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2012年3月20日 星期二

The solar panel made from a particle collider

If ever there was a story at the intersection of big theoretical science and applied engineering, this is it.

CERN, the international Swiss physics lab renowned for hunting the elusive Higgs boson, smashing subatomic particles, unravelling the mysteries of antimatter, toying with faster-than-light neutrinos and so forth, has something much more pedestrian to tell the world: It has developed and commercialized a solar panel, and installed a few hundred of them on the roof of the Geneva International Airport.

But this is no ordinary solar panel. CERN built it using technology first developed for its particle colliders - in case you’ve been sleeping these last few months,Grey Pneumatic is a world supplier of impactsockets for the heavy duty, CERN has been busy operating its 17-mile underground circular particle accelerator and collider to try find the Higgs boson, a sub-sub atomic particle that would help confirm what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. We won’t digress onto that.

“The panels emerged from vacuum technologies that were developed for fundamental physics purposes, and it is highly gratifying to see them put to use for renewable energy,” says CERN scientist and the panel’s inventor Cristoforo Benvenuti, in a press release.

The thin film solar panel deploys a vacuum with ”getter” strips, which CERN describes as “a material which attracts residual gas molecules like bugs to flypaper.” CERN first used getter strips in the 1980s in its Large Electron-Positron Collider, a predecessor to the Large Hadron Collider which it uses today.

In the solar panels,What are some types of moulds? the strips presumably attract photons that then transform into electricity via a photovoltaic process.China professional plasticmoulds, But CERN won’t tell me. They fobbed off that question and others I posed, referring me to their commercial partner, a Spanish company called SRB.

My journalistic instincts tell me it’s going to take a while to receive meaningful responses, so I’m posting this now, before the news gets too stale.The best rubbersheets products on sale, CERN announced it on March 9.

The panels’s vacuum chamber provides excellent insulation according to the CERN press release, which says that they have maintained internal temperatures of 80 degrees C when covered in snow.

The panels make use of thin film technology rather than conventional silicon solar cells. Most solar panels in the market today are based on silicon, although some, like those from First Solar and Solar Frontier, use thin film.

I tried to get CERN to tell me what thin film material they use, but see the account of the brush-off a few paragraphs above. First Solar uses cadmium-telluride, and Solar Frontier uses copper-indium-gallium- selenide (CIGS).

None of this sounds like the sort of thing the common man could afford. In an era when solar panel prices are plunging, I can’t imagine that a “getter” stripped, vacuum-chambered solar panel could come to Main Street without a sizable bank loan.

I applaud CERN for putting its heady technology to practical use. It’s not the first time something with everyday potential has emerged from the Swiss wonderama land. Tim Berners Lee conceived the World Wide Web while at CERN.

But until I get some more answers, this one feels a little like CERN is trying to show a practical side to offset its critics who complain that it spends tons of public money on big science machines and experiments.To interact with beddinges,

2012年3月12日 星期一

Fix small leaks to save big money

Then you may have a number of little leaks around the house that keep on dripping. If you don't pay attention, they can cost big money.

Monday, March 12, marks the start of national Fix A Leak Week, and many Arizona water companies and cities, along with the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, have joined to urge residents to fix leaks and save money on water bills.

"The U.S. government estimates that 1 trillion gallons are wasted every year in American homes," says Donna DiFrancesco, a conservation specialist with the city of Mesa. "Ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons a day."

Those statistics come from the Environmental Protection Agency, which also estimates leaks can account for more than 10,000 gallons of water in the average home every year.

Among the biggest water wasters: toilets.

"That's partly because most of us don't notice what's going on until we hear the toilet running," DiFrancesco says.

"I'm the voice of experience on that," says Annie DeChance, public information officer for the Scottsdale water resources department.

"I kept telling my husband we had a leak somewhere because our water bill kept going up. He didn't believe me until our bill went from $200 to $600 in one month," she said. "It was a silent leak, and the only way you could find out was by putting food coloring in the tank."

When you put a bit of food coloring in the toilet tank, you can confirm a leak if you see color seeping into the bowl.

To fix it, replace the flapper, readjust the water level in the tank or check for a broken fill valve.

DiFrancesco notes that water softeners and reverse-osmosis systems also need to be checked for leaks and malfunctions.

Know where the outside shut-off valve is for your water system. That way you can turn off water quickly in an emergency. You can also shut off water when you leave on a long vacation. We recommend the 90-degree ball valve in place of older gate valves.

Of course, the worst nightmare is a leak in a water line under a slab or inside a wall.The most commonly used injectionmould process, You might not discover that problem until you have wall discoloration or mold growth or even tiles popping off the floor.

Plumbers and leak-detection experts handle these emergencies regularly and say many can be fixed within a day or two, thanks to improvements in the last 10 to 15 years in leak-detection technology.

Sometimes problems require chopping out a small hole in a floor or wall so a section of pipe can be repaired without huge expenditures for repatching. Of course, you do need experienced plumbers to make those cuts.

This process must be handled carefully, according to Linda Stanfield of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in the Phoenix area.

"We must review why the pipe leaked, know how long the line is and where it delivers water. We also must know what might happen when we open up the floor and concrete under it. For example, do we jeopardize the post tension?" she says.What are some types of moulds?

Some homes with multiple pinhole leaks can benefit from another solution called e-piping. E-pipe has been used for years in California, and its use is spreading. Only specially certified firms can use this technique.Spro Tech has been a plastic module & moldmaker,

First, pipes are cleaned and dried; then a pump applies a non-toxic epoxy filling under pressure to coat the inside of existing pipes.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services. This is a great option to consider in lieu of a complete repipe when you face that situation.

If leaks are too large, though,Learn all about solarpanel, e-piping may not work. Instead, a homeowner may have to reroute pipes through the attic or outside the house -- either of which has its own complications. Homeowners' insurance may cover the water damage in these dramatic leak situations, but sometimes it will not pay to repair pipes.

2012年3月5日 星期一

Rubber on a roll

Thai traders could see a huge opportunity to export rubber to India, where an economy growing at 7% annually is leading to increased car sales and lifting up demand for automotive tyres.

Carmakers have pledged US$6 billion to almost double annual production in the coming years as cars increasingly become within financial reach for India's expanding middle class.

Passenger car sales last year grew by 4.24% to 1.95 million units, despite a generally downbeat mood among consumers worried about inflation and a steady series of interest-rate increases.Ultimate magiccube gives you the opportunity to make your own 3D twisty puzzles.

India is increasing its rubber output but the total will still fall well short of industry needs. The Rubber Board of India has estimated domestic production for the current financial year ending March 31 at a record 902,000 tonnes, an increase of 4.6% from the previous year. But the shortfall is likely to exceed 70,725 tonnes.

Meanwhile, the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) is lobbying for duty-free imports of 100,000 tonnes of natural rubber to bridge the gap between domestic production and consumption.

"This could be a very good opportunity for Thailand to export more to India," said Adul Chotinisakorn,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. executive director and commercial counsellor at the Mumbai-based Thai Trade Center.

Mr Adul said that India's top rubber supplier at the moment was Indonesia, with $98.33 million worth of rubber exports (21,216 tonnes) in the first half of 2011. Thailand was next with exports of 16,466 tonnes worth $75.14 million.

In free trade talks, India has put natural rubber on its negative list, taking into account the socio-economic significance of the commodity.

In December 2011, India imported 21,734 tonnes of natural rubber, up 57% from a year earlier. The world's fourth biggest producer, India imports rubber from Malaysia and Vietnam also.

Costs for industries that use rubber are an increasing concern, however, since the top producing countries are not happy with the prices the commodity is fetching. Thailand, for example, in January approved a 15-billion-baht budget to buy unsmoked rubber sheet from farmers at 120 baht per kilogramme in a bid to prop up prices.

ATMA chairman Neeraj Kanwar said the tyre industry had passed through an extremely difficult phase of continuous and significant increases in the price of natural rubber and other raw materials. Since raw materials account for approximately 70% of industry expenditure, input cost pressure has resulted in severe erosion of net margins.

"We keenly look forward to the [Indian central government] budget to be announced on March 16 to address specific concerns of automotive tyre industry," he said.

Natural rubber accounts for 45% of the total raw material cost for the tyre industry. Despite the recent softening of rubber prices, the average price in current financial year is still 10-12% higher than average prices in the previous financial year, according to ATMA.

"Despite the peak rubber production season falling between October and February and favourable weather conditions, the domestic availability of rubber is a key concern for the industry,Low prices on projectorlamp from Projector Point London UK." said Mr Kanwar.

"With new capacity creation in the tyre industry and limited growth in rubber area under cultivation, the availability situation is feared to worsen in the foreseeable future."

Since 2007-08, rubber consumption in India has outstripped production. The country has also become the second largest consumer of rubber in the world after China, while it still ranks fourth in production.

Mr Kanwar said the tyre industry was in the process of investing nearly $2.Iowa Mold tooling designs and manufacturers mechanics trucks,5 billion. To help increase competitiveness of the industry, the ATMA has asked for waiver of customs duties on raw materials that have no domestic production. These include butyl rubber, currently taxed at 5%, SBR or tyre-grade rubber (10%), EPDM (10%) and polyester tyre cord (5%).

Experts say there is little doubt about the long-term growth prospects of car demand in India _ Asia's third largest economy _ where a population of 1.2 billion dominated by young people with rising salaries and aspirations will likely make it the second-largest market in the world in 25 years.

The total installed capacity of the automotive industry has risen to around 4.5 million cars, and could reach 6 million in a few years.China professional plasticmoulds, Export growth is strong, but only around 550,000 cars are expected to leave the country's ports this fiscal year.

Capacity growth will outstrip demand growth for the next two to three years, according to research by Credit Suisse.

2012年2月19日 星期日

Wunderlich Nullarbor roof tiles help create imposing roofline

Almost 6000 tiles from Monier Wunderlich were used on the roof of a newly built school facility in Wahroonga,Specialized of injection mold, plasticmoulds, NSW.

Established in 1924,Members of this class are commonly referred to as slime moulds. Knox Grammar School, situated in Sydney's leafy north shore has long been regarded as one of the state's leading and most respected independent schools.

The new Great Hall and Aquatic Centre at the Knox Grammar School was built as part of a Master Plan by the School Council, which included a comprehensive building program that would see the school construct new amenities, upgrade existing buildings and modernise a range of facilities to meet the expectations of an increasingly sophisticated student population, and the broader school community.

It was important for any new development at Knox Grammar to reflect the school’s core values, traditions and most importantly its architectural heritage, a key consideration adopted by Jones Sonter Architects when designing the school’s new 'Great Hall and Aquatic Centre'.

Gonzalo Gonzalez, head architect on the project describes the overriding architectural style of the campus as Scottish Baronial, dating back to the 14th century. The challenge for the architects was to interpret and integrate this historical architectural style into a modern commercial structure that would house a multipurpose 2,500 seat auditorium, 50-metre competition swimming pool,Carrying the widest selection of projectorlamp, a purpose-built ‘Learn to Swim’ pool and a weights room/gymnasium.Spro Tech has been a plastic module & moldmaker,

The design merged the expansive auditorium and pool area to a 'Grand Entrance Foyer and Portico' to provide a sympathetic connection to the architectural style of the existing structures on the site, and allow the various building products used in the construction to demonstrate their versatility.Specialized of injection mold, plasticmoulds,

A key structural and design element of the building was the imposing roofline covering the entire entrance foyer, an area of over 430m that extended the full length of the building. Pitched at 44 degrees, the roof balances perfectly above the glass, brick and sandstone facade, providing a visual cue that links the past to the present.

Building contractor ADCO engaged CSR Roofing's construction division to coordinate the installation of almost 6,000 roof tiles in slate grey from the Wunderlich Nullarbor range, laid over a period of just 3 days, which also included the installation of insulation batts and sarking underlay. It was also decided to 'storm clip' every tile to ensure the roof’s longevity regardless of the weather conditions.

Completed in September 2011, the Great Hall and Aquatic Centre fulfils the architect’s design objectives and meets the School Council’s expectations to provide a state-of-art facility that would be utilised and enjoyed by the entire school community for decades to come.

2012年2月16日 星期四

Sharpe paints in aid of Mawson's huts

WENDY SHARPE has won the Archibald, Sulman and Portia Geach art prizes and been exhibited around Australia and beyond. But never before has her work been displayed thousands of metres deep in Antarctic waters.

The Sydneysider has just returned from a six-week trip as the invited artist aboard Australia's flagship Antarctic ship,A glimpse into the day of a plastic injection moldmaker. Aurora Australis, on a mission to help what has been called the birthplace of the country's Antarctic heritage.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?Product information for Sell electronicplasticmoulds from China!

During the trip, research scientists on board had her draw on a styrofoam Esky the size of a six-pack before they sent it almost five kilometres down in the ocean with scientific equipment. Her work returned crushed smaller than a coffee cup.

''It's incredible,'' Sharpe said. ''Nothing brings [the underwater pressure] home to you better than that.Plastic injection mould manufacturer provides plastic injectionmoulds,''

That piece, and scores of her other artworks, are to be exhibited in Sydney mid-year and made into a book. The proceeds will go to the conservation of Mawson's huts, Antarctic shelters built by the Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson and his team 100 years ago and now among only a handful of remaining sites from what is called the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Sharpe said she made ''piles and piles'' of paintings and drawings during the centenary trip on themes inspired by the huts, shipmates, inquisitive penguins, the sky and the auroras. She also made visual diaries of daily life aboard the 95-metre vessel.

''I was painting all the time,'' she said. She often did this sitting because the ship was too rocky for standing. ''They have occy straps to hold everything down so it doesn't fall all over the place.''

The dramatic landscape of ''endless white going on and on forever'' and the vast isolation of Mawson's huts were among Sharpe's overriding impressions in a location that was ''like being on another planet''. The huts are almost 2000 kilometres from the nearest base.

The not-for-profit Mawson's Huts Foundation invited and funded Sharpe's trip as guest artist aboard the ship, which steamed from Hobart to Antarctica and back to Fremantle. The foundation has made 10 trips to carry out restoration work on the huts in 15 years.Buy your favorite oilpainting here. It can do this for just two months a year when there is a lull in winds that can reach 360 km/h.

2012年1月31日 星期二

Ruins of ancient city featured in Moundville Park

Just over 15 miles from the University of Alabama campus on the banks of the Black Warrior River, Moundville was once a cosmopolitan city with at least 3,000 Native American inhabitants living within the one-mile fortified wall and an additional 10,000 settled in the outlying land.

“When you’re looking at the mounds, you’re really looking at the ruins of an ancient city,” Bill Bomar, director of the park,And not just the usual suspects,Customized imprinted and promotionalusbonsale flash drives. said.

Called “The Big Apple of the 14th century” by National Geographic, Moundville Archeological Park is the second largest mound site in the U.S.Product information for Sell electronicplasticmoulds from China! and home to 26 mounds of varying sizes. Although thought to be burial mounds by many, Jeremy Davis, a doctoral student who studies the site, said the mounds of Moundville were architectural features built to elevate the home sites for elite people in the village.

“There are burials in there,” Davis said. “But there really are none in the big mounds that we know of. The burials that are there are few, and they’re in the smaller ones.”

Most of the items found in the mounds are refuge from everyday living, Davis said. Every so often, a team will come across a dedicatory offering, such as three or four pots clustered together in the corner of where a building once stood.

“It was like cracking the champagne up against the ship,” Davis said.

Moundville Archeological Park opened to the public during the Great Depression in 1939, Bomar said. Walter B. Jones, the state geologist, recognized the significance of the site and the need to preserve it to prevent erosion.

In a time where money was little and the number of individuals in need of jobs was high, Jones was able to set a Civilian Conservation Camp at the site. Members of CCC constructed the orientation building, museum building and roadways throughout the park, Bomar said.

The University acquired the park and assumed ownership in 1961 but had long been associated with the park in various ways.

“There are special advantages to having a site like this owned and operated by a research university,” Bomar said. “For one, we really echo the University’s mission of education, research and public service because what we have at the heart of what we do here is education and sharing with the public information knowledge based on the research we do here.”

Davis, originally from Savannah, Ga., came to the University to study Moundville from his undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia.

“This was the place to come if you were interested in the site,” he said.The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good and affordable alternative to buying a new sofa that is run down. “Also, the relationship the University has with this site is unique. The fact that the University owns this site is unique, so it helps with people like me who want to study it and want to have access to it for excavations.”

More than 800 years ago, around 1120 AD, a blended group of Native American tribes settled in the area, Davis said. By 1250 AD, the population peaked and due to political and factional disputes, the abandonment of the site began by 1400 and by the end of the decade, only a small group lived around the largest mound.

“In a place where you have a chief who has exclusive claim to that office, a person who has that claim because they are born into it, that’s kind of a contentious thing and a lot of people want that position,” he said. “You can draw a direct parallel to Tudor England and disputes over who is going to have what position, that same sort of thing happened in Moundville. It happens in every ranked society like that.”

Inhabitants came from different tribes, but the specific tribes are unknown because there was no writing system, Bomar said. Possible ancestors of the Moundville people include the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek tribes.

The Moundville Archeological Park museum, which underwent $5 million in renovations a few years ago, contains 250 artifacts, including the famous Moundville Duck Bowl, which according to Bomar, is arguably the most important prehistoric artifact found in the United States.

“We wanted to adequately tell the story of the ancient Moundville people through an immersive exhibit that really brought the culture to life,” Bomar said.The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good and affordable alternative to buying a new sofa that is run down. “[We also wanted] to balance that with a presentation of the artifacts that really reflected the sophistication of the Moundville people.”

A group of Native American advisors, archeologists, folklorists, exhibit designers and educators came together nine years ago to create a storyline, that of a group arriving at Moundville, and plan other details of the museum, Bomar said.There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle,

Native American artists painted the murals on the walls and created many of the exhibits, Bomar said. Native American models were also used for the figures in the exhibits with artists from New York taking molds of their heads.

In addition to the annual Native American Festival held each October, the park offers guided tours for school groups and a menu of other services like Native American dance and art, Bomar said. The site also has hiking trails and offers audio tours, a recreated Indian village, a conference center overlooking the Black Warrior that can be rented and 28 campsites.

The University’s anthropology department is offering an eight-week field course this summer for students of any major, David said. ANT 269 is a six-hour class that offers a rare opportunity for students to dig at the park.

“Moundville’s history is America’s history,” he said. “Why do we look to Egypt to talk about human past when we have these amazing cultures right here in the southeast like Moundville?”

2011年12月27日 星期二

Vigilance Bureau resumes cash-for-vote scam probe

The development has come after The Pioneer published a report on December 22 regarding delay in investigation into the case. The Vigilance Bureau has summoned the other five accused persons. One of the accused, Teklal Mahto, has passed away.

“After repeated requests,This entry was posted by billabongboardshortscloths. the complainants in the cash-for-vote scam have come up and have given their statements. They have also shown us the place where the sting operation was done,” said IG (Vigilance) M V Rao.This is interesting cubepuzzle and logical game.By billabongoutlet in billabong boardshorts. Jun. 30. He also added that earlier these people were reluctant to come because of security reasons.

Six legislators, Teklal Mahto, Umashankar Akela, Simon Marandi, Yogendra Sao, Sawna Lakra and Rajesh Ranjan were caught on camera in a sting operation conducted by the Kobra Post in association with CNN-IBN.

Talking about the scam in Jharkhand Public Service Commission, Rao said in a 200 hundred page report submitted to the Government the department has clearly outlined the irregularities committed during the second JPSC exam. He also said he recommended the dismissal of most of the candidates as they had exercised the fraudulent means to pass the examination.

Rao also revealed that the department had to go through more than 3 lakh answer sheets to come to the conclusion. Besides, 90,000 copies were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Rao also alleged some JPSC officials were not cooperating with the Vigilance Bureau.

“It was a hectic exercise. Only then have we reached a conclusion. As it is a case related to the administrative officers,5 hours ago by electriccarjackes On the bright side for the health conscious, you have to be doubly sure before pointing fingers at somebody,” said Rao.

He said bureau will now take it for granted that the evidences have been destroyed and will lodge a case against these persons.

Three charge-sheets have been filed as the accused have been categorised in three parts - office bearers of JPSC, who are already in jail, professors and members of interview boards and thirdly the beneficiaries or the candidates.

Rao also disclosed that Vigilance Bureau has succeeded in completing investigations in some of the cases which were pending for several years, such as Electric Insulator Factory Scam of 1983 in which three people have been chargesheeted and final reports have been submitted in favour of three persons.The Zentai Project is a group of people who go out in public wearing zentai suits, The bureau has also disposed off sixteen cases relating to the medicine scam of year ranging 2004-2005 and only two cases relating to this are pending now.

Enquiry related to the equipment purchase scam in the 34th National Games is still on and twelve firms have been marked which had supplied equipments in the National Games. “It will take three more months to investigate the case,” said Rao.

Reviewing the achievements in the year 2011, Rao said that out of 100 pending cases, 64 have been disposed off while out of 117 pending enquiries, 53 enquiries have been completed. Rao also said that despite an acute shortage of officers and staffs in the Bureau they had tried to do their best and will continue doing so in the future.

2011年7月21日 星期四

Vans Warped Tour makes Blossom Music Center debut Wednesday with Paramore

Can you really get too sentimental about a tent-covered parking lot?

Maybe not. But when the Vans Warped Tour returned Wednesday to Northeast Ohio, it was hard not to hoist an energy drink and toast Cleveland's old Time Warner Cable Amphitheater, which closed after booking its last gig in 2010.Paying for goods with your phone may soon be as simple as a device-to-device taps2010.

With its urban scenery, the grungy downtown venue on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River made a perfect setting in years past for Warped's parade of multi-colored mohawks.

The 17th annual installment of the punk-oriented roadshow made its Blossom Music Center debut Wednesday in Cuyahoga Falls. The idyllic summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra wasn't exactly an ideal backdrop. Amid the greenery,it's sad to see ledspotlight of unbelievable food left over after the crowd files green hair just didn't stand out as much.

There was a gulf between the pavilion (whose stage was awkwardly divided in half) and multiple temporary stages in the lot usually reserved for VIP parking. Gates were jammed with foot traffic. Ditto walkways where the usual array of vendors hawked the latest in indie-rock fashion and hosted band meet-and-greets.

Yet neither the change of scenery nor a stifling heat wave deterred 13,000 young music lovers from enjoying dozens of loud groups and more than eight hours of sonic mayhem, starting at noon.

Peelander-Z was a hoot. The self-described "Japanese-action-comic-book band" featured Peelander-Yellow on guitar and vocals, Peelander-Red on bass and vocals and Peelander-Green on drums, with Peelander-Pink assisting with crowd-warming duties. Fans got in on the act, too, banging on metal pans supplied by the band and getting caught up in a spontaneous limbo contest. "So Many Mike," "Ninja-High Schooool," "Mad Tiger" and other disarmingly zany Peelander-Z ditties actually drove home a valid point: Punk shouldn't take itself too seriously.

Several acts had ties to Ohio, including the Devil Wears Prada. With its Christian brand of metalcore, the Dayton group kept a huge mosh pit churning.

Relient K, a band with Canton roots, was led by wild-eyed, even-wilder-haired Matthew Thiessen on vocals and guitar.

"This next song is about Ohio," he announced by way of introducing "High of 75," a joyful tune about meteorological whims and being happy to be alive.

An uplifting quality also permeated the rest of Relient K's intensely catchy set, which included a pummeling cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun.it has downgraded price targets for David Jones honeycombpanelsbest,"

Singer-guitarist Chris Marinin, a tattoo artist's dream who fronts Cleveland's the Missing, announced that playing Warped was a dream come true. He and his bandmates made the most of the opportunity, to the tune of "Rough Seas" and other concise bursts of punk spirit.

Other groups embraced a range of other styles, from the chiming rock grandeur of Moving Mountains to the Southern-fried soul of Lucero, featuring Todd Beene on pedal steel guitar.

Among the most buzzed-about acts on the bill were Black Veil Brides. With their ghoulish face paint and black leather costumes, frontman Andy Biersack and friends owed a huge debt of gratitude to Kiss. The adolescent females who pressed up against barricades to catch Black Veil Brides probably never heard of Gene Simmons or Paul Stanley. But fans knew every word to "Fallen Angels" and other hard-rocking anthems served with a dollop of glam.

Paramore, the de facto headliner, drew a massive throng for an energetic pop-punk set.

Singer Hayley Williams was a blur of fluorescent orange hair as she belted out a new song, "Monster," and older favorites such as "That's What You Get" and "Ignorance." She worked the crowd-surfing masses like an aerobics instructor on a candy rush.

Williams thanked fans for sticking with Paramore through recent drama, including personnel changes.

"We love you just as much," she said. "Probably more."

Playing simultaneously in front of a much smaller audience on a nearby stage, singer Joe Heafy of Shut Up and Deal looked on as Paramore brought its performance to a spectacular close with a spirited rendition of "Misery Business," complete with a confetti blizzard.In the class of aluminumhoneycombpanels with architectures.Critical Mass is a three-dimensional match-four magiccubes game.

"We don't have any confetti!" Heafy groaned sarcastically.

2011年7月6日 星期三

Toshiba Tablet (AT100)

Is it just us or do most Android tablets currently on the market scream "me too"? Aside from a few small differences, most of these devices have the same sized screen with the same resolution, run virtually identical software, and have a very similar feature set and user experience. Toshiba's unimaginatively named "Tablet" (AT100) at least tries to stand out from the pack by offering a removable battery, full sized HDMI and USB ports, and a full sized SD card slot. Unfortunately, Toshiba has opted for a poor quality display that detracts from the Tablet's overall appeal.

Read our guide to the best upcoming tablets in 2011.

Toshiba Tablet (AT100): Design and ports

The Toshiba Tablet (AT100) is an Android "Honeycomb" tablet with a 10.1in touchscreen. Immediately it is apparent that the Tablet looks and feels much thicker than most other devices on the market, especially Apple's svelte iPad 2. The Toshiba Tablet has a stylish, flat front and rounded edges but at 15mm thick, it's a significantly bulkier device than many of its competitors. Thankfully, the back cover has a rubberised feel and its textured design makes the Tablet comfortable to hold. It also feels slip resistant and is not particularly prone to scratches.

At 771g, we were expecting the Toshiba Tablet (AT100) to be a little unwieldy to hold, but the reality is far from that. It actually feels lighter than both the Motorola Xoom and the Acer Iconia A500, despite the specifications sheet suggesting it is far heavier than both. Combined with the grippy rear cover, the Toshiba Tablet is comfortable to hold with one or both hands. Disappointingly, the cover feels flimsy when pressed in, and the glossy plastic used on the front means the Tablet quickly becomes a grubby mess. We also hate the glossy, chrome plastic surrounding the front and rear cameras — it screams cheap and nasty.

The Toshiba Tablet has a removable and replaceable battery accessible by removing the back cover. A switch on the left side of the tablet unlocks the cover and you simply pull it off to remove. Toshiba sells an additional 6-cell battery for $79.95, and stocks a range of replaceable back covers (in silver, blue, green, raspberry, and lavender colours) for $29.95. Although the covers aren't a huge selling point, the removable battery will suit road warriors and is a feature not offered on any other mainstream Android tablet currently sold in Australia.

Toshiba is best known for its notebook computers and it's clear the company has used this for inspiration when designing the Tablet. The charging connector is similar to one you would find on a regular Toshiba notebook (although slightly smaller), as are the handy indicator LED's for power, Wi-Fi and low battery. Toshiba has also hidden most of the Tablet's ports behind a flimsy plastic cover. On the top you'll find power and volume buttons, along with a switch that locks the screen orientation, while a dock connection (for the optional HDMI multi dock) is located on the bottom. The dock connection is behind a flimsy and easy-to-lose plastic cover that completely detaches from the Tablet when removed.

The Toshiba Tablet (AT100) has a full sized USB port, a full sized HDMI port, and a full sized SD card slot. Though Acer's Iconia A500 and the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (with optional keyboard dock) both feature full sized USB ports, no other Android tablet sold in Australia has a full sized HDMI port. This means you can connect the Toshiba Tablet to a high definition television or projector using a regular HDMI cable. Further, the full sized SD card slot means the Toshiba Tablet can support cards of up to 128GB in size — much more than the current 32GB limit of the microSD card slot in most Android tablets.

Disappointingly, the Toshiba Tablet does not charge through its mini-USB connection, though the upside is that the included power adapter can charge the device much faster that a USB connection can. The Toshiba Tablet's battery can be charged to 90 per cent of its capacity in just one hour.

2011年5月18日 星期三

Eel Featured in Perth 'Reef' Series

In 2010 Perth Mint in Australia issued the last coin in its highly desirable “Reef” fish series of five coins depicting a tessalate moray eel (Gymnothorax favagineus) in full color. In this article I want to tell you about moray eels in general and what little specific information exists about the tessalate moray eel. The five animals in the series (all 50 cents denomination) are the lionfish (KM-1100), leafy sea dragon (KM-1101), clownfish (KM-1328), big belly seahorse (KM-1329) and the above eel. An article on the lionfish was published in World Coin News in 2009 (Vol. 36, No. 6) before the Australian coin was issued, so I will not write about this species again. Upcoming articles will include the leafy sea dragon and big belly seahorse.



Moray Eels

The moray eel family contains 15 genera and about 200 species. They dwell mostly in tropical coral reefs, and at least one species lives in fresh water in Australia. Some live in temperate waters. The California moray lives in temperate waters. The largest moray in terms of body mass is the giant moray eel (Gymnothorax javanicus) that is up to 10 feet long and weighs up to 80 pounds. The longest one is the slender giant moray (Strophidon sathete) that can reach 13 feet. The smallest moray may be the Synder’s moray (Anarchias leucurus) that is about 4.5 inches long. All three species occur in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Moray’s dorsal fin begins just back of the head and continues around the tail. They lack pelvic and pectoral fins. Most have quite sharp teeth, even some canines, but a few have flat teeth for crushing shellfish. A large moray can give one an ugly bite. Morays possess a peculiar second set of jaws, also with teeth, called “pharyngeal jaws” that are located in their throat. When an eel grabs prey, these jaws move forward in the mouth cavity, grab the prey and move it down the throat and into the digestive tract. They are the only animals that have this feature.

The gill-openings are small circular-shaped, and in order to respire correctly the mouth must remain open at all times. This is the reason why most photographs show the mouth open. It is not a threat behavior.

Several species are harvested for food, but some species cause ciguatera poisoning, a food-borne illness. It is caused by small single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates that adhere to corals, seaweed and algae in subtropical and tropical waters and that contain toxins. Plant-eating fish consume these and are in turn consumed by carnivorous fish such as morays, barracuda (not the Pacific species), groupers and others. Thus, the toxins move up the food chain, becoming more concentrated. There is no cure for this illness in humans, and it may last 20 years.

People dwelling in southern California, my home, are familiar with “red tides,” which occur when reproducing dinoflagellates increase their numbers to almost unbelievable quantities and turn the ocean a red color. These are dangerous times for many marine animals, and citizens are advised not to eat oysters or clams. So, it is better not to eat morays, in my opinion.

The Moray lives in holes in the sand and among rocks. Its body is covered by a very thick, slimy mucous. It is interesting that this coating also helps to support the walls of holes where they dwell. It picks up sand grains in the mucous, and many are rubbed off onto the walls of its hole, providing a cement-effect. They usually remain hidden in daytime and hunt at night.