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2011年11月15日 星期二

Six-Wire Technique Nulls Stray Resistance

The boss picked you to design equipment to measure in-circuit resistances on circuit boards as they reach the end of a production line, and a colleague suggested you investigate six-wire measurements. But why would you need six wires to measure an in-circuit resistance?

A four-wire ohmmeter, usually part of a digital multimeter (DMM), connects the DMM’s current source to a resistor via a pair of leads. A second set of leads connects the DMM’s voltmeter to the resistor. Resistances in the current leads do not matter, because the DMM measures the voltage at the resistance. And the resistances in the voltmeter leads have little effect, because the DMM draws a very small current. That technique works for a standalone resistor, but when you have a network of resistors and must measure the resistance of only one, things get complicated.

The figure shows a typical circuit in which you must measure resistance Rx in the presence of two other resistances. In this case, resistances Ra and Rb will affect a two- or four-wire measurement, because current from the DMM source will flow through them, as well as through resistor Rx. By using an operational amplifier -- essentially a buffer amplifier -- you drive point B in the circuit to the same potential as that found at point A. Thus, no current flows through Ra.I have never solved a Rubik's plastic card . This technique goes by the name “guarding.” However, when the op amp drives point B to the same potential as point A,we supply all kinds of oil painting supplies, current will flow through resistor Rb. That current can reach tens of milliamps, but it will not affect the voltage measured across the unknown resistance. You can buy six-wire measurement equipment.

Even if you won’t measure resistance in a network,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, this type of guarding comes in handy in other accurate resistance measurements, such as those on a test fixture. Unseen dirt, absorbed moisture,Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. and thin oil films on the insulating portion of a fixture will provide a high-resistance path in parallel with a resistance you must measure. But if you split the fixture and insert a conductor between the two contacts, you have the equivalent of the resistances Rx, Ra, and Rb described earlier. A six-wire DMM can drive the conductor and prevent current flow through or on the insulator, as shown in the figure. Nylon, for example, will absorb moisture in a humid atmosphere, and thus its insulating properties will change.

You might hear of other six-wire measurement techniques, but they involve shielding or separate wires to drive a device,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . correct the drive signal, and measure a sensor output. They do not use guarding to null unwanted resistance.

2011年11月6日 星期日

Senior golfers ride ups, downs of creaky back tour

Today's final pairing at Harding Park offers a tidy snapshot of life on the Champions Tour,100 China ceramic tile was used to link the lamps together. where golfers chat about creaky backs as often as they recount birdies and bogeys.

Jay Haas braces for a severe back spasm almost annually, pain so sharp it practically takes his breath away. This year's edition arrived Thursday, intensified Friday and subsided long enough Saturday - with the help of modern medicine - for Haas, walking slowly and swinging easily, to shoot 67.

Jay Don Blake curtailed his PGA Tour career because of back problems. He couldn't practice as long as he wanted, or play as well as he wanted, so he disappeared at age 46, after the 2004 season. Blake rehabilitated his back and resurfaced on the Champions Tour in '09.

Now,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . after shooting 66 on Saturday, he will begin today's final round of the Schwab Cup Championship with a two-shot lead over Haas, Michael Allen and David Frost. Loren Roberts lingers another stroke back after his third-round 65.

Haas will need to conquer more than Harding's thick rough and challenging greens. The golf swing can be unforgiving on bad backs, given the repetitive twisting motion - as Blake understands all too well.

"I know what the pain feels like," Blake said of Haas' injury. "It's no fun."

Haas barely resembled himself at times during the closing moments of Friday's second round. He momentarily worried the pain might worsen and force him to withdraw, but he took a pill he once used for kidney stones and received treatment in the tour's fitness trailer.

Then, ever so carefully,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, he made his way around Harding on a cool, gray Saturday - and finished with birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 to improbably surge back into contention.we supply all kinds of oil painting supplies,

"My back got a little better as the day went on, but it's obviously not 100 percent," Haas, 57, said. "I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other. It doesn't seem to hurt when I swing. ... I'm surprised I played well. I hung in there and swung easy."

If Haas' back does not protest too loudly, he owns a distinct advantage in today's final round - he has proved he knows how to win at the game's highest levels. Haas won nine times on the PGA Tour and has won 15 tournaments on the Champions Tour, so Sunday tension will not faze him.

Frost brings similar credentials, with 10 PGA Tour wins on his resume (and one Champions Tour triumph).

That's not the case with Blake and Allen, longtime journeymen who carved out nice tour careers while seldom cradling a trophy. Blake won one tournament in 18 years on the PGA Tour; Allen didn't win at all in 14-plus seasons on the big tour.

So if Blake finds himself in the hunt coming down the stretch today, he does not have a Haas-like reservoir of memories to draw upon. Blake won a Champions Tour event in Korea in September, his first victory of any kind in 20 years.

"That's given me quite a bit of confidence - I feel like I belong out here and can win," said Blake, 53, who was born and still lives in St.I have never solved a Rubik's plastic card . George, Utah. "... I think a lot of us want it so bad, and try so hard, we probably get in our own way sometimes."

No matter how today's final round sorts itself out, Harding Park is proving a stout test. Last year's tournament did not provide much of a barometer, given rain-soaked fairways and "lift, clean and place" rules all four days.

John Cook won at 17-under-par, one year after he blitzed through Sonoma Golf Club at 22-under.

Blake will enter play today at 8-under, so this year's best score will not even remotely compare.

Nick Price, once the world's No. 1 player, pointed to "sticky" rough, firm greens and the notoriously heavy San Francisco air as keeping scores high.

2011年10月11日 星期二

‘These are my people’

In 1981, Yosaif Cohain set out to tell the visual story of the Jewish people in their homeland celebrating Succot. He asked God to grant him 15 years for the massive undertaking. That plan didn’t quite pan out, as 30 years later Cohain’s project is still going strong. He continues nearly every year to spend the intermediate days of Succot photographing citizens from every corner and walk of life celebrating the holiday.

Cohain, a senior photography lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, has captured thousands of angles of the Jewish people; playful neighborhood children in Netivot in 1990, a proud mother in Gush Katif standing steadfast beside her family’s succa in 2004, soldiers on reserve duty – all with the backdrop of Succot.

As Cohain, a New York native who made aliya in 1971 with his family, walks me through his upcoming exhibition “Identity of a Nation,” which opens October 16 at Jerusalem’s Mayanot Gallery, he describes his subjects and their landscape with remarkably deep love and respect, as cherished beings, as he would his own family. And that’s because they’re not just subjects to him.

“These are my people. These are my heroes,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations,” he says. “This is about the Jewish experience in the Land of Israel. This is why we’re here.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.”

Though Cohain has shown parts of his collection before at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, this is the first time he is exhibiting work of Succot in Gush Katif just before disengagement from the Gaza Strip. While Cohain says his photographs generally don’t have a political message,It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, he admits these do.

“I didn’t want anyone to forget,” he says. “I want everyone to look at them, to see the faces they’ve forgotten… I wanted more than the succa; I wanted the place.”

In the Gush Katif photos, Cohain achieves a mournful, brave tone. In Standing next to the home and succa (Gush Katif, 2004), the mother stands with daughters on either side, barefoot, staring seriously into the camera, as the baby crawls nearby, his face hidden by a bright Israeli flag. The stunning white house behind them, which Cohain says they worked hard for, stands in contrast to the small wooden succa alongside it. When Cohain looks at the mother, she seems to say, “We’re going to go through this together and we’re proud of it.”

These are the faces he wants Israeli society to remember. “To these pictures, everyone brings a collective memory that you can’t blot out,” he says. Whether you’re Left or Right, against or supportive of disengagement, the subjects are demanding that we acknowledge they existed in a Jewish community, now gone, he says.

Cohain points out the minute yet ultra-meaningful details in his photographs – a plastic tablecloth spread over the succa’s table, dirt falling from a flowerpot, old Jerusalem floor tiles, a rag in the corner. “It tells a lot about who we are,” he says of the belongings. “If you don’t feel it and know it, it won’t mean something to you.”

These are the defining elements to the photographs that make the people in the pictures real and endearing. The succot constructed from wood, cardboard and even simpler materials are adorned with Israeli flags – like in Six Day War Motif photographed in Jerusalem in 1980 – political signs and paper chains.

The neighborhood apartment scenes of wriggling children next to their succot are energetic, filled with a natural movement and strong nostalgia for childhood. Cohain never directs people where to stand, but simply allows them to be wherever and however they wish. This is clear, especially in the photos of children. He emphasizes, “It’s not about me. It’s about them.” The photographs, he says, are “basically stimuli for the people to be able to express themselves.”

Cohain, who has lived in Alon Shvut since 1977, says he’s learned that everyone knows for themselves where they want to stand, pose, lean – none of it can be choreographed. His strategy is to listen, yield control and let the self-expression happen organically. “Someone’s giving you something precious.

Chooks poached from St James Primary School

BRAZEN thieves targeted a Ballarat school, hair salon, trout farm, bakery and a garden store at the weekend, in five separate incidents that cost business owners thousands of dollars in lost goods and equipment.

Six chickens were taken from St James’ Parish Primary School in Sebastopol on Saturday, upsetting pupils on their first day back after the holidays.

Deputy principal Peter Fahey said it was the second time thieves had targeted the school in the past 12 months.

Late last year six other chickens were taken from the school and never recovered.These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives!

After that incident, pupils installed a lock, sensor lights and heavy wire on the chicken coop, in an effort to deter thieves.

Grade five pupil Ella Kendall said her classmates were finding it hard to deal with losing the chickens for a second time.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations,

“It’s pretty upsetting because we’ve taken all of these precautions and the chickens were almost ready to lay eggs,” she said.

Ballarat Garden Supplies owner Brendan Lovell said thieves made off with more than $5000 in tools and equipment from his business.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line.

He said they also “went through” two offices at the Mount Clear site.

“It’s pretty hard to recover from something like this – it is a massive set-back,” he said.

Staff arrived at the Alfredton Bakery yesterday to find the building ransacked.

Thieves broke through two locked doors to steal a set of knives, an audio system and to ransack the building,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, casing a major headache for the owners.

A Mount Clear hairdressing salon was also hit, with thieves breaking in about 3.30am yesterday.

Upper Cutz Hair Studio owner Emily Tripp said the back door was forced open before thieves helped themselves to more than $1000 in cash and equipment.

“They’re pigdogs – I’d like to get my hands on them,” she said.

Ballarat Trout Hatchery president Dennis Ventley said his organisation’s Lake Wendouree office was trashed during the weekend break-in.

“Any break-in is always a set-back,” he said.

“We’ve been rolled quite a number of times actually – at least they didn’t take too much this time. We’re a volunteer organisation, all run by volunteers so something like this really hurts,” he said.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,

Ballarat Police Sergeant Jo Graham said police did not have reason to believe the thefts were linked.

2011年10月9日 星期日

Andy Warhol in 'Headlines' at Washington's National Gallery

Andy Warhol, the guru of Pop art, reveled in a lifelong obsession with newspapers, especially tabloids and their garish headlines. As a teenager, he saved pages with photos of his favorite Hollywood stars. Throughout his life he packed hundreds of newspapers into boxes he called "time capsules" to whet the fancy of the future. He collected scores of fraying clippings about himself in 34 scrapbooks. But most important, he used newspapers, especially the front pages, to model and inform some of the most important works of his fine art. It is hard to imagine Warhol the artist without his headlines.

Warhol's news junkie obsession and its importance to his art are detailed with great care in a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington titled simply "Warhol: Headlines." The show, which closes Jan. 2,By Alex Lippa Close-up of plastic card in Massachusetts. goes on to the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt in February, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome in June and the Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh in October 2012.

Unlike a retrospective of all the work of Warhol, the exhibition attempts to concentrate on a single aspect of the artist that, in fact, reveals a good deal about him. Curator Molly Donovan of the National Gallery says, "the theme enabled me to tell a tight and focused story ... that had not been understood before." Donovan dates Warhol's emergence as a fine artist to a series of newspaper canvases that he created in the early 1960s. Until then, he had devoted himself to advertising design (including a lucrative campaign for I. Miller shoes) and magazine illustration.

In one 1962 canvas, "A Boy for Meg (2)," which belongs to the National Gallery, Warhol, using oil and egg emulsion, re-created the front page of the New York Post announcing a baby boy born to Princess Margaret of England. Margaret was a household name. Only a few years earlier she had given in to pressure from the British royal family and, while the world awaited her decision, finally agreed not to marry the divorced man she loved. She later wed a never-married suitor instead, and the New York Post was celebrating the birth of their first child. Both the tabloid and Warhol shared an excitement over celebrity.

Warhol's rendition was not a simple reproduction.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. He inflated the front page on to a canvas 6 feet high and, while he attempted to include every detail, his pictures looked more like drawings than photographs. Warhol was often obscure while explaining his work. John Russell, a New York Times art critic, once wrote that "Warhol operates behind a mask of inarticulacy." Yet Warhol seemed clear about mocking the notion that he served as no more than a mirror reproducing his subject matter. "I'm going to look into the mirror and see nothing," he once said. "People are always calling me a mirror,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, and if a mirror looks into a mirror, what is there to see?"

In another 6-foot-high canvas completed in 1962, "Daily News," Warhol used acrylic and pencil to mimic the front and back pages of the New York tabloid. This work celebrated Elizabeth Taylor's rejection of her husband, singer Eddie Fisher, for actor Richard Burton. "Eddie Fisher Breaks Down/ In Hospital Here; Liz in Rome," the main headlines bellowed. Warhol removed all the captions from the photos, leaving details to the imagination of the viewers.

The 34-year-old Warhol was little known when he exhibited these works, and the idea of Pop art — the use of the icons of popular culture as subject matter for fine art — was little understood. His work was not well received at first. Dore Ashton, an influential critic, wrote that "Warhol simply lifts the techniques of journalism and applies them witlessly to a flat surface." But that view changed. It was soon recognized, as Donovan puts it, that Warhol had elevated his hoarded headlines "to the status of art" and had transformed his material "into something both grand and personal."

Warhol attracted more favorable notice with other subjects from this period like his paintings of Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell soup cans and his many colored silk screens of Marilyn Monroe. These spectacular works won him great success. His followers started calling him "the Pope of Pop" and "Papa Pop."

Warhol never abandoned headlines as a subject — even when he sensed that the tabloids were losing their impact.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, A few years after he emerged as a celebrated Pop artist, he saw the demise of one of his favorite tabloids — the Hearst Corp.'s New York Mirror. He also believed that television was replacing the tabloids as the source of lurid, gossipy "headlines" about celebrities and disasters. To keep up with this trend, Warhol and his followers began experimenting with the creation of television programs.

The artist was an avid photographer, and he enjoyed aiming his camera at tabloid vending machines with visible front-page headlines. "Drug Link to Amtrak Crash," cried one New York Post headline while another said, "$1.3m Picasso Disappears Again On L.I." While in London, he photographed the news vendor announcements that summarized the tabloid headlines. "London Strangler 'Kills Again,'" said one.

Warhol's New York studio, known as the Silver Factory or the Factory, was a collegial enterprise with many hangers-on The scene, according to Donovan, "had become its own hot commodity, selling cool stylishness.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction," She describes it in the exhibition catalog as "a space where transvestites, heiresses, speed freaks, wealthy art collectors, rock musicians and Harvard graduates alike mixed together." The antics of the studio added to the celebrity of Warhol. "Don't pay any attention to what they write about you," he once said about media coverage. "Just measure it in inches."

2011年9月29日 星期四

2012 sinking fund project list under construction

The 2012 Sinking Fund Advisory Committee presented and gathered information during community forums on Sept. 20 and 21 about what projects the public wants to see done if the sinking fund millage is renewed.

If voters approve of the 1.25 mill renewal in November, about $1.9 million will be collected for four years for maintenance and repairs.

Sinking fund dollars can be used for remodeling and repairing classrooms, schools and sites as well as acquiring, developing or constructing buildings and sites.

They cannot be used for salaries and benefits, furniture and equipment, technology, preventative maintenance, painting, school buses and supplies.

The committee's co-chairs are Gus Demas, Chris Giancarli, Dick Rosenberg and Phil Smith. Their role is to put together and price out a list of prioritized projects that will be implemented through sinking fund dollars.Initially the banks didn't want our RUBBER SHEET .

The committee hopes to have everything ready to present to the board at its Oct. 3 meeting.Save on Bedding and fittings,

Like in 2008, the project list was categorized under three priorities: Learning environment, safety and security and energy cost and capital maintenance.

Some projects only fall into one priority, while others fall into two categories. HVAC work was the only one to fall under all three priorities.

"You can't leave classroom doors open to the outside like we used to do for ventilation," Rosenberg said. "There is a capital cost of trying to ventilate and improve the situation of schools and how much energy goes into that."

A list of 140 items were narrowed down to about 22 projects. These included replacing roofing, installing new flooring, expand parking and replacing windows, boilers and concrete sidewalks.

Each of these were then placed against each facility,ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, showing which projects were the top three priorities for each building.

Those that were among the top include HVAC work, updating locker rooms and repairing or repaving parking lots.
About 70 percent of HVAC work is done in the district, said Rosenberg.

"Doing an elementary school is costing us . . . about a million and a half to put in HVAC systems,Demand for allergy kidney stone could rise earlier than normal this year." said Rosenberg.
Don Gratton, maintenance supervisor, said a lot of the projects people won't see because they would be in restricted areas.
"A lot of what the building sees is what's out front, things that are tangible to them," he said. "There's a lot of things John Q. Public won't see because it's basically boiler rooms, it's pump rooms, it's places that are usually off-limits to unauthorized people."

There is 930,000 square feet of building space in the district, 750,000 square feet of pavement and 267 acres of land.This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop .
When broken down, the sinking fund revenue would equate to about $2 per square foot.

"These are still limited resources," Demas said. "You're talking $2 million a year for four years, that's $8 million, and in a plant of this size $8 million is going to go rather quickly."

Rosenberg said it's tough to have solid numbers for project costs at this point in the process, saying they are usually underestimated.

Following the forums, the next step is to create the list with any community input and present it to the Board of Education.

Superintendent Nancy Campbell said she wasn't sure what the board would do if the millage didn't pass, but guessed it would be brought back for another election.

"The buildings aren't going to get any better if we don't make these repairs," she said.

Although there have been talks of the closure of Romeo Middle School, Campbell said the district is operating under the assumption that all buildings will remain open during the sinking fund process.

She said a reconfiguration committee is examining the entire district to create a plan of what it should look like regarding building use.

"The board does want to make a decision in time to notify the people who would be affected, because that's students, parents and staff," she said.

The Supervisory Board Unanimously Supported the Restructuring Strategy

At its 28th regular meeting on 27 September 2011, the Supervisory Board unanimously supported the restructuring strategy of the Sava Group. In implementing the strategy, the Management Board expects a full support from the financial partners – banks-creditors of Sava. The decisions about disinvestments will be made in the final phase of the marketing-based examination of options for disposals, which will include all real and financial investments that Sava d.d. has. Merging Tourism companies is foreseen to take place at the beginning of 2012. The strategy of business-financial restructuring of Sava until 2014 will capacitate a significant increase in the value of the company for its shareholders,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , a decrease in indebtedness and a consolidation of foundations for the growth in the Sava share value.
The process of producing a new development strategy of Sava has began at the end of this March when the new Management Board of Sava took up their duty. The renewal of the strategy and the business model was dictated by the effects of significant impairments of Sava's financial investments (decrease in rates of securities), which the company recently had to carry out due to the financial crisis,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, as well as by the need for strengthening the cash flow and decreasing financial liabilities, and the problems of organisational and business nature so characteristic for all strong diversified business systems such as Sava is. The key operations, in particular the largest ones – Rubber Manufacturing and Tourism – operate in a stable manner and generate profit from operations; however, in the given circumstances, Sava d.d. does not have sufficient assets for financing all investments necessary for further development of operations in order to create conditions for their competitive position over a longer period of time

The Management Board of Sava d.d. who began their term of office at the end of this March, prepared a short-term measures programme in May to improve the operations, and in the following months it upgraded it through a new development strategy, which as to its content represents the umbrella strategy for the business-financial restructuring and consolidation of the Sava Group in the upcoming medium-term period until the end of 2014, which will be the foundation for a new development cycle of Sava.

When preparing the strategy, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of Sava d.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction,d. considered the expert proposals and analyses provided by the advisory company EquityGate, an established international financial company,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! which specialises in consolidation and financial restructuring of companies as well as in mergers and take-overs and their financing.

The goal of the new strategy for the development of the Sava Group and Sava d.d. is to create the conditions for improving the performance,By Alex Lippa Close-up of plastic card in Massachusetts. re-increase the assets of the companies and the value of the Sava share, enhance profit to form new sources for a dividend payout to Sava shareholders.

2011年6月30日 星期四

Wildflecken Solar Power Plant on Former Military Grounds is Connected to the Grid

BELECTRIC Solarkraftwerke GmbH is ensuring sustainable development of conversion real estate with the official commissioning of the Wildflecken solar power plant on 24 June 2011. "This brings the grounds' military history - the army was present here until 1998 - to a close. The site is now designated for sustainable and innovative use," said Alfred Schrenk, mayor of Wildflecken. BELECTRIC can provide 158 four-person households per year with solar energy from the first ground-mounted solar power plant fitted with Solar Frontier CIS (copper, indium, selenium) thin-film modules. This corresponds to savings of 413 tons of CO2 per year.

One particular achievement was the integration into the delicate landscape of the Hohen Rhon region. From the very start, this was an important aspect in the planning and implementation of the 551kW power plant. Located in the heart of the Rhon Nature Reserve, the plant is excellently integrated into the terrain and virtually invisible. The project manager, Gunther Blank, emphasized that: "The solar power plant is an outstanding example for the compatibility of sustainable and environmentally friendly energy supply as well as the preservation of the traditional landscape of a region."

To meet these requirements, BELECTRIC chose thin-film technology from Solar Frontier.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services. The most convincing aspects of the 4,240 photovoltaic modules manufactured in Solar Frontier's new 900 MW plant are their economic viability and high efficiency. Wolfgang Lange, CEO of Solar Frontier Europe, said: "The plant not only shows how environmentally friendly solar energy can supply households with electricity, but also demonstrates the power and efficiency of Solar Frontier CIS modules. At the same time we're proving, in co-operation with BELECTRIC, that conversion real estate is outstandingly suited to energy production - and to the advantage of all those involved.

Solar Frontier, a 100% subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu K.The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers.K., established the world's first gigawatt-scale CIS module factory in 2011 with a mission to create the most economical,The same Air purifier, cover removed. ecological solar energy solutions in the world, on the world's largest scale.Use bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc. Solar Frontier's proprietary CIS technology, denoting key ingredients copper, indium, and selenium (in addition to gallium and sulfur), has the best overall potential to set the world's most enduring standard for solar energy. This is based on our legacy of work in solar technology since the 1970s, the priority focus our laboratories have given to CIS since 1993, and our success in large scale CIS commercialization since 2007.Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives. The critical factors that combine to make CIS the overall economical and ecological leader include high efficiency modules and production processes as well as superior reliability, stability, sustainability, non-toxicity, and lower overall energy consumption in manufacturing to yield a faster energy payback time.

2011年6月23日 星期四

Rogue salesmen overestimate savings green panels provide for households

They are in danger of becoming the modern-day equivalent of the double-glazing salesman.

Rogue traders are jumping on the green bandwagon to make a killing out of solar panels.

Disturbing evidence of mis-selling of the energy-generating systems has been uncovered by the consumer group Which?


While parallels are drawn with the way double-glazing salesmen wreaked havoc through the suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s, the latest scam risks bringing the entire solar panel industry - which could offer genuine benefits for families - into disrepute.

The Government is pushing the idea that millions of families should turn their homes into mini-power stations. Any excess energy they generate can be sold back to the National Grid through a so-called 'feed-in tariff' for other uses.

A typical combination of savings and income works out at around 1,170 a year,Free DIY Wholesale pet supplies Resource! according to the Energy Savings Trust.

Which? asked undercover investigators to examine sales tactics by inquiring about the costs and benefits of installing solar photovoltaic(PV) panels.

Posing as customers, they let 12 certified companies survey a house in the South and quote for installation.

Three quarters of the salesmen overestimated how much energy the panels would produce by failing to take account of the location of the property and the likely number of cloudy days, Which? found.
'Perhaps we should have suspected something when they put the solar panels up'

The main selling point for the panels is a claim that they will effectively pay for themselves over a relatively short period.

However, Which? found that most companies suggested the pay-back period would be much quicker than the reality.

In theory, a PV system should last for at least 25 years. One firm overestimated the potential profit over that time by 4,275.

And it underestimated the payback time by three years.

Which? also found that a Government formula used by the industry to work out energy output does not take into account factors such as where people live ¨C and typical sunshine levels.

Seven of the salesmen even recommended installing solar PV panels on a shaded part of the roof.

Eight companies did not question customers about how much energy they used, which would be necessary to estimate their ability to sell power back into the National Grid.

The watchdog also found that companies are flouting the solar panel industry sales code, which bans pressure selling and tactics such as offering large discounts for quick decisions.

One firm, Green Sun, gave the customer 24 hours to decide, and another, Skyline, offered a 'first come first served' discount.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: 'Companies just need to make sure they send people who are qualified to ask the right questions, do the right checks and give customers better advice.The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,'

The group is talking to the Government and the industry's trade bodies about improving the sales regime by introducing a policing system to drive out rogues.

Howard Johns,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices of the Solar Trade Association, said the number of companies in the industry has ballooned from just a few hundred two years ago to 2,400.
'There are always going to be a small number of companies who don't stick by the rules ...A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. but that should not divert attention from the benefits of solar energy.'

He described the Which? report as 'a little alarmist', adding: 'My reading of their research is that things are improving. For example, there was relatively little evidence of pressure selling involving discounting.

'There is a code of practice covering our members, however we cover only 450 of the companies involved. There are always going to be a small number of companies who don't stick by the rules ... but that should not divert attention from the benefits of solar energy.'

Skyline, based in Braintree, Essex, said Which? had misunderstood its pricing policy and there was no discount for signing up early. The company is not involved in pressure selling, a spokesman added.

David Ramsay, of Green Sun in Farnborough,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, Hampshire, also rejected the criticism. 'We work entirely within industry guidelines,' he said. 'We leave written quotes and it is not normal to offer a discount to sign up within 24 hours.'


2011年6月19日 星期日

Big up a small space

Even if your garden is tiny, it can still look stunning with the right design and a clever choice of planting.

Minimal plots, however, can cause a problem since they are so limited in terms of space. So, what do you do?

Bright displays of colourful bedding suit some people, and the tradition of planting fuchsia, geraniums, lobelia, salvias,Save on hydraulic hose and fittings, alyssum and marigolds in crammed borders is fantastic.
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Often there will be a rug – a circular, square or rectangular green lawn – as a foil to the colour, which works very well. But some people nowadays fancy a more modern take on their outdoor space.

And if that small garden is the only outside area available to you and a young child or two, what do you do? How do you manage? Don't worry, it's not as terrifying a prospect as you might think.

What have you got?

If your garden, like the one shown here which I was asked to make over, is bordered by low walls of dour grey stone with a few slabs of natural stone laid directly onto the soil and meandering their way to the door, it may not look very promising.

And that's not to mention the weeds,Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives. of which there will undoubtedly be many. What, you ask, can possibly be achieved in such a plot? Lots!

Requirements

First and foremost, a garden like this will have one purpose,Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store to act as a pathway and entrance to the front door (or the back, if you're creating a patio at the rear of the house).

If you've got young children, it's important to make sure that whatever surface you put down is safe for toddlers to crawl on and pedal their little plastic tractors over.

Of course, in these days of outdoor living, your garden, no matter how big or small, should act as another living room. If it has enough space for a basic patio set of a table and chairs allowing the family to eat and perhaps entertain outside, it's doing its job.

The plan

You need to keep a space like this very simple and pave it using just one material. Bright shades will work wonders against the dullness of something like this oppressive grey stone, but it should also be natural. It would be a shame to introduce concrete into a cut-stone environment.

Adding some plant pots also creates the opportunity to grow selected herbs, fruit or vegetables. All the paving should be laid on a single level.

Often, we over-complicate gardens with line and shape but simplicity always work best. Circles, or a succession of sections of circles, always looks great.

In this garden, one large circle covers most of the available floor space and two sections of circles create access points from the street, and then into the house.

Make it happen

The dominant patio feature is the paving so the choice of materials is hugely important.

My favourite material is a very simple baked clay paving cube. They come attached as blocks of eight, much as hot cross buns arrive. They are cheap to buy but labour intensive to firstly break up and then lay.

The trick is to use experienced paving contractors or to develop the skill yourself slowly and methodically.

The usual hardcore needs to be laid so a certain amount of excavation and removal of rubbish in a skip is required.

Once that base has been whacked down, begin to lay the outside rings as illustrated in the photographs into some wet mortar, keeping a strict eye on your levels as you go.

Once the outer rim of mortar-set cobbles are down, the inner circles can be set on a bed of sand. Once this is completed (which, I know, is skipping swiftly over several days of back-breaking work!), a dry mix of sand and cement is brushed into the openings.

The soil around the beds must be well-prepared by digging in plenty of organic humus compost.Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding,

Planting

A mixture of shrubs will make the garden come alive. Try perovskia with its purple flowering spikes, nice pink hydrangeas, a drift of astelias with their silvery, sword-like foliage, cloudy grey santolinas and purple cistus.

As installed in this garden, a few columns of bay in four circular terracotta pots picked to match the paving sets off the new style perfectly and creates some much-needed height.

Planting a herb collection – say, lemon balm, variegated sage and creeping thyme – will also bring colour and fresh scents.Polycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet,

Add a pot of strawberries, with perhaps parsley and mint in some others and one crammed with evergreen ferns. Then sit back on that patio set, relax and enjoy!

2011年6月13日 星期一

That is their obligation under Home Building laws

NSW solar panels inspecbuy landscape oil paintings online.ted



NSW Fair Trading recently commenced the first of 500 checks on solar panel installations in Sydney.

Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts said: "These checks follow checks on 55 homes in Port Macquarie in February this year that revealed alarming defects and breaches of the Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act 2004 and theHome Building Act 1989," he said.

The Minister said 4,000 letters had been sent to households with solar installations in the areas involved in the latest checks.

"Fair Trading has received an average 200 calls a day to a dedicated audit hotline and 165 emails so far to a dedicated email address," he said.

"There is clearly a great degree of concern and a desire by many to be involved in the audit."

The checks will be done by Fair Trading inspectors and teams of licensed, qualified electricians provided by the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA), at no cost to consumers.Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist

If any dangerous problems are detected, inspectors will immediately turn off,Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl.The name "magic cube" is not unique. tag and isolate the installation to protect people.We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account.

Roberts said officers would visually inspect parts of the solar panel systems to check key aspects of electricity safety including switches, wiring, cables, signage and markings.

Officers will leave stickers on the inverters of every home inspected: a white sticker means no issues were detected, an orange sticker means minor issues were detected that pose no immediate safety risk and, a red sticker means a serious defect was detected.

Rectification work will be done by builders or electricians who did the original installation. That is their obligation under Home Building laws.

Major defects will attract fines and possible prosecution. Fair Trading will suspend or cancel licences of installers with significant numbers of defects. Public warnings could also be used.

2011年6月9日 星期四

In the photo

Happy Birthday Donald Duck,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, 77 years old today



The great iconic Duck who has a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet and typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie, Donald Duck, was created by Walt Disney and Dick Lundy on June 9, 1934 and turns 77 years old today!

Donald Duck is an American cartoon with a relatively explosive temper, as portrayed in the cartoons.We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. He is just about as famous as his friend Mickey Mouse and children have everything from pictures to stuffed animals to lunch boxes to bedding with Donald Duck's picture on them.Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl.

Donald Duck was listed by TV Guide as one of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time in 2002, according to TV Guide.
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Donald Duck's voice was performed by voice actor, Clarence "Ducky" Nash up until he died in 1985.What are the top Hemroids treatments? That was a sad loss for the cartoon world and Disney family.

In the photo, Donald Duck is posing with American Idol season 9 winner, Lee DeWyze during Christmas time. So, Donald is decked out for the holidays and not in his usual attire.

If you found this article informative and would like email notifications of other posts by this National Teen Celebrity Examiner, please subscribe above.Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist