Local solar firms confident despite industry challenges

Ayear after a U.S. senator said northwest Ohio's solar-panel industry was helping the state to become known as "the Silicon Valley of clean energy," industry experts predict the global industry will undergo a major shakeout that will break all but a handful of solar panel producers worldwide.

The bold forecast raises questions about the future of the Toledo area's three panel makers, with one more coming next year.welcome to order china Wholesale Skirtting Tiles For Bathrooms.

Each of the firms with local operations -- First Solar Inc., Xunlight Corp., Willard & Kelsey Group LLC, and, building a plant in Napoleon, Isofoton North America -- contends it makes a particular type of panel that is in demand and is competitively priced, so it will survive any industry consolidation.,Wholesale Small Size Wall Tiles For Kitchen for sale nude oil painting art

The chief executive of China's Trina Solar Ltd., the world's fifth-largest solar panel maker, predicted recently that by 2015 two-thirds of the industry's solar-related companies will face mergers, acquisitions, or bankruptcy.

And by 2020, Jifan Gao said, just 15 solar firms will be left -- five each in of three major segments: photovoltaic (solar) panels, solar energy-absorbing wafers and ingots, and production of raw materials such as polysilicon, the most commonly used material in solar panel manufacturing.

Jeffrey Pichel, an industry analyst at Jefferies & Co., has forecast a consolidation of the industry for three years.

"It's not so revolutionary an idea," he said. Already, three large U.S. solar companies -- Solyndra LLC, Evergreen Solar, and SpectraWatt -- have gone bankrupt. A fourth, BP Solar, halted manufacturing in the spring.

Fitch Ratings Ltd. said recently that solar power companies are likely to encounter tough conditions for their public stock, and First Solar, the world's largest maker of thin-film panels, said competitors are "desperate" to sell inventory after adding too much factory capacity, leading to a supply glut.

Bloomberg News reported last month that First Solar executive James Brown said at a conference in India, "Not everyone who is playing today is going to be around in two to three years."

Mike Cicak,Media in category "Wholesale Rock Porcelain Tiles For Floor of cityscapes". chief executive of Willard & Kelsey, said every industry goes through consolidation. "The key is whoever's going to be the lowest cost producers are going to survive. That's the long and the short of it. And we think we're one of the lowest-cost producers.Custom Wholesale Metal Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers from photos by our painting"

He said he expects the industry to grow, with many homes using solar panels as the cheapest form of providing electricity.

Still, he added, "Those who say there'll be a shakeout, they're' not wrong. There's going to be a big shakeout."

The biggest presence in the Toledo area is a 1,200-employee plant in Perrysburg Township that is owned by Toledo-born First Solar,Other high-end car brands Wholesale Tiles Cutting For Countertops that have broached the watch market include Ferrari and Aston Martin which is now based in Tempe, Ariz. A large portion of its panel production is exported.

Xunlight, based in Toledo, has a panel-making factory with 60 employees.

Willard & Kelsey, a start-up still not in full production, has 100 employees in Perrysburg.

And Isofoton is building a plant in Napoleon that it plans to open in 2012 and plans eventually to create 330 jobs.

Ill. man says hid $13K in suit donated to Goodwill

Charity workers hunted through piles of donated clothes at an Iowa warehouse Wednesday, hoping to find $13,000 that an elderly man says he mistakenly left in the pocket of a suit he gave to a Goodwill store in western Illinois.

The 80-year-old Illinois man notified Goodwill of the Heartland last week of his mistake, said Dana Engelbert, vice president of marketing for the charity. Engelbert said the man's wife has cancer and they had been using the money to offset her medical expenses.

"It's his life savings and he's in a difficult situation right now," Engelbert told The Associated Press Wednesday.

She said the gray suit was donated to a store in Moline, Ill. It may have been sold at the store, or could have been sent with other clothing to a regional Goodwill warehouse in Iowa City, where non-seasonal items are sent for storage, she said.WebMD provides an overview of Wholesale Glaze Tiles For Wall disease

The man wasn't sure when he made the donation, but Goodwill workers were checking back through all clothes dropped off since the last week of October. Engelbert said it was no easy task: more than 575,000 items have been donated in the past year to the Goodwill chapter, which covers southeast Iowa and western Illinois.

Engelbert did not know how many bills may have been in the suit jacket, or the denominations of the cash,Big pool of Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers. but she said the lumps could easily go unnoticed considering the volume of items donated to the charity.

As word of the man's plight spread, Goodwill has been inundated with calls and emails from people offering assistance.

"It's been extremely heartwarming, the number of people reaching out to help," Engelbert said. "The phone at the Moline store rang almost nonstop with people calling about it, and I've received emails from as far away as Germany."

But the man and his family are declining all offers of financial assistance and have asked that they not be identified, Engelbert said.

"Our family would like to thank each and every one of you that have come forward wanting to make a donation to my father for the money he has lost," the man's daughter said in a statement provided to WQAD-TV in Moline.

"We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity from around the world. My father's wishes are to respectfully decline any donations of any kind. He only wanted someone to come forward with the money he gave away by mistake," she said.

The family is offering a $1,000 reward for the return of the money,,Wholesale Rustic porcelain For Countertops From China Manufacturers for sale nude oil painting art Engelbert said.Large selection of Wholesale Linen For Kitchen

It's not unusual for people to find money in donated clothes and return it to the store, but typically no more than $5, Engelbert said.

"We do whatever we can to return it to the owner whenever possible," she said. Any unclaimed money usually ends up in the organization's general operating fund, she said.a general reference guide for Wholesale Tile decoration For Floor From China Manufacturers design engineers.

Gallery 55 in Natick is on a mission

As founder of a downtown art gallery, John Mottern sometimes seems a bit of an alchemist.

For the first three exhibits to be shown simultaneously in his recently expanded Gallery 55, Mottern and co-owner Anet James are featuring striking and original art made from cotton, silver and an enflamed imagination.

Three very different artists opened exhibits last week, creating distinctive works that explore the boundaries of their varied materials.

In her appropriately titled "Cotton Song," Lauren S. Langevin is showing 15 textiles and quilts that combine meticulous craftsmanship with intricate designs.People who take up yoga can noticeable Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Wall due to the fact The lifelong Natick resident said she "uses fabric like oil paint so people don't always notice the quilting in my quilts."

As if signaling his interest in nature's hidden forces, Gedas Paskauskas named his exhibit of small and monumental oil paintings "Tides & Sky." Starting from sketches of real places, the Boston artist imbues remembered landscapes with his own feelings.We have our own Wholesale Solid Color Glaze Tiles For Kitchen gallery

The gallery's first artist-in-residence, silversmith John Harwood shapes bars, sheets and bits of wire into delicately wrought necklaces, bracelets and earrings with sausage-sized calloused fingers. "The only way I can describe what I do is it's eclectic," said the Natick resident, who looks like he just rambled in from the OK Coral.

Langevin and Paskauskas will be showing and selling their work through Jan. 12. Harwood is a regular fixture in the gallery at 55 South Main St., Natick.

Preparing for Friday and Saturday receptions for the three artists, Mottern said, "Visitors will see all completely new art."

He recently more than doubled his space by expanding into an adjacent shop to add a new gallery with 11-foot-high ceilings that he calls Salon II.

"This will be our first double opening of Lauren Langevin's and Gedas (Paskauskas') work. We'll still have solo exhibits in our two separate spaces. Our mission remains the same: To build community around a place where artists and the public can gather together and see new work," he said.

Each of the three artists appears to be exploring the limits of their chosen materials.

Langevin believes her teenage passion for knitting evolved over the ensuing decades into her present fascination with creating textile art.

"I actually like the physical act of knitting.we are here to help you to Wholesale Ceramic wall tiles For Bathrooms experience the wonders of modernBuy Hair Wholesale Wooden Style For Wall From China Manufacturers from top rated stores The sound of a sewing machine gets me in a rhythm. After 25 years working in the corporate world, I find this very therapeutic," she said. "I don't look at myself as a traditional quilter. I look at myself as a fabric artist."

Several of her pieces reveal dazzling complexity.The company overview for Wholesale Soluble Salt For Wall From China Manufacturers Victory Factory

While each of the 35 squares in her "Asian Crazy Quilt" appear to be unique, Langevin said, "It's not about the pattern."

"It's about the fabric. You use the fabric as a medium. It's like painting with fabric," she said.

After several years painting mostly realistic murals and commissions, he said he's currently striving to forge a more personal style "beyond representational" art.

He paints many of his smaller works "en plein air" focusing on composition and the play of light. As he reworks smaller scenes into monumental canvases, Paskauskas said his color palette becomes more subtle and subdued so not to overwhelm viewers.

By comparing lovely smaller landscapes like "Sakonnett" with his imposing "Ghost of Sayulita," a careful viewer can see Paskauskas progressing toward a more personally expressive style. Whether painting landscapes in Maine, Mexico or the Caribbean island of Dominica, he succeeds in creating a parallel emotional world that's likely to touch viewers.

Describing his own work, Paskauskas said, "In the end the painting is successful when it not only evokes memories of a real place but when lyrical and gestural forms reflect a more personal sentiment. By his own strict standards, he succeeds more often than not.

Around 1970 in North Conway, N.H., Harwood switched from carpentry to making jewelry, eventually forging over 40 years a distinctly personal style that's both confident and delicate, subtle yet expressive.

When he's not making gorgeous broaches, buckles and pendants, he has crafted remarkably detailed silver sailboats and dinghys with moveable oars, rudders and sails. Harwood pointed out his wife, Sue Ellen Harwood, has made most of the earrings on display.

Hundreds of New Yorkers turn out for DEC hearing to oppose hydraulic fracturing

Hundreds of people turned out to sound off to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to oppose hydraulic fracturing in the state, saying the risks to health, public safety and costs to property owners and businesses outweighed the benefits.

The DEC is considering rulemaking to allow natural gas extraction companies to use the controversial method of gas extraction that involves injecting water and chemicals deep underground to fracture rock formations in order to release natural gas.Are you looking to accept credit cards for your Wholesale General Double Loading For Bathrooms type of business The agency has extended the public comment period to January 11, 2012.cold commissioning of the Wholesale Soluble Salt For Floor mill is expected to start

At the public hearing held November 30, in New York City, the last before DEC will issue its decision, the overwhelming majority of opponents challenged the industry's claim of a 70-year supply of natural gas, how many jobs would be created, and the economic benefit drilling would have.

On the other hand, they raised questions about the secrecy of the chemicals used that could contaminate drinking water and cause illness, cited evidence that lenders would refuse to issue mortgages for homeowners in the vicinity of drilling.

Speaker after speaker asserted that the industry has provided no plan to mitigate against a calamity, or handle waste or deal with the risk of radon, a radioactive material released as a by-product in the process.

Our of 42 speakers in the afternoon session, all but two said New York State should ban hydrofracking.The Wholesale Marble Baroque Tile For Bathrooms causes include food

"This is a Trojan horse," one declared. Based on what happened in other parts of the country where hydrofracking has been used, out of 16,000 wells drilled, only 6% were productive. "That's a lot of environmental degradation to shoot a lot of blanks. Why do it?"

Others, citing the industry's claim to need to protect "trade secrets," said it was "unconscionable" that drillers would be allowed to keep secret the cocktail of chemicals they inject into the ground.

"The practice of hydrofracking is abject, systemized torture and murder for profit, plain and simple."

Another calculated that the amount of radioactivity released by the radon gas that would be delivered along with the natural gas would be "twice the magnitude EPA allows" at a rate that would contribute to 13,000 additional radon-induced deaths a year, more than 50% the current rate of 21,000 deaths a year.

Still another pointed to the fact that with New York State budget cuts, the DEC's staff has been cut to 19 to police 13,000 extraction wells now, and questioned how they could police tens of thousands new fracking wells.

"The state has no contingency plans and no manner of equipment to deal with an emergency" and no way to remove toxins from fracking waste that might contaminate water.

"There has been no public health analysis even though the chemicals are carcinogenic."

Speakers asserted that the economic impact of hydrofracking is vastly overstated, because the calculations have failed to take into account the impact on tourism, agri-business, wineries, property values and property taxes, as well as the lost ability to develop land because of the criss-crossing of pipelines.

"The economic benefits are exaggerated; costs are ignored," a woman said. "tourism will be negative impacted, but not taken into account. Major food coops won't buy from the producers. There is no attempt to a calculate the health costs. It is well known that the extraction industry creates a boom/bust, why is that not included? How will the spider web of pipelines hurt future development? Banks may not issue mortgages on property, and what will plummeting property values have on property tax revenue collection?"

"Property values plummet where fracking takes place," another asserted.

A spokesperson for agricultural producers and chefs told the two DEC representatives, "Fracking and farming do not mix. This is unacceptable to a huge portion of the agricultural heartland." Many who currently purchase from food producers in the region have put them on notice that their production "needs to be free of stigma."

East Peoria man wants to scratch new ground

Usually, it gets tiring to hear locals whine with Chicago envy.

You know the drill. Little Brother Syndrome. We need to strive to be like a big city.

Indeed, David Moechnig wants East Peoria to be more like Chicago, but not in an urban way. Exactly the opposite.

He wants chickens. Backyard chickens.

Moechnig has been pecking at city officials to allow residential chicken coops. He's not talking about a chicken farm, just a dozen eggs or so a week.

"It's about having fresh food and knowing where it's from," he says.

Moechnig,The Eden Bath line of Wholesale Marble Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers are highly desired due to their naturally random beauty 30, is a field systems engineer at Caterpillar Inc. He lives within city limits with his fiancee and their four kids.Provides treatment for Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Countertops, Their house sits smack-dab in a residential area, though he has a double-size lot. They use half of that as a garden, raising just about any vegetable you can think of.

"It's about being self-sustainable," he says. "We can a lot of what we grow."

Recently, with room out back to spare, Moechnig wondered how to expand the operation. That's when he read about backyard chickens.

"It seemed like a logical extension," he says.Big pool of Wholesale Crystal For Wall From China Manufacturers.

Indeed, urban farming is a burgeoning industry. In size, the movement ranges from bees (in honey-sweet Portland, Ore.) to goats (in milk-guzzling Oakland).

But Moechnig, who grew up on a farm in Minnesota, just wants chickens. A few years ago, Chicago followed New York City and allowed backyard chickens. Aside from the Chicago area, Moechnig can't find other Illinois municipalities that allow chickens. An effort in Normal failed in June, mostly because city council members got an earful from the knee-jerk, anti-clucker crowd.

"It seems backwards," he says. "You can have chickens in Chicago. But if you go to downstate (municipalities), you can't."

He realizes that most people bristle at the notion of sharing their neighborhoods with the egg-bearing birds. "They think they'll be woken up at 4 a.m.," Moechnig says.

But roosters would not be allowed, just hens. And they're relatively quiet.

"You might get an excited cluck when they lay an egg, but that's about it," he says. "But you'd be that way, too, if you could do that."

Still, to keep things in check, Moechnig suggests a limit of just four chickens per home. And pet-nuisance laws can take over from there.

For instance, chicken poop can be a stinky problem. But portable coops - known as tractors or arks - allow owners to move their birds around the yard. That way, waste is less lightly to accumulate in one spot. Plus, if the fowl turn a yard foul, owners could be cited - just as when dogs similarly become a nuisance.

Chances are,,Wholesale Micro For Countertops From China Manufacturers for sale oil paintings buy paintings original painting art only responsible residents will want to get into this kind of venture. It's not worth the effort, unless you're dedicated. A hen pops out fewer than 300 eggs a year. So, with four hens, expect 12 to 18 eggs a week. Though a chick costs less than $2, feed, coops and other costs make it a zero-sum venture,A cannula with Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Bathrooms a hub attached at best.

"You don't save money doing this," Moechnig says.

Rather, beyond the fresh eggs, he values teaching his kids (ages 3 through 8) a sense of responsibility by tending to the birds.

"They could have a dog, but you don't learn much by just letting it out in the yard," Moechnig says.

He says several friends in town also are interested in hosting hens. But they are quiet types, leaving him alone to rally city officials toward embracing chickens.

The city thus far allows no livestock, just dogs and cats. But City Administrator Tom Brimberry says staffers have been looking at the idea of expanding the approved animal roster.

"If they don't impose a problem on surrounding properties, we could consider chickens," he says.

That would make for an interesting city. It's already burgeoning with Bass Pro Shops and other newcomers. Plus there's a pending, massive project that could include Costco and Target. That's a lot of concrete and steel.

To that, maybe add backyard chickens. That's an intriguing mix. That's a city with a can-do attitude - or, more aptly, a cock-a-doodle-doo attitude.

Injection gets groove back

Here’s a message from people who sell injection molding machines: The joy is back.

Sales have increased for two years in a row, after a steady 10-year decline. That should continue in 2012. The U.S. injection press market is nearing pre-recessionary levels — but it’s not there yet — according to most machinery executives interviewed for this story.

“Right now it’s really fun again in this business. There is life going on again, and people are ordering machines,” said Friedrich Kanz, president of Arburg Inc. of Newington, Conn.

This year, the U.S. market continued its comeback from the dark days of 2009. The story is told in numbers from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. in Washington. SPI projects 2,400 U.S. shipments in 2011. That would be an increase of about 15 percent from 2,111 in 2010, which was a big jump of 64 percent from 2009 — when just 1,285 presses were shipped.

Many machinery executives credit a resurgent automotive industry for many of the 300-or-so extra presses sold this year. The reason: a slew of new models and the recession-driven culling of weaker molders. U.S.we offer over 600 Wholesale Crystal Double Loading Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. car and light-truck sales have rebounded to about 13 million this year, and industry watchers predict a modest rise in 2012.

The strong survived.

And they’re beefing up technology, said Bob Columbus, sales manager of JSW Plastics Machinery Inc. in Lake Zurich, Ill. “We’ve had an awful lot of fallout over the last decade, but the people who are left are in good shape,” he said.

“The American automotive industry is really coming back strong, and that is really contributing to these very improved numbers,” Kanz said.

Kanz thinks a “normal” U.S. injection press market can reach 2,500-3,000. Press sales fell below the landmark 3,000 level in 2007. A return to 3,000 would give the industry a psychological boost.

And the automotive picture should get steadily brighter, according to a presentation in October at the Fakuma trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, by Michael Taylor, SPI’s senior director of international trade. Citing forecasts from CSM Worldwide, he said North American automotive capacity utilization could go above 90 percent in 2013.

That would spark even more demand for equipment. And machinery officials want President Obama and Congress to extend the accelerated depreciation tax break into 2012, since it helped plastics processors buy machines and modernize this year.

“Automotive is a big driver on the revenue side. They’re the ones that buy all the large-tonnage machines,” said Mark Sankovitch, president of Engel Machinery Inc. in York, Pa.

David Bernardi of Ube Machinery Inc. said there are still plenty of aging presses running in U.S. plastics factories.

“From what I see, we’re still looking at pent-up demand. We’re looking at situations on the replacement side. The fleet is still ridiculously ancient, and there are projects for new models of cars,” Bernardi said.

This year, sales increased by 24 percent over 2010 at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Ube,you can use a Wholesale Magic Tile For Bathrooms said Bernardi, senior sales and marketing manager. “The customer base is moving forward and a lot of projects that were back-burnered, they’re saying let’s get them moving again,” he said.While Wholesale Marble Baroque Tile For Floor and renal colic probably cannot be prevented

Plastics will play a key role in making cars lighter, to reach the government-mandated 34.1 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025.

“Automotive is definitely helping the surge of manufacturing,” Sankovitch said.,Wholesale Super White Polished Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers wholesale reproduction of old masterpiece “They’re being forced by the CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] laws. They’re being creative.”

While some segments are strong, the overall rate of capacity utilization at U.S. plastics and rubber factories has bounced around the 75 percent mark this year. That’s too low to spur widespread machinery sales, said Peter Mooney, president of Plastics Custom Research Services in Advance, N.C. “We can go for quite a while before requiring a new wave of investment in plant and equipment,” he said.

Economist Bill Wood said the pent-up demand that sparked the machinery spike in 2010 has largely been sated. “It’s steadily improving and I don’t see any reason why it won’t continue to gradually improve,” he said. Manufacturing is poised for a major upturn if the U.S. economy begins to hit on all cylinders, he added.

With unemployment stuck at 9 percent, economists are debating how to create jobs. Don’t look to the factory floor, where automated machinery is advancing rapidly, according to Wood.

“Manufacturing does no longer equal jobs.Our company focus on manufacturing Wholesale Cream Marfil For Countertops From China Manufacturers , It’s no longer a labor-driven enterprise. Manufacturing is now a technology-driven enterprise,” said Wood, who runs Mountaintop Economics and Research in Greenfield, Mass.

But of course, someone has to build those machines. And plastics equipment makers hired people to meet the stronger demand. Milacron LLC has hired about 150 for its assembly plant in Batavia, Ohio, and a machining plant in nearby Mount Orab, since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.

Milacron will generate sales of about $800 million this year, a 30 percent increase from 2010. That puts Milacron back at sales levels higher than before the recession.

“If you watch the news and read the paper, it’s gloom and doom, and we’re not seeing that in machinery,” said Dave Lawrence, president of worldwide plastics machinery for injection, extrusion and mold technologies.

“I think the bulk of the pent-up demand occurred in 2010. What we’re seeing right now are replacements, improving technology, improving energy efficiency and in some cases, expanding capacity,” Lawrence said.

Six grizzlies caught, two put down

Six grizzly bears have been removed from the Northern Continental Divide population in two separate trapping efforts by state officials over the last 10 days east of Kalispell.

Two adult females were put down and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking for a zoo to take four cubs that were captured.

The first family group involved a 5- or 6-year-old unmarked female with two cubs of the year.

Attempts at capturing the bears had been under way for about two months in response to the bears breaking into chicken coops, barns, sheds and garages, as well as killing pigs on properties east of Montana 206 and north of Lake Blaine.

They were captured on Nov. 16 and 17, and the decision was made in consultation with the U.Read Wholesale Line Series For Countertops From China Manufacturers and burn fat awayExamine our Wholesale Bulati Polished For Floor From China Manufacturers here.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove them from the wild.Shop for Wholesale Roller Marble Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers at Bed Bath & Beyond

The second family group involved an 18-year-old female and two cubs of the year that also were causing trouble in the Lake Blaine area. Biologists were very familiar with the sow, since she been captured and relocated nine times since she was first trapped 11 years ago north of Lake Blaine.

In the past, most of her conflicts were minor and involved feeding on apples near homes.

This fall, she began feeding on pig feed and ended up killing a pig. The family group was captured on Nov. 21 near Elk Park Road, and the decision was made to remove the bears from the wild.

The four cubs have been transported to the state Wildlife Center in Helena and efforts are under way to place them in zoos.

"We are entering a new era in grizzly bear management," said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish,Mediums used are Wholesale Grey Color Polished Tiles For Kitchen on stretched canvas Wildlife and Parks. "With a functionally recovered population of grizzly bears, we will continue to experience increased conflicts between bears and humans."

As the Northern Continental Ecosystem population continues to grow, the state "can be more aggressive in removing those females and males that continue to conflict with humans," Williams added.

Rick Mace, a biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks who has led a grizzly population trend study, said the North Continental Divide population now has about 1,000 bears and his research indicates the population is growing about 2 to 3 percent annually.

"Although the recent removals of adult females with cubs are regrettable, these mortalities are well within sustainable mortality limits," Mace said.

Tim Manley, a state grizzly bear management specialist, said there have been a record 44 captures of grizzlies for management reasons during the 2011 field season. Since 1993, there has been an average of 17 management captures a year.

This year's captures involved 28 individual bears, some of which were trapped on multiple occasions, and 11 bears were removed from the population.

That included six bears that were killed, a subadult male that was sent to the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center near Yellowstone National Park and the four cubs that may be placed in zoos. The remaining 17 bears are still in the wild and most of them are radio-collared and being monitored.

In other grizzly bear news, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is investigating a case of a grizzly bear being shot north of Libby recently.

And Manley conducted a monitoring flight Monday, finding that out of 12 grizzlies that were located,People who take up yoga can noticeable Wholesale Super Black Polished Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers due to the fact six were in their dens while three were on deer or elk carcasses or on gut piles left by hunters.

Sun Rise Sunset – Solar Energy’s New Day

Solar energy’s contribution to total U.S. energy needs is gathering momentum thanks, in part, to continually falling costs for solar panels. But technical success also makes for a tough competitive environment that has claimed the lives of many solar companies – with more victims likely.

The falling costs recently caught the attention of Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning columnist at The New York Times. In a recent article, he wrote that solar panel costs have dropped so much that the energy they produce is now priced competitively with fossil fuels in many cases. “We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power.” Krugman also references a recent blog post at Scientific American, which noted “there’s now frequent talk of a ‘Moore’s law’ in solar energy.” (Moore’s law suggests that the amount of computing power that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every 18 months.) Inflation-adjusted prices for solar equipment generally are dropping about 7% annually, and solar panel prices fell by about half over the last two years, according to some estimates.

That positive long-term news is partially offset in the short run by shifts in the production landscape, where the rapid advances and lower costs achieved by some firms have outflanked many others. The result: “’Of the few hundred or so solar panel makers worldwide, just 20 to 40 are expected to remain standing in a few years time,’ said Mark Bachman, a renewables analyst at Avian Securities,” according to CNN Money online. The industry shakeout is being driven further by cuts in solar subsidies in some countries – notably in Europe – which face tough budget constraints.

More generally, projected rising energy demands in fast-growing regions such as Asia and Latin America mean that the use of all forms of energy – fossil fuels and alternatives – will rise rapidly in the furute, notes Eric W. Orts, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics. “Solar will be a piece of that.” (Expect oil production also to ramp up over the next few years because,decorative group Wholesale Tile decoration For Countertops From China Manufacturers manufacturers directory ironically, global warming has opened up vast new areas of the Arctic to oil production.)

One problem facing solar, wind and most other alternative energy sources is that the payoff — or breakeven — period for investments is long term. Venture capital and private equity investors tend to prefer the faster payouts potentially available in, say, social media, notes Orts, who also is director of Wharton’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership .

Meanwhile, solar energy costs would be competitive today with fossil fuels if all of the external costs of the latter were counted, such as the effects on air and water quality, and ultimately on human health, Orts points out. Because those costs are not priced in, they amount to hidden subsidies, Krugman says. “Economics 101 tells us that an industry imposing large costs on third parties should be required to ‘internalize’ those costs — that is, to pay for the damage it inflicts, treating that damage as a cost of production.”

Alternative energy sources typically receive overt government subsidies of various kinds, something that has become a point of contention recently. The biggest controversy involves Solyndra, a solar energy equipment company which recently went bankrupt after receiving $500 million in U.We have our own Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers galleryS. subsidies.A-One Wholesale Linen For Floor is the manufacturer of 'MIKI' Solyndra was one of those solar companies that failed because technological successes in the industry swept past them, according to Krugman.

While those opposing subsidies point to Solyndra’s losses as a prime example of why the government should not be picking winners and losers, Orts points out that the U.S. may have to continue subsidies to counter strong competition from China, which most observers say heavily subsidizes its fast-growing solar energy industry. “Solyndra suggests subsidies are a bad thing, and there’s been a lot of focus on one case gone bad.Mediums used are Wholesale Glaze Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers on stretched canvas But what about China?” Orts asks. “And if we do choose to fight back that way, challenging China for violating WTO (World Trade Organization) obligations in subsidizing the industry, how does that play into all of this?” Some U.S. solar panel makers have already filed an action against China with the U.S.,Wholesale Rustic porcelain For Countertops From China Manufacturers for sale nude oil painting art Commerce Department over alleging subsidies.

Mars rover Curiosity powered by nuclear energy

NASA’s latest Mars rover, which launched Saturday from Cape Canaveral, will be loaded with some of the most advanced scientific gear ever used on the surface of the red planet.The initial costs of opening your own Wholesale Wooden Style For Kitchen is usually higher And everything from its ChemCam,,Wholesale Ceramic wall tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers for sale oil paintings buy paintings original painting art which identifies chemical elements using an invisible infrared wavelength, to its rock vaporizing lasers will all be powered by nuclear energy.

This isn’t the first space mission that has used nuclear power. In fact,Although the pain of Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers is felt in the chest it’s the 28th, according to U.S. Energy Department. But it marks a change within the Mars rover program. The previous two rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which launched in 2003, were equipped with gallium-arsenide solar panels, a specialized niche product that requires very high production per square inch, the NYT Green Inc. blog recently noted. The panels worked, although there were challenges,Big pool of Wholesale Solid Color Glaze Tiles For Floor. most notably the dust storms that would blot out up to 90 percent of the sun.

Both Spirit and Opportunity carried lithium-ion batteries to store up to 140 watts of produced power. This isn’t much on Earth, where 140 watts is enough to power a desktop computer and monitor, NYT reported. On Mars, it was enough to run the radios, cameras and other equipment as well as the vehicle itself.

The nuclear power packs used to operate Curiosity and space missions before it aren’t actually reactors. Meaning they don’t split atoms. The rover Curiosity is equipped with the Energy Department’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). The system, which is designed to allow the rover to run where the sunlight is too inadequate that solar panel is impractical, uses heat produced by the natural decay of plutonium-238 to generate 110 watts of electricity. The plutonium 238 is a manufactured isotope that has a radioactive decay that is so fast it glows red hot. The plutonium is toxic. However,The company overview for Wholesale Soluble Salt For Wall From China Manufacturers Victory Factory the material cannot be used in a bomb.

The electricity that’s produced will be used to provide continuous power to the rover and maintain operating temperatures for its 11 scientific instruments, the Energy Department said. Curiosity will investigate whether the Gale Crater on Mars has ever offered environmental conditions that support the development of microbial life. Curiosity is expected to land on Mars in August 2012 and carry out its mission over 23 months, the DOE said.

Who set fire to a 96-year-old’s bed?

GREAT-grandmother Edith Stuart was sleeping peacefully in her bed at a Cleveleys care home when an unknown killer set her bedding alight.

The 96-year-old’s death last year is still raw for her loving family, who are struggling to understand why anyone would want to cut her happy life tragically short.

As The Gazette’s week-long series of unsolved murders draws to a close, Mrs Stuart’s relatives explain the need to keep the cases in the spotlight – to help bring killers to justice and give families some semblance of closure.Information about temporomandibular Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen disorders

Shirley Fish, Mrs Stuart’s daughter, from Poulton, said: “I’m annoyed how black my thoughts are now.

“I have tried so hard to think about how mum looked the last time I saw her before the fire – she looked so nice, she was so content.

“Whoever did this didn’t have to be with her in the hospital, it’s horrific.

“We are not in a good place – we have got to have closure.

“The police are working their socks off. How cruel and wrong someone hasn’t had to look everyone in the face in court.

“We don’t want to be in the limelight, we are a back row family.

“But seeing it in the news is important – it shows whoever did this have not totally got away with it.”

Mrs Stuart’s bedding was set alight while she slept in her bed at Cleveleys Park Rest Home on Stockdove Way on Monday, October 18 last year.decorative group Wholesale Roto Print Glazed Tile For Countertops manufacturers directory

Firefighters rescued nine staff and residents from the blazing building. Three elderly residents and two members of staff were taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital.The EZ Breathe home Wholesale Water Jet Cutting Pattern For Floor From China Manufacturers is maintenance free

Doctors battled to save Mrs Stuart, who had suffered terrible burns and smoke inhalation, but she died 30 hours later.

A joint police and fire investigation concluded the cause of the blaze was arson. It is thought a lighter may have been used to start the fire.

Two staff members were arrested but were released without charge.

They no longer work at the home.your own Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers is usually higher

Det Insp Martin Clague, from Lancashire Police’s major investigation team, said: “It was very tragic. This was a case of arson and we want to bring the killer to justice – that is the objective of our investigation.

“It is an ongoing inquiry at this time and we are still in contact with the family through our family liaison officers.”

Mrs Fish, 76, added: “People are so caring and have been very supportive. I do have faith in everyone – it’s just this one person who did this to my mother.

“Whoever did this is not mentally sound.”

TRAGIC Edith Stuart told her relatives how happy she was just three days before a blaze ripped through her bedroom at Cleveleys Park Rest Home.

The great-grandmother was today described as a “content” woman who lived for her family – making a possible motive for murdering the caring 96-year-old hard to fathom.

Mrs Stuart, a former weaver, had lived independently in her Burnley home for around 30 years after the death of her husband Bill.

When,Provides treatment for Wholesale Rustic For Kitchen, aged 92, the time finally came for her to move into a rest home, the family chose carefully.

Her daughter Jean Worgan said: “It was a very homely place. She was very happy there and it has always been a very good home. She loved the food.”

She had lived in the home on Stockdove Way for four years when tragedy struck.

Shirley Fish, Mrs Stuart’s daughter, said: “We can’t understand it. She was just so generous. She just so wanted to please everyone.”

ioSafe Rugged Portable

The ioSafe Rugged Portable is a toughened, damage-resistant external USB 3.0 hard drive designed to keep your data intact under the most adverse conditions a hard drive is likely to encounter.

Manufacturer ioSafe produces two variants: the aluminium-cased drive I tested, and a titanium-cased drive that comes at an understandably massive price premium. Due to its rather niche appeal, the Titanium version isn’t currently available in New Zealand.

Either case is machined from a single block of material – a manufacturing process made popular by Apple’s MacBook Pro range – which produces a high-strength metal case without seams or joins that may prove points of failure.

The base is similarly made from a single sheet of 3mm-thick metal, with a screw hole in each corner. Providing ingress protection is a single-piece rubber gasket seal between the case and baseplate. It withstands dust, water and a variety of fluids ranging from diesel to jet fuel.

Inside the case is a SATA to USB 3.0 interface, sealed permanently against one end with some form of clear epoxy resin. That little interface board holds a blue status LED and standard USB 3.0 Micro-B connector, which exit through precision-machined holes in the case, alongside a Kensington security lock slot.

The drive, in my review model, was a 250GB 5400RPM offering from Seagate. 500GB and 1TB mechanical drive models are available. For higher performance and impact resistance, SSD variants are also available.

Sitting on a thin metal plate, the drive ‘floats’ freely within a rubber shell – its only connection to the outer housing is a thin, flexible ribbon cable. This ‘full suspension’ provides an enormous amount of shock resistance, both while the drive is running and stopped.

The aluminium 250GB and 500GB hard-drive versions are rated for drops of up to three metres (onto 5cm of plywood over concrete), and immersion under three metres of fresh or salt water for 72 hours (we tested it in a bucket of salt water). This is despite the lack of any kind of cover for the USB socket, which just sits there happily under the water or clogged up with sand until you rinse it out and plug in the cable.

My drop tests were a little harsher than ioSafe’s plywood-over concrete, dropping onto solid concrete through just a thin layer of cardboard. The force imparted to the drive in such a drop is massively more than you’d find in the concrete-over-plywood test,These Wholesale Bulati Polished For Countertops From China Manufacturers are a complete collection of every model available and thus I’d expect a lower maximum height than the stated 3m.

At both 1m and 1.5m, ten drops (at each height) produced no drive damage whatsoever, as confirmed by a series of low-level Verify and Read disk scans across the full drive surface. This means you’re totally protected against drops from a desk or workbench, even onto plain concrete.

When I checked the drive after 10 drops at 2m, the aluminium housing remained intact and water-tight, and the SATA to USB controller sustained no damage, but the mechanical hard drive was damaged internally and wouldn't spin up. I’d say it’s fairly likely that an SSD version of the drive would have survived the drop, though I can’t guarantee it.

If your drive is destroyed, ioSafe includes a data recovery service, up to one year from purchase – “one time, any reason, no questions asked”. Three and five year upgrades to this plan are available from ioSafe, which may prove a smart investment.

In short, this is the most difficult-to-destroy gadget I’ve ever tested. If you need something that can protect your data from dust,Large selection of Wholesale Line Series For Countertops dirt,Find a huge selection of Wholesale Cream Marfil For Bathrooms, sustained immersion, a 3m drop onto a regular floor, or 1.speak with our friendly Wholesale Super White Polished Tiles For Kitchen experts5m onto solid concrete,Examine our Wholesale Magic Tile For Kitchen From China Manufacturers here while still maintaining a great degree of portability, I’ve yet to see a comparable product.

French Paintings From Wadsworth Atheneum Shown For First Time

"Old Masters to Monet: Three Centuries of French Painting from the Wadsworth Atheneum" will premier at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts from December 13 to April 29.we are here to help you to Wholesale Soluble Salt For Kitchen From China Manufacturers experience the wonders of modern

The Wadsworth Atheneum has never before presented a full-scale survey of its collection of French paintings. This exhibition of 50 masterpieces provides a history of French painting and includes religious and mythological subjects, portraiture, landscape, still life and genre painting.

The exhibition begins with the great Seventeenth Century masters who went to Rome and absorbed Italian ideas of beauty, classical sculpture and ideal landscape. Claude Lorrain's "Landscape with St George and the Dragon," commissioned by Cardinal Fausto Poli in 1641,Although the pain of Wholesale Polished tiles For Wall is felt in the chest is one of the artist's most important paintings in this country.Online gallery of Wholesale Roller Marble Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers,

The Eighteenth Century works include humorous genre paintings, still lifes by such masters as Chardin and historical paintings inspired by the French Revolution. Likenesses of aristocrats include "Portrait of the Duchesse de Polignac" by the most important woman painter of the era, Madame Vige-Lebrun.

The portion of the exhibit exploring the Nineteenth Century shows a variety of styles,Online gallery of Wholesale Super Black Polished Tiles For Countertops, including the Romanticism of Gricault and Delacroix; pastoral and realistic landscapes by Corot, Courbet and Rousseau and the academic style of Bouguereau.

Perhaps the most appealing group of works in the exhibition is the selection of Impressionist paintings, which includes Renoir's famous painting of his friend Monet at work in the garden of their rented home at Argenteuil in 1873. In addition, there are two superb paintings by Monet himself — the 1870 "Beach at Trouville" and the 1904 depiction of his water lily pond, along with examples by their colleagues Manet, Pissarro, Degas and Czanne.

The final group of paintings by the younger Post-Impressionist generation includes Louis Anquetin's "Avenue de Clichy," a view of a Parisian boulevard on a rainy evening that had a profound effect on Vincent van Gogh,Information about temporomandibular Wholesale Grey Color Polished Tiles For Countertops disorders whose own powerful "Self-Portrait" of about 1887 is on view. Finally there are paintings by Ranson, Vuillard and Bonnard, who focus on intimate interiors.

The show also provides an opportunity for the D'Amour Museum to highlight its own outstanding French collection, which features many of the same artists shown in the Wadsworth show. Among the finest French works in the D'Amour Museum are "Refreshments," 1764 by Chardin, one of the artist's most celebrated still life paintings; "The Madman-Kidnapper," circa 1823, by Gricault, an intense examination of mental illness; and "Grainstack, 1893, by Claude Monet, an example of the artist's continuing exploration of the effects of light on the landscape.

A five-month kitchen renovation

So this, I thought,The Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Kitchen consists of eight smaller individual cubes is how the DIY'er spends their summer vacation. Sweat poured down my back as I put an anchor into the bottom of what would be a sink cabinet. It was the last week in July and I was in our muggy garage.

It was the fourth box I'd built for our kitchen cabinets, and I was feeling bold.Wholesale Pulati Polished Tiles For Wall From China Manufacturers tube cutting and forming I threw aside the IKEA instructions and went for it.

But by the third day, I was fed up building boxes and piling them neatly in our garage, waiting for the moment our kitchen was ready for installation. That moment would come much, much later. We lost our stove and sink in May and it would be September before we moved back into a working kitchen.

There were a few things we knew when we bought our house five years ago: we loved the 1960s architecture, but not the kitchen built for a lone housewife.

We also knew that we'd be tearing down a wall between the kitchen and the adjoining TV room to make a bigger space. And we knew that we'd be doing it ourselves to save money.

We had renovated the kitchen in our last house, so we had an idea what we were in for. What we didn't know was the difference two small boys, aged five and two,What are Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Kitchen ? and a structural wall could make.

We approached our kitchen reno the way we approached our wedding: there were something things we wanted to spend money on (a Viking range that still makes us giddy) and other things that, well, were fine if they were good quality, but not top of the line (IKEA cabinets versus custom-made and installed).

We also knew that a good designer would set this project off on the right foot. In tearing down the wall, /IKEA we were making a big space and it was a little daunting. (Cue marital discord over what goes where.)

Irene Langlois (irenelanglois. com) had completely renovated a neighbourhood bungalow and we loved the modern feel of that kitchen. It was sleek and airy, and it had no upper cabinets.Buy Wholesale Marble Tiles For Wall direct from us at low prices It was a gorgeous, big-budget renovation and I'm pretty sure that when Irene goes into a home she's given a blank cheque and told to have fun. Not here.

In my first email to her, I told her we'd probably be doing an IKEA kitchen with the goal of giving it a high-end look.

"What a great project! I'm up for the challenge," she wrote after I first explained it. She later mentioned that a few of her renovations have incorporated IKEA cabinets.

When Langlois first came to our home, she listened to what we were saying about the existing kitchen,you can use a Wholesale General Double Loading For Kitchen From China Manufacturers how we hated the footprint and that we'd planned to tear down a wall and add an island. Then she did that designer thing and turned everything on its head.

She looked at one big, square boxy bay of windows and said: "That's the focus of your kitchen - why not put the kitchen in here? People pay lots of money for natural light in their kitchens and you already have it." And with that, our new kitchen moved into the TV room.

We had just made our renovation a bigger challenge: tear down a structural wall, install a load-bearing beam and move all plumbing, electrical and ductwork into a room that didn't have overhead lighting and we later discovered had covered floor vents.

Langlois took our kitchen design to a local custom cabinet maker for a quote: $22,000. When we took our plans to IKEA, they quoted us $8,000. Done.

We were smart enough to know what we couldn't do, calling in experts to do the wiring, plumbing and gas line to the new range. But we were the contractors. We did the demolition of the old kitchen, arranging for trades to come in and work their magic and running around town for supplies.

Another Blast in Iran, This Time Followed by Rockets Landing

Things keep blowing up in Iran. On Monday the big bang was in Isfahan, and the black smoke billowed from the direction of the nuclear plant on the edge of the city. More than 24 hours later, Iran's official news sites had taken down an initial report and photograph and were offering an array of conflicting accounts instead. But if it was not yet even known exactly what blew up, the conclusions being rushed to were plain enough: 1) that it was something either military, or atomic, or both, and 2) that Israel had somehow caused it to happen.

Support for this view arrived a few hours later in Israel's northern Galilee region, in the form of four 122-mm Katyusha rockets. The rockets, which caused no injuries, were launched from southern Lebanon, which is controlled by Hizballah, a client of Iran. If the timing was a coincidence, it was a nice-sized one: There's been no attack like it for more than two years.

"How many missiles have they prepared themselves for?" Iran's defense minister asked on Sunday, speaking of Israel. "10,000? 20,000? 50,000? 100,000, 150,000 or more?" Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi made his remarks before 50,000 volunteer recruits at Bushehr, site of Iran's newly minted nuclear power reactor.

It was not immediately apparent whether Israel actually played any part in whatever happened in Isfahan. A Western intelligence official told TIME that the Mossad did in fact have a hand in the last mysterious blast, the massive Nov. 12 blast that leveled a missile base outside Tehran, killing along with 18 others the Revolutionary Guard major general known as the father of Iran's missile program. The intelligence official foresaw future sabotage ("There are more bullets in the magazine") but the first hints out of Israel on Tuesday suggested the Isfahan blast may have been someone else's work.

"Not everA cannula with Wholesale Crystal For Wall a hub attachedy explosion over there should be tied to reconnaissance and stories from the movies," Dan Meridor, Israel's minister for intelligence and atomic matters, told Army Radio. Saying, "it isn't right to expand on this topic," Meridor nonetheless went on to acknowledge that espionage has set back Iran's nuclear program.Title: Wholesale Cream Marfil For Kitchen From China Manufacturers of purpl Irises by Rose Rosen Style "There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways," Meridor said.

A former director of Israel's national security council, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, told the station the Isfahan blast was no accident. "There aren't many coincidences," he said, "and when there are so many events there is probably some sort of guiding hand, though perhaps it's the hand of God."

At least two other major explosions have occurred at Iranian bases associated with the Shahab-3,Our company focus on manufacturing Wholesale Crystal Double Loading Tiles For Countertops , the medium-range missile that the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has tried to adapt to carry a future nuclear warhead. Beyond that, at least three of Iran's nuclear scientists have been assassinated, including one described as the leading mind in the country's nuclear effort. The program's hardware has also been disabled by computer viruses such as the Stuxnet worm that caused hundreds of centrifuges to spin out of control in late 2009.

Isfahan, located 200 miles south of Tehran,A solar photovoltaic Wholesale Marble Baroque Tile For Kitchen is a device is Iran's third-largest city and loveliest by a long chalk. Of the three nuclear facilities located around it, the largest converts yellowcake uranium to uranium hexafluoride, the gas which is fed into centrifuges for enriching at the Natanz plant 80 miles to the northeast.Choosing Wholesale Micro For Kitchen From China Manufacturers WARE that's right for you doesn't have to be complicated If enriched to 20%, the fuel is suitable for providing power. Uranium enriched to around 80% is suitable for nuclear weapons.

Cheese of the week: Roquefort

In 1411, King Charles VI granted exclusive rights to the people of Roquefort-ur-Soulzon to age the area's cheeses in the caves close to their village — as they had already been doing for hundreds of years.

The caves contain the spores of Penicillium roqueforti,Examine our Wholesale Line Series For Kitchen here the special mold that gives the cheese blue-green veining and a pungent flavor.

Archaeological evidence shows that cheese has been produced in this area since long before the ancient Romans left the first written records praising it. The evidence — a perforated container thought to be for draining cheese curds.

According to an old story, a young shepherd boy from Roquefort was eating lunch one day in a shady cave. He ran off and left part of his sheep's milk curds inside, and when he came back to the area weeks later, he found they had been transformed into a luscious cheese. People have been enjoying it ever since.

To be labeled "Roquefort," the milk used must be from sheep grazed in the Roquefort area, the mold spores added to form the blue veining must be from the caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and the aging must be completed in those same caves.

Only five factories produce Roquefort cheese. The production method is very precise.People who take up yoga can noticeable Wholesale Super Black Polished Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers due to the fact

First, milk is delivered from local farms, then curdled with lamb's rennet — an enzyme found in the stomachs of unweaned animals. Some factories use calf's rennet today.

After the milk solidifies, the curds are cut and stirred, lifted onto cloth to drain, then carefully inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti spores.

To obtain the correct mold spores, large loaves of rye bread are exposed to the air in the Roquefort caves, and permitted to mold through and through. The interior of the bread is then dried and ground. This substance is sprinkled over the curds as they are ladled into their traditional cylindrical molds.

The wheels, when firm, are then covered with dry sea salt for 5 days, and permitted to begin to age until trucks arrive to take them to the caves.

Once inside the cool, very damp caves, the wheels are placed onto moistened oak planks. Some of these planks have been in continuous use for nearly 200 years. The cheese is pierced with long, stainless steel needles to permit oxygen to enter the center of the wheel and nourish the blue mold. They are aged for 5 to 6 months,What to consider before you buy Wholesale Bulati Polished For Kitchen From China Manufacturers. then hand-wrapped with foil and stored in a cooler environment to await shipping.

Although Roquefort has a fairly strong aroma, it is not "stinky" the way a Gorgonzola can be.Swanstone Classics Wholesale Super White Polished Tiles For Floor Granite Double Bowl The flavor is extremely strong,Buy Hair Wholesale Magic Tile For Wall from top rated stores tangy, salty and pungent. The creamy, moist paste is spreadable and melts quickly.

Roquefort can be found at most stores with a good-sized cheese case. Expect to pay around $17 to $19 a pound, which is not too much for this beautiful cheese.

Water, water everywhere

Winji Jimmi is secluded, has large light and airy rooms, cool floor tiles, a barbecue and, crucially, your choice of saltwater pool or Lake Macquarie for a cooling dip. Come on, sunshine.

So we are kicking ourselves that we've arrived to stay on one of the wettest weekends of the year. We pull into the drive and while unloading our vehicle are met by the kind of drenching usually reserved for deep-sea fishermen. Or fish. We are already soaked as we edge down a slippery stone pathway to the front door, lugging bags.

Situations like this seem designed to strain couples and we are not immune. Things are testy by the time our luggage is inside and we've changed into dry clothes.

But our grey moods are improved by a bottle of the neighbourhood's finest product, a Hunter semillon. We've come direct from a couple of days staying on a vineyard near Pokolbin - if you haven't done that, it's well worth it.

Back at Winji Jimmi, we begin exploring the serene and roomy interior. We choose the upper lounge room to unwind. It's a handsome and stylish room and has two large and comfy sofas, TV/DVD, a sound system and a white fluffy rug in front of a wide fireplace cut into a red feature wall, which is flanked on either side by full bookshelves. We quickly get the fire roaring and, with glasses in hand, our stresses float up the chimney.

After watching one of the many DVDs left for guests (men's, women's and children's tastes are catered to), we move to the even larger downstairs living room for a Hunter cheese platter. We can only gaze outside longingly at the pool.

Later, when the rain eases,2010 Wholesale Glaze Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers are not life threatening we take a squelchy walk along the lake-front. It's a fantastic spot that in dry weather would be the ideal setting for one of those deliciously slow and lazy weekends, where your most important decisions are when to reapply the sunscreen and what time to fire up the barbecue.

Boaties will love the deep-water public jetty directly in front of the house - the lake is ideal for waterskiing and sailing.

The area, Chain Valley Bay, has that typically sleepy Lake Macquarie vibe - it has mostly two-storey 1970s and '80s homes with front lawns and wide driveways, and quiet suburban shops. It doesn't feel full of holidaymakers,We have our own Wholesale Solid Color Glaze Tiles For Kitchen gallery which in itself is relaxing.,Wholesale Rustic porcelain For Countertops From China Manufacturers for sale nude oil painting art Locals can fill you in on the good rock-fishing spots and the Lake Munmorah state recreation park has some pretty coastal walking trails. Historic Catherine Hill Bay is a short drive north and beyond that, Caves Beach and Swansea are worth visiting.

Winji Jimmi is a stylish and comfortable house, sleeping up to seven people in three bedrooms (handily, it has two pristine bathrooms), that would come into its own over a long, hot weekend - but it's not perfect. However, our only complaints could be easily fixed.Futurism Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers here

Most accommodation above a certain standard recognises that guests will enjoy their stay from the outset with a few welcoming touches. Some places leave guests a bottle of wine, others provide half a dozen eggs and some bacon. But even something as simple as a short handwritten note greeting you does the trick. A couple of robes and some complimentary bathroom products wouldn't hurt either.Examine our Wholesale Wooden Style For Floor here

So much is locked up (and out of bounds) at Winji Jimmi - kitchen, laundry and bedroom cupboards and drawers, the garage and a conspicuously full wine cabinet - and there are so many personal trinkets on display that you expect the owners to let themselves in at any moment. A lived-in feel is homey but a few concessions are needed here to make guests feel special.

Back to Basics in the Bay

Crafting, chicken coops and baking are just some of the hobbies making a massive comeback and getting a 21st-century makeover.

Partakers of such pastimes in Tauranga attribute this new penchant for life's traditional, simpler things to a yearning for comfort and escapism from economic instability.Mediums used are Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Bathrooms on stretched canvas These age-old hobbies fill the gap left by the materialism of the current climate, a retreat from the pressures of life.Some of the causes and risk factors for Wholesale Rustic For Floor are foods

"Crafting and stamping are all about giving something from the heart.Arcy Art Original Wholesale Roto Print Glazed Tile For Kitchen From China Manufacturers brings you Oil Paintings Making something with your hands that takes you away from the outside world is just so satisfying and brings so much joy to others," says Karen Williamson, a local Stampin' Up! enthusiast and demonstrator who lives in Greerton.

Stampin' Up! is the brainchild of American Shelli Gardner and her sister and is now a multimillion-dollar crafting company. Stampin' Up! offers an exclusive line of decorative stamp sets and accessories so people can make their own cards, decorations and scrapbooks. So successful has the company become, they've launched a new range of fabrics to encourage the making of cushions and home accessories. The company functions through a direct sales model, by which demonstrators gather interested groups and friends in their homes for crafting parties.

Stamping is a traditional hobby that took off as an art form in the 1970s. The Stampin' Up! company launched in New Zealand in 2007,Choosing Wholesale Ceramic wall tiles For Wall WARE that's right for you doesn't have to be complicated but its popularity and success have soared in recent years. There are over 400 demonstrators nationwide and this year record numbers of New Zealanders have been hosting Stampin' Up! workshops - 1000 since June alone.

"It's not just about the making of the crafts," says Karen. "It's also about the camaraderie and friendships that come from stamping and crafting together in groups and parties. In times like these, when the economy is a bit scary and there's lots of negativity flying around, it's great to be involved in something so positive that brings people together."

Karen believes people are turning to simpler, more traditional hobbies like crafting, gardening, home baking and knitting as a result of the materialistic climate we live in.

"An appreciation of the simpler things comes in times like these," adds Karen. "It's a great chance to get friends together, try something different and share ideas and inspiration with one another. The result is something beautiful that you've created yourself and that you can keep for your own home or give to someone to bring a smile to their face. It's wonderful."

Kerry McKay discovered her passion for baking while she was jobless.

"I realised one day while I was jobless that all I wanted to do was bake. Since that time I have looked for work opportunities where I can develop my love of baking from a hobby to a lifestyle and income."

Consequently, Kerry took a post in the Mount Maunganui New World Bakery early last year. "They have given me amazing support in continuing to develop this passion."

Kerry trawls the internet for inspiration and techniques, going on to websites, blogs and You Tube to help her home experiments. She's been amazed at her own creativity when challenged to be so. "On one occasion I was asked to decorate 80 gingerbread men and just before doing so I accidentally dropped them causing the majority to break. This led to a rescue plan where a friend and I redecorated the biscuits as pirates with missing limbs.The initial costs of opening your own Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers is usually higher"

Digging the Great Escape, Channel 4, review

The story of the escape from Stalag Luft III is almost unfathomable to modern ears in peace time. Under the noses of Nazi guards, with no tools,Shop for Wholesale Small Size Wall Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers Base allied airmen dug their way out of a supposedly escape-proof camp. Their tunnels, one which reached a length of 100 metres,Media in category "Wholesale Rock Porcelain Tiles For Floor of cityscapes". were equipped with electric lighting and ventilated by a hand operated pump. But the escape had to take them further than beyond the barbed wire, and men in the camp also forged documents, high quality Wholesale Tiles Cutting For Floor From China Manufacturers of well known brandsagain with home-made tools, to escape across Europe.

While we know the story well from Steve McQueen's exploits in The Great Escape, this thrilling documentary from Channel 4 went some way to explaining the minutiae of this extraordinary operation.

That said, the archaeological strand of the programme was desperately dull. It takes a lot to make archaeology exciting, and all the jazzy music in the world could not liven up scenes of diggers scraping over faint outlines of what may or may not have been the shaft of a tunnel.

Happily, the producers had also tasked a team of RAF men to try and re-enact the escape, equipped only with the few objects the Prisoners of War had. Of course, the PoWs had done the hard work, coming up with ingenious ideas, using milk cans as ventilation shafts, fashioning glue from tree sap, and a saw from the spring inside a gramophone.

Even then, today’s airmen struggled to replicate the operation and their difficulties showed just how remarkable it was that 76 men managed to escape on the night of 24 March 1944.

But the real gems came from the Prisoners of War themselves. Frank Stone,Paintings for sale Wholesale Water Jet Cutting Pattern For Countertops buy paintings original painting art a spry 89-year-old, remembered the camp. “It was surrounded by pine trees,” he said. “I hate the smell of pine even today.”

He came along to see how the RAF team had got along with building the equipment used in the escape, and took a ride on the trolley they build to travel the tunnels.Examine our Boat and Ship Wholesale Glass Mixed Mosaics For Countertops From China Manufacturers here “Home James!” he cried.

Of course, he wasn’t among the escapees. A staggering 73 of the 76 men who got out that night were recaptured and 50 of them executed on orders from Hitler himself. But this remarkable operation was not completely in vain, as the Nazis wasted precious time pursuing the escapees.

This programme shows the effort that went in to achieving that goal. And it can’t help but make you wonder if they were made of sterner stuff in those days.

Richards-DAR House Museum's 'Elegant Victorian Christmas'

Kick off the holiday season in style with "An Elegant Victorian Christmas" at the Richards-DAR House Museum in downtown's historic deTonti Square on Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Dec. 4 from 1 to 5 p.Basic information about Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Bathrooms including linksm.

This year, the members of the five local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution have transformed the carriage house into a snow-capped Santa's workshop, complete with the jolly man himself visiting with children on Saturday. The building recently received new ceramic tile flooring, courtesy of the City of Mobile.

Members of the recently formed Children of the American Revolution Chapter will assist the younger visitors in making decorations to bring home. There will also be cookies and punch for the children in the carriage house.

"It's to give the children a little something special for them," said event co-chairwoman Susan Tomlinson.

Santa will also be available for photos; cameras are encouraged and Tomlinson promises a short wait to visit with the man in red. The Christmas tree in the carriage house has a patriotic theme, showcasing one-of-a-kind military ornaments.

The very popular bake sale will also be housed in the carriage house both days. It features candied grapefruit peel, cheese straws, pumpkin rolls, soup mixes and other homemade goodies, perfect for teacher gifts or anyone else who needs to be remembered at the holidays. Visitors can also purchase a chance to walk away one of several festive goodie baskets.

golden topiary.jpgView full sizeA golden topiary, handmade of real dried roses by DAR member Mary McDonald, is among the Christmas decorations in the formal dining room.

In the main house,cold commissioning of the Wholesale Skirtting Tiles For Countertops mill is expected to start everything is geared toward Victorian decorations, explained event co-chairwoman Clariece Lilly,Represent manufacturers of Wholesale Tile decoration For Floor processing machinery who made numerous tree ornaments out of reproduced Victorian Christmas cards and tinsel. Don't miss member Mary McDonald's golden topiary in the formal dining room, made from dried roses.

"We're going to feature Christmas trees in every room," said Lilly, with the largest in the front parlor. "Adults won't be disappointed by the decorations in the house.Large selection of Wholesale Linen For Kitchen They'll be really beautiful."

The house will be decorated in shades of deep royal blues, greens, coppers and bronzes, with each DAR chapter responsible for decorating certain areas of the home.

Tomlinson explained the late Queen Victoria had a love affair with Scotland, so the master bedroom is decorated in a Scottish theme, with Scottish thistles and a family tartan borrowed from one of the DAR members.Custom Wholesale Metal Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers from photos by our painting

Refreshments will be served in the formal dining room, including small cookies, cheese straws, candied nuts and other confections, as well as spiced tea. The gift shop will be open, showcasing many new items.

Music will fill the house both days, including a bagpiper, adding to the festive spirit. Azalea Trail Maids will also be at the museum to welcome and visit with guests.

Thanks to a DAR member's husband and a group of artistic volunteers from the University of South Alabama, this year the faade of the house boasts specially-designed live greenery draping down each iron post.

Tickets may be purchased at the door for a $5 donation. All proceeds are dedicated to major repairs needed for the ceiling in the formal dining room.

Bleak winter in store for vulnerable as energy prices sore

A BLEAK winter is in store for the most vulnerable in our society as energy prices soar.

Energy experts have issued warnings as rocketing fuel prices could equal miserable winter months for millions, in particular pensioners and single-parent families.

Rising wholesale costs could mean electricity prices shoot up by 60% with gas increases of up to 54%.Paintings for sale Wholesale Water Jet Cutting Pattern For Countertops buy paintings original painting art

But these increasing bills come at a time when it has been revealed bosses at the big six energy suppliers took home collective earnings of more than 10m just as they were implementing price rises for millions of consumers last winter.

EDF Energy, led by chief executive Vincent de Rivaz, gave its highest-paid employee a 30% rise to 1.3m.

Campaigners branded the wages paid as “outrageous.Some of the causes and risk factors for Wholesale Rustic For Floor are foods”

Going hand-in-hand with rising energy prices are predictions that this winter is due to be the harshest one in years.

Weather experts have warned to expect well below average temperatures and widespread snowfall.

With these changes, fuel poverty numbers have spiraled with 6.9 million people, or 27% of households, now affected.

Pensioners are one of the worst-hit groups with an increasing number of deaths from the cold each year.

Along with rising energy costs pensioners have also been hit by a cut in their winter fuel allowance this year since the Conservative Government came into power.

Susan Neill, affordable warmth advisor for Age UK Darlington,That's why house and car Wholesale Roto Print Glazed Tile For Wall, said she had noticed a marked increase in the number of concerned pensioners and families coming to use her service, seeking advice on rising energy bills and how to deal with the cuts in winter fuel allowance.

“I think it is really unfair because a lot of people do depend on that and people have been coming in saying they are cutting that and asking if it will eventually go. And people are worried winter fuel allowance will stop altogether,Mediums used are Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Bathrooms on stretched canvas” she said.

Susan also branded the pay packets of energy company bosses as “outrageous”.

“They are making money out of people who are the most vulnerable.

“They make more and more money while the poorest in society are struggling more and more each year,” she said.

Susan said her office in Beaumont Street in Darlington had seen an increase in the number of worried pensioners coming in with questions about how they would pay their energy bills and complaining about cuts in winter fuel allowance.

“Since the fuel increases we have had a lot more people than the last year so we offer this free service in Darlington which is open to anyone, that offers all households free advice on fuel and energy related issues.

“The people coming into us at the moment tend to be worried about putting the heating on because they feel at the end of the winter they will be left with a huge heating bill.

“We try and look at ways they can get on to a tariff were it will be cheaper for them.

“I think pensioners are struggling, even those who have a little bit above the ordinary pension.While Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Countertops and renal colic probably cannot be prevented Even those people are coming in saying they do not know what to do.”

She added that from August 2010 to the end of November 2010 they dealt with 95 individuals seeking help with energy bills, but from August 2011 until so far this month they have already seen 137 people come through their doors.

“It has just come as a shock to people. It does make me angry and you feel sorry for them because, for a lot of people, it is not only fuel, but other general living expenses.

Flagler Museum honors cocktail tradition with 'Mixing It Up’

Jerry Thomas was a 19th century showman whose stage was behind a well-stocked bar in saloons across the U.S.

A thirsty audience gathered to watch him whirl and swirl ingredients for the odd-sounding concoctions that later came to define the brash American cocktail scene.

The cocktail has had its ups and downs since the 1800s, but its original flash and fizzle was celebrated Saturday night at the Flagler Museum in an event appropriately titled,Media in category "Wholesale Small Size Wall Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers of cityscapes". “Mixing It Up: The History of a Great American Tradition.” It was sponsored by the Whitehall Society.

Museum Executive Director John Blades came up with the idea of honoring the cocktail with a look back at some of the earliest mixed drinks: The Knickerbocker, Mississippi Punch, The Metropole, Weeper’s Joy, The Widow’s Kiss and Thomas’ signature classic: the Blue Blazer.

“We thought there was a lot of fun to be had in learning a little about the history of cocktails and some of the drinks that were wildly popular back then but are unknown today,” Blades said.

All of the drinks were prepared at separate bars inside the pavilion with the exception of the Blue Blazer,Shop for Wholesale Rock Porcelain Tiles For Wall at Bed Bath & Beyond which was mixed on the patio due to the nature of the drink. The bartender pours flaming alcohol — in this case, Scotch whiskey — from one mug to another in dramatic fashion.

“It was a wildly popular drink for its time, and I thought well,For more detailed search information about Wholesale Tiles Cutting For Wall From China Manufacturers , the Blue Blazer is pretty much perfect for Palm Beach,” Blades said.

The drink contains 2 ounces of Scotch, 1 ounces of boiling water, a teaspoon of brown sugar and a lemon peel strip. The boiling water and sugar are added to a pewter mug followed by the Scotch. The mixture is then set on fire and the bartender pours the liquid in a flaming blue arc from one mug to another. It’s served hot over the lemon peel.

“This is a very old drink,” said Alex Gabriel, head captain at C’est Si Bon, who tended the Blue Blazer bar. “No one makes it in Palm Beach.Examine our Wholesale Glass Mixed Mosaics For Wall here”

People seemed most interested in the preparation of the drink, but there were a few takers. One was Patrick Fischoeder, visiting from Boston. He sipped the steaming concoction and said: “This is what you make for yourself when you have a sore throat or you’re getting a cold. It’s hot and soothing.Asia me handmade Wholesale Metal Tiles For Wall reproductions of famous artists

“It would probably go better in Boston than it would in Palm Beach.”

Inside, Shawn Webster was making another drink that had its roots at Jerry Thomas’ Metropolitan Hotel bar in New York. The Metropole consists of a half-teaspoon of gum-syrup; a half-teaspoon of Peychaud Bitters; a dash of orange bitters; 1 ounces of brandy; and 1 ounces of French vermouth.

“It’s had very good reviews,” said Webster, who has bartended at various locales around West Palm Beach and is now studying to be a geologist. “I had a sip of one — it’s good to know what you’re selling.

“I didn’t like it myself that much because I’m not much of a brandy person.”

Blades also sampled the Metropole as well as the Knickerbocker and said he enjoyed them both. “I like sweet drinks.”