field of gene therapy,” Dr. Rivella claims. “The gene therapy technique has the potential to cure many patients, especially if we prescreen them to predict their response using just a few of their cells..xcel Mould is a Custom Mold Making,.This approach would provide vital information to select the best candidates for these clinical trials, before patients undergo myeloablation and bone marrow transplant.”

Flight of the Night Hawks

Exactly what the fish think it is, no one’s sure. I’ve heard a dozen theories from a dozen anglers: a big shrimp; a sideways-swimming crab; a bottom-hugging mullet; an eel.

For fun I’ll throw in my own two cents: a snook. Those long, contrasting fibers extending beyond the skirt? The ones that make these popular jigs lure look like a fish with a long, dark, lateral line?

That big snook prey on little snook is a fact well-documented by a three-year research effort overseen by Florida’s foremost snook experts. From 2006 to 2009, biologists electro-fished four Southeast Florida rivers, all famous for linesider populations: The South and North Forks of the St. Lucie; the Loxahatchee; and the Sebastian. Temporarily stunned fish were subject to a gentle stomach-pump procedure, then returned to the watershed with a dart tag.

Of individual prey items, mullet made up the greatest proportion of snook diet by weight. By number, swimming crabs were the most common. But all kinds of weird stuff showed up: armored catfish, sleeper gobies, freshwater prawns, left-eyed flounder. Many of these critters are demersal by nature, living close to or even in the bottom—a point to which I’ll return in a moment. And, of course, snook bellies contained snook.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) scientists worked in daylight hours, and noted—with minor irritation—that much of the stomach contents were difficult to recognize, in late stages of digestion. They were cognizant of another well-established fact: Snook foraging activity peaks between dusk and dawn.

These fish feed predominantly in the dark, on a variety of prey,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. including line-striped Centropomus of roughly the size and profile of a 1 -ounce nylon hair jig.

I surmise Lt. Col. Clayton Williams would’ve found these reports mildly interesting, but not surprising. He may have also found it amusing that, 50 years later, fishermen are still trying to figure out the “magic” in his lure design.

Williams, who passed away in 2001, is widely credited as the inventor of what came to be referred to locally as the redtail hawk jig style, though he pointed out in a 1999 Ft. Pierce Tribune interview that he didn’t name it as such.

His widow, Lanell,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, told me recently Williams regarded the characteristic tail, or runner, mostly as an attractor. “He would’ve thought redtail hawk was a silly name,” she said, smiling. “He had a very creative mind; if he needed something, he’d make it,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, and if it worked, well. . . other people would notice!”

Williams developed the pattern while fishing on the south jetty of Fort Pierce Inlet in 1960. A native of north Georgia, and a decorated WWII and Korean War veteran, Williams was resourceful and systematic. Most of snook bites would occur right on the bottom on a strong tide; to reach those fish consistently, Williams built his own mold to pour bullet-shaped leadheads weighing 1 ounces—heavier than what was available in those days.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. One of his two sons, David Williams,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, remembers bins of deer tails arriving at their home in Fort Pierce from parts unknown, and later, reams of nylon. Lanell said jig-making was an ongoing passion. “We’d be on vacation, and there he’d be, tying up jigs,” she recalled.

Lure companies—beginning with Nickelure in the 1970s—took notice, and today jigs similar to Williams’ original design are built by a half-dozen makers, under different names and in wide color and size variations. Frank Neff, of Jensen Beach, acquired a trademark for the name in 2006, and sells his Red Tail Hawk Lures in 72 different varieties of color and weight. But many other designs produce fish.

Religious practices are not all ethical

In September 2011, a two-week-old baby boy unnecessarily died. The cause of death: Disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction. The Orthodox Jewish circumcision process called “metzitzah b’peh” is otherwise known as “oral suction,” or the suctioning of blood from the circumcision wound directly by mouth.

Unfortunately, last year isn’t the first time that this particular rabbi, Yitzchok Fischer, caused the death of a child. The same thing happened in 2004, and that same year three other babies were determined to have contracted herpes from Fischer. While Herpes Simplex Virus 1 is usually harmless in adults and manifests itself only as uncomfortable cold sores, because of the virus’ association with the nervous system, it poses significant health threats to newborns and can result in brain damage, and sometimes, death.

The practice of circumcision is condoned in the Bible and believed by several religious denominations to be one of the most important rituals performed during an individual’s lifetime. But outside of a religious context, oral-penile contact from an adult man to a child is considered pedophilia and is punishable by law.

Because the contact in question occurred within a religious context, Fischer has not been held accountable for the death of the baby boys.

Jerry Schmetterer, the spokesman for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, told The Jewish Week that, “Our Crimes Against Children Bureau is looking into this situation. I would not assume what any possible charges would be.”

I can think of a few possible charges, Mr. Hynes. How about two counts of criminal homicide? Several counts of child molestation? Tortious transmission of an STD by intentional neglect? The behavior of this priest is abominable to any right-minded person, but according to The Jewish Week, the city only filed a legal complaint against Fischer to compel him to stop engaging in the practice after the death of the first baby. Clearly,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, he did not comply, but instead of being legally prosecuted, the matter was ultimately referred by the city to a “beit din” — a religious tribunal — for review.

In his book “God is Not Great,” Christopher Hitchens writes about circumcision in connection to religion: “Full excision … is now exposed for what it is — a mutilation of a powerless infant … And who can bear to read the medical textbooks and histories which calmly record the number of boy babies who died from infection after their eighth day … The record of syphilitic and other infection, from rotting rabbinical teeth or other rabbinical indiscretions … is simply dreadful.”

The alteration of an individual’s body without informed consent is dreadful. It is interesting to note that in third-world countries the circumcision,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, or genital mutilation of young females, is viewed as an abhorrent attack on human rights and informed consent.What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment? In the U.S.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,, before 2006, more than half the population of young males were being circumcised.

Fortunately, the practice of circumcision has plummeted in popularity in the last few years. A study by the Control for Disease Center in 2010 found that from 2006 to 2009,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. the rate of circumcision dropped from 56 percent to 32.4 percent. There are groups called “intactivists,” who promote legislation that prohibits the practice of circumcision altogether.

Some modern proponents of male circumcision claim that the removal of the foreskin reduces an infant’s chances of incurring urinary tract infections and aids in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases later in life. However, according to Kidshealth.org, less than one percent of non-circumcised males will contract a UTI, making this concern negligible.

Helping One Big Client, but Wanting to Spread Out

The Four Horsemen — Chris Dahlberg, H. Eric Mayse, Jim Preziosi and Eric Treadaway — met while working at McFarlane Toys, a maker of action figures. Wanting to create their own line, the four men left McFarlane in 1999 to start their own company.

But creating a toy line, getting it to market and making it profitable can take years. To be successful, action figures generally need a story supported by movies, TV shows or comic books. Rather than focus on creating content, Mr. Preziosi said, the men decided to build their reputations as designers.

At the time, Mattel was looking for an outside team with a distinctive design sense. The Four Horsemen pitched the idea of bringing back the Mattel characters He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which had been highly successful in the 1980s. Mattel liked the idea and offered the team a contract. “There was a financial guarantee,” for a year, Mr. Treadaway said. “It allowed each of us a salary.”

From their new workshop in Bloomingdale,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. N.J., the team began designing the toys, then sending the molds to Mattel, which handled manufacturing and sales. The workload was modest in the beginning, about 20 toys a year, Mr. Treadaway said. But as their relationship with Mattel grew and their contract was extended, the Four Horsemen picked up other assignments.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.

The Mattel work kept them busy, but their intent had been to design their own toys. And yet, without content or a story line, it would be hard for Four Horsemen to establish its own product line.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Still focused on Mattel, they tried their first independent effort in 2004, a line they called Magma Corps. They produced 1,000 figures, selling them for $20 apiece to collectors at comic conventions and on the company’s e-commerce Web site. But interest was slow to build, and they were able to sell only a few hundred figures.

For their second effort, they posted sketches of a fantasy line called 7th Kingdom on their Web site and let fans decide which figures and accessories would be made. The first figure produced was given a limited run of 1,000 and sold for $20 apiece. Mr. Treadaway said the plan was to keep the price as low as possible. “As long as we were breaking even on it, we’re pretty happy about it,” he said. “It’s an investment.”

When the second 7th Kingdom figure was ready for production, it was offered for presale over the Internet, and all 1,000 sold out in a few days. But production hit a snag. To manufacture their lines, they had used their industry connections to find small factories in China that could produce the toys quickly and cheaply, a plan that backfired when one of the factories closed before production had finished.

“We paid for production, and it was half-done,” Mr. Mayse said.

The company lost money, but its contacts in China were able to retrieve some molds used in production, and the Horsemen sent the molds to another factory to finish the run. “The fans were great,” Mr. Mayse said. “They stood by for a year and a half,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? waiting patiently for their figures.”

The Horsemen were eager to produce more,A Injection Molding Moulding company, and teamed up with online retailers to sell limited-edition variations of the 7th Kingdom figure to help reduce production costs. When the figures were offered to fans, they quickly sold out.

The team tried the same concept with two more characters from the 7th Kingdom line and had the same success. The company’s annual revenue surpassed $500,000, and the men believed they were ready to expand. They had already hired two workers to help with molding and painting, and in 2009, they moved into a larger studio and hired a third employee.

They have also sought to focus on creating content to support their toy lines. In 2008, the men met with a production company, 4Kids Entertainment, about creating an animated television series, a process the four found daunting. They came close to signing a deal, but the financial crisis hit, and the deal fell apart.

Coon Rapids man at odds with city over reptile collection

Under other circumstances, the room off Scott Nellis's entry-way in to his split level Coon Rapids home might be used as an office or a den. Nellis uses it to house some 70 boa constrictors and pythons.

They live in cages stacked floor to ceiling along all four of the room's walls; a row running down the center cuts the room in two. Peering through the glass doors are snakes of all sizes. The smallest weighs less than a pound. The biggest - an Argentinean Boa and one of Nellis's favorites - weighs 28 pounds and runs about seven and a half feet from tongue to tail.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

Throughout the house, Nellis has about 360 snakes. Most live in clear, plastic dresser drawers stacked on top of each other in the basement. Each is carefully labeled with the specie's name, sex and the date Nellis bought it, creating a gigantic filing system of snakes throughout the lower level.

The UPS driver also has 60 lizards, about 250 rats and mice and two huge tubs crawling with cockroaches.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. The rodents and roaches are feed for the reptiles. The snakes and lizards are personal pets and inventory. Nellis - a snake breeder - sells them at reptile expos across the Midwest.

The years-long gig - he started in 1996 but ramped things up in 2004 - ran uninterrupted until October,xcel Mould is a Custom Mold Making, when the city found out about his unusual roommates when a neighbor complained of a foul smell coming from a pile of discarded wood-shavings in Nellis' backyard.

Now Nellis finds himself in a fight with Coon Rapids officials who say his 700-plus animals have rendered his home unsafe and unfit for human habitation. They ordered Nellis to get rid of them.

He's hoping to convince city officials otherwise at a meeting Friday, March 23.

"This is my private life we're talking about," Nellis said. "It's my contention the city has no business whatsoever trying to dictate what I do legally inside my house."

When it comes to health and safety, the city begs to differ, said City Attorney Stoney Hiljus. He said a search of Nellis's home in October uncovered several potential risk factors.

Among them, inspectors found a web of extension chords used to regulate lighting and temperature for the reptiles that pose a fire hazard, Hiljus said.

Officials also said his setup in the upstairs room - cages creates two narrow passageways and partially blocks a set of windows - is hazardous for potential firefighters responding to a call in the house. Last, a check of air quality in the residence found ammonia levels in excess of 20-parts per million, Hiljus said. Animal waste creates ammonia. Most homes register less than one part per million. In high levels, the substance can cause respiratory issues, Hiljus said.

To top it off,Injection molding and Plastic molding supplier， the city's 2010 revised domestic animal ordinance prohibits private ownership of pythons and boas. Nellis is also technically not allowed to operate a business out of his home without a conditional use permit.

"I understand Mr. Nellis's standpoint that this is his home and he should be able to do what he wants within his own four walls, but we can't ignore what we see," Hiljus said, explaining that without the neighbor's complaint, Nellis might have been able to continue his business and hobby for years.

The neighbor, Ken Botzet, could not be reached for comment.

"Now that we're aware of these code violations we have no choice but to get involved," Hiljus said.

What that involvement will mean is still unclear.

The City Council voted earlier this month to table action on city staff's order that Nellis clear his house of all his animals. Instead, they've advised staff to try and negotiate with the snake-lover, who developed a fondness for reptiles after chasing around frogs and garden snakes at his grandparents' lake place in Mahnomen County in northwest Minnesota.

To Hiljus, a successful negotiation would mean Nellis getting rid of all his pythons and boas. In addition to the exotic snakes, Nellis also has over a hundred Colubrid snakes that aren't forbidden by city ordinance. Those numbers would be whittled to a "reasonable amount," Hiljus said.

Nellis says he has invested about $40,000 in to his snakes and equipment over the years, with most the money tied up in his pythons and boas. To get rid of them would be tough, particularly in this economy, and would impact his ability to successfully breed.

Even more so, it would hinder his hobby.

"This is what I do. I enjoy interacting with reptiles. They're different. They're calming. I enjoy watching their behaviors," he said.

To compromise, Nellis said he'd buy an air purifier to help ammonia levels and reduce his snakes to around 260 or 300. He doesn't want to let all his pythons and boas go though and feels its unfair of the city to demand it, particularly because he purchased most while the city's ordinance still allowed them.

Instead, he said he'd like to see the city change its ordinance back, a move Nellis said makes a lot of sense considering the city already allows pet stores to sell them. He also points out that neither species is venomous.

Hiljus said the city modeled its animal ordinance off others in the state and said it would be up to the council to change it. He's hopeful a "reasonable" solution can be reached within the confines of the ordinance, he added.

'Surfing Madonna' Artist Says Mosaic Not Religious

The "Surfing Madonna,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET," a stained-glass mosaic by Marc Patterson, is currently sitting in storage in Encinitas, instead of at the entrance to Moonlight State Beach where he wanted it to be.

On Friday, the state Attorney General's Office decided against allowing the mosaic to be displayed on public lands, because its religious intent would violate the California Constitution's no preference clause.

Patterson has said he is spiritual, but is not religious. He also said there is no religious significance to the 10-foot-by-10-foot mosaic, which displays Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfing alongside the words "Save the Ocean."

"I didn't think that the religious imagery was religious," he said. "I thought of it as a cultural icon."

However, Patterson recently commented on a religious blog about how the Madonna had influenced the creation of the piece. He wrote he felt "completely inspired by Her," because the image of a surfing Madonna had appeared to him three times during the span of five years.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,

"I maybe could have stated it a little more clearly, what I was trying to say, but I was trying to respond to the concerns the folks on the blog were having," he said.

Partially as a result of the comments, the Attorney General's Office refused to allow the piece to be featured at Moonlight State Park. The Department of Parks and Recreation did not want to comment on the mural, but instead shared with 10News the response it initially gave to Patterson about his proposed location.

"The Attorney General clearly states that placement of this mosaic on state property would violate the California Constitution," the statement read. "We are unable to accommodate your request.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats,"

The Surfing Madonna first appeared under a railroad bridge in Encinitas on Good Friday last year, but was declared graffiti by city officials and removed two months later, at a loss of approximately $6,000 for Patterson.

Critics of the attorney general's decision on Friday have said the mosaic's religious tones may not be solid grounds for refusal, since there is a 30-foot religious mural in Chicano Park near downtown San Diego, which is state property.The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility.

"With the surf culture and the art culture that exists here, there is a different mentality. There's this receptivity to what was being presented," Patterson said.

The Encinitas City Council has unanimously approved that the mural should go up somewhere in the city, but has not yet determined where it will be displayed.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production.

Solar-Panel Users Prepare for Tariffs on Chinese Imports

As U.S. trade officials prepare their preliminary decision on a dumping complaint against Chinese solar-panel makers, U.S. panel users are preparing for new tariffs on Chinese imports by lining up new sources of the panels, sometimes at a significant cost.

The U.S. unit of Germany-based SolarWorld and six other U.S. companies have accused Chinese suppliers of solar panels and solar cells made from crystalline silicon of receiving unfair government subsidies and selling their products in the U.S. at prices below the cost of production. The companies have asked the government to impose antidumping tariffs and countervailing duties on the Chinese products of as much as 100%.

The U.S. Commerce Department, which has been investigating the case, is scheduled to issue a preliminary decision Tuesday on the merits of SolarWorld's case. The International Trade Commission is also pursuing an investigation.

Final decisions on tariffs and duties on Chinese panels aren't likely before summer. But some solar-power developers have already changed their supply contracts from panels made in China to those made in Taiwan, South Korea and other countries. Other developers are waiting to see how the case concludes.

The U.S. solar market has grown quickly over the past few years, owing to government subsidies and falling prices. But the uncertainty of how much Chinese panels will cost if duties are imposed adds to the unknowns in an industry already battered by the expiration of key government subsidies and a natural-gas boom that has driven down conventional electricity prices.

Recurrent Energy, a unit of Sharp Corp. that builds large-scale solar farms for utilities, had to "scramble to resupply most of [its] projects" with solar panels not made in China, said Arno Harris,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, the unit's chief executive,The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility. adding that, "everybody had to do it."

Mr. Harris said that sourcing panels from other countries drove up the price his company paid by more than 10%, from 90 cents to 95 cents a watt per panel to between $1 and $1.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,05 a watt. "That came straight out of our bottom line,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats," Mr. Harris said.

A 50% slide in solar-panel prices last year hit manufacturers hard, driving down their profits and stock prices and forcing some companies out of business.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production.

SolarWorld and others have blamed China's aggressive buildout of solar-panel manufacturing and Chinese companies' low prices for the pain being felt by manufacturers in the U.S. and world-wide.

"Part of the point of these trade cases is to return pricing to a nondumped, nonsubsidized level," said Timothy Brightbill, a SolarWorld attorney. He added that U.S. solar-panel makers are still hurting, with 12 U.S. solar firms having gone out of business, declared bankruptcy or laid off large numbers of employees over the last several months.

The U.S. installed a record 1,855 megawatts of solar-power generating capacity in 2011, more than twice as much as in 2010, according to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research. The demand was fueled by low prices and government incentives, particularly a federal program that expired in December that offered developers cash equal to a 30% investment tax credit in lieu of the credit.

The groups predict that U.S. solar installations will grow an additional 50% this year, to 2,800 megawatts, as developers build projects contracted during the boom.

But uncertainty about government support for clean energy and how the trade dispute will affect prices and development make it difficult to predict where the market will go next year.

For a Basketball Star, Fitness Calls for Pilates

Yoga, Pilates,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, pedicures. They don't sound like the workout routine of a pro-basketball player. But Dwyane Wade, the superstar shooting guard with the Miami Heat, has embraced them.

During last year's lockout, players couldn't get access to NBA team facilities or trainers. "The lockout meant I was working out with a different trainer," says Mr. Wade, "and he introduced me to different types of workouts that I didn't even know my body needed, like yoga."

Mr. Wade, who turned 30 in January, could be considered old by NBA standards. He says a large part of his preseason training was focused on keeping his body healthy and injury-free through the season. Nevertheless, he has struggled with injuries, including a strained calf and sprained right ankle.

In addition to his time on the court and in the gym, Mr. Wade, who stands 6 feet 4 inches and weighs 220 pounds, puts in time on the massage table. "I'm huge on massage work," he says. "I've done more stretching this season than ever before. My therapist's hands get tired from working on me."

Since his size-15 feet take a lot of pounding, he also incorporates foot baths, ice baths and regular pedicures into his regimen. "You need to take care of your feet," says Mr. Wade. "My feet aren't going to look any prettier from a pedi, but they feel better from the massaging."

"I have tight hips and I felt I needed to loosen up and be more flexible as I got older," says Mr. Wade. He started taking private yoga lessons. "Just basic yoga—I wasn't ready for the hot stuff," he says.The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, "Yoga is a totally different way of stretching and really challenging." Mr. Wade says he persuaded his teammate, LeBron James, to join him. "He's stiffer than me," he jokes.

Mr.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. James, in turn, persuaded Mr. Wade to try machine-based Pilates, which lengthens muscles and strengthens the core muscles. "I really felt the Pilates loosen up my muscles," says Mr. Wade. The attention to stretching has paid off during the season. "I recall making a move, and the basketball ended up on my foot and I almost did a split on the ball. Normally, that's a groin pull, but I bounced back."

Mr. Wade also started running on the beach this summer. "Running on the sand strengthens your quads and calf muscles," he says. He adds that he used to avoid running because it gave him shin splints, but running barefoot in the sand has helped him avoid that. He does some runs for distance, others for speed. "I try to do a lot of quick sprints where I'm starting and stopping and training myself to push through fatigue," he says.

Mr. Wade has also worked on his fast-twitch muscles,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, which come into play for brief bursts of strength or speed. To do this, his trainer had him work out with elastic bands on his wrists and ankles. He throws a medicine ball, turns, and then catches the ball with his torso facing one way and his arms turning another. "In a game, you never know what is going to come at you. I have to be ready to react quickly."

Mr. Wade says he always avoided vegetables until he turned 30. "I hated all of them," he says. But "I knew it would help me in the long run both mentally and physically" to start eating them. His solution was to have his personal chef turn them into juice.

He now starts the day with a juice that might include celery, carrots and beets. His chef sticks to healthy, low-fat, high-protein meals that often include grilled chicken and rice. He doesn't splurge often, but when he does he has a burger, fries and a Coke. "That is heaven to me. I have a favorite burger spot in nearly every city. Sometimes I might even order two."

Zola Jesus, Shabazz Palaces, and more at Creators Project

Along with all the epic-sized Lite-Brites and wing-flapping guardian angels at Creators Project this weekend in soggy Fort Mason, there also was plenty of super bass-heavy, heart-pumping,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mould, mind-expanding live music. Again, all free.

In the airport-hanger openness of midday in the Festival Pavilion — after a brief,The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility. freak hale storm outside — a loud, high-pitched electro-clatter came ringing down the forever long row of speakers. The culprit being Bejing indie rock act, New Pants.

With rapid energy the band bounced through hyperactive synth pop “punk disco,” while video projections by new media artist Feng Mengbo flashed on the screen behind. I most recall one song nearly matched up lyrically with clips from Spongebob Squarepants — the lyrics inexplicably being “I am not gay. Gay gay gay gay gay” and later, New Pants singer Peng Lei in a white button-up smashing a computer on stage, much to the small gathering crowd’s amusement.

After a quick trip back through the "Origin" cube and a saucy vegan tofu burger with pineapple from an Off the Grid truck (Koja Kitchen), I crawled back through the slightly more filled up hanger for always-entertaining LA noise band, HEALTH. As far as I’m concerned, the best parts of HEALTH were the drumming and the headbanging, which went hand in hand.

The experimental sounds, the mixed vocals, the frantic live show, it was great — but the drummer just killed it, and when another band member picked up the sticks to drum along in pummeling unison, it was near blistering perfection. And to my other point, I just like seeing bands headbang on stage, especially in this odd setting .

There was one true fan in the crowd — though I’m sure more were there, just possibly bodily contained — that couldn’t help but headbang along with dark flowing hair flying, jump methodically in place, and throw a near-empty cup of beer, much to the chagrin of the nerds around him.

The Antlers followed, and were rather unexciting. It was just that mild,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered Chinese porcelain tile.China Porcelain tile lovely indie rock from a former blog buzz band, suitable for impassioned scenes on nighttime soaps. Though they played it well, not a whole lot of heat.

Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces brought the fun back. While the music off last year’s Black Up is sometimes playful, there’s a refined dynamic in the act, laid out by the casual-close interplay and synchronized dancing between smooth lyricist-808 controller Ishmael “'Palaceer Lazaro” Butler and bongo slapping multi-instrumentalist Tendai “Baba” Maraire. Lots of grooving followed, and some memorably awkward white boy shoulder jerks of free-form dance in the crowd.

After a round of sweet potato tator tots from Brass Knuckle, it was Zola Jesus mind-melting time. And just in time to catch that powerfully operatic voice soaring through moving single “Avalanche” off Conatus.

The diminutive vocalist, wrapped in her usual flowing, cape-y white frock, spread her winged-arms out wide during high notes, giving the illusion of a bird about to take flight, or an eerily angelic force, like the inverse of the black angel in Chris Milk’s interactive installation in the nearby Herbst Pavillion.

She was the first act of the day able to truly transcend the challenges of the wide-open space fighting the elements . Though that also could have been because the sun was finally officially down, and the true crowds were finally there, more efficiently using the room to huddle.

And this is when a balding elder with a badge around his neck began holding up his camera and filming Zola Jesus’ set.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. And it was right in front of me. And then I was watching the floating eerie angel through his tiny screen.

With general media personnel, bloggers, reporters, Intel people, and VICE people all there with a barrage of fancy cameras with huge lenses, or iPads, or iPhones snapping away all day, it felt like nearly everyone was there to document the event. If not for a specific outlet, most definitely for some form of social networking.

It left me wondering, who was there to simply absorb the magic in real-time? Who came for fun? Are we all part of some scary dystopia in which nothing happens but documentation? But also, perhaps paradoxically,They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed. who cares? This was a great event, tying together master creators in the worlds of technology, art, music, and food. Who am I to shit on that?

Left pondering this, I realized: my cheeks were frozen stiff, my belly ached from fried foods, and my ugly sniffling cold was rearing its ugly sniffling head. It was time to go home. Luckily, my photographer stayed behind to document Squarepusher and Yeah Yeah Yeahs for those who missed it real-time.

Solar tariff to return for NSW panels

The New South Wales Government has put electricity retailers on notice that it wants payments for solar energy fed into the state's power grid to resume.

But critics say the proposed tariff to be paid is too low to maintain the state's solar industry.

People purchasing solar panels have not been paid anything for the power they produce since the Solar Bonus Scheme was closed to new participants in April last year.

The state's Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) is now recommending a tariff range of between 5 and 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

IPART is not making the payments compulsory for power retailers, but Energy Minister Chris Hartcher says he expects it will be adopted.

"The Government is confident that the electricity retailers will offer a reasonable and fair price," Mr Hartcher said.

"The Government expects the electricity retailers to act responsibly.

"They after all have an interest too in ensuring that the environment is looked after and that the demand on electricity from the electricity generation system is not increased."

Mr Hartcher says nearly 28,000 people have purchased solar panels since the Solar Bonus Scheme was closed off.

"They're not receiving anything at all. They're the ones who will benefit from it," he said.

Opposition spokesman Luke Foley says the decision is well overdue.

"The free ride for energy retailers should end," he said.

But the solar industry says the proposed tariff will be at most half what they were seeking, 20 cents per kilowatt hour.

The NSW chairman and the Solar Energy Industries Association,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, Geoff Bragg, says the Government put conditions on the IPART inquiry that largely determined the outcome.

"They got the answer they were looking for. It really shows the true colours of the Government and their lack of support," Mr Bragg said.

"We've had eight months without a policy,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. which basically brought the industry to its knees, and then the worst value placed on renewable energy in the country."

Greens MP John Kaye is also critical of the tariff amount.

"Nobody will be able to afford to buy a solar panel," Dr Kaye said.

"The payback period will be extraordinarily long under these prices.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. That means effectively that the industry will continue to go into decline."

Both the Greens and Opposition support another recommendation from the IPART, that the retailers contribute to the costs of the Solar Bonus Scheme.

"Clearly the retailers should take part of the heavy lifting," Dr Kaye said.

But Mr Hartcher says forcing the retailers to pay may be difficult, and he has sought legal advice.The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility.

"It's a fairly complex legal issue. It could well require legislation,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats," he said.

Corporate cash pile seen as boon for M&A

In a report, Moody’s said cash and liquid investment had risen 3% since 2010 to hit $1.24 trillion by the end of 2011, a 50% rise in just five years.

Moody’s said that spending by companies on capital investment and dividends was steady at between 9% and 10% of aggregate revenues. Spending on share buybacks and acquisitions was far more volatile as they are linked to the macroeconomic environment and business confidence.

Last year companies spent $329bn on acquisitions, 29% more than in 2010 but much less than the record $439bn in 2007, according to the report.

Moody's said: “While subject to opportunistic lumpiness and macro-economic sensitivities, we believe M&A activity will remain a significant use of corporate financial resources as companies look to expand operations, acquire new technologies and better position themselves for global growth opportunities.”

Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Pfizer are the five US companies that hold the most cash at a combined $276bn,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, up from $207bn in 2010.

Although the majority of US public companies do not explicitly report the amount of cash they hold overseas, these five companies disclosed that they held $229 billion or more than three-quarters of their cash overseas. Moody’s estimates that nearly $700bn, or 57% of the total cash pile, is held outside the US.

The report said: “These amounts reflect the relative strength of most emerging market economies over the last few years, the negative tax consequences of permanently repatriating money to the US, and the disproportionate consumption of cash for domestic purposes, such as dividends, share buybacks and the majority of acquisitions.

"Unless there is permanent tax reform that lowers taxes on overseas profits, we expect the absolute and proportionate amount of cash held overseas will continue to rise.”

Thanks to their huge piles of cash, companies do not need to issue as much debt to fund acquisitions or they can just their money parked overseas for deals as Microsoft did last year in its $8.5bn purchase of Luxembourg-based internet phone company Skype.

Moody’s said: “As a result, over the last year,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. there have been many instances where companies made acquisitions and maintained their credit ratings thanks to the high proportion of existing cash (or common stock) they used to fund the acquisition.”

The technology sector has the most cash at $384bn, with approximately $270bn overseas, an amount which Moody’s expects to grow.

US equity strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report yesterday that the balance sheets and dividend policies of companies in the US technology sector remain very conservative.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. They estimated that US tech companies hold $400bn in gross cash, and said it is the only sector holding more cash on its balance sheets than debt.

The BoA report said: “Net cash to market cap for the sector is 7% compared to net debt to market cap of 15% for the non-financials. Meanwhile, tech’s dividend payout ratio of 18% is the lowest of any sector and just over half that of the overall S&P 500. This puts tech in the best position to issue debt at low rates, buy bacAll RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats,k shares,The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility. raise dividends and/or make acquisitions.”

The analysts said many tech companies could increase shareholder value simply by using some of this firepower but that cash levels in this sector have been high for more than a decade.

Welcome to Emotional Loyalty

I had an epiphany about emotional loyalty in Target yesterday. I was buying a welcome mat – a pedestrian purchase (literally), almost too banal and mundane to write about. Target had a dozen or so on display, and as I debated about the coir with red poppies versus the streamlined rubber grid, I suddenly realized that I wasn't looking for a welcome mat.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. I wanted a vehicle for self-expression.

Consumer brand affinity can be sorted into essentially two camps: transactional loyalty,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. in which customers buy your product because it's easy,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, affordable and does the job; and emotional loyalty,TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. when customers buy the brand because it helps them express who they really are.What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment?

The thing is, today's consumers are all looking to make purchases based on emotional loyalty. That's because most of the products out there meet a consumer's basic needs for functionality, performance and affordability. When those basic needs are met, consumers move up Maslow's hierarchical pyramid to the higher-level desires – things like love and self-actualization.

Love from a welcome mat? Target's dozen mats all offered me functionality, affordability, and even some cute decorative options, but I found myself wanting more. I wanted a relationship. I wanted a welcome mat that truly understood me. Am I a floral person? Or do I prefer geometrics? Am I the matchy-matchy type who wants the mat to fit my house style? Or someone who is willing to “break a look” with clashing styles? My mat needed to support me, and sing my praises to everyone who comes to my front door.

Is your loyalty program offering customers the opportunity to express themselves? Can they align themselves with their preferred brand, via their preferred channel, at their preferred touchpoint? Customers want more than value, it's not just me looking for self-actualization from a welcome mat. This is evidenced from COLLOQUY's 2011 Cross Cultural Research Study [link], in which consumers in the U.S. and Canada say that their loyalty program communications are less relevant than ever.

Ultimately, I left the store empty handed. Loveless. Un-actualized. When you can have any “pretty good” mat, then only the perfect one will do.

DaVinci bullish on tile sales

If DaVinci Roofscapes LLC can grow its polymer roofing business a reported 30 percent in last year’s sluggish economy, and have plans to meet or exceed that this year, how much might it grow when the housing market rebounds?

“We’re growing right now in spite of the economy,” said Ray Rosewall, the affable president and CEO of the privately owned company in Kansas City, Kansas.

“We are well-positioned in the marketplace. Once housing starts to come back, you will see explosive growth from us. I expect our sales to double in the next two to three years,” Rosewall said in an interview at the International Builders’ Show, held Feb. 8-11 in Orlando.

The growth of DaVinci’s synthetic slate and shake roofing tiles — which are engineered from virgin thermoplastic olefins and have a 50-year warranty — is taking place in a market whose low-double-digit growth is being primarily driven by asphalt shingles. The firm’s slate tiles are one-half-inch thick — which it claims is thicker than competing products and shows more pattern details.

Rosewall credits the firm’s surge in roofing tile sales to its multitude of colors and custom-color options, investments in more efficient machinery and the popularity of its lower priced, snap-fit Bellaforte slate tiles. The Bellaforte tiles, introduced just two years ago, use 20 percent less material than traditional synthetic and natural slate shingles.

“The Bellaforte line has really begun to take off,” he said. “Its lower price gave us access to a whole new group of roofing contractors, higher volume and more lower-end homeowners.

“The Bellaforte line grew sixfold in 2011,” Rosewall said. He said he believes the line will continue to grow faster than any other product line in the company’s portfolio.

Not only do customers find the Bellaforte slate tiles “more affordable” than competing products, but the product’s price is the same whether they pick from the 49 standard colors or choose a custom color — which they create themselves using a tool on the company’s website, Rosewall said.

“It tells them don’t let a color keep you from buying a roof,” he said.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. “Consumers clearly like to be able to pick from a pallette of colors, and we also give them the opportunity … to create a signature blend of their own. It sets us apart.”

The custom-color blends have also been a sales driver, according to DaVinci. A report the firm released in late February found that custom-color sales in its Bellaforte tiles rose from 4 percent in 2010 to 38.7 percent in 2011.

Similarly, more than 30 percent of DaVinci’s Valore slate product sales — the next grade up from Bellaforte — came from custom blends in 2011 compared to just 7 percent in 2010.

“Homeowners are breaking away from the traditional monochromatic blacks and grays on a roof by adding in accent colors and varied shades of colors,” said Rosewall. “It’s a matter of people becoming more educated on roofing color options and feeling more empowered to make personal design statements on their home’s exterior.”

To help in that education effort, DaVinci’s website has a 30-page “Fresh Home Exteriors Colors Guide,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.” written by color-trend forecaster Kate Smith. Consumers can download the guide to learn how to add color to the exterior of their homes.

With sales growing rapidly, Rosewall said DaVinci’s “significant investments” in equipment last year were focused on producing more shingles more efficiently. The firm plans further equipment investments this year, he added.InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies.

“Last year, we purchased a new 700-ton Mitsubishi press and two four-cavity stack molds,” which work in tandem to manufacture the slate tiles, he said. With a cycle time of 30 seconds, each four-cavity mold can produce eight parts per minute vs. just four when it used two-cavity molds, Rosewall said. The company now uses two cavities mostly for accessories and smaller-sized products, he added.

“This year, we will spend double what we did last year,” Rosewall said. That investment will be to add an eight-cavity stack mold for 16 parts per minute, which will work with an existing 1,000-ton Husky press, he said.

“With the eight-cavity mold, we can make the tiles much much faster in a very short order,” he said. “When you look at the volume increases we had last year, we needed to make these investments. The new machines will give us a huge advantage in terms of rapid response to orders. If things go as planned, we may add another 1,000-ton press in 2013.”

DaVinci also staffs its molding room 24/7 so changes can be made at any time, he said. The company has also benefited from an initiative over the past two years to build a database and meet face-to-face with architects who specify products for multifamily housing.

“That is beginning to pay off now,A Injection Molding Moulding company,” Rosewall said. “We have projects coming to fruition from sales calls we made 18 months ago.

“I’m excited about 2012,” he said. “If housing starts to come back up even a little bit, we will start to feel the tailwinds of that, and sales will take off even more. There is a great opportunity to grow and take market share [from asphalt roofs].”

He added that “being able to see [our] roofs sells our roofs” both to contractors and consumers.xcel Mould is a Custom Mold Making,

Reroofing projects remain the dominant part of business, historically accounting for 70 percent of its sales, but in 2013 that could be as high as 90 percent, he said. “Most of our sales in 2013 will come from remodel and reroof projects. But as new construction markets recover, we expect our ratio of new-to-reroof projects to return to historical levels.”

All roofing waste and unused tiles from projects within 500 miles of Kansas City can be shipped back to DaVinci free of charge. The company encourages contractors to return their tile scraps, unused and used tiles, so they can be repurposed and recycled as starter tiles.

How to bring down cost of building new homes

In these times of escalating costs of building materials and labour,Welcome to polished tiles. prospective home owners have been given a tip on how to build cost-effective but quality homes that are functional and aesthetically pleasing.

An Architect, Mr. Bons Obiadi told Vanguard Homes & Property that many home builders have discovered that building square or rectangular shaped buildings are far more cost effective than building homes whose footprints have a variety of shapes.

Obiadi who is the publisher of ABD Digest, a quarterly publication for Architects, builders and developers said said the bay window in a home may be beautiful from the exterior, but it adds to the construction cost of the home.

He posited that architectural relief to the outside of the home can include using rough hewn wood trim to accent the windows, small pop outs that break up the monotony of a flat surface and by using a paint scheme that livens up the exterior.

Mr. Obiadi explained that builders achieve economies by using fewer plumbing resources. Noting that most homes have at least two or three bedrooms, he stated that if the bathrooms are adjacent to each other, the cost for plumbing work will be reduced. “’The closer the kitchen and the bathrooms are to the hot water heater also helps to bring down construction and operating costs, once the home is occupied’’, he noted.

He added that ‘’homes that have fewer hallways attract lower construction costs.Buy low price Aion Kinah, The cost of drywall as well as the cost of two by four contributes a great deal to the cost of constructing a home. So, finding a design that uses almost all its floor space as living area or bedrooms is automatically a less expensive way to build a home.

Using ceiling slates that are 8 inches in size is also a good way to cut construction costs. The standard 2 by 4 is 8 feet long, and drywall comes in 8 feet sheets. The amount of work that the drywallers and the framers have to do to put the walls up is much less when they don’t have to cut pieces to fit higher ceilings’’, he said.

Continuing, he stated that it may cost a little more to add extra insulation to the walls and roof, but it is a smart move because the cost of heating and cooling the home will be much lower over the long haul. Taking advantage of installing solar roofing materials such as roofing tiles will generate electricity for the home, and in some cases,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. completely eliminate the need for electricity from a utility company.

”The use of carpeting in new homes is declining,Silicone Mold Maker Rubber, and people are using more hard surface flooring. Not only do these floors cost less in some cases than carpet, they are much easier to keep clean and last a lot longer. Hard surface flooring choices are tile,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. decorated concrete, vinyl, laminated wood, or wood flooring.

Lalique: a celebration in glasswork

During the early 20th century Rene Lalique created artistic glass car ornaments that adorned the most expensive cars of the period.Welcome to polished tiles. A special base and wiring was designed so that as the car accelerated, the glass mascot would glisten. Last November a Lalique glass fox ‘renard’ car mascot hood ornament was estimated to sell at $100 to $150 at a Chester County auction house. The eventual hammer price for this unique Lalique piece was $175,000 setting a world record.

A stone’s throw away in 2010 another record sale of Lalique glass took place at a rural Pennsylvania auction house when a classic red Lalique vase sold for $132,250. Recently, a Lalique Dragonfly Pendant Brooch sold at a New York auction house for $170,Buy low price Aion Kinah,500. The market is strong for the works of Rene Lalique as people continue to recognize the attractiveness of his objects as well as his importance in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements.

Rene Lalique was born in 1860 in a rural village located in the Champagne region of France. In 1876, he began working as an apprentice in Paris for the leading Parisian jeweler, Louis Autoc. By the end of the century, he was working as a free lance designer for Cartier, Boucheron and many others, which eventually led to the opening of his own jewelry store. Lalique created jewelry that was informed by the French countryside and Japanese natural world.

By the early 20th century,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, Rene Lalique was actively experimenting with glassmaking, transitioning from jewelry designer to creator and manufacturer of artistic glass objects. In 1908 Francois Coty commissioned him to design his decorative perfume bottles.TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. This would eventually revolutionize the perfume industry by presenting fine fragrances in artistic containers at reasonable prices. Originally perfume bottles were plain flasks holding an expensive fragrance. Rene Lalique turned the ordinary bottle into a unique art object, thus transforming the perfume business. By the middle of the 1920’s, as an industrialist and artist, he was the most celebrated glass maker in the world bringing decorative art objects into the homes of all people. Lalique mastered the ability to take everyday objects and render them as works of art.

Today, Rene Lalique is mostly remembered for his array of art glass vases. His early works used the familiar “lost wax” technique by which the model is made in wax while a mold is formed around the model. The wax is then melted and molten glass is poured into the mold. Lalique glass was made in this manner until approximately 1905 at which time the factory was redesigned for larger production. The large demand for these artistic glass objects resulted in the opening of his own glassworks at Combs-la-Ville in 1909.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. Unfortunately the factory was forced to close during World War I. A new factory was built in Alsace in 1921 and remains the factory that produces Lalique objects today.

After the death of Rene Lalique in 1945, his son Marc continued the business, designing new pieces and using a brighter form of glass. Today Lalique Company continues to produce highly respected decorative glass and jewelry which is distributed throughout the world.

Original Rene Lalique glassware is a highly collectible art object and achieves record prices at auction houses; however buyers heed caution. Like other collectible art objects, fakes abound. The majority of authentic Lalique objects produced were signed in one form or another. Many of the pieces produced by Rene Lalique are signed in script ‘R. Lalique’ or stamped LALIQUE. After the death of Renee Lalique, small numbers of objects were made from older molds with the molded R. Lalique signature but these pieces were also given a modern’ Lalique, France’ marking to indicate that they were manufactured post World War II.

Police charge teen in fatal shooting

James Chambers spent all of Saturday cleaning up from an overnight break-in and ransacking at his business and a neighboring one on West Franklin Boulevard.

The owner of Advantage Auto Sales hoped nothing worse would come of the crime, which involved the theft of a shotgun. But after learning that firearm had caused the death of a 22-year-old Gastonia man Saturday night, Chambers was reminded of a foreboding passage.

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay,” said Chambers, an associate minister at Soul’s Harbor Tabernacle in Gastonia. “I think that’s exactly what happened.”

Gastonia police charged 18-year-old Christopher Douglas “Doug” Guiton, of 1812 McFarland Ave., early Sunday morning in connection with that break-in and theft. On Monday, they also charged him with voluntary manslaughter for pulling the trigger of the shotgun that killed 22-year-old Larry Darnell Hoyle on Saturday night at the home where they both lived.

At the time of the shooting, Guiton was out on bond for three previous counts of breaking and entering and larceny,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET, as well as charges of trespassing, drug possession and other misdemeanors, said assistant district attorney RoberMuseum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas.t Forbes. During a first appearance in District Court Monday, Judge Jim Jackson increased Guiton’s bond at the Gaston County Jail to $300,000 based on the new charges.

Guiton declined a court-appointed attorney and said he plans to hire his own lawyer. During the video arraignment, he broke down and sobbed as his aunt, Mary Sanders, pleaded for his bond to be lowered.

“This was an accident,” Sanders said through tears, speaking to Jenkins. “I know he knows what he done was wrong.”

Another cousin of Guiton’s reiterated that, and said Hoyle was Guiton’s “best friend.”

Forbes asked for a higher bond, while testifying to the grisly result of the shooting.

“Based on the photographs of the deceased I saw this morning, this was a close-range shot with a shotgun,” he said.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.

Guiton told Jenkins he had been living with his grandmother in Cherryville until he moved in with his aunt about five months ago. He is unemployed.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings,

Guiton and his family members in the courtroom said ‘I love you’ to one another before the arraignment ended.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.

Police were called to 1812 McFarland Ave., about 9 p.m. Saturday. They arrived on the chaotic scene to find Hoyle lying on the living room floor with a fatal shotgun wound to the face.

The shooting was witnessed by Hoyle’s girlfriend, 18-year-old Samantha Walker, and their 6-month-old daughter, Desirae, was just a few feet away at the time. They are also residents of the house, along with a number of other extended family members.

When authorities arrived, no one at the house would initially give any details about what had happened, said Gastonia Police Sgt. Jimmy Arndt. But after intense questioning of multiple people there, Guiton admitted to accidentally pulling the trigger.

Once police realized how he had acquired the shotgun, they charged him with larceny of a firearm, breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, and larceny of a motor vehicle.

The voluntary manslaughter charge was added after detectives conferred with the Gaston County District Attorney’s office.

Other suspects were also involved in the break-in with Guiton, and charges against them are pending, Arndt said.

Getting the Most from Your Router Tooling

Carbide grades continue to evolve as the producers of carbide strive to get a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Because there is such a wide variety of carbide manufacturers and products here are some basic facts to know about carbide and how it is composed.

A “cemented” metal, carbide has an aggregate and a binder component. The percentage of cobalt to tungsten and the average size of the tungsten particles is what separates carbide into different grades. Typical carbide will have about 95 percent tungsten particles and 5 percent cobalt binder. Carbides with higher percentages of cobalt binder exhibit properties of being “tougher” or “softer” and have higher transverse rupture strength. Conversely, those with lower percentages of cobalt binder have lower transverse rupture strength, are considered “harder” and more brittle, and are subject to breaking/cracking with high impacts.

For woodworking tools we want carbide that is both hard and tough so that it is resistant to abrasive wear and breakage, and the ultra-fine cutting edges do not chip off during normal use. The tool should also be made using the proper grinding technique and correct geometry.

Almost as important as the tool selection is making sure that it has the proper connection to the machine spindle. It is critical that the tool is located accurately, rotates through its cutting path with little to no runout and is clamped properly so there is no loss of power and no deflection from the clamping source.

The most common type of tool holder is the collet style tool holder. It consists of three main parts: the tool holder body, the collet and the collet nut.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Within this system, that introduces as many as five (depending on spindle taper) separate mating surfaces. While this is an economical and convenient style of tool holding, be aware that there are others systems available that are more accurate and provide up to 100 times more clamping force than the collet style, including shrink fit and hydraulic style holders.

In some cases,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, the cutting tool and tool holder can be integrated into one unit, which solves most issues. If you do use collet style tool holders, there are basic steps to follow to get the best results possible and maintain safety.

Make sure that when you change the tool that you clamp the tool holder in a proper tool changing fixture. A torque wrench should be used when tightening the collet nut; over or under tightening is bad and can be dangerous to operators.

When installing the tool shank into the collet be sure at least 75 percent of the internal round portion of the collet’s I.D. is filled with full round tool shank. Resins released and superheated during the cutting process will migrate up the slots of the collet and can build up.

One of the more common collet sizes is the ER40, typically used for routing. Due to the overall size of the ER40 collet and the relatively small diameter of the 3/8-inch shank, we frequently see issues of slippage or breakage with increased demand. A solution is to either switch tool holders to a smaller collet size, such as an ER32 or SYOZ25,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. or to a different style holder altogether.

Improperly balanced tools will cause poor part finish, uneven tool wear, reduced tool life, noise and possible machine spindle failure and damage. The ISO standard for cutting tool balance is a G2.5. With today’s high speed spindles, that rating falls a bit short when getting to RPM ranges above 24,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,000.

It is generally easiest to select an appropriate running RPM and then calculate the feed rate. Most boring tools will be run in the 3,000 to 6,000 RPM range and plunge rates of 1 to 4 meters per minute. Routing tools will generally be run from 8,000 to 24,000 RPM and feed rates up to 50 meters/min. While there is no steadfast rule for selecting the exact RPM, in general smaller diameter tooling will be run at higher RPM ranges and larger diameter tooling will be run at lower ranges.

Maximum surface feet,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, which is a function of RPM and tool diameter, should never exceed 15,000 sfm. To calculate, take the tool diameter multiplied by pi, multiplied by RPM and divide by 12.

Obama embraces Bill Maher

Obama embraces Bill Maher,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. but Alabama Democrats hide link

The White House is still embracing controversial comedian Bill Maher, despite growing pressure to sever ties with the woman-insulting liberal TV host.

President Barack Obama’s chief political adviser, David Axelrod, is still booked to appear on Maher’s cable show in the next few weeks.

White House spokesman Jay Carney waved away growing criticism today, saying “we cannot be the arbitrator of every statement that anybody makes in the policy and political arenas.”

Carney’s equivocation came after he was was asked about the administration’s continued affiliation with Maher, despite the president’s front-page criticism of radio talker Rush Limbaugh for his sex-related insults of a Democratic activist.

The Democrats’ pushback against Limbaugh is designed to spur women’s support for Obama in November.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,

In contrast to Obama, Carney and Axelrod, Democrats in Alabama are downplaying a planned fundraiser that was scheduled to take place just prior to a Maher comedy show in Huntsville on March 17.

Alabama party officials had planned to sell fifty $100 tickets for a party event,We offer offshore merchant account, after which the party members were scheduled to attend Maher’s show. Once The Daily Caller exposed the event, however,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, state party members took the invitation off their website.

The Maher uproar began after Obama and his political and media allies criticized Limbaugh for describing a Democratic activist as a “slut” and “prostitute.”

Limbaugh’s insult came after the activist had urged Democrats to force religious communities to provide her and other women with free birth control services worth roughly $1,000 a year.

Under pressure from some Republicans and many Democrats — and some advertisers — Limbaugh apologized for his comments on Mar. 3.

The PR campaign against Limbaugh is partly intended to shift the public’s focus from Obama’s controversial Feb. 10 regulation that would force religious communities to provide free birth control services to employees of their affiliated universities, schools, hospitals and charities.

Obama’s unprecedented regulation of churches is expected to damage his support in religious communities, especially among Catholics in crucial midwest states.

In contrast to Limbaugh’s crude intervention in a political controversy, Maher, a California progressive, has publicly insulted Gov. Sarah Palin as a “c*nt” and a “dumb twat.”

Democrats, including Axelrod, claim Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP, but Maher has donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Obama’s election campaign.

On March 6, Palin used twitter to urge Obama to back up his calls for civility by returning Maher’s $1 million donation. “Why doesn’t his super PAC return the $1 million that he got from a rabid misogynist?” she asked.

Since then, other Democrats, such as former White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, have criticized Maher’s comments.

“As a general matter, obviously language that denigrates women is inappropriate,” Carney said today, without criticizing Maher or other liberal commentators who have insulted women.

Obama “chooses to, in the pursuit of a more civil discourse in our public space he chooses to try to practice that civility by himself and he calls on everyone to do just that,” said Carney.

However, Obama declined to criticize Maher during a Mar. 6 White House press conference when TheDC asked about the TV comedian’s comments.

After calling for civility during the Mar. 8 press conference, Carney also accused GOP leaders of being irresponsible for trying to fast-track a law that would allow construction of a new oil pipeline, and suggested that unnamed Republicans are urging war against Iran.

In Alabama, Yolanda McLain, who has helped organize the March 17 fundraiser, said Maher has no contractual connection to the event.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.

“He is performing in Huntsville … as well as other cities across the country … [and] has no connection to the pre-show [fundraising] party,” she told TheDC.

The state Democratic party’s decision to downplay the event stands in contrast to the White House’s support for Maher, and to periodic insults of Alabama by top administration officials.

For example, Tom Perez, the Justice Department’s civil-regulation chief, has portrayed Alabama as racist because of its successful 2011 immigration reform law. The state is the former home of Theophilus “Bull” Connor, who was a noted racist and a leader in the Democratic Party.

Partners Repurpose Furnishings and Embrace Art

A giant Schnauzer the color of midnight greets me at the door. Clark accepts a friendly scratch on his well-groomed head and then trots off into the showroom full of repurposed furniture and original art. His furry face serves as the logo of his masters’ company, but the fame doesn’t seem to have gone to his head.

“He’s a working class dog,” laughs Chris Hagen, who owns Inherent Design Laboratory (or i.d. Lab for short) in the West Midtown Design District with his partner Adam Stewart. “We made him the logo in the hopes we could write off his haircuts.”

Chris claims there’s never been a happier dog in the world,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, and considering Chris’ light-hearted demeanor, he seems pretty chipper himself. But most people who do what they love are happy, aren’t they?

Most days for Chris are spent building and repurposing furniture while Adam paints and styles hair within the nearly 8,000-square-foot space, which houses a workshop, gallery, salon and design firm. Two years ago the couple opened i.d. Lab, a name derived from Adam.

“He doesn’t have the design degree, but he has so much style that we make a really good pair because I do have the degree and the rules,” Chris says of his partner of 10 years. “It’s him breaking all the rules that makes it work. It comes to him naturally. It really is the mix of Adam and me together and how we gel.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,”

Apparently that combination clicks. Since its opening, i.d. Lab has attracted a growing number of designers, craftsmen, artists and clients.

“It’s kind of become a design commune of sorts,” Chris says. “I liked the idea of everybody working towards a main goal—kind of a creative synergy.”

As a member of Atlanta’s design community for at least 25 years, Chris has worked with many top interior designers and continues to create fine furnishings for them through his company.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. He’s currently designing all the table tops and a zinc-edged bar for the Optimist, a new seafood restaurant opening on Howell Mill Road near Octane Coffeehouse.We offer offshore merchant account,

To help produce such signature pieces, Chris enlists the help of two talented craftsmen .

“They love to build furniture,” Chris says. “Nowhere else would they be able to build furniture.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, It’s a nice, safe environment for young craftsmen.”

Much like the furniture artisans, photographers and artists have also found a haven in i.d. Lab.

“Our showroom shines because we have all this great art on our walls,” Chris says. “And it makes our furniture look that much better.”

Recently i.d. Lab hosted the opening of New York photographer Michael Alago’s photography exhibit “Rough Gods,” attracting hundreds of gay men to the space.

Although the photographs of muscled men proved quite successful, Chris and Adam share responsibility for attracting gay clientele.

“Both Adam and I have a very masculine sensibility when it comes to design,” Chris says. “We’re always designing for that lake house or mountain house we don’t have. That’s what comes across in our aesthetic.”

Also, Chris considers the popularity of repurposed furniture as another factor for his company’s popularity among retail clients.