People get allergies when proteins in oil glands and saliva gets in contact with the people. Two or more years is what it takes to for animal allergies to develop in some inidviduals. Even after months upon contact, animal allergy symptoms may not subside. There can be many symptoms, which may include watery eyes, congestion and sneezing. When possible, try to avoid the animal that cause the allergies.
Decongestants, nasal steroids as well as antihistamines can be helpful medications. Chronic allergy symptoms may use immunotherapy. Insects such as cockroaches can bring similar symptoms. There are the same treatments.
In order to minimize pet dander, pets should be removed from the home, especially in the bedroom. Weekly washings of pets should be done. Pets should not be allowed on upholstery. Removing the trash bins can prevent cockroach allergy.
Urushiol causes the itchiness brought about by contact with poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Itchy rashes typical of an allergic reaction is observed with exposure to urushiol. This may happen within a few hours, or days after exposure. Exposure to urushoil need not be from direct contact. Indirect contact through other objects covered with the sap is possible.
Urushiol is predominant in all parts of the poison plants. The leaves, stems, and roots all contain this sap. It can also be found even after the death of the plant. Urushiol can be hastily taken in by the skin. Setting poison plants on fire will facilitate the inhalation of airborne urushiol. Inhalation of urushiol happens during the burning of a poison plant. This produces irritation of the nasal passages, throat, and lungs. Poison plants like poison sumac and poison ivy is widespread in the US with the exception of the Southwest deserts, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Poison ivy may grow as vines or shrubs. The Eastern, Midwestern, and Southern areas of the US predominantly see the existence of poison ivy vines. Poison ivy shrubs, on the other hand, exist in the northern and western areas. The three leaflets present in a poison ivy plant makes it easier to identify. Seven to thirteen paired leaves on a stem of a woody shrub characterizes poison sumac. Harmless sumac is distinct from poison sumac. It does not have the drooping cluster of green berries characteristic of poison sumac. Poisonous sumac can be usually seen in swampy areas filled with water. Non-ppoisonous sumac has a cluster or two of red berries growing vertically on it.
Like pollen, molds are microscopic and parasitic fungi that can float in the air. Repair water leakages since this may contribute in harboring microograsnimsm. The similarity of symptoms exists between dust mites, pollen, and mold allergy. These symptoms include itchy and watery eyes, coughing, congestion, sneezing, and runny nose.
With the presence of mold inside the house, allergic symptoms can be manifested all throught the year. However, mold allergy is said to be seasonal. It mostly occur during summer and fall. Bathrooms and basements should be kept well-ventilated and moisture free. In addition, it is also important to keep their windows and doors closed. This will help in preventing fungi to travel from area to another. Molds can be found in damp areas of the home. Two common examples are the basement and bathroom. Molds are also present in the grass, mulch, hay, and other outdoor places.
It is alarming to know that food allergies and food intolerances can attack large number of people. Oftentimes, there are people who do not now that they have allergies. When they eat foods that give them unwanted reactions, they wonder.
There is one out of three people who claims either they have acquired food allergy or a family member is suspected to have food allergy that is why they tend to modify their diet. Among children, 5% are diagnosed of having food allergies. On the other hand, 4% of teens and adults are affected by food allergies.
The perception of the public to the problem and the clinically proven cases of food allergy are altered. This is because there is a misconception of the difference of food allergies and food intolerance. A food allergy happens when the immune system mistakenly identifies a protein as harmful for the body. As a result, abnormal reactions occur. Some symptoms of food allergy may be similar to that of food intolerance. However, the immune system is not the culprit for the symptoms brought about by food intolerance. For example, if a person is alergic to milk, he experiences adverse reactions due to the ingestion of milk. On the other hand, a person who is lactose intolerant experiences the inability to digest or absorb ,milk.
2012年5月31日星期四
2012年5月30日星期三
Grass is greener for Mac designer
Thirty-six years after working on a project that would change the world of computing, Jerry Manock is bringing his expertise to Grassometer, a Trinity College start-up which has developed a device to analyse grass growth for farmers, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON
JERRY MANOCK’S design work for one Steve in California is so elegant that it has earned a place in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Now he’s working with another Steve in Ireland, on a much smaller scale project, but one that he thinks will also have “profundity”.
Famed as the man who designed the original Mac (now in MOMA’s collection), the amiable and chatty Manock is bringing his design expertise to Grassometer, a Trinity College start-up founded by Steven Lock which has developed a device to analyse grass growth for farmers (see panel).
“The more I heard about it from Steve, the more interesting it sounded,” says Manock. “I’ve always been interested in projects with some profundity – projects that can help mankind. I immediately had a feeling that this could help farmers and help communities around the world. I thought, this is something I could get involved with.”
Some 36 years ago, he took a call from a different Steve, the youthful Steve Jobs, chief executive of a new company called Apple. “There were only five people in the company when he called in December ’76 and said he needed a computer designed – and would need to produce some as well – by the time of the West Coast Computer Fair in April. Of course, everyone else had said, ‘You’re crazy’. But I’d just started a design company and didn’t know any better, and said yes.”
The computer was the Apple II, the device that would launch Apple’s fortunes. For their first meeting, Jobs invited him along to a Stanford University gathering of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club. “I walked up and introduced myself to him. There were a number of others there, and Jobs would go in a circle, talking to people. And he’d come back to me and pick up the conversation at exactly the point where he’d left off. He had six conversations going at once – he was just so sharp.”
Manock successfully did the design and also was able to have numerous handmade models of the Apple II in time for the fair.
Everyone else’s computers looked like they were built from homemade kits, he recalls, while the Apple IIs had sleek, tooled covers and were lined up to evoke a production line.
Jobs wanted Manock to join Apple, but he decided he preferred to get his then-generous $20 an hour consulting fee.
“I could have been employee number six. I think when Apple went public, the guy who was employee number six made $75 million overnight.”
JERRY MANOCK’S design work for one Steve in California is so elegant that it has earned a place in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Now he’s working with another Steve in Ireland, on a much smaller scale project, but one that he thinks will also have “profundity”.
Famed as the man who designed the original Mac (now in MOMA’s collection), the amiable and chatty Manock is bringing his design expertise to Grassometer, a Trinity College start-up founded by Steven Lock which has developed a device to analyse grass growth for farmers (see panel).
“The more I heard about it from Steve, the more interesting it sounded,” says Manock. “I’ve always been interested in projects with some profundity – projects that can help mankind. I immediately had a feeling that this could help farmers and help communities around the world. I thought, this is something I could get involved with.”
Some 36 years ago, he took a call from a different Steve, the youthful Steve Jobs, chief executive of a new company called Apple. “There were only five people in the company when he called in December ’76 and said he needed a computer designed – and would need to produce some as well – by the time of the West Coast Computer Fair in April. Of course, everyone else had said, ‘You’re crazy’. But I’d just started a design company and didn’t know any better, and said yes.”
The computer was the Apple II, the device that would launch Apple’s fortunes. For their first meeting, Jobs invited him along to a Stanford University gathering of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club. “I walked up and introduced myself to him. There were a number of others there, and Jobs would go in a circle, talking to people. And he’d come back to me and pick up the conversation at exactly the point where he’d left off. He had six conversations going at once – he was just so sharp.”
Manock successfully did the design and also was able to have numerous handmade models of the Apple II in time for the fair.
Everyone else’s computers looked like they were built from homemade kits, he recalls, while the Apple IIs had sleek, tooled covers and were lined up to evoke a production line.
Jobs wanted Manock to join Apple, but he decided he preferred to get his then-generous $20 an hour consulting fee.
“I could have been employee number six. I think when Apple went public, the guy who was employee number six made $75 million overnight.”
2012年5月29日星期二
Medical Examiner declines to do autopsy on Callaway mayor
The Bay County Health Department is investigating a mold issue that may have caused the death of the mayor of Callaway.
Mayor Bob Thompson was hospitalized and ultimately died Saturday after recently examining a ditch at the request of a local homeowner, his family said. Family members requested an autopsy, but the Medical Examiner's Office declined to do one, officials and family members said Tuesday.
Family members are now seeking a private autopsy.
Meanwhile, Doug Kent, the administrator of the Bay County Health Department, said Tuesday he had sent an investigator to examine the ditch.
“They’ll give me a report back,” he said.
However, he cautioned that Aspergillus, a genus of mold consisting of several hundred species, also known as “black mold,” was “very common.” He added that the mold, which is found both indoors and outdoors, usually causes health problems for people with reduced immune systems and the elderly.
“As we get older, we become more susceptible to molds,” Kent said.
Thompson was 80.
His daughter and his widow addressed the Callaway City Commission at its workshop Tuesday evening, accusing commissioners of complicity in Thompson’s death.
“What do I have to say? Not much, because Bob shouldn’t have died,” Reeda Thompson said. “I’m pissed off.”
Deborah Ballmeyer, Thompson’s daughter, accused officials from not only Callaway but other local government entities and medical professionals of conspiring to cover up the mold issues she said led to her father’s death. She said the family and their supporters would continue to investigate Thompson’s death and the alleged cover up.
“This is not going to go away easy,” she said.
City commissioners did not respond to the allegations, except to express thanks at the end of the presentation. Commissioner Thomas W. Abbott, mayor pro tempore, said the city would be diligent “in all that we do.”
Bobby Baker, the interim city manager and public works director for the city of Callaway, said the ditch in question is located near Forsythe Drive in Callaway Point. Baker said the woman who asked that the ditch be examined contacted Thompson directly and that he had no other information about the situation. He also said the city mows the ditch a few times each year. The last time was earlier this month.
According to the city charter, Abbott will act as mayor until the next regularly scheduled election in two years. Abbott’s vacancy from the Ward 2 seat will be filled with an appointment by a majority vote of board members at the June 12 committee meeting.
“I guess I’m as shocked as everyone and I certainly feel for the family,” Abbott said. “Mrs. Thompson has lost her life mate of 61 years. As an elected official, I’m going to step forward … and do my very best to keep a professional and calm focus on business in the city.”
News Herald writer Chris Olwell contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this report appears below:
PANAMA CITY — The Bay County Health Department is investigating a mold issue that may have caused the death of the Mayor of Callaway.
Mayor Bob Thompson was hospitalized and ultimately died Saturday after examining a ditch at the request of a local homeowner, his family said. Family members requested an autopsy but Bay County’s Medical Examiner, Dr. Michael Hunter declined to do one, officials and family members said Tuesday.
Family members are now seeking a private autopsy.
Meanwhile, Doug Kent, the administrator of the Bay County Health Department said Tuesday he had sent an investigator to examine the ditch.
“They’ll give me a report back,” Kent said.
However, he cautioned that Aspergillus, a genus of mold consisting of several hundred species, also known as Black Mold, was “very common.” He added that the mold, which is found both indoors and outdoors, usually causes health problems for people with reduced immune systems and the elderly.
“As we get older we become more susceptible to molds,” Kent said.
Bobby Baker, the interim city manager and public works director for the city of Callaway, said the ditch in question is located near Forsythe Drive in Callaway Point. Baker said the woman who asked that the ditch be examined contacted Thompson directly and that he had no other information about the situation. He also said the city mows the ditch a few times each year. The last time was earlier this month.
According to the city charter, Commissioner Thomas W. Abbott, mayor pro tempore, will act as mayor until the next regularly scheduled election in two years. Abbott’s vacancy from the Ward II seat will be filled with an appointment by a majority vote of board members at the June 12 committee meeting.
“I guess I’m as shocked as everyone and I certainly feel for the family,” Abbott said. “Mrs. Thompson has lost her life mate of 61 years. As an elected official I’m going to step forward … and do my very best to keep a professional and calm focus on business in the city.”
Mayor Bob Thompson was hospitalized and ultimately died Saturday after recently examining a ditch at the request of a local homeowner, his family said. Family members requested an autopsy, but the Medical Examiner's Office declined to do one, officials and family members said Tuesday.
Family members are now seeking a private autopsy.
Meanwhile, Doug Kent, the administrator of the Bay County Health Department, said Tuesday he had sent an investigator to examine the ditch.
“They’ll give me a report back,” he said.
However, he cautioned that Aspergillus, a genus of mold consisting of several hundred species, also known as “black mold,” was “very common.” He added that the mold, which is found both indoors and outdoors, usually causes health problems for people with reduced immune systems and the elderly.
“As we get older, we become more susceptible to molds,” Kent said.
Thompson was 80.
His daughter and his widow addressed the Callaway City Commission at its workshop Tuesday evening, accusing commissioners of complicity in Thompson’s death.
“What do I have to say? Not much, because Bob shouldn’t have died,” Reeda Thompson said. “I’m pissed off.”
Deborah Ballmeyer, Thompson’s daughter, accused officials from not only Callaway but other local government entities and medical professionals of conspiring to cover up the mold issues she said led to her father’s death. She said the family and their supporters would continue to investigate Thompson’s death and the alleged cover up.
“This is not going to go away easy,” she said.
City commissioners did not respond to the allegations, except to express thanks at the end of the presentation. Commissioner Thomas W. Abbott, mayor pro tempore, said the city would be diligent “in all that we do.”
Bobby Baker, the interim city manager and public works director for the city of Callaway, said the ditch in question is located near Forsythe Drive in Callaway Point. Baker said the woman who asked that the ditch be examined contacted Thompson directly and that he had no other information about the situation. He also said the city mows the ditch a few times each year. The last time was earlier this month.
According to the city charter, Abbott will act as mayor until the next regularly scheduled election in two years. Abbott’s vacancy from the Ward 2 seat will be filled with an appointment by a majority vote of board members at the June 12 committee meeting.
“I guess I’m as shocked as everyone and I certainly feel for the family,” Abbott said. “Mrs. Thompson has lost her life mate of 61 years. As an elected official, I’m going to step forward … and do my very best to keep a professional and calm focus on business in the city.”
News Herald writer Chris Olwell contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this report appears below:
PANAMA CITY — The Bay County Health Department is investigating a mold issue that may have caused the death of the Mayor of Callaway.
Mayor Bob Thompson was hospitalized and ultimately died Saturday after examining a ditch at the request of a local homeowner, his family said. Family members requested an autopsy but Bay County’s Medical Examiner, Dr. Michael Hunter declined to do one, officials and family members said Tuesday.
Family members are now seeking a private autopsy.
Meanwhile, Doug Kent, the administrator of the Bay County Health Department said Tuesday he had sent an investigator to examine the ditch.
“They’ll give me a report back,” Kent said.
However, he cautioned that Aspergillus, a genus of mold consisting of several hundred species, also known as Black Mold, was “very common.” He added that the mold, which is found both indoors and outdoors, usually causes health problems for people with reduced immune systems and the elderly.
“As we get older we become more susceptible to molds,” Kent said.
Bobby Baker, the interim city manager and public works director for the city of Callaway, said the ditch in question is located near Forsythe Drive in Callaway Point. Baker said the woman who asked that the ditch be examined contacted Thompson directly and that he had no other information about the situation. He also said the city mows the ditch a few times each year. The last time was earlier this month.
According to the city charter, Commissioner Thomas W. Abbott, mayor pro tempore, will act as mayor until the next regularly scheduled election in two years. Abbott’s vacancy from the Ward II seat will be filled with an appointment by a majority vote of board members at the June 12 committee meeting.
“I guess I’m as shocked as everyone and I certainly feel for the family,” Abbott said. “Mrs. Thompson has lost her life mate of 61 years. As an elected official I’m going to step forward … and do my very best to keep a professional and calm focus on business in the city.”
2012年5月28日星期一
Bust Away the Pest
Molds are going to be very tiny microbial or fungi that is certainly a disaster creator. It even affects our food, clothes, houses or any buildings, walls and all that. It is definitely spreadable and are now controlled through the various measures. The key aspect favoring the expansion of your mold is the dampness. The standard places where it really is experienced in our houses are going to be the unnoticed wet places, the kitchen, work area and also the toilets. It will with no trouble jump into our food if it is not noticed it’ll create vomiting, allergy, asthma & nausea.
While it is vitally tiny and never visible for our naked eyes it will make issues nobody may well think of. This is the recognized fact that if you leave the density of the growth of a mold unnoticed & unsolved it will eventually spread out the spores in the fraction of second & so the contacting of a mold inspections Toronto may be soon that should be updated. The mold inspector Toronto is often the one that may well detect the cause of the mold being spread all over and he supports you to get rid of the molds immediately out of your house. So a mold inspector Toronto’s assistance are generally attended completely soon if you could see the looks of molds inside the house. But if your inspection of your mold are generally difficult the first within the mold busting the Mold Busters are always there to help you who have their infrared cameras which could detect even the slightest mold and so your house at the moment are rescued. Grow op inspection will be otherwise to scare away the mold, in this process the air quality of the home is often checked. The following technique is the odor inspection where they inspect the odor evolving as of your house and so they take important actions therefore. Mold dog inspection are usually their new solution to chuck out the mold within this process they check your pet because dogs can make lots of allergies within an exterior.
The mold busters mold removal are generally the initial mold removal within Toronto. Once you start using or following their key points you will never possess to worry about any more mold problems. The Toronto mold removal are generally inside a great way as they call the first mold docs they usually seek their assist in saving their dream home. The mold busters serve the very first inside the mold removal Toronto. And they’re still on the business never beaten their rating.
While it is vitally tiny and never visible for our naked eyes it will make issues nobody may well think of. This is the recognized fact that if you leave the density of the growth of a mold unnoticed & unsolved it will eventually spread out the spores in the fraction of second & so the contacting of a mold inspections Toronto may be soon that should be updated. The mold inspector Toronto is often the one that may well detect the cause of the mold being spread all over and he supports you to get rid of the molds immediately out of your house. So a mold inspector Toronto’s assistance are generally attended completely soon if you could see the looks of molds inside the house. But if your inspection of your mold are generally difficult the first within the mold busting the Mold Busters are always there to help you who have their infrared cameras which could detect even the slightest mold and so your house at the moment are rescued. Grow op inspection will be otherwise to scare away the mold, in this process the air quality of the home is often checked. The following technique is the odor inspection where they inspect the odor evolving as of your house and so they take important actions therefore. Mold dog inspection are usually their new solution to chuck out the mold within this process they check your pet because dogs can make lots of allergies within an exterior.
The mold busters mold removal are generally the initial mold removal within Toronto. Once you start using or following their key points you will never possess to worry about any more mold problems. The Toronto mold removal are generally inside a great way as they call the first mold docs they usually seek their assist in saving their dream home. The mold busters serve the very first inside the mold removal Toronto. And they’re still on the business never beaten their rating.
2012年5月27日星期日
Globaltec expects listing to provide better access to larger-scale business
Come Thursday, Globaltec, which comprises of 5.27 billion shares of 10 sen each and a paid up capital of RM527.36mil, will be listed at an initial public offering (IPO) price of 12 sen per share. At this price, the stock will have a market capitalisation of RM632.84mil.
It's safe to say that the purpose of the merger is to give the new listed entity size. Previously, the individual companies of AIC, Jotech and AutoV were small at paid-up capitals of RM173.87mil, RM92.43mil and RM58.36mil respectively.
Last July, Globaltec, a special-purpose company controlled by Datuk Goh Tian Chuan, who is group executive chairman of Jotech and AIC, submitted the proposed merger offer simultaneously to AIC, Jotech and AutoV to collectively acquire the business and undertakings of all the three companies for RM711mil to be satisfied via the issuance of new Globaltec Formation shares.
Goh owns a 7.6% stake in Jotech, 25.2% in AIC and 0.4% in AutoV. The acquisition price of Jotech, AIC and AutoV were RM217.3mil, RM339.2mil and RM154.4mil respectively. In the new entity, Goh will have a 16.7% stake, which he eventually hopes to raise.
“We expect to have better access to larger scale business opportunities, and an enhanced ability to raise funds in both debt and equity markets as a result of an improved balance sheet position. A larger and stronger balance sheet will allow us to undertake larger manufacturing contracts and to capitalise on growth opportunities domestically and internationally,” said the company in its prospectus.
Following the merger of these three companies, the business segments will be divided into two integrated manufacturing services and resources.
Goh himself will be heading the resources division and already has plans to beef up the division in the immediate term.
He has earmarked oil palm plantations for expansion with the intention of moving down the value chain by acquiring more oil palm plantations to justify constructing an oil palm mill in Sabah.
“We see plantation as an important growth segment. Right now, our hectarage is small. For starters, we want to enlarge this by at least five times. We are seriously looking for more plantation land in Sabah,” said Goh.
Its palm oil plantation activities are carried out by its subsidiaries, namely Cergas Fortune Sdn Bhd and Malgreen Progress Sdn Bhd. It has about 916.25ha of plantations situated at Sandakan Lahad-Datu Highway, Kinabatangan Sabah with about 836.96ha of planted oil palm.
The approximate planted ages of the trees range from four to 14 years. As of Dec 31, 2011, the net book value of the oil palm plantations was RM30.39mil.
Currently, the combined businesses of the three companies consist mainly of precision metal stamping and tooling, semiconductor, precision tooling an automation and automotive components manufacturing. It has palm oil plantation and coal mining, but for now, contributions are minimal.
The largest revenue contributor in the group was metal stamping and tooling with a 32.1% contribution to topline, followed by semiconductor with a 30.48% contribution, automotive components with a 25.75% contribution and precision tooling with an 11.45% contribution as of 2010.
For its year ended Dec 31, 2010, the company recorded income of RM27.33mil from RM16.55mil a year earlier on revenue of RM394.84mil from RM331.8mil previously.
Under an agreement, Concord had assigned the exclusive rights to provide all coal mining and sales services in the mining area to PT Sarana Rockhill Resources, a subsidiary of Rockhill. For now, the extraction and marketing of coal has yet to commence.
Meanwhile, the share swap determined earlier valued Jotech shares at 18 sen each, AIC shares at RM1.80, AutoV shares at RM2.38, Jotech warrants at 9 sen and AIC warrants at RM1.00.
Based on this scenario, the proposed swap ratios are three new Globaltec shares for every two existing Jotech shares, 15 new Globaltec shares for every existing AIC share, 119 new Globaltec shares for every six AutoV shares, three new Globaltec shares for every four existing Jotech warrants and 25 new Globaltec shares for every three existing AIC warrants.
It's safe to say that the purpose of the merger is to give the new listed entity size. Previously, the individual companies of AIC, Jotech and AutoV were small at paid-up capitals of RM173.87mil, RM92.43mil and RM58.36mil respectively.
Last July, Globaltec, a special-purpose company controlled by Datuk Goh Tian Chuan, who is group executive chairman of Jotech and AIC, submitted the proposed merger offer simultaneously to AIC, Jotech and AutoV to collectively acquire the business and undertakings of all the three companies for RM711mil to be satisfied via the issuance of new Globaltec Formation shares.
Goh owns a 7.6% stake in Jotech, 25.2% in AIC and 0.4% in AutoV. The acquisition price of Jotech, AIC and AutoV were RM217.3mil, RM339.2mil and RM154.4mil respectively. In the new entity, Goh will have a 16.7% stake, which he eventually hopes to raise.
“We expect to have better access to larger scale business opportunities, and an enhanced ability to raise funds in both debt and equity markets as a result of an improved balance sheet position. A larger and stronger balance sheet will allow us to undertake larger manufacturing contracts and to capitalise on growth opportunities domestically and internationally,” said the company in its prospectus.
Following the merger of these three companies, the business segments will be divided into two integrated manufacturing services and resources.
Goh himself will be heading the resources division and already has plans to beef up the division in the immediate term.
He has earmarked oil palm plantations for expansion with the intention of moving down the value chain by acquiring more oil palm plantations to justify constructing an oil palm mill in Sabah.
“We see plantation as an important growth segment. Right now, our hectarage is small. For starters, we want to enlarge this by at least five times. We are seriously looking for more plantation land in Sabah,” said Goh.
Its palm oil plantation activities are carried out by its subsidiaries, namely Cergas Fortune Sdn Bhd and Malgreen Progress Sdn Bhd. It has about 916.25ha of plantations situated at Sandakan Lahad-Datu Highway, Kinabatangan Sabah with about 836.96ha of planted oil palm.
The approximate planted ages of the trees range from four to 14 years. As of Dec 31, 2011, the net book value of the oil palm plantations was RM30.39mil.
Currently, the combined businesses of the three companies consist mainly of precision metal stamping and tooling, semiconductor, precision tooling an automation and automotive components manufacturing. It has palm oil plantation and coal mining, but for now, contributions are minimal.
The largest revenue contributor in the group was metal stamping and tooling with a 32.1% contribution to topline, followed by semiconductor with a 30.48% contribution, automotive components with a 25.75% contribution and precision tooling with an 11.45% contribution as of 2010.
For its year ended Dec 31, 2010, the company recorded income of RM27.33mil from RM16.55mil a year earlier on revenue of RM394.84mil from RM331.8mil previously.
Under an agreement, Concord had assigned the exclusive rights to provide all coal mining and sales services in the mining area to PT Sarana Rockhill Resources, a subsidiary of Rockhill. For now, the extraction and marketing of coal has yet to commence.
Meanwhile, the share swap determined earlier valued Jotech shares at 18 sen each, AIC shares at RM1.80, AutoV shares at RM2.38, Jotech warrants at 9 sen and AIC warrants at RM1.00.
Based on this scenario, the proposed swap ratios are three new Globaltec shares for every two existing Jotech shares, 15 new Globaltec shares for every existing AIC share, 119 new Globaltec shares for every six AutoV shares, three new Globaltec shares for every four existing Jotech warrants and 25 new Globaltec shares for every three existing AIC warrants.
2012年5月24日星期四
Embracing Complexity with MTM
The growing complexity of components is not lost on machine tool builders, who are responding with more capable and flexible multi-tasking machine designs. In fact, Mazak, which offers numerous MTM options, even provides some tactical advice for machinists with its Five Levels of Multi-Tasking classification system for its machines’ applications and capabilities.
Among Mazak’s new offerings is the Integrex i-200ST multi-tasking machine that it said provides shops with versatility and high accuracy in a compact design, with features like twin spindles, a lower turret and milling spindle that achieve what it called “done-in-one productivity.” Mazak ranks the Integrex i-200ST as a Level 4 machine, because it turns, drills, taps and mills, while offering off-centerline and full simultaneous 5-axis contouring.
The Five Levels is a guide for manufacturers to determine the best multi-tasking technology for meeting their specific application and process needs.
Level 1 machines typically offer a single turning spindle and drum-style turret with rotating tool capability for processing minimally complex workpieces. Level 2 machines add Y-axis functionality for off-center operations and “done-in-one” machining together with either a twin spindle and milling turret or twin spindle/twin turret machine configuration. Level 3 MTMs feature independent milling spindle headstocks with B-axis indexing, as well as Y-axis travels and tool storage magazines. Level 4 machines emphasize automation and processing large or highly complex workpieces using full, simultaneous 5-axis machining. Level 5 adds specialized machining tasks, such as gear cutting, honing and grinding, for machines that process very demanding and complex parts in single setups.
On the Integrex i-200ST, both turning spindles provide equally high performance with spindle speeds of 5,000 rpm and C-axis turning control, and both have a 3-in. (76-mm) diameter bore capacity.
For C-axis contouring versatility at either turning spindle, the Integrex i-200ST vertically mounted milling spindle provides 30 hp (22 kW), 12,000 rpm and a rotating B-axis range of -30° to +240°. Mazak’s roller cam drive for the B-axis ensures higher accuracy and rigidity, with no backlash. A 36-tool (72-tool optional) magazine allows fast tool changes and provides ample tooling for continuous part processing.
The lower turret on the Integrex i-200ST model comes standard for nine turning tools. The lower turret in combination with the machine’s milling spindle can be applied to either side of the machine headstock to reduce machining cycle times.
Mazak said its MX Hybrid roller guide system is integrated to the Integrex i-200ST to impart durability and reliability that result in long-term accuracy. The MX Hybrid roller guide system dampens vibration to extend tool life, handles higher load capacities, accelerates and decelerates quicker to shorten cycle times, consumes less oil (for “greener” operation), and performs longer with less maintenance.
For a compact multi-tasking center, the Integrex i-200ST provides an ample Y-axis travel of 9.8 in. (249 mm) and vertical X-axis of 24.2 in. (615 mm), with 4.92 in. (125 mm) below centerline. It accommodates parts up to 25.9 in. (657.8 mm) in diameter.
Because the machine is designed with its tool magazine at the front, operators can program and set-up tooling with minimal movements. Also, all machine lubrication points and gages are gathered into a single panel for ease of viewing and maintenance.
Among Mazak’s new offerings is the Integrex i-200ST multi-tasking machine that it said provides shops with versatility and high accuracy in a compact design, with features like twin spindles, a lower turret and milling spindle that achieve what it called “done-in-one productivity.” Mazak ranks the Integrex i-200ST as a Level 4 machine, because it turns, drills, taps and mills, while offering off-centerline and full simultaneous 5-axis contouring.
The Five Levels is a guide for manufacturers to determine the best multi-tasking technology for meeting their specific application and process needs.
Level 1 machines typically offer a single turning spindle and drum-style turret with rotating tool capability for processing minimally complex workpieces. Level 2 machines add Y-axis functionality for off-center operations and “done-in-one” machining together with either a twin spindle and milling turret or twin spindle/twin turret machine configuration. Level 3 MTMs feature independent milling spindle headstocks with B-axis indexing, as well as Y-axis travels and tool storage magazines. Level 4 machines emphasize automation and processing large or highly complex workpieces using full, simultaneous 5-axis machining. Level 5 adds specialized machining tasks, such as gear cutting, honing and grinding, for machines that process very demanding and complex parts in single setups.
On the Integrex i-200ST, both turning spindles provide equally high performance with spindle speeds of 5,000 rpm and C-axis turning control, and both have a 3-in. (76-mm) diameter bore capacity.
For C-axis contouring versatility at either turning spindle, the Integrex i-200ST vertically mounted milling spindle provides 30 hp (22 kW), 12,000 rpm and a rotating B-axis range of -30° to +240°. Mazak’s roller cam drive for the B-axis ensures higher accuracy and rigidity, with no backlash. A 36-tool (72-tool optional) magazine allows fast tool changes and provides ample tooling for continuous part processing.
The lower turret on the Integrex i-200ST model comes standard for nine turning tools. The lower turret in combination with the machine’s milling spindle can be applied to either side of the machine headstock to reduce machining cycle times.
Mazak said its MX Hybrid roller guide system is integrated to the Integrex i-200ST to impart durability and reliability that result in long-term accuracy. The MX Hybrid roller guide system dampens vibration to extend tool life, handles higher load capacities, accelerates and decelerates quicker to shorten cycle times, consumes less oil (for “greener” operation), and performs longer with less maintenance.
For a compact multi-tasking center, the Integrex i-200ST provides an ample Y-axis travel of 9.8 in. (249 mm) and vertical X-axis of 24.2 in. (615 mm), with 4.92 in. (125 mm) below centerline. It accommodates parts up to 25.9 in. (657.8 mm) in diameter.
Because the machine is designed with its tool magazine at the front, operators can program and set-up tooling with minimal movements. Also, all machine lubrication points and gages are gathered into a single panel for ease of viewing and maintenance.
2012年5月23日星期三
Exposure to common agricultural fungicide shown to influence rat behavior for generations
A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that pregnant rats exposed to the common agricultural fungicide vinclozolin pass on the damage to their descendents.
While the co-author stated that the purpose of the study was to investigate potential phenomena which are caused by exposure to the chemical, not to assess the risk humans face, as I pointed out in my recent article on a ground-breaking study on the effects on high-fructose corn syrup on rats’ brains, rats are regularly used as models.
Like bisphenol-A , this chemical has been shown to interrupt the course of normal sexual development, among other dangers.
For those who are unfamiliar, vinclozolin – sold under brand names Ronilan, Curalan, Vorlan and Touche – is used to fight various diseases which target crops, such as molds, rots, blights and is even regularly used on gold courses.
The study, conducted by United States-based researchers, showed that descendents of pregnant rats exposed to the chemical showed more anxiety and stress a whopping three generations after the original rat was exposed.
These descendents showed higher levels of stress and anxiety than the spawn of non-exposed rats, and researchers suggest that this may be able to explain the rising numbers of diagnoses of anxiety disorders, autism and obesity among human beings in the recent past.
Some have postulated that there is actually no rise in autism or anxiety disorders, but instead a more frequent diagnosis of said illnesses since we now better understand them.
This research, however, makes that attempt to explain away the rise in these conditions look increasingly less reasonable.
Indeed, the fact that there has been a marked rise in new autism diagnoses is hardly arguable, as highlighted by Steven Novella of Science-Based Medicine in 2008.
“That the number of new autism diagnoses is dramatically increasing is generally accepted and not a point of debate,” Novella wrote.
Novella outlines the two basic hypotheses behind this rise: “1) That the true incidence of autism is rising due to an environmental cause, 2) That the rise in incidence is mostly or completely an artifact of increased surveillance and broadening of the definition of autism.”
While his 2008 article, covering research conducted by Professor Dorothy Bishop of the University of Oxford, seems to be leaning towards the second hypothesis, it appears that this latest research supports the first.
“We are now in the third human generation since the start of the chemical revolution, since humans have been exposed to these kinds of toxins,” said David Crews of the University of Texas, the lead author of the study.
“There is no doubt that we have been seeing real increases in mental disorders like autism and bipolar disorder,” said Crews.
““It’s more than just a change in diagnostics. The question is why? Is it because we are living in a more frantic world, or because we are living in a more frantic world and are responding to that in a different way because we have been exposed? I favor the latter,” he explained to Agence France-Presse.
The study involved researchers exposing pregnant rats to vinclozolin, which is regularly used as a fungicide on both fruits and vegetables, and has been linked to hormone disruption – and thus is technically known as an endocrine disruptor – with effects persisting across generations of exposed animals.
While Michael Skinner of Washington State University, the co-author of the study, pointed out that the amount of exposure was indeed “higher than what you would expect in the environment,” he also emphasized that “there is not a whole lot known about environmental levels of this particular compound.”
Skinner and his fellow researchers tested the third generation offspring of male rats, specifically investigating their reactions to a stressful situation.
This experimental situation was physical restraint during adolescence, which they then compared with the reactions of rats that had elders who were not exposed to the chemical fungicide.
They discovered that rats with a family history of fungicide exposure not only had higher levels of testosterone compared with the other rats but also weighed more – thus the potential link to obesity.
Furthermore, the rats with ancestors exposed to the chemical showed higher levels of anxiety, greater sensitivity to stress and greater activity in the regions of the brain associated with stress compared with the unexposed test group.
The study also found that in a separate trial testing sociability, the offspring of fungicide-exposed rats “showed less interest than other rats in new individuals and environments.”
While the co-author stated that the purpose of the study was to investigate potential phenomena which are caused by exposure to the chemical, not to assess the risk humans face, as I pointed out in my recent article on a ground-breaking study on the effects on high-fructose corn syrup on rats’ brains, rats are regularly used as models.
Like bisphenol-A , this chemical has been shown to interrupt the course of normal sexual development, among other dangers.
For those who are unfamiliar, vinclozolin – sold under brand names Ronilan, Curalan, Vorlan and Touche – is used to fight various diseases which target crops, such as molds, rots, blights and is even regularly used on gold courses.
The study, conducted by United States-based researchers, showed that descendents of pregnant rats exposed to the chemical showed more anxiety and stress a whopping three generations after the original rat was exposed.
These descendents showed higher levels of stress and anxiety than the spawn of non-exposed rats, and researchers suggest that this may be able to explain the rising numbers of diagnoses of anxiety disorders, autism and obesity among human beings in the recent past.
Some have postulated that there is actually no rise in autism or anxiety disorders, but instead a more frequent diagnosis of said illnesses since we now better understand them.
This research, however, makes that attempt to explain away the rise in these conditions look increasingly less reasonable.
Indeed, the fact that there has been a marked rise in new autism diagnoses is hardly arguable, as highlighted by Steven Novella of Science-Based Medicine in 2008.
“That the number of new autism diagnoses is dramatically increasing is generally accepted and not a point of debate,” Novella wrote.
Novella outlines the two basic hypotheses behind this rise: “1) That the true incidence of autism is rising due to an environmental cause, 2) That the rise in incidence is mostly or completely an artifact of increased surveillance and broadening of the definition of autism.”
While his 2008 article, covering research conducted by Professor Dorothy Bishop of the University of Oxford, seems to be leaning towards the second hypothesis, it appears that this latest research supports the first.
“We are now in the third human generation since the start of the chemical revolution, since humans have been exposed to these kinds of toxins,” said David Crews of the University of Texas, the lead author of the study.
“There is no doubt that we have been seeing real increases in mental disorders like autism and bipolar disorder,” said Crews.
““It’s more than just a change in diagnostics. The question is why? Is it because we are living in a more frantic world, or because we are living in a more frantic world and are responding to that in a different way because we have been exposed? I favor the latter,” he explained to Agence France-Presse.
The study involved researchers exposing pregnant rats to vinclozolin, which is regularly used as a fungicide on both fruits and vegetables, and has been linked to hormone disruption – and thus is technically known as an endocrine disruptor – with effects persisting across generations of exposed animals.
While Michael Skinner of Washington State University, the co-author of the study, pointed out that the amount of exposure was indeed “higher than what you would expect in the environment,” he also emphasized that “there is not a whole lot known about environmental levels of this particular compound.”
Skinner and his fellow researchers tested the third generation offspring of male rats, specifically investigating their reactions to a stressful situation.
This experimental situation was physical restraint during adolescence, which they then compared with the reactions of rats that had elders who were not exposed to the chemical fungicide.
They discovered that rats with a family history of fungicide exposure not only had higher levels of testosterone compared with the other rats but also weighed more – thus the potential link to obesity.
Furthermore, the rats with ancestors exposed to the chemical showed higher levels of anxiety, greater sensitivity to stress and greater activity in the regions of the brain associated with stress compared with the unexposed test group.
The study also found that in a separate trial testing sociability, the offspring of fungicide-exposed rats “showed less interest than other rats in new individuals and environments.”
2012年5月22日星期二
Grilling and smoking for newbies
There's a certain wizardry about grilling. The magic of a low, slow fire -- and a heady touch of smoke -- transforms a simple rib-eye or portobello mushroom into mouthwatering fare.
It's such a straightforward trick, yet there are so many tools and gadgets out there that what was once a simple act of barbecuing has become a tad intimidating. These days not only are there are smokers, gas grills and Weber kettles, but also wood planks, chips. charcoal chimneys, grill racks, salt plates, slider molds, asparagus grabbers and, of course, jalapeno racks to keep your peppers erect.
So there you are at the supermarket, hefting a baggie of apple wood chips and wondering, can you put wood chips in a gas grill? And how important are erect jalapenos, anyway?
You'd ask your neighbor, the barbecue king with his own professional-grade smoker, but that would be like asking Tim Lincecum for T-ball tips.
Fortunately, we've got someone better -- because Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe is all about demystifying the art of the 'cue. The Florida-based barbecue guru and serial cook-off champion, who's heading to the Bay Area this summer for a big barbecue showdown at the Oakland Coliseum and other appearances, has a new book out. And "Slow Fire: The Beginner's Guide to Barbecue" answers nearly all those questions .
The new book is a deliberate departure from the classic barbecue how-to's, which are typically penned by heroes of the pitmaster circuit with "brash personalities, huge egos and a room full of trophies," Lampe says. "By the time you get through the ridiculous pieces of equipment that cost more than your car, it's intimidating. "
The bottom line, he says, is that newbies shouldn't run out and spend a lot of money on equipment they may end up using once. Use what you have, he suggests, experiment and then see if it's a cooking technique you want to pursue with something more suitable -- and more easily temperature-controlled -- than the ubiquitous backyard gas grill, such as an old-school kettle barbecue, a smoker or even a stovetop smoker.
In California, we tend to describe any kind of grilling as "barbecue," but real barbecue is cooked low and slow -- with indirect heat and a bit of culinary restraint. "It's not 'if a little smoke is good, a whole lot should be better,' " Lampe says. "You can easily oversmoke food."
Indirect heat means putting the fire on one side of the grill and placing the meat on the other, with a drip pan underneath. Temperature is key, 230 to 250 degrees is ideal -- and the thermometer on the top of your shiny barbecue lid is useless. It reads the heat at the top of the lid, not an inch or two above the grate, where you're cooking dinner.
"If you have it 240 on top, but the heat has risen, you might be trying to cook that meat at 160 degrees," Lampe says. "You can cook on just about anything but you gotta learn the tricks."
Some grills have a built-in drawer to hold wood chips, but the tried-and-true foil pouch works just as well, Lampe says.
That's something about which Denis Kelly, the James Beard award-winning cookbook author and a St. Mary's College professor in the integral studies program, fully agrees. Kelly has written three meat-related books for Williams-Sonoma, including "Williams-Sonoma Grilling," and several cookbooks co-authored with Berkeley sausage king Bruce Aidells.
Kelly puts a handful of wood chips in the center of a 10-inch square sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, folds the foil around it and crimps the edges tightly. He then pokes holes in it with a skewer -- Lampe's a fork man -- and drops it into the barbecue. You can soak the wood chips for an hour first, which slows the burning time, but just be aware that all that "smoke" pouring out is going to be steam for a while.
Don't get too obsessed with the wood aspect, Lampe says: "The smoke is part of it, but the long slow cooking is it."
And don't -- pardon the pun -- bite off more than you can chew. The trick, Lampe says, is not to tackle a project that's simply too big.
"Don't try to cook a brisket for 14 hours the first time," he says. "Do chicken quarters or pork chops, smoked fajitas where you use skirt steak. Stuff that takes one hour versus 12 hours."
The shorter the project and the less intimidating, the more likely that you'll do it again -- and again and again.
It's such a straightforward trick, yet there are so many tools and gadgets out there that what was once a simple act of barbecuing has become a tad intimidating. These days not only are there are smokers, gas grills and Weber kettles, but also wood planks, chips. charcoal chimneys, grill racks, salt plates, slider molds, asparagus grabbers and, of course, jalapeno racks to keep your peppers erect.
So there you are at the supermarket, hefting a baggie of apple wood chips and wondering, can you put wood chips in a gas grill? And how important are erect jalapenos, anyway?
You'd ask your neighbor, the barbecue king with his own professional-grade smoker, but that would be like asking Tim Lincecum for T-ball tips.
Fortunately, we've got someone better -- because Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe is all about demystifying the art of the 'cue. The Florida-based barbecue guru and serial cook-off champion, who's heading to the Bay Area this summer for a big barbecue showdown at the Oakland Coliseum and other appearances, has a new book out. And "Slow Fire: The Beginner's Guide to Barbecue" answers nearly all those questions .
The new book is a deliberate departure from the classic barbecue how-to's, which are typically penned by heroes of the pitmaster circuit with "brash personalities, huge egos and a room full of trophies," Lampe says. "By the time you get through the ridiculous pieces of equipment that cost more than your car, it's intimidating. "
The bottom line, he says, is that newbies shouldn't run out and spend a lot of money on equipment they may end up using once. Use what you have, he suggests, experiment and then see if it's a cooking technique you want to pursue with something more suitable -- and more easily temperature-controlled -- than the ubiquitous backyard gas grill, such as an old-school kettle barbecue, a smoker or even a stovetop smoker.
In California, we tend to describe any kind of grilling as "barbecue," but real barbecue is cooked low and slow -- with indirect heat and a bit of culinary restraint. "It's not 'if a little smoke is good, a whole lot should be better,' " Lampe says. "You can easily oversmoke food."
Indirect heat means putting the fire on one side of the grill and placing the meat on the other, with a drip pan underneath. Temperature is key, 230 to 250 degrees is ideal -- and the thermometer on the top of your shiny barbecue lid is useless. It reads the heat at the top of the lid, not an inch or two above the grate, where you're cooking dinner.
"If you have it 240 on top, but the heat has risen, you might be trying to cook that meat at 160 degrees," Lampe says. "You can cook on just about anything but you gotta learn the tricks."
Some grills have a built-in drawer to hold wood chips, but the tried-and-true foil pouch works just as well, Lampe says.
That's something about which Denis Kelly, the James Beard award-winning cookbook author and a St. Mary's College professor in the integral studies program, fully agrees. Kelly has written three meat-related books for Williams-Sonoma, including "Williams-Sonoma Grilling," and several cookbooks co-authored with Berkeley sausage king Bruce Aidells.
Kelly puts a handful of wood chips in the center of a 10-inch square sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, folds the foil around it and crimps the edges tightly. He then pokes holes in it with a skewer -- Lampe's a fork man -- and drops it into the barbecue. You can soak the wood chips for an hour first, which slows the burning time, but just be aware that all that "smoke" pouring out is going to be steam for a while.
Don't get too obsessed with the wood aspect, Lampe says: "The smoke is part of it, but the long slow cooking is it."
And don't -- pardon the pun -- bite off more than you can chew. The trick, Lampe says, is not to tackle a project that's simply too big.
"Don't try to cook a brisket for 14 hours the first time," he says. "Do chicken quarters or pork chops, smoked fajitas where you use skirt steak. Stuff that takes one hour versus 12 hours."
The shorter the project and the less intimidating, the more likely that you'll do it again -- and again and again.
2012年5月21日星期一
Novel Casting Process Could Transform How Complex Metal Parts Are Made
A Georgia Tech research team has developed a novel technology that could change how industry designs and casts complex, costly metal parts. This new casting method makes possible faster prototype development times, as well as more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing procedures after a part moves to mass production.
Suman Das, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has developed an all-digital approach that allows a part to be made directly from its computer-aided design (CAD). The project, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has received $4.65 million in funding.
"We have developed a proof-of-concept system which is already turning out complex metal parts, and which fundamentally transforms the way that very high-value castings are made," said Das, who directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory in Georgia Tech's Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC). "We're confident that our approach can lower costs by at least 25 percent and reduce the number of unusable waste parts by more than 90 percent, while eliminating 100 percent of the tooling."
The approach being utilized by Das and his team focuses on a technique called investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting. In this process, which dates back thousands of years, molten metal is poured into an expendable ceramic mold to form a part.
The mold is made by creating a wax replica of the part to be cast, surrounding or "investing" the replica with a ceramic slurry, and then drying the slurry and hardening it to form the mold. The wax is then melted out – or lost – to form a mold cavity into which metal can be poured and solidified to produce the casting.
Investment casting is used to create precision parts across diverse industries including aerospace, energy, biomedical and electronics. Das's current efforts are focused on parts used in aircraft engines. He is working with turbine-engine airfoils – complex parts used in jet engines – in collaboration with the University of Michigan and PCC Airfoils.
Today, Das explained, most precision metal castings are designed on computers, using computer-aided design software. But the next step – creating the ceramic mold with which the part is cast – currently involves a sequence of six major operations requiring expensive precision-machined dies and hundreds of tooling pieces.
"The result is a costly process that typically produces many defective molds and waste parts before a useable prototype is achieved," Das said. "This trial-and-error development phase often requires many months to cast a part that is accurate enough to enter the next stage, which involves testing and evaluation."
By contrast, Das's approach involves a device that builds ceramic molds directly from a CAD design, completing the task much faster and producing far fewer unusable parts. Called Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization (LAMP), this high-resolution digital process accretes the mold layer by layer by projecting bitmaps of ultraviolet light onto a mixture of photosensitive resin and ceramic particles, and then selectively curing the mixture to a solid.
The technique places one 100-micron layer on top of another until the structure is complete. After the mold is formed, the cured resin is removed through binder burnout and the remaining ceramic is sintered in a furnace. The result is a fully ceramic structure into which molten metal – such as nickel-based superalloys or titanium-based alloys – are poured, producing a highly accurate casting.
"The LAMP process lowers the time required to turn a CAD design into a test-worthy part from a year to about a week," Das said. "We eliminate the scrap and the tooling, and each digitally manufactured mold is identical to the others."
A prototype LAMP alpha machine is currently building six typical turbine-engine airfoil molds in six hours. Das predicts that a larger beta machine – currently being built at Georgia Tech and scheduled for installation at a PCC Airfoils facility in Ohio in 2012 – will produce 100 molds at a time in about 24 hours.
Although the current work focuses on turbine-engine airfoils, Das believes the LAMP technique will be effective in the production of many types of intricate metal parts. He envisions a scenario in which companies could send out part designs to digital foundries and receive test castings within a short time, much as integrated-circuit designers send CAD plans to chip foundries today.
Moreover, he said, direct digital manufacturing enabled by LAMP should allow designers to create increasingly sophisticated pieces capable of achieving greater efficiency in jet engines and other systems.
"This process can produce parts of a complexity that designers could only dream of before," he said. "The digital technique takes advantage of high-resolution optics and precision motion systems to achieve extremely sharp, small features – on the order of 100 microns."
Suman Das, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has developed an all-digital approach that allows a part to be made directly from its computer-aided design (CAD). The project, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has received $4.65 million in funding.
"We have developed a proof-of-concept system which is already turning out complex metal parts, and which fundamentally transforms the way that very high-value castings are made," said Das, who directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory in Georgia Tech's Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC). "We're confident that our approach can lower costs by at least 25 percent and reduce the number of unusable waste parts by more than 90 percent, while eliminating 100 percent of the tooling."
The approach being utilized by Das and his team focuses on a technique called investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting. In this process, which dates back thousands of years, molten metal is poured into an expendable ceramic mold to form a part.
The mold is made by creating a wax replica of the part to be cast, surrounding or "investing" the replica with a ceramic slurry, and then drying the slurry and hardening it to form the mold. The wax is then melted out – or lost – to form a mold cavity into which metal can be poured and solidified to produce the casting.
Investment casting is used to create precision parts across diverse industries including aerospace, energy, biomedical and electronics. Das's current efforts are focused on parts used in aircraft engines. He is working with turbine-engine airfoils – complex parts used in jet engines – in collaboration with the University of Michigan and PCC Airfoils.
Today, Das explained, most precision metal castings are designed on computers, using computer-aided design software. But the next step – creating the ceramic mold with which the part is cast – currently involves a sequence of six major operations requiring expensive precision-machined dies and hundreds of tooling pieces.
"The result is a costly process that typically produces many defective molds and waste parts before a useable prototype is achieved," Das said. "This trial-and-error development phase often requires many months to cast a part that is accurate enough to enter the next stage, which involves testing and evaluation."
By contrast, Das's approach involves a device that builds ceramic molds directly from a CAD design, completing the task much faster and producing far fewer unusable parts. Called Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization (LAMP), this high-resolution digital process accretes the mold layer by layer by projecting bitmaps of ultraviolet light onto a mixture of photosensitive resin and ceramic particles, and then selectively curing the mixture to a solid.
The technique places one 100-micron layer on top of another until the structure is complete. After the mold is formed, the cured resin is removed through binder burnout and the remaining ceramic is sintered in a furnace. The result is a fully ceramic structure into which molten metal – such as nickel-based superalloys or titanium-based alloys – are poured, producing a highly accurate casting.
"The LAMP process lowers the time required to turn a CAD design into a test-worthy part from a year to about a week," Das said. "We eliminate the scrap and the tooling, and each digitally manufactured mold is identical to the others."
A prototype LAMP alpha machine is currently building six typical turbine-engine airfoil molds in six hours. Das predicts that a larger beta machine – currently being built at Georgia Tech and scheduled for installation at a PCC Airfoils facility in Ohio in 2012 – will produce 100 molds at a time in about 24 hours.
Although the current work focuses on turbine-engine airfoils, Das believes the LAMP technique will be effective in the production of many types of intricate metal parts. He envisions a scenario in which companies could send out part designs to digital foundries and receive test castings within a short time, much as integrated-circuit designers send CAD plans to chip foundries today.
Moreover, he said, direct digital manufacturing enabled by LAMP should allow designers to create increasingly sophisticated pieces capable of achieving greater efficiency in jet engines and other systems.
"This process can produce parts of a complexity that designers could only dream of before," he said. "The digital technique takes advantage of high-resolution optics and precision motion systems to achieve extremely sharp, small features – on the order of 100 microns."
2012年5月20日星期日
'Age of Miracles' offers an original premise and strong storytelling
Why is it that so many authors and filmmakers love to depict deteriorating futures in which our daily lives become worse and worse? And why are we so entertained by franchises that promote these themes?
Understandably, this is more dramatic than a bright, no-worries future, and such stories teach us moralistic lessons about how we should uphold and never surrender our virtues so, hopefully, we don’t allow such dark futures ruled by greed and hate to come into existence.
In Karen Thompson Walker’s upcoming novel “The Age of Miracles,” she presents a unique scenario for the future in which no one has control over the changes undergoing the world. And she shows us through believable storytelling how people would adapt — or not — to a rapidly, irreversibly decaying planet.
“The Age of Miracles” is told from the viewpoint of 11-year-old Julia, who, along with the rest of the world, discovers the earth’s rotation is slowing down and the days and nights are growing longer and longer.
Gradually, plants die from having too much sunlight or not enough; birds fall dead out of the sky; people contract a “gravity sickness” that ravages their bodies.
There is much dissension between those who wish to remain on the normal 24-hour clock (despite that days and nights no longer correspond to it), and those who wish to live in “real time” with the ever-extending rhythms of the earth.
As if Julia’s coming-of-age dilemmas weren’t complicated enough, she struggles to cope with the rising tensions between her parents, her unstable friendships with her classmates, and the emotional changes occurring within herself while the world seems to be falling apart.
This novel focuses not so much on the “slowing” (a scientific explanation is never given for why the planet’s rotation has slowed), but on the characters’ decisions and reactions to the events taking place.
There is a wide range of personalities all with their own unique viewpoints that Walker molds deftly and lovingly — there are no “bad” characters in this novel — and Julia is an appealing character who displays both the precarious awkwardness and the budding rebelliousness of adolescence.
She isn’t written as a sort of “role model” for young female readers, but she is natural and honest, not always having the answer but doing the best she can to keep going and struggle through complicated situations.
There is also something satirical about this story, regarding the “real-timers” versus the “clock timers.” It is a whole new breed of prejudice, as real-timers are shunned and even threatened by those who stay on the clock.
And it gets intense enough that real-timers begin to move out and build separate communities out in the California deserts. It seems a bit ludicrous for people to get so passionate about time and how we define it. Is it by the man-made devices we use to track it, or by the cycles of nature which can suddenly flux?
But when you think about how much our civilization has been built on the concept of time, the one thing that should be an untouchable constant, maybe it’s not so far-fetched to see how its disruption would bring out the worst in us.
“The Age of Miracles” is a beautiful debut for Walker, with a creative premise that makes it stand out among the array of dystopian-themed novels that have flooded the literary market as of late.
It will be released in bookstores on June 26, and hopefully time won’t slow down before then to make us wait any longer.
Understandably, this is more dramatic than a bright, no-worries future, and such stories teach us moralistic lessons about how we should uphold and never surrender our virtues so, hopefully, we don’t allow such dark futures ruled by greed and hate to come into existence.
In Karen Thompson Walker’s upcoming novel “The Age of Miracles,” she presents a unique scenario for the future in which no one has control over the changes undergoing the world. And she shows us through believable storytelling how people would adapt — or not — to a rapidly, irreversibly decaying planet.
“The Age of Miracles” is told from the viewpoint of 11-year-old Julia, who, along with the rest of the world, discovers the earth’s rotation is slowing down and the days and nights are growing longer and longer.
Gradually, plants die from having too much sunlight or not enough; birds fall dead out of the sky; people contract a “gravity sickness” that ravages their bodies.
There is much dissension between those who wish to remain on the normal 24-hour clock (despite that days and nights no longer correspond to it), and those who wish to live in “real time” with the ever-extending rhythms of the earth.
As if Julia’s coming-of-age dilemmas weren’t complicated enough, she struggles to cope with the rising tensions between her parents, her unstable friendships with her classmates, and the emotional changes occurring within herself while the world seems to be falling apart.
This novel focuses not so much on the “slowing” (a scientific explanation is never given for why the planet’s rotation has slowed), but on the characters’ decisions and reactions to the events taking place.
There is a wide range of personalities all with their own unique viewpoints that Walker molds deftly and lovingly — there are no “bad” characters in this novel — and Julia is an appealing character who displays both the precarious awkwardness and the budding rebelliousness of adolescence.
She isn’t written as a sort of “role model” for young female readers, but she is natural and honest, not always having the answer but doing the best she can to keep going and struggle through complicated situations.
There is also something satirical about this story, regarding the “real-timers” versus the “clock timers.” It is a whole new breed of prejudice, as real-timers are shunned and even threatened by those who stay on the clock.
And it gets intense enough that real-timers begin to move out and build separate communities out in the California deserts. It seems a bit ludicrous for people to get so passionate about time and how we define it. Is it by the man-made devices we use to track it, or by the cycles of nature which can suddenly flux?
But when you think about how much our civilization has been built on the concept of time, the one thing that should be an untouchable constant, maybe it’s not so far-fetched to see how its disruption would bring out the worst in us.
“The Age of Miracles” is a beautiful debut for Walker, with a creative premise that makes it stand out among the array of dystopian-themed novels that have flooded the literary market as of late.
It will be released in bookstores on June 26, and hopefully time won’t slow down before then to make us wait any longer.
2012年5月17日星期四
Para Clocks Are Like Spirographs Made Of Concrete
The year must have been 1990. I was in grade school, and it was one of those Friday afternoons where we got to play board games for one hour before going home. Games had been set up on desks across the room. I must have been distracted, because by the time I looked around the class, all the of good stations had been filled.
The only thing left was the stupid Spirograph station with a stupid boy and a stupid girl I’d never met. I had no idea how the stupid contraption worked or why anyone would want to make stupid spirals with stupid colored pencils. Then I tried it. These strange, stupid tools… they were amazing. My stubby fingers were deftly weaving intricate, nay, downright ornamental patterns of a beauty generally reserved for higher mathematics. It was a great, great day.
This memory had been buried for years before I came across the Para Clocks, a new Kickstarter-based project by the young collective LeeLABS. Based upon simple, radial geometry, these clocks seem born from some sort of concrete Spirograph, one that molds rock rather than shaping the shavings of graphite.
In reality, LeeLABS is building an online and app-backed tool for users to create their own parametric designs, which LeeLABS will carve into a plastic mold before casting the custom shape into a concrete clock. It’s a pretty cool riff on the idea of custom 3-D printing. Rather than producing some sort of cheap plastic product, LeeLABS’ Para Clocks are just starting with the inexpensive plastic prototyping, then using that to create an object that will have about as much physical permanence as physical objects can have.
The result is a bit of a dichotomy in the rapid prototyping space, but it’s just the sort of creative production that can support small scale customized product infrastructures. The consumer can receive a product that’s far more polished than anything they could make in-house (a gorgeous concrete lattice), but the manufacturer isn’t using equipment that’s anywhere near as expensive as a mass manufacture system (it’s appears to be a basic lathe). The deal works out for everyone.
As for me, after that one afternoon in class, I actually never picked up a Spirograph again, and I’ve long forgotten the names of those two new friends. I’m tempted to order a kit off Amazon, but the thought of a grown man playing Spirograph alone on his living room coffee table? I guess there are stupider choices I could make.
The only thing left was the stupid Spirograph station with a stupid boy and a stupid girl I’d never met. I had no idea how the stupid contraption worked or why anyone would want to make stupid spirals with stupid colored pencils. Then I tried it. These strange, stupid tools… they were amazing. My stubby fingers were deftly weaving intricate, nay, downright ornamental patterns of a beauty generally reserved for higher mathematics. It was a great, great day.
This memory had been buried for years before I came across the Para Clocks, a new Kickstarter-based project by the young collective LeeLABS. Based upon simple, radial geometry, these clocks seem born from some sort of concrete Spirograph, one that molds rock rather than shaping the shavings of graphite.
In reality, LeeLABS is building an online and app-backed tool for users to create their own parametric designs, which LeeLABS will carve into a plastic mold before casting the custom shape into a concrete clock. It’s a pretty cool riff on the idea of custom 3-D printing. Rather than producing some sort of cheap plastic product, LeeLABS’ Para Clocks are just starting with the inexpensive plastic prototyping, then using that to create an object that will have about as much physical permanence as physical objects can have.
The result is a bit of a dichotomy in the rapid prototyping space, but it’s just the sort of creative production that can support small scale customized product infrastructures. The consumer can receive a product that’s far more polished than anything they could make in-house (a gorgeous concrete lattice), but the manufacturer isn’t using equipment that’s anywhere near as expensive as a mass manufacture system (it’s appears to be a basic lathe). The deal works out for everyone.
As for me, after that one afternoon in class, I actually never picked up a Spirograph again, and I’ve long forgotten the names of those two new friends. I’m tempted to order a kit off Amazon, but the thought of a grown man playing Spirograph alone on his living room coffee table? I guess there are stupider choices I could make.
2012年5月16日星期三
Strike gold at Museum of the San Ramon Valley
On Jan, 24, 1848 the American River resounded to the cry "Gold! Gold!" and thousands headed to California from across the country, many landing in the San Ramon Valley. Residents can heed the same call at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley's Gold Rush exhibit, on display through July 14.
This exhibit tells that story, from the first electric moment until it played out in Danville and San Ramon as miners arrived searching for attractive home sites. The exhibit features trail diaries, rifles and more artifacts from pioneer San Ramon Valley families who established themselves locally after finding their fortune.
One of those pioneers was Robert O. "R.O." Baldwin, an Ohio farmer who farmed in the valley and whose descendants continued to make their mark on the Bay Area. Baldwin arrived in the valley in 1852, after striking gold in Feather River.
"When he rode through the valley, being a farmer from Ohio, thought this was a garden of Eden in California. He wrote 'I never had a reason to change my mind,'" said Stan Wharton, a museum docent.
Baldwin grew wheat, fruit trees and occasionally beets. He built a large home off what is now El Capitan in Danville, near Osage Station Park. In fact, the park gets its name from the Osage trees (native to Ohio) Baldwin planted.
In addition to photos, the museum will display tools used in placer mining such as gold pans, a sluice box, gold molds, a miner's poke and sizing forks. When the easy placer gold was gone, hard rock mine tunnels were dug and actual hand drills, miner's candles, a can that held black blasting powder, mercury to pull the gold from the ore and many other artifacts will be displayed.
The devastating hydraulic mining practice that radically transformed the Sierra landscape relied on hydraulic hoses and nozzles to blast out the gold. Actual documents and displays will tell many stories in print.
The museum is located at the corner of Railroad and Prospect Avenues in downtown Danville. It is open from 1-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays.
Those interested in learning more about San Ramon Valley Gold Rush history are invited to attend a special event with Sourdough Steve on May 17. A dinner and lecture, titled "Tales from the Gold Diggings," will be held at 7 p.m. at the San Ramon Gold Club. Steve will regale attendees with tall tales and true tales about life in the gold diggings and make 49'er history come alive.
This exhibit tells that story, from the first electric moment until it played out in Danville and San Ramon as miners arrived searching for attractive home sites. The exhibit features trail diaries, rifles and more artifacts from pioneer San Ramon Valley families who established themselves locally after finding their fortune.
One of those pioneers was Robert O. "R.O." Baldwin, an Ohio farmer who farmed in the valley and whose descendants continued to make their mark on the Bay Area. Baldwin arrived in the valley in 1852, after striking gold in Feather River.
"When he rode through the valley, being a farmer from Ohio, thought this was a garden of Eden in California. He wrote 'I never had a reason to change my mind,'" said Stan Wharton, a museum docent.
Baldwin grew wheat, fruit trees and occasionally beets. He built a large home off what is now El Capitan in Danville, near Osage Station Park. In fact, the park gets its name from the Osage trees (native to Ohio) Baldwin planted.
In addition to photos, the museum will display tools used in placer mining such as gold pans, a sluice box, gold molds, a miner's poke and sizing forks. When the easy placer gold was gone, hard rock mine tunnels were dug and actual hand drills, miner's candles, a can that held black blasting powder, mercury to pull the gold from the ore and many other artifacts will be displayed.
The devastating hydraulic mining practice that radically transformed the Sierra landscape relied on hydraulic hoses and nozzles to blast out the gold. Actual documents and displays will tell many stories in print.
The museum is located at the corner of Railroad and Prospect Avenues in downtown Danville. It is open from 1-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays.
Those interested in learning more about San Ramon Valley Gold Rush history are invited to attend a special event with Sourdough Steve on May 17. A dinner and lecture, titled "Tales from the Gold Diggings," will be held at 7 p.m. at the San Ramon Gold Club. Steve will regale attendees with tall tales and true tales about life in the gold diggings and make 49'er history come alive.
2012年5月15日星期二
AFinproject invests in India and Mexico
Italian molder and compounder Finproject SpA is making new investments at facilities in India and Mexico as part of its international expansion strategy.
The company produces more than 30,000 metric tons per year of vinyl and polyolefin compounds for various sectors, but it is most closely associated with footwear, in particular Crocs EVA foam clogs. Finproject’s molding division also makes soles, sandals and boots with polyolefin compounds bearing its own brand name XL Extralight for customers such as Hugo Boss and Samsonite.
Ascoli Piceno, Italy-based Finproject is currently investing a total of 8 million euros ($10.2 million) in India and Mexico, said Maurizio Vecchiola, board member and part of the Vecchiola family that founded Finproject in 1964.
The company expects a new molding and compounds plant in Rajasthan, India, to be completed in September, said Vecchiola, speaking to European Plastics News at the Plast 2012 fair in Milan. The new 86,000 square foot facility will take over production from a site it currently rents in Rajasthan.
The company also is investing in new technology and machinery at a facility in Mexico which belongs to Foam Creations, part of the Finproject group, based in Quebec. The facility started operations in 2010, making soles and polyolefin compounds.
Vecchiola said Finproject is now considering an acquisition in Italy. Although he could not give details for confidentiality reasons, he said that if completed the acquisition would increase Finproject’s annual sales about 49 percent to 110 million euros ($140 million).
He said Finproject invests in various regions to gain advantages in buying materials and in manufacturing products locally.
“Thanks to investments worldwide, we can offer prices in the local currency and deliver our products on time,” he said.
The strategy proved fruitful in its relationship with Niwot, Colo.-based Crocs Inc., which started when Finproject formed Foam Creations in 1996 as a result of a deal with Evasol Plastics. The Crocs lightweight clogs were developed by Foam Creations and launched by Crocs in 2001. Crocs bought Foam Creations in 2004 and then sold it back to Finproject in 2008.
The Finproject group now operates eight facilities around the world: three in Italy and one each in Romania, Canada, Mexico, India and China.
At Plast, Finproject showed its new biodegradable compounds: BioLevirex for use in polyolefins, and BioFinpro for use in PVC.
The company produces more than 30,000 metric tons per year of vinyl and polyolefin compounds for various sectors, but it is most closely associated with footwear, in particular Crocs EVA foam clogs. Finproject’s molding division also makes soles, sandals and boots with polyolefin compounds bearing its own brand name XL Extralight for customers such as Hugo Boss and Samsonite.
Ascoli Piceno, Italy-based Finproject is currently investing a total of 8 million euros ($10.2 million) in India and Mexico, said Maurizio Vecchiola, board member and part of the Vecchiola family that founded Finproject in 1964.
The company expects a new molding and compounds plant in Rajasthan, India, to be completed in September, said Vecchiola, speaking to European Plastics News at the Plast 2012 fair in Milan. The new 86,000 square foot facility will take over production from a site it currently rents in Rajasthan.
The company also is investing in new technology and machinery at a facility in Mexico which belongs to Foam Creations, part of the Finproject group, based in Quebec. The facility started operations in 2010, making soles and polyolefin compounds.
Vecchiola said Finproject is now considering an acquisition in Italy. Although he could not give details for confidentiality reasons, he said that if completed the acquisition would increase Finproject’s annual sales about 49 percent to 110 million euros ($140 million).
He said Finproject invests in various regions to gain advantages in buying materials and in manufacturing products locally.
“Thanks to investments worldwide, we can offer prices in the local currency and deliver our products on time,” he said.
The strategy proved fruitful in its relationship with Niwot, Colo.-based Crocs Inc., which started when Finproject formed Foam Creations in 1996 as a result of a deal with Evasol Plastics. The Crocs lightweight clogs were developed by Foam Creations and launched by Crocs in 2001. Crocs bought Foam Creations in 2004 and then sold it back to Finproject in 2008.
The Finproject group now operates eight facilities around the world: three in Italy and one each in Romania, Canada, Mexico, India and China.
At Plast, Finproject showed its new biodegradable compounds: BioLevirex for use in polyolefins, and BioFinpro for use in PVC.
2012年5月14日星期一
Bad burritos ruin lunch for some at Kingman schools
Several students at Cerbat Elementary and La Senita Elementary turned their noses up Wednesday to an unwelcome lunch visitor - mold.
About 20 students at La Senita and 10 at Cerbat brought their green chili burritos back to the lunch line and said their food "didn't look so good," said Paula Loomis, Kingman Unified School District director of food services.
"There's no way we could have known they were bad," Loomis said.
The burritos were purchased from Las Cabos Mexican Foods, a wholesale frozen food distributor. The burritos come from the company prepackaged in cellophane that contains colorful graphics, making it impossible to tell if something is wrong with the burritos, Loomis said. The burritos are cooked in those packages as well.
The burritos are shipped on a refrigerator truck where they are kept at 10-degrees below zero. They are transferred to the freezers - which are also kept at 10 below - at KUSD's central kitchen. The day before the burritos are to be served, they're taken out of the freezers and put in a thaw box, which sits at about 36-38 degrees. The day they're served they're cooked in the central kitchen to 160 degrees, and then taken to each of the schools where their temperature is taken once when they get there and once before they're served, Loomis said.
Representatives of Las Cabos told Loomis the only way the burritos could've molded is if they were left in the open for five days or in the refrigerator for 10.
"That's impossible," Loomis said. "They go straight from the truck to the freezer until the day before they're served."
KUSD has an extremely large freezer in its central kitchen, Loomis said. There are also plenty of people working in there who wouldn't allow something to sit out, she added.
The district's food services are inspected twice a year by the county health department and receive excellent scores, Loomis said. Also, KUSD food services was inspected by the School Meals Initiative and the Coordinated Review Effort in January, receiving "excellent" ratings both times.
The district has used Las Cabos for years, Loomis said, and nothing like this has happened before. Las Cabos is looking into the incident on its own as well. Loomis said she didn't want to throw the company under the bus, but maintained that KUSD is not a fault for this incident.
When the moldy burritos started being brought back to the lunch line by students, Loomis explained that food service workers stopped serving burritos from the batch. New burritos were cooked, what was thought to be the bad batch was thrown away and students received new burritos.
"These were the last of the burritos," Loomis said. "They're gone for the year."
It was an isolated incident, Loomis said. No one got sick, and the situation has been rectified, she added.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, some molds are dangerous because they cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems. A few molds - in the right conditions - produce "mycotoxins," which are poisonous substances that can make you sick. Mycotoxins are found primarily in grain and nut crops, but are also known to be on other forms of produce.
It's also worth noting that cutting visible mold off of food doesn't necessarily make it safe to eat. What you see on the surface of food is only part of what's going on.
About 20 students at La Senita and 10 at Cerbat brought their green chili burritos back to the lunch line and said their food "didn't look so good," said Paula Loomis, Kingman Unified School District director of food services.
"There's no way we could have known they were bad," Loomis said.
The burritos were purchased from Las Cabos Mexican Foods, a wholesale frozen food distributor. The burritos come from the company prepackaged in cellophane that contains colorful graphics, making it impossible to tell if something is wrong with the burritos, Loomis said. The burritos are cooked in those packages as well.
The burritos are shipped on a refrigerator truck where they are kept at 10-degrees below zero. They are transferred to the freezers - which are also kept at 10 below - at KUSD's central kitchen. The day before the burritos are to be served, they're taken out of the freezers and put in a thaw box, which sits at about 36-38 degrees. The day they're served they're cooked in the central kitchen to 160 degrees, and then taken to each of the schools where their temperature is taken once when they get there and once before they're served, Loomis said.
Representatives of Las Cabos told Loomis the only way the burritos could've molded is if they were left in the open for five days or in the refrigerator for 10.
"That's impossible," Loomis said. "They go straight from the truck to the freezer until the day before they're served."
KUSD has an extremely large freezer in its central kitchen, Loomis said. There are also plenty of people working in there who wouldn't allow something to sit out, she added.
The district's food services are inspected twice a year by the county health department and receive excellent scores, Loomis said. Also, KUSD food services was inspected by the School Meals Initiative and the Coordinated Review Effort in January, receiving "excellent" ratings both times.
The district has used Las Cabos for years, Loomis said, and nothing like this has happened before. Las Cabos is looking into the incident on its own as well. Loomis said she didn't want to throw the company under the bus, but maintained that KUSD is not a fault for this incident.
When the moldy burritos started being brought back to the lunch line by students, Loomis explained that food service workers stopped serving burritos from the batch. New burritos were cooked, what was thought to be the bad batch was thrown away and students received new burritos.
"These were the last of the burritos," Loomis said. "They're gone for the year."
It was an isolated incident, Loomis said. No one got sick, and the situation has been rectified, she added.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, some molds are dangerous because they cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems. A few molds - in the right conditions - produce "mycotoxins," which are poisonous substances that can make you sick. Mycotoxins are found primarily in grain and nut crops, but are also known to be on other forms of produce.
It's also worth noting that cutting visible mold off of food doesn't necessarily make it safe to eat. What you see on the surface of food is only part of what's going on.
2012年5月13日星期日
'The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera'
It’s a truism among scholars that if you don’t like your subject you probably aren’t going to do a very good job. Harvey H. Jackson III, Eminent Scholar in History at Jacksonville State University, has never had that problem, and in his latest book, “The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider’s History of the Florida-Alabama Coast” (Georgia, $28.95), he may be said to have been born to it. Reared in Clarke County, Ala., chasing “submarines and alligators” along the Alabama River and whiling summers away on the Florida Panhandle, Jackson is as far from a tweedy academic as it is possible to imagine. He looks good in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops, glories in offshore fishing, and loves the Flora-Bama with a passion to match that of any bubba. And, man, can he write. If after finishing this beer-soaked and sand-whipped tour de force you don’t find yourself heading to the beach, check your pulse.
Jackson’s purpose in this book, besides just plain celebrating a favorite part of the world, is to understand how it came to be what it is today. His focus is the stretch of coast between Fort Morgan and Panama City, and the cast of characters includes “mice and men, turtles and tourists, rednecks and real estate tycoons.” Many of the highlights will be familiar to longtime residents — hurricanes like Opal and Frederic and Ivan, the Alabama beach mouse, real-estate flipping, Seaside, Joe Francis’ 2003 “Girls Gone Wild” invasion of Panama City and, of course, the BP oil spill. His sources include lots of newspapers like the Destin Log, the Walton Sun, and the Press-Register; books; personal interviews, including a moving one with a paramedic about the unglamorous consequences of binge drinking — “I’ve seen them dead; I’ve seen them maimed for life”; a bikini poster promoting spring break in Panama City; and even a Girls Gone Wild video or three.
To anyone tooling along the coast today, hemmed by multistory condos along the Gulf side and garish strip developments and acres of tacky on the other, it’s difficult to imagine how recent all of this is. Before World War II, the central Gulf Coast was lightly built, and small villages of fishermen, oyster shuckers and small merchants greeted the sun each day. There weren’t a lot of vacationers, and those who did come found shelter in small, family-owned motels or scantling-board shacks perched on pilings. The fishing was fantastic, especially at Destin, “The Luckiest Little Fishing Village in the World,” situated hard by the 100-fathom curve, a deep-water drop-off that is a sportsman’s paradise. Change came, of course, gradually and then ever faster, with broader economic perks, especially during the Reagan years.
Down at Gulf Shores, things remained pretty basic until Hurricane Frederic in 1979, when a new breed of people — “raffish Rotarians, pirates with cash register eyeballs, and hard-handed matrons” — realized there were heady profits to be made. Hard as it is to believe, before Frederic there was only one condo in Gulf Shores. Today, there are over a hundred complexes, some of them with hundreds of units. Gone are the mom-and-pop motels like the old Lighthouse, and the funky beach houses that remain become steadily crowded by bigger developments.
Jackson reserves his lustiest prose for the Flora-Bama, easily the Redneck Riviera’s most distinctive, definitive and beloved landmark. He details the origins of the Mullet Toss and even how much beer is consumed that weekend (let’s just say the figure is prodigious). There are strict rules to the contest — stay in the circle, don’t throw out of bounds, the fish has to be slick, and you can kiss the fish, but you can’t pour beer into it.
Jackson’s purpose in this book, besides just plain celebrating a favorite part of the world, is to understand how it came to be what it is today. His focus is the stretch of coast between Fort Morgan and Panama City, and the cast of characters includes “mice and men, turtles and tourists, rednecks and real estate tycoons.” Many of the highlights will be familiar to longtime residents — hurricanes like Opal and Frederic and Ivan, the Alabama beach mouse, real-estate flipping, Seaside, Joe Francis’ 2003 “Girls Gone Wild” invasion of Panama City and, of course, the BP oil spill. His sources include lots of newspapers like the Destin Log, the Walton Sun, and the Press-Register; books; personal interviews, including a moving one with a paramedic about the unglamorous consequences of binge drinking — “I’ve seen them dead; I’ve seen them maimed for life”; a bikini poster promoting spring break in Panama City; and even a Girls Gone Wild video or three.
To anyone tooling along the coast today, hemmed by multistory condos along the Gulf side and garish strip developments and acres of tacky on the other, it’s difficult to imagine how recent all of this is. Before World War II, the central Gulf Coast was lightly built, and small villages of fishermen, oyster shuckers and small merchants greeted the sun each day. There weren’t a lot of vacationers, and those who did come found shelter in small, family-owned motels or scantling-board shacks perched on pilings. The fishing was fantastic, especially at Destin, “The Luckiest Little Fishing Village in the World,” situated hard by the 100-fathom curve, a deep-water drop-off that is a sportsman’s paradise. Change came, of course, gradually and then ever faster, with broader economic perks, especially during the Reagan years.
Down at Gulf Shores, things remained pretty basic until Hurricane Frederic in 1979, when a new breed of people — “raffish Rotarians, pirates with cash register eyeballs, and hard-handed matrons” — realized there were heady profits to be made. Hard as it is to believe, before Frederic there was only one condo in Gulf Shores. Today, there are over a hundred complexes, some of them with hundreds of units. Gone are the mom-and-pop motels like the old Lighthouse, and the funky beach houses that remain become steadily crowded by bigger developments.
Jackson reserves his lustiest prose for the Flora-Bama, easily the Redneck Riviera’s most distinctive, definitive and beloved landmark. He details the origins of the Mullet Toss and even how much beer is consumed that weekend (let’s just say the figure is prodigious). There are strict rules to the contest — stay in the circle, don’t throw out of bounds, the fish has to be slick, and you can kiss the fish, but you can’t pour beer into it.
2012年5月10日星期四
LSA guru Hempstead gives talk on Allegro planes
Listening to Doug Hempstead talk about flying can cause one’s imagination to take off and soar. Those dreams don’t necessarily have to be brought back down to earth, thanks to the light sport aircraft Hempstead’s company produces.
The president of Allegro LSA, which currently operates out of Littleton, Hempstead was the featured speaker at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the Lake Gaston Association. He gave details on the airplanes the company produces as well as future plans he and wife Betty hold for the company.
Allegro LSA deals in pretty much all aspects of light sport aircraft (LSA) in relation to the single-engine, one- or two-person airplanes the company produces. That includes production, inspections and sales and rentals as well as pilot training and certification.
Even though LSAs are small, low-energy aircraft, Hempstead said they are exceedingly safe, economical and user-friendly.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved LSAs in September of 2004 and completed rules and regulations for the category the following May.
“We’re about seven years into this, and it’s been incredibly successful,” Hempstead said.
LSAs are limited to a maximum weight of 1,320 pounds (1,430 pounds if intended for water operations) and a maximum air speed of 120 knots (138 mph), in addition to other regulations.
The Hempsteads started out as U.S. importers for LSAs and eventually bought an LSA producer out of the Czech Republic called Fantasy Air, moving it stateside.
The Allegro airplanes the company produces might be small and light, but that doesn’t mean they’re low on performance. In many cases, Hempstead said the Allegro outperforms the ever-popular Cessna 172.
“It will take off much quicker, climb much faster, cruise as fast, has a 45 knots stall speed, which is less than a 172, has a 12-to-1 glide ratio, which is much better than a 172, and it can land in as little as 300 feet,” he said.
In addition, Hempstead said Allegros are incredibly cost-effective and fuel-efficient, functioning on about a fourth of the operating cost and a fifth of the maintenance cost of a Cessna 172.
Hempstead recommends 87-octane automobile fuel to fill the 17-gallon tank on the Allegro, which usually burns fuel at a rate below 3.5 gallons per hour.
“Our planes get better mileage than any of my vehicles do,” he said.
For a normal take off, Allegros require about 350 feet, and they can land in as little as 300 feet. Their rate of climb is around 1,000 feet per minute, and the 12-to-1 glide ratio means the plane will glide 12 times farther than its elevation in the absence of thrust.
Obtaining a pilot’s license with a sport pilot rating requires 20 hours of training, which Allegro LSA can accommodate at its flight school, housed in Sanford, N.C. Sport pilots can operate in the U.S. or a foreign country that accepts the U.S. sport pilot certificate, which includes multiple European countries.
Sport pilots are limited to daylight flying with three miles of visibility or greater, can not tow an object and are not allowed to travel more than 10,000 feet above sea level or 2,000 above ground level, although private pilots with the correct medical rating are allowed to fly at night and take LSAs higher. Allegros have a service ceiling of 15,000 feet above sea level.
Among the interesting aspects of sport pilot certification, a person who has completed the 20 hours of training and holds a valid U.S. driver’s license is eligible to operate an LSA, provided he or she hasn’t had their pilot medical rating revoked in the past and doesn’t have any judicial limitations or administrative orders applied to their driving privileges.
“That means that if you have to wear glasses to drive, you have to wear glasses to fly,” said Hempstead. “If you get in trouble and the police say they’re only going to let you drive to and from work, you can only fly to and from work.”
Allegro LSA’s flight school in Sanford also serves as a distribution center, however all production of the Allegro airplanes take place at the company’s location at 231 U.S. 158-East in Littleton.
The president of Allegro LSA, which currently operates out of Littleton, Hempstead was the featured speaker at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the Lake Gaston Association. He gave details on the airplanes the company produces as well as future plans he and wife Betty hold for the company.
Allegro LSA deals in pretty much all aspects of light sport aircraft (LSA) in relation to the single-engine, one- or two-person airplanes the company produces. That includes production, inspections and sales and rentals as well as pilot training and certification.
Even though LSAs are small, low-energy aircraft, Hempstead said they are exceedingly safe, economical and user-friendly.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved LSAs in September of 2004 and completed rules and regulations for the category the following May.
“We’re about seven years into this, and it’s been incredibly successful,” Hempstead said.
LSAs are limited to a maximum weight of 1,320 pounds (1,430 pounds if intended for water operations) and a maximum air speed of 120 knots (138 mph), in addition to other regulations.
The Hempsteads started out as U.S. importers for LSAs and eventually bought an LSA producer out of the Czech Republic called Fantasy Air, moving it stateside.
The Allegro airplanes the company produces might be small and light, but that doesn’t mean they’re low on performance. In many cases, Hempstead said the Allegro outperforms the ever-popular Cessna 172.
“It will take off much quicker, climb much faster, cruise as fast, has a 45 knots stall speed, which is less than a 172, has a 12-to-1 glide ratio, which is much better than a 172, and it can land in as little as 300 feet,” he said.
In addition, Hempstead said Allegros are incredibly cost-effective and fuel-efficient, functioning on about a fourth of the operating cost and a fifth of the maintenance cost of a Cessna 172.
Hempstead recommends 87-octane automobile fuel to fill the 17-gallon tank on the Allegro, which usually burns fuel at a rate below 3.5 gallons per hour.
“Our planes get better mileage than any of my vehicles do,” he said.
For a normal take off, Allegros require about 350 feet, and they can land in as little as 300 feet. Their rate of climb is around 1,000 feet per minute, and the 12-to-1 glide ratio means the plane will glide 12 times farther than its elevation in the absence of thrust.
Obtaining a pilot’s license with a sport pilot rating requires 20 hours of training, which Allegro LSA can accommodate at its flight school, housed in Sanford, N.C. Sport pilots can operate in the U.S. or a foreign country that accepts the U.S. sport pilot certificate, which includes multiple European countries.
Sport pilots are limited to daylight flying with three miles of visibility or greater, can not tow an object and are not allowed to travel more than 10,000 feet above sea level or 2,000 above ground level, although private pilots with the correct medical rating are allowed to fly at night and take LSAs higher. Allegros have a service ceiling of 15,000 feet above sea level.
Among the interesting aspects of sport pilot certification, a person who has completed the 20 hours of training and holds a valid U.S. driver’s license is eligible to operate an LSA, provided he or she hasn’t had their pilot medical rating revoked in the past and doesn’t have any judicial limitations or administrative orders applied to their driving privileges.
“That means that if you have to wear glasses to drive, you have to wear glasses to fly,” said Hempstead. “If you get in trouble and the police say they’re only going to let you drive to and from work, you can only fly to and from work.”
Allegro LSA’s flight school in Sanford also serves as a distribution center, however all production of the Allegro airplanes take place at the company’s location at 231 U.S. 158-East in Littleton.
2012年5月9日星期三
French first ladies break protocol and make new molds
Only in France. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the superstar model-turned-songstress with a freewheeling lifestyle, now hands the job of first lady to a twice-divorced journalist who’s the first presidential partner to enter the Elysee Palace without a ring on her finger.
And as Valerie Trierweiler prepares for her new role alongside President-elect Francois Hollande, in the wings is the woman whose man she stole — Segolene Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children and a former presidential candidate now seeking her own seat of political power.
So what’s happening in the land of French officialdom, where protocol and social niceties still count? Will Trierweiler’s name be listed on formal invitations to presidential events, even though she’s not his spouse?
It’s the head of state who decides, so where’s the problem?
Intrigue, love lost, love found and power struggles accompanied the new first couple on their journey to the presidency, which Hollande takes over from Nicolas Sarkozy on May 15. The Hollande-Trierweiler couple gave each other a big kiss on the mouth at the victory fete watched by cheering thousands at the Bastille.
Bruni-Sarkozy, who married the outgoing president after he divorced his second wife while in office, adapted to the job of first lady like slipping into a silver slipper.
Past romantic adventures with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton faded into distant memory and she cultivated a low profile as France’s “premiere dame,” charming and disarming other heads of state.
Some think Trierweiler may do even better.
“Valerie is perfect. She’s so French,” Paris-based fashion writer Rebecca Voight insisted. “It’s what French women see in themselves. ... She kept a respectful distance from Hollande during the campaign and also had her career, which people respect.”
Privilege describes the life, past and present, of Sarkozy’s Italian-born wife, who comes from a wealthy Turin family. Trierweiler’s roots are more humble. One of six children, she grew up in a modest neighborhood in Angers, in western France, then studied political science at the Sorbonne.
“I didn’t choose to have a public life. I chose Francois,” she said in an interview with Paris-Match in October. “But I will adapt.”
Elegant and intelligent, Trierweiler, who has three teenage sons from her previous marriage to a colleague at the magazine Paris Match, is 10 years younger than the 57-year-old Hollande. She met Hollande years ago while covering the Socialist Party, which he headed for 11 years until 2008.
Their relationship flowered starting in 2005 as Hollande’s then-partner Royal was beginning to prepare her own presidential candidacy.
Hollande and Royal maintained a pact of silence about their crumbling relationship — broken only after she lost to Sarkozy in 2007. Royal then announced that she had asked Hollande to leave their family home.
Royal, who soldiered through Hollande’s presidential campaign with occasional appearances, now wants a piece of the political pie — as speaker of the lower house of parliament should the Socialists win June legislative elections.
And as Valerie Trierweiler prepares for her new role alongside President-elect Francois Hollande, in the wings is the woman whose man she stole — Segolene Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children and a former presidential candidate now seeking her own seat of political power.
So what’s happening in the land of French officialdom, where protocol and social niceties still count? Will Trierweiler’s name be listed on formal invitations to presidential events, even though she’s not his spouse?
It’s the head of state who decides, so where’s the problem?
Intrigue, love lost, love found and power struggles accompanied the new first couple on their journey to the presidency, which Hollande takes over from Nicolas Sarkozy on May 15. The Hollande-Trierweiler couple gave each other a big kiss on the mouth at the victory fete watched by cheering thousands at the Bastille.
Bruni-Sarkozy, who married the outgoing president after he divorced his second wife while in office, adapted to the job of first lady like slipping into a silver slipper.
Past romantic adventures with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton faded into distant memory and she cultivated a low profile as France’s “premiere dame,” charming and disarming other heads of state.
Some think Trierweiler may do even better.
“Valerie is perfect. She’s so French,” Paris-based fashion writer Rebecca Voight insisted. “It’s what French women see in themselves. ... She kept a respectful distance from Hollande during the campaign and also had her career, which people respect.”
Privilege describes the life, past and present, of Sarkozy’s Italian-born wife, who comes from a wealthy Turin family. Trierweiler’s roots are more humble. One of six children, she grew up in a modest neighborhood in Angers, in western France, then studied political science at the Sorbonne.
“I didn’t choose to have a public life. I chose Francois,” she said in an interview with Paris-Match in October. “But I will adapt.”
Elegant and intelligent, Trierweiler, who has three teenage sons from her previous marriage to a colleague at the magazine Paris Match, is 10 years younger than the 57-year-old Hollande. She met Hollande years ago while covering the Socialist Party, which he headed for 11 years until 2008.
Their relationship flowered starting in 2005 as Hollande’s then-partner Royal was beginning to prepare her own presidential candidacy.
Hollande and Royal maintained a pact of silence about their crumbling relationship — broken only after she lost to Sarkozy in 2007. Royal then announced that she had asked Hollande to leave their family home.
Royal, who soldiered through Hollande’s presidential campaign with occasional appearances, now wants a piece of the political pie — as speaker of the lower house of parliament should the Socialists win June legislative elections.
2012年5月8日星期二
Area Robobots team takes third in national competition
For the second year in a row an area robotics team has earned third place in the National Robotics League Championship in Indianapolis.
“We never dreamed of finishing third or even in the top 10,” Tyler Gill, a member of Team Fabius at Cambridge Springs High School, said of doing so well at the national event.
Fabius, a robot from Cambridge Springs High School, and The Terminator, a robot from Conneaut Lake High School, both were sent to the 2012 National Robotics League double-elimination tournament by the northwest Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association.
The Terminator won the local NTMA chapter’s sixth annual northwest Pennsylvania tournament in March in Meadville, while Fabius placed second in the tournament.
Fabius battled its way to third place in the two-day national tournament held over the weekend, while the Conneaut Lake team ended up in the top half of the 36 teams competing, but didn’t advance to the second day.
“There were a lot of good robots. Not to sell ourselves short, but we didn’t think we’d get that high,” Gill said of Fabius’ finish.
The northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association sponsors RoboBots, a hands-on robot-building contest for high school and middle school students. It was started in 2007 to create interest in technical education careers among high school and middle school students.
Students design and build 15-pound robots that do battle with each other in a double-elimination tournament.
However, the national tournament features both high school and college teams from around the country. This year, a total of 36 teams from 22 colleges and high schools competed.
Fabius was able to defeat the University of South Florida, the 2011 national champion, and Bloomsburg High School, which finished second in the 2011 national tournament. Bloomsburg was winner of the 2011 Meadville tournament.
“It was real exciting and surprising for us,” said Nate Eckstein, driver of Fabius.
While Gill and Eckstein operated the robot, other team members, Amber Festa, Alysia Walczak and Nathan Walczak, had key jobs not only in doing repairs but in scouting out the other robots in the national competition.
“We were trying to find out what their weaknesses were,” said Alysia Walczak.
“It was a lot of fun for everybody,” said Richard Gosnell, a physics and general science teacher at Cambridge Springs High School, who was the team’s coach. “The Conneaut Lake kids were supportive of the team, as was Bloomsburg.”
“We never dreamed of finishing third or even in the top 10,” Tyler Gill, a member of Team Fabius at Cambridge Springs High School, said of doing so well at the national event.
Fabius, a robot from Cambridge Springs High School, and The Terminator, a robot from Conneaut Lake High School, both were sent to the 2012 National Robotics League double-elimination tournament by the northwest Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association.
The Terminator won the local NTMA chapter’s sixth annual northwest Pennsylvania tournament in March in Meadville, while Fabius placed second in the tournament.
Fabius battled its way to third place in the two-day national tournament held over the weekend, while the Conneaut Lake team ended up in the top half of the 36 teams competing, but didn’t advance to the second day.
“There were a lot of good robots. Not to sell ourselves short, but we didn’t think we’d get that high,” Gill said of Fabius’ finish.
The northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association sponsors RoboBots, a hands-on robot-building contest for high school and middle school students. It was started in 2007 to create interest in technical education careers among high school and middle school students.
Students design and build 15-pound robots that do battle with each other in a double-elimination tournament.
However, the national tournament features both high school and college teams from around the country. This year, a total of 36 teams from 22 colleges and high schools competed.
Fabius was able to defeat the University of South Florida, the 2011 national champion, and Bloomsburg High School, which finished second in the 2011 national tournament. Bloomsburg was winner of the 2011 Meadville tournament.
“It was real exciting and surprising for us,” said Nate Eckstein, driver of Fabius.
While Gill and Eckstein operated the robot, other team members, Amber Festa, Alysia Walczak and Nathan Walczak, had key jobs not only in doing repairs but in scouting out the other robots in the national competition.
“We were trying to find out what their weaknesses were,” said Alysia Walczak.
“It was a lot of fun for everybody,” said Richard Gosnell, a physics and general science teacher at Cambridge Springs High School, who was the team’s coach. “The Conneaut Lake kids were supportive of the team, as was Bloomsburg.”
2012年5月7日星期一
A Weave of Cultural Significance
Banig or brown mat is a traditional hand-woven mat commonly used for sleeping. Banig weaving is a genuine treasure handed down as a tradition or a trade from one generation to another as it is widely practiced in the country. Its ingenuity is very much employed in its creation and the designs may vary from the practices of those from other regions.
In the northernmost part of Antique Province, 146 kilometers away from the capital town San Jose de Buenavista is the quiet and rustic town of Libertad. The municipality is a mountain and coastal town that is abundantly surrounded by the bariw plant (Pandanus Copelandii: Pandaceae family) which is a versatile material in mat weaving.
The town of Libertad has pioneered in banig weaving which has become one of the main sources of livelihood of the townsfolk. The banig produced in this town is being sought in the local and foreign markets because of its unique and intricate weave.
The art and beauty of banig weaving lie in the intricacy of folding over the strips of the material that will yield a wonderful design of interlace folds and entails a sequential order of steps to create geometric patterns and rhythm.
An arduous and very tedious process, banig weaving is some sort of a spell implied with hard work, determination and patience from the manugbanig (a person who weaves banig). They simply cut the bariw leaves using sanggot (an arc-shaped cutting tool) and a long slender bamboo pole to reach the leaves of high-grown bariw plant, the process locally known as the pagsasa.
The paghapnig (bundling) and pagriras (stripping off) are the next steps in the pre-weaving preparations. They gather and bundle the slashed leaves for stripping off thorns along the edges and into the middle ridge. By removing the ridge, the leaf is divided into two. Each leaf is piled separately until the bundle is stripped off with thorns. The leaves will be tightly tied up in bundle so that each piece will not curl up as it dries.
The Pagbulad or sun or air drying phase follows. Sun drying of bariw leaves under direct sunlight gives it a shiny brown tone and strengthens the fiber. Air-dried leaves are durable compared to the sun-dried one. Air-dried leaves create blackish spots or molds that destroy the natural luster of brown mats; however, the molds fall off easily during weaving.
The pagpalpag or the hammering phase is gradually done by beating the bariw leaves against a flat stone until they become soft and pliable with the use of a wooden club known as sampok. In some cases, bariw leaves are softened with an improvised roller log made of tree or coconut trunk that works like a rolling pin.
Paglikid is a process of keeping the softness of the bariw leaves and prevents the leaf strips from becoming stiff and crisp. The leaf is rolled one after the other in a round form; tightly rolling the leaf sustains its softness and elasticity. The unwinding of the linikid to straighten the spiraled bariw leaves is called pagbuntay.
Then follows the pagkulhad or the shredding of bariw leaves into a desired strand through the kurulhadan or splicer; a wooden-based shredder. Pagkyupis is the preparatory process to the weaving proper. Generally, bariw strands are folded into halves. Every kyupis consists of four strands, folded together in pairs; horizontally and vertically, with the glossy brown color in the outer surface.
Taytay is the framework of the entire mat. During this step, the size and the length of the mat is already assured. The width dimensions will be determined by weaving at the sides forward, making the edge-line on both sides of the mat known as sapay. Hurip is the folding of the remaining strands on the sides or edge-line to keep the weave tightly locked in place. The process also refers to the repairing of worn-out and damaged mat during weaving or due to continued use.
Gutab is the final stage in mat weaving. It is done by eliminating and cutting unwanted strands in the mat, including the excess strands after the hurip has been done.
Banig products has since gained importance prompting local officials and Libertadnons to establish the Banigan Festival to promote banig (bariw brown mats) and sub-products of banig as their One-town-One Product (OTOP). The festival also aims to encourage the banig weavers that the banig they produced could possibly turn into a highly valuable item that can be known not only in the province but also in the international market.
The Banigan festival is very popular for its banig weaving demonstration to visitors and tourists. Varieties of hats, bags, slippers and gowns made of banig are also exhibited during the festival. The celebration is also a tribute to the town’s mat weavers who have preserved the priceless tradition of their forefathers. The Banigan festival is celebrated annually during the second week of March.
In the northernmost part of Antique Province, 146 kilometers away from the capital town San Jose de Buenavista is the quiet and rustic town of Libertad. The municipality is a mountain and coastal town that is abundantly surrounded by the bariw plant (Pandanus Copelandii: Pandaceae family) which is a versatile material in mat weaving.
The town of Libertad has pioneered in banig weaving which has become one of the main sources of livelihood of the townsfolk. The banig produced in this town is being sought in the local and foreign markets because of its unique and intricate weave.
The art and beauty of banig weaving lie in the intricacy of folding over the strips of the material that will yield a wonderful design of interlace folds and entails a sequential order of steps to create geometric patterns and rhythm.
An arduous and very tedious process, banig weaving is some sort of a spell implied with hard work, determination and patience from the manugbanig (a person who weaves banig). They simply cut the bariw leaves using sanggot (an arc-shaped cutting tool) and a long slender bamboo pole to reach the leaves of high-grown bariw plant, the process locally known as the pagsasa.
The paghapnig (bundling) and pagriras (stripping off) are the next steps in the pre-weaving preparations. They gather and bundle the slashed leaves for stripping off thorns along the edges and into the middle ridge. By removing the ridge, the leaf is divided into two. Each leaf is piled separately until the bundle is stripped off with thorns. The leaves will be tightly tied up in bundle so that each piece will not curl up as it dries.
The Pagbulad or sun or air drying phase follows. Sun drying of bariw leaves under direct sunlight gives it a shiny brown tone and strengthens the fiber. Air-dried leaves are durable compared to the sun-dried one. Air-dried leaves create blackish spots or molds that destroy the natural luster of brown mats; however, the molds fall off easily during weaving.
The pagpalpag or the hammering phase is gradually done by beating the bariw leaves against a flat stone until they become soft and pliable with the use of a wooden club known as sampok. In some cases, bariw leaves are softened with an improvised roller log made of tree or coconut trunk that works like a rolling pin.
Paglikid is a process of keeping the softness of the bariw leaves and prevents the leaf strips from becoming stiff and crisp. The leaf is rolled one after the other in a round form; tightly rolling the leaf sustains its softness and elasticity. The unwinding of the linikid to straighten the spiraled bariw leaves is called pagbuntay.
Then follows the pagkulhad or the shredding of bariw leaves into a desired strand through the kurulhadan or splicer; a wooden-based shredder. Pagkyupis is the preparatory process to the weaving proper. Generally, bariw strands are folded into halves. Every kyupis consists of four strands, folded together in pairs; horizontally and vertically, with the glossy brown color in the outer surface.
Taytay is the framework of the entire mat. During this step, the size and the length of the mat is already assured. The width dimensions will be determined by weaving at the sides forward, making the edge-line on both sides of the mat known as sapay. Hurip is the folding of the remaining strands on the sides or edge-line to keep the weave tightly locked in place. The process also refers to the repairing of worn-out and damaged mat during weaving or due to continued use.
Gutab is the final stage in mat weaving. It is done by eliminating and cutting unwanted strands in the mat, including the excess strands after the hurip has been done.
Banig products has since gained importance prompting local officials and Libertadnons to establish the Banigan Festival to promote banig (bariw brown mats) and sub-products of banig as their One-town-One Product (OTOP). The festival also aims to encourage the banig weavers that the banig they produced could possibly turn into a highly valuable item that can be known not only in the province but also in the international market.
The Banigan festival is very popular for its banig weaving demonstration to visitors and tourists. Varieties of hats, bags, slippers and gowns made of banig are also exhibited during the festival. The celebration is also a tribute to the town’s mat weavers who have preserved the priceless tradition of their forefathers. The Banigan festival is celebrated annually during the second week of March.
2012年5月6日星期日
3-D print advances may create more jobs
An innovative process used to make three-dimensional product prototypes is poised to enter the mass market, and local leaders are working to bring part of a new federal center for the technology to Dayton.
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, is expected to become a $3.7 billion global industry by 2015, more than doubling its current $1.7 billion value, according to Wohlers Associates, an independent consulting firm. Industry growth is expected to surpass $6.5 billion by 2019.
Additive manufacturing is the process of creating solid objects from a digital file by printing thin layers of material one on top of another. It is almost the opposite of conventional machining, which sculpts or shapes objects by removing material.
Advances in the technology are establishing a new market for on-demand, mass customization manufacturing.
The biggest economic opportunity is using 3-D printing to manufacture actual products in plastic, metal and composite materials, said Terry Wohlers, principal consultant and president of Wohlers Associates. Currently, the technology is being used to print production parts for Boeing aircraft, as well as orthopedic implants, designer jewelry and custom braces for teeth.
SelectTech Services Corp.'s advanced manufacturing facility in Springfield last year produced a 3-D printed model airplane that can take off and land on its own landing gear. The Centerville-based company provides engineering and technical services mainly to the Department of Defense.
Declining hardware costs are creating demand for low-cost personal 3-D printer systems. New desktop fabrication websites such as Shapeways and Cubify allow consumers to design, sell and buy 3-D printed products online.
"I think it is going to become very, very big and that it is just a matter of time before we see the next Facebook or Google develop out of this," Wohlers said.
The University of Dayton Research Institute is part of a statewide consortium of Ohio companies and organizations that are vying to win a federal pilot institute on additive manufacturing, said Brian Rice, head of UDRI's Multi-Scale Composites and Polymers division. UDRI operates a reverse engineering and rapid prototyping facility with 3-D part scanning and printing capabilities.
President Obama announced the pilot institute in March as part of a $1 billion plan for a network of 15 "Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation" around the nation, serving as hubs that help manufacturers and encourage domestic investment.
Up to $45 million in federal funding has been made available for the pilot institute, which will support the Departments of Defense, Energy and other federal agencies, according to the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office.
A federal call for proposals is expected in mid-May. If awarded, the institute would be led by EWI (Edison Welding Institute) in Columbus, with various clusters around the nation. The center's polymeric cluster would be located in Dayton, Rice said.
Federal officials said additive manufacturing has the potential to minimize the need for tooling, compress supply chains and reduce waste. The technology also can produce novel components and complex structures that can't be made cost effectively using conventional casting, molding and forging processes.
"I can build designs on my machines that can't be built if you are going with traditional methods of tooling," said Ben Staub, president of Bastech, a Dayton company that provides rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing services.
Bastech does close to $2 million in annual business, much of which involves 3-D printed prototypes or low-volume parts production for the aerospace industry. The use of 3-D printers to produce parts direct to manufacturing is continuing to grow, Staub said.
Meeting the expected industry growth will require technicians who can produce 3-D computer models "because that is what is required to run these machines," Wohlers said.
Sinclair Community College's Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Center has a 3-D printer that is used by both Sinclair and University of Dayton students, said Adam Murka, a college spokesman.
"We are in the process of aligning ourselves with different technical colleges throughout the state so that they would be able to take advantage of it," he said.
In 2010, Staub spun off Rapid Directions Inc., a company that sells 3-D printer systems and associated materials. RDI's revenues this year could approach $4 million, depending on its fourth-quarter sales, he said.
Wohlers said 3-D printers that can produce industry-standard parts range in price from $15,000 to more than $1 million, depending on their quality and sophistication.
RDI sells a hobbyist-level printer kit for $1,500, Staub said.
Cubify, a division of 3D Systems, started taking pre-orders last month for the Cube, a home color 3-D printer that sells for $1,299. It prints using ABS plastic at 25-thousands-of-an-inch layers up to a height, width and depth of 5.5 inches.
"I bet it won't be too many years away where it's going to be in Best Buy for $300 or $400," Staub said.
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, is expected to become a $3.7 billion global industry by 2015, more than doubling its current $1.7 billion value, according to Wohlers Associates, an independent consulting firm. Industry growth is expected to surpass $6.5 billion by 2019.
Additive manufacturing is the process of creating solid objects from a digital file by printing thin layers of material one on top of another. It is almost the opposite of conventional machining, which sculpts or shapes objects by removing material.
Advances in the technology are establishing a new market for on-demand, mass customization manufacturing.
The biggest economic opportunity is using 3-D printing to manufacture actual products in plastic, metal and composite materials, said Terry Wohlers, principal consultant and president of Wohlers Associates. Currently, the technology is being used to print production parts for Boeing aircraft, as well as orthopedic implants, designer jewelry and custom braces for teeth.
SelectTech Services Corp.'s advanced manufacturing facility in Springfield last year produced a 3-D printed model airplane that can take off and land on its own landing gear. The Centerville-based company provides engineering and technical services mainly to the Department of Defense.
Declining hardware costs are creating demand for low-cost personal 3-D printer systems. New desktop fabrication websites such as Shapeways and Cubify allow consumers to design, sell and buy 3-D printed products online.
"I think it is going to become very, very big and that it is just a matter of time before we see the next Facebook or Google develop out of this," Wohlers said.
The University of Dayton Research Institute is part of a statewide consortium of Ohio companies and organizations that are vying to win a federal pilot institute on additive manufacturing, said Brian Rice, head of UDRI's Multi-Scale Composites and Polymers division. UDRI operates a reverse engineering and rapid prototyping facility with 3-D part scanning and printing capabilities.
President Obama announced the pilot institute in March as part of a $1 billion plan for a network of 15 "Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation" around the nation, serving as hubs that help manufacturers and encourage domestic investment.
Up to $45 million in federal funding has been made available for the pilot institute, which will support the Departments of Defense, Energy and other federal agencies, according to the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office.
A federal call for proposals is expected in mid-May. If awarded, the institute would be led by EWI (Edison Welding Institute) in Columbus, with various clusters around the nation. The center's polymeric cluster would be located in Dayton, Rice said.
Federal officials said additive manufacturing has the potential to minimize the need for tooling, compress supply chains and reduce waste. The technology also can produce novel components and complex structures that can't be made cost effectively using conventional casting, molding and forging processes.
"I can build designs on my machines that can't be built if you are going with traditional methods of tooling," said Ben Staub, president of Bastech, a Dayton company that provides rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing services.
Bastech does close to $2 million in annual business, much of which involves 3-D printed prototypes or low-volume parts production for the aerospace industry. The use of 3-D printers to produce parts direct to manufacturing is continuing to grow, Staub said.
Meeting the expected industry growth will require technicians who can produce 3-D computer models "because that is what is required to run these machines," Wohlers said.
Sinclair Community College's Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Center has a 3-D printer that is used by both Sinclair and University of Dayton students, said Adam Murka, a college spokesman.
"We are in the process of aligning ourselves with different technical colleges throughout the state so that they would be able to take advantage of it," he said.
In 2010, Staub spun off Rapid Directions Inc., a company that sells 3-D printer systems and associated materials. RDI's revenues this year could approach $4 million, depending on its fourth-quarter sales, he said.
Wohlers said 3-D printers that can produce industry-standard parts range in price from $15,000 to more than $1 million, depending on their quality and sophistication.
RDI sells a hobbyist-level printer kit for $1,500, Staub said.
Cubify, a division of 3D Systems, started taking pre-orders last month for the Cube, a home color 3-D printer that sells for $1,299. It prints using ABS plastic at 25-thousands-of-an-inch layers up to a height, width and depth of 5.5 inches.
"I bet it won't be too many years away where it's going to be in Best Buy for $300 or $400," Staub said.
2012年5月3日星期四
How to get rid of mold stains
Mold and mildew can be unsightly and also unhealthy. Mold is a major household pollutant that can cause serious health risks. Mold releases spores into the air that float around the house and cause severe allergic reactions and illnesses. Mold is usually a problem in humid climates but can be a problem anywhere. Mold can leave black stains on just about everything from carpet, walls, wood, countertops and caulking. Keeping your home mold free is best done by preventing its growth, but if mold is already growing in your home this article will help you get rid of it and the stains that are left behind.
Molds can cause serious illnesses or minor allergies. Molds that grow mycotoxins can be the blame for many unexplained illnesses. The worst indoor mold is black mold which can cause fever, chronic sinus infection, fatigue, shortness of breath, brain damage, infections in the lungs and more. If a person is continuing to have one of the above problems or a stuffy nose, skin rash, eye itchiness, throat or nose itchiness, wheezing or asthma it might be because of mold growth in your home. Go to the doctor and let the doctor know of the mold in your home. Mold is a serious problem and needs to be taken care of immediately. You may consider getting the mold examined and tested before you clean it up to see what type of mold it is and whether it can cause serious health risks for your family.
Any room that has high humidity is susceptible to molds like kitchens, laundry rooms, bathrooms and basements. Rooms that have had water damage such as flooding or water leaks can have a mold problem. The first step in mold removal and clean-up is eliminating the moisture. Find the leak or water source and fix it. The humidity level in any room of your home should be about 50 percent. Using an air conditioner or de-humidifier can lower the humidity in your home. Open the window every day in your home to let in fresh air.
You can clean up minor mold problems on sinks, countertops, grout, showers and tubs with a cup of bleach mixed into a gallon of water. First, brush the mold off of the surface using a scrub brush, then scrub clean with the bleach and water mixture. An old toothbrush will make it easier to clean grout and corners. Make sure you wear gloves and a mask and that there is plenty of ventilation. You will not want to breathe in the mold spores during the clean up process. You can wear a respirator mask that costs about $15.00; these masks have a respirator nozzle cartridge on the front and will filter the spores out of the air. Wear rubber gloves and goggles while cleaning up severe mold. If you have mildew underneath the caulking in your shower you will most likely need to peel it up and replace it. You can bleach the caulk but the mildew will grow back eventually.
If you have mold on fabric such as shower curtains, draperies or clothing you can have the items dry cleaned or wash them yourself in your washing machine. Put a stain remover on the spot of mold or mildew and rub together. You can use a toothbrush to loosen the mold stain out of the fibers. If the fabric is white you can dab bleach on the spot. After the item has gone thought the wash and rinse cycle, set it to dry in the sun. If your plastic shower curtain has mold stains on it soak it in a solution of water and bleach and then take in the sun to dry.
Cleaning mold off of walls is more of a problem as the mold will likely bleed back through it you try to wash it our paint it. You will need to remove that section of the drywall and replace it. While the wall is open you can fix the leak or the problem causing the mold. Do not just paint over a moldy wall because the mold will seep back through or the paint will peel off. The next time you paint use a high gloss paint with an anti-mildew protection added to it.
If you have mold or mildew on your carpet you will probably need to replace it. But, if you want to try and clean it first, you will need to be able to lift the carpet and allow it to dry or take it out in the sun. The stain can be removed with a bleach solution but this might also bleach out the carpet so most likely you will not want to use bleach on carpet. Using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter can loosen up and pull up some of the mold and mildew out of the carpet fibers. Shampoo the area with a carpet shampoo and very little water. Take the carpet out to dry in the sun or lift it off of the floor and bring in large fans to dry it out. It is a good idea to spray the area with a fungicide spray to prevent any further mold growth.
If you have upholstery or a mattress that has mold stains you can try cleaning it your self by first brushing it off with a medium to soft brush. Shampoo the area of upholstery with a safe soap that won’t bleach it out. You can use a little bleach on a mattress if you don’t care about the color. Take the furniture or mattress into the sun to dry. Spray the item with a fungicide spray to prevent any future mold growth.
Molds can cause serious illnesses or minor allergies. Molds that grow mycotoxins can be the blame for many unexplained illnesses. The worst indoor mold is black mold which can cause fever, chronic sinus infection, fatigue, shortness of breath, brain damage, infections in the lungs and more. If a person is continuing to have one of the above problems or a stuffy nose, skin rash, eye itchiness, throat or nose itchiness, wheezing or asthma it might be because of mold growth in your home. Go to the doctor and let the doctor know of the mold in your home. Mold is a serious problem and needs to be taken care of immediately. You may consider getting the mold examined and tested before you clean it up to see what type of mold it is and whether it can cause serious health risks for your family.
Any room that has high humidity is susceptible to molds like kitchens, laundry rooms, bathrooms and basements. Rooms that have had water damage such as flooding or water leaks can have a mold problem. The first step in mold removal and clean-up is eliminating the moisture. Find the leak or water source and fix it. The humidity level in any room of your home should be about 50 percent. Using an air conditioner or de-humidifier can lower the humidity in your home. Open the window every day in your home to let in fresh air.
You can clean up minor mold problems on sinks, countertops, grout, showers and tubs with a cup of bleach mixed into a gallon of water. First, brush the mold off of the surface using a scrub brush, then scrub clean with the bleach and water mixture. An old toothbrush will make it easier to clean grout and corners. Make sure you wear gloves and a mask and that there is plenty of ventilation. You will not want to breathe in the mold spores during the clean up process. You can wear a respirator mask that costs about $15.00; these masks have a respirator nozzle cartridge on the front and will filter the spores out of the air. Wear rubber gloves and goggles while cleaning up severe mold. If you have mildew underneath the caulking in your shower you will most likely need to peel it up and replace it. You can bleach the caulk but the mildew will grow back eventually.
If you have mold on fabric such as shower curtains, draperies or clothing you can have the items dry cleaned or wash them yourself in your washing machine. Put a stain remover on the spot of mold or mildew and rub together. You can use a toothbrush to loosen the mold stain out of the fibers. If the fabric is white you can dab bleach on the spot. After the item has gone thought the wash and rinse cycle, set it to dry in the sun. If your plastic shower curtain has mold stains on it soak it in a solution of water and bleach and then take in the sun to dry.
Cleaning mold off of walls is more of a problem as the mold will likely bleed back through it you try to wash it our paint it. You will need to remove that section of the drywall and replace it. While the wall is open you can fix the leak or the problem causing the mold. Do not just paint over a moldy wall because the mold will seep back through or the paint will peel off. The next time you paint use a high gloss paint with an anti-mildew protection added to it.
If you have mold or mildew on your carpet you will probably need to replace it. But, if you want to try and clean it first, you will need to be able to lift the carpet and allow it to dry or take it out in the sun. The stain can be removed with a bleach solution but this might also bleach out the carpet so most likely you will not want to use bleach on carpet. Using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter can loosen up and pull up some of the mold and mildew out of the carpet fibers. Shampoo the area with a carpet shampoo and very little water. Take the carpet out to dry in the sun or lift it off of the floor and bring in large fans to dry it out. It is a good idea to spray the area with a fungicide spray to prevent any further mold growth.
If you have upholstery or a mattress that has mold stains you can try cleaning it your self by first brushing it off with a medium to soft brush. Shampoo the area of upholstery with a safe soap that won’t bleach it out. You can use a little bleach on a mattress if you don’t care about the color. Take the furniture or mattress into the sun to dry. Spray the item with a fungicide spray to prevent any future mold growth.
2012年5月2日星期三
Maple Offers Figures Fantastic for Furniture & Specialty Items
Defined as a deviation in direction from straight grain in one or more growth rings of the tree, maple figure comes is many forms. “Figure may be caused by compression from large limbs, vine constrictions, injury, genetics, insect infestation, growth conditions and numerous other causes, some known while others remain a mystery,” said Ang Schramm, Technical Services Director, Columbia Forest Products.
This special form of growth occurs in only 2 to 5 percent of all maple logs, according to Veneers, A Fritz Kohl Handbook. The occurrence applies to both hard and soft maples.
Although bird’s-eye is the most well-known, maple also yields a range of other figures. Curly figure, said Schramm, occurs when the grain, normally oriented in a generally straight line parallel to the upward growth of the tree, becomes compressed in a more-or-less washboard pattern due to one of the causes listed above. “During processing into veneer or lumber, the knife or saw will cut across these regions of the log, producing a pronounced striped appearance across the grain. Because the cut crosses the wavy grain at a somewhat radial approach, it leaves a repeating pattern of end-grain, flat-grain, end-grain, giving the resulting surface an almost iridescent three-dimensional look that is greatly enhanced with the application of finish materials.”
Curly figure may be categorized into non-specific groups, with names like cross bar, flair, tiger stripe, mottled, quilted, or fiddleback, depending on the intensity and relative population on a given surface. Generally speaking, Schramm said, cross bar and flair figure occur in isolated regions on the surface. Tiger stripe is used to describe figure that is boldly pronounced on the radial plane and distributed over a high percentage of the surface. Fiddleback, named for its association with the backs of fiddles and stringed instruments, is usually much smaller in size relative to tiger stripe.
Uses for curly and other maple figures include: high-end residential and office furniture, wall panel systems, store fixtures, inlay and musical instruments. Figured maple also is used in specialty pieces. Ken Wheeler, founder of Renovo Bikes, Portland, OR, uses curly maple in one of the more unusual applications.
The company uses figured eastern maple in its performance bikes. “It is typically used in the center as an accent with other woods, like bubinga,” Wheeler said. “For our application in our performance bikes, it isn’t just about the look, it is how the bike will hold up and perform. Western maple has a gorgeous color and curly figure, but it is too soft for our needs,” he added.
In addition to hardness, aesthetics is also important. Schramm recommended obtaining a sample or photo approval whenever specifying wood with these characteristics. For example, he said, with bird’s-eye maple the population, size and dimensionality of the “eyes” determine whether it is considered valued or undesirable. “I would caution anyone specifying bird’s-eye to approve samples as agreed upon by buyer and seller before purchasing.”
Caution should also be taken when working with the wood. “Because the grain undulates so that end grain is present, finish has a tendency to saturate those areas, often creating a splotchy, washed out effect unless careful preparation to include a wash coat or glue sizing is included in the finish process,” Schramm said. “The abrupt grain direction changes also lead to saw and machine chipout that can be addressed to a great extent by machining in the direction of the grain, use of multiple cutting surfaces on shaper tooling, along with appropriate tool speeds and feed rates.”
But when properly machined and finished, he added “figured maple will always create a breath taking work of art that seems to pop out at the admirer.”
This special form of growth occurs in only 2 to 5 percent of all maple logs, according to Veneers, A Fritz Kohl Handbook. The occurrence applies to both hard and soft maples.
Although bird’s-eye is the most well-known, maple also yields a range of other figures. Curly figure, said Schramm, occurs when the grain, normally oriented in a generally straight line parallel to the upward growth of the tree, becomes compressed in a more-or-less washboard pattern due to one of the causes listed above. “During processing into veneer or lumber, the knife or saw will cut across these regions of the log, producing a pronounced striped appearance across the grain. Because the cut crosses the wavy grain at a somewhat radial approach, it leaves a repeating pattern of end-grain, flat-grain, end-grain, giving the resulting surface an almost iridescent three-dimensional look that is greatly enhanced with the application of finish materials.”
Curly figure may be categorized into non-specific groups, with names like cross bar, flair, tiger stripe, mottled, quilted, or fiddleback, depending on the intensity and relative population on a given surface. Generally speaking, Schramm said, cross bar and flair figure occur in isolated regions on the surface. Tiger stripe is used to describe figure that is boldly pronounced on the radial plane and distributed over a high percentage of the surface. Fiddleback, named for its association with the backs of fiddles and stringed instruments, is usually much smaller in size relative to tiger stripe.
Uses for curly and other maple figures include: high-end residential and office furniture, wall panel systems, store fixtures, inlay and musical instruments. Figured maple also is used in specialty pieces. Ken Wheeler, founder of Renovo Bikes, Portland, OR, uses curly maple in one of the more unusual applications.
The company uses figured eastern maple in its performance bikes. “It is typically used in the center as an accent with other woods, like bubinga,” Wheeler said. “For our application in our performance bikes, it isn’t just about the look, it is how the bike will hold up and perform. Western maple has a gorgeous color and curly figure, but it is too soft for our needs,” he added.
In addition to hardness, aesthetics is also important. Schramm recommended obtaining a sample or photo approval whenever specifying wood with these characteristics. For example, he said, with bird’s-eye maple the population, size and dimensionality of the “eyes” determine whether it is considered valued or undesirable. “I would caution anyone specifying bird’s-eye to approve samples as agreed upon by buyer and seller before purchasing.”
Caution should also be taken when working with the wood. “Because the grain undulates so that end grain is present, finish has a tendency to saturate those areas, often creating a splotchy, washed out effect unless careful preparation to include a wash coat or glue sizing is included in the finish process,” Schramm said. “The abrupt grain direction changes also lead to saw and machine chipout that can be addressed to a great extent by machining in the direction of the grain, use of multiple cutting surfaces on shaper tooling, along with appropriate tool speeds and feed rates.”
But when properly machined and finished, he added “figured maple will always create a breath taking work of art that seems to pop out at the admirer.”
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