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Energy and Global Warming News for August 19th: Pakistan is new benchmark in climate-related disasters; Windstalks harvest wind energy in a field
Windstalks Harvest Wind Energy In A Field
… [A] group of designers has created a new style of wind farm that takes a few cues from nature itself.
Designed as a potential energy source for the planned city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, the Windstalks, as they are known, resemble a wheat field. Only instead of stalks of wheat, the fields consist of 1,203 55-meter-tall carbon fiber-reinforced resin poles, each full of piezoelectric ceramic discs and electrodes. When the poles blow in the wind, the electrodes produce a current, which is then stored in two battery-like chambers located beneath the field. Each pole is outfitted with an array of LED lights on its tip, which either light up or go completely dark depending on how much the pole is actually moving.
The creators say that a Windstalk field should be able to produce an amount of energy comparable to a traditional turbine array. Even though a single turbine can produce more power than a single pole, the Windstalks can be packed into much denser arrays.
Via Inhabitat.
Pakistan — a Sad New Benchmark in Climate-Related Disasters
Devastating flooding that has swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left millions homeless is likely the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change, U.N. officials and climatologists are now openly saying.
Most experts are still cautioning against tying any specific event directly to emissions of greenhouse gases. But scientists at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva say there's no doubt that higher Atlantic Ocean temperatures contributed to the disaster begun late last month.
Atmospheric anomalies that led to the floods are also directly related to the same weather phenomena that a caused the record heat wave in Russia and flooding and mudslides in western China, said Ghassem Asrar, director of the World Climate Research Programme and WMO. And if the forecasts by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are correct, then Pakistan's misery is just a sign of more to come, said Asrar….
During the most intense storms, about a foot of rain fell over a 36-hour period. Parts of the affected areas, in particular Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly Northwest Frontier province) received 180 percent of the precipitation expected in a normal monsoon cycle. More rain is expected in the days ahead.
Records show that the famed Indus River is at its highest water level ever recorded in the 110 years since regular record-keeping began. Estimates put the number of displaced people at somewhere between 15 million and 20 million, and the government believes about 1,600 are confirmed dead.
6.5 million need food, drinking water and medicine
The International Organization for Migration says the greatest immediate need is in Punjab, where roughly 500,000 families pushed out by the floods are awaiting assistance. All told, agencies guess that about 6.5 million Pakistanis need shelter, food, potable water and medicine.
"This is a disaster which has affected many more people than I have ever seen," said John Holmes, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who also leads relief efforts in Haiti.
Zamir Akram, Pakistani ambassador to the U.N. center in Geneva, said floodwaters now cover an area roughly the size of England. Satellite surveys show about 160,000 square kilometers (62,000 square miles) is underwater, or about one-fifth of Pakistan's landmass and roughly equivalent to the areas of Austria, Belgium and Switzerland combined.
Asrar at the WMO says higher-than-average Atlantic temperatures and conditions made ripe by the La Ni±a cycle of lower temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean created the perfect conditions for the rains. Experts acknowledge that the scale of this disaster has been made worse by a history of deforestation and land-use changes in the affected areas, but Asrar insists that the sheer volume of precipitation absorbed by clouds and then dumped on Pakistan is chiefly to blame.
Climate scientists at WMO and elsewhere, including those with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say this year's summer is one of the hottest ever, with high temperatures breaking records across the United States, Europe and Central Asia. Consequently, the surface of the Atlantic has also been much warmer than usual.
The IPCC assessment reports note that higher ocean temperatures lead to more water vapor entering the atmosphere. This fact, Asrar said, already pointed toward a stronger than usual monsoon season in store for South Asia.
Abnormal airflow dumps supersaturated air
… "Basically, this rift that was forming blocked the warm air moving from west to east, and then, on the other side, this air that was super saturated with water vapor had to precipitate all this excess water that was in the atmosphere, which created this unprecedented amount of rain in short period of time," Asrar explained. "The connecting factor is that clearly the warming is a driver for all these events."
UN official demands drought action at Cancun
The UN's pointman on desertification called Wednesday on participants at the next climate summit in Cancun to take urgent measures to prevent future disasters by staving off land degradation.
"Those most vulnerable to climate change live in the driest parts of the globe: look at what is happening in Pakistan where the rain should come as a blessing and ends up being a curse," Luc Gnacadja told AFP.
"We ask ourselves why efforts are concentrated on protecting the forests, while we know that what drives deforestation is land degradation. If we do not find a response to land degradation, which gets worse with desertification, people will continue to cut down trees."
Gnacadja, the executive secretary of UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), called for a "serious accord" by the end of the year.
A new UN conference is due to be held in the Mexican resort of Cancun to try to build on a loose accord hammered out at marathon talks in Copenhagen in December last year that were widely regarded as a failure.
Cancun will host negotiators from November 29 to December 10 who are set to discuss a binding agreement on reducing carbon dioxide emissions that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012.
Carbon Profit Grows on Trees for New Zealand Farmers
New Zealand's sheep farmers are flocking to a government carbon trading program that pays more to plant trees than sell wool and mutton.
The system, begun in 2008 and the only one of its kind outside Europe, awards farmers credits that are sold to offset greenhouse gas emissions. The project may earn them about NZ$600 a hectare ($172 per acre) a year on land unprofitable for grazing animals, said David Evison, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury's New Zealand School of Forestry.
Forests planted for carbon credits may increase to 30,000 hectares a year compared with 3,500 hectares in 2009, the government estimates. The system is a welcome alternative for sheep farmers who've struggled for decades from a combination of slumping wool prices, drought and competition for land from the dairy and lumber industries, says Neil Walker, a forester in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island.
"If you're an industry in decline, you have to see what options are available," said Walker, who also heads the Taranaki Regional Council's policy and planning committee. "There's an economic case to be made for converting hill- country sheep farms to forests."
Delusions Abound on Energy Savings, Study Says
When it comes to saving energy, many Americans seem to get it "" and at the same time they don't get it at all. That's the takeaway from a new study by researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University who found that people are far more likely to focus on switching off lights or unplugging appliances than on buying new bulbs or more efficient refrigerators. But people's perceptions of the relative savings of various actions are significantly at variance with reality.
"Participants estimated that line-drying clothes saves more energy than changing the washer's settings (the reverse is true) and estimated that a central air-conditioner uses only 1.3 times the energy of a room air-conditioner (in fact, it uses 3.5 times as much)," the researchers wrote.
Perhaps more to the point, people seem conditioned to think of energy savings as they would of saving money: that they can save by simply reducing use, the study found. But the biggest energy savings are tied to replacing things that use a lot of energy with things that use far less.
Keystone concerns: EPA right to require attention to minority pollution problems in pipeline project
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, designed to bring crude oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, has recently attracted the attention and concern of the Environmental Protection Agency.
A high-level EPA official has communicated that the pipeline doesn't adequately evaluate potential health impacts on minority communities near the Port Arthur refinery where some of the crude would be processed.
The agency's interest in this topic should not come as a complete blind-side to the parties involved in the construction of the pipeline. They reflect frequently expressed views of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that minorities and poor people have historically not had a say on decisions such as these that continue to have a direct impact on their health and quality of life. We share those concerns.
The situation in Port Arthur has drawn particular attention because of its large minority population living close by several refineries, chemical plants and a waste incinerator. Port Arthur was flagged as one of 10 sites with particular "environmental justice" issues, and received government grants in 2009 to help mitigate those effects.
Vestas shares plummet following huge second-quarter losses
Vestas, the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer, has spread a dark cloud over the renewable energy sector by turning a sizeable second-quarter profit last year into a '¬120m (£99m) loss over the past three months.
Shares in the company plunged more than 20% on the Copenhagen stock market as analysts took fright, despite claims by Vestas that the financial turnaround was just a delayed reaction to the credit crunch, which had led to delayed orders.
Vestas, which closed down its Isle of Wight manufacturing facility last summer, said it was going to chop 600 more jobs – half of them short-term contracts – in Denmark, its home base.
The unexpectedly poor financial results come amid recent warnings from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) that the previously buoyant US wind market was in precipitous decline and desperately needed positive new policies from the White House.
The global renewable energy sector has become increasingly fearful that governments are now more concerned about cutting public spending than keeping the green energy revolution on track.
56 Responses to Energy and Global Warming News for August 19th: Pakistan is new benchmark in climate-related disasters; Windstalks harvest wind energy in a field
"Participants estimated that line-drying clothes saves more energy than changing the washer's settings (the reverse is true)": I was suprised by this, so I checked. The "changing settings" refers to a cold rather than hot wash, which makes sense; heating water takes a lot of energy.
Those "windstalks" don't look any prettier than windmills, to me.
From Nasa's Modis program:
"According to the Sukachev Institute of Forest, as of August 13, the Moscow Region had lost 43,718 hectares (189 square miles) to fire, 94,950 hectares (367 square miles) in the Vladimir Region, and 300,047 hectares (1,158 square miles) in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. They also report the total acreage burned in the Russian Federation up to this date is 15,688,855 hectares (60,575 square miles)."
That official account of 15.69 MHa.s of Russian forests burned up to August 13 deserves to be worldwide news. The implications just as a feedback in its own right are stark, let alone its material contribution to arctic albido loss through soot deposition on vulnerable snow & ice.
Allowing a moderate 100 Ts C per hectare, x 3.67 for CO2, would imply a feedback emission from Russia's forests in the first eight months of 2010 of:
15.69 MHa.s x 367Ts CO2 = 5.758 GTs of CO2.
Added to which are the related volumes of CO, CH4, VHCs, etc.
Would anyone care to put that feedback emission of 5.76 gigatonnes of CO2 into context – say as a percentage of US anthro emissions, or of the Russian output, or by naming the nation whose annual output is nearest to that figure ?
I thought piezoceramics "wear out" to quick?
I love the windstalks.
I like the look better than the windmills, even if they do make it seem like some sort of ancient tentacle god is trying to enter our dimension
They also seem like they would avoid the air pressure problem that results in bleeding bat lungs.
Oh, the energy experts are so busy with wining
and dining so that they can get some funds to
prepare for disaster at some locations that they
forgot to paint the school temp. buildings with
infrared barrier paint. The portables AC units
run very often and the officials would rather
do a study to see if they had followed directions
at the time the buildings were made than to
just paint the roofs with barrier paint and save
the huge amount the board pays in elec. overuse.
Good luck in your area, maybe you'll just say
oh, that is so stupid and then paint the roofs
with barrier paint.
Good luck.
Actually, these wheat fields look like art, 60s art.
Here is one at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.
There used to be one at main entrance the to High Museum in Atlanta.
These wheat field wind farms seem to be a good idea if they can work for many years without much maintenance.
The wind stalks can probably be designed to produce power at a larger range of wind speeds compared to a turbine, which typically produces power between 4 m/s and 25 m/s. Also, being lightweight, they could easily be mounted on tall buildings. I like it!
Lewis, all that CO2 was slated for emission when you ate it and breathed out anyway.
Yes, you're going to find something else to eat. But how that changes your eating (and of course, livestock's eating) could easily halve or double the raw CO2 output here.
oops, sorry. Those were forests, not wheat fields. Forget I said anything.
In our latest paper on Household Thermodynamics, we demonstrate by using 6 years of data that per dollar spent adding insulation to an older house is three times more efficient than generating power using solar panels. We are at 43 degrees Latitude in North America.
Read the paper in PDF at: http://www.theravinaproject.org/project_papers.htm
All data used is our own data collected here at The Ravina Project on a daily basis.
Our paper suggests that around this latitude, in an older house, insulating first and generating later will give you the 'best bang' for your green dollar.
Gord, possibly you have latitude locations memorized, but most don't. Just naming the city would be better, especially since the need for insulation will vary depending on which city it is (e.g. with a mountain vs. seaside location).
Jay Gulledge at PEW dispels the 'winners and losers' paradigm of climate change. We all lose.
NASA: Global plant growth starts to decline. "Serious warning that warmer temps not endlessly improve plant growth": http://bit.ly/PlaDry
Those "Wheat field farms" could be pretty promising…One of the issues that snag projects trying to get off the ground is the radar interference signals the rotating blades can cause, so this could be a great work-around.
I noticed that there is no photo of an actual windstalk, or even a lab prototype. Enthusiasm seems premature.
Love the windstalks.
Here's a cartoon on the increase in extreme events
"Eulogizing the Climate Bill that Wasn't"
Adam Fischer
Columbia Institute University
Earth Institute
State of the Planet
August 18, 2010
Fracking Linked to Water Contamination, Health Problems In Several States
Hydraulic fracturing is now used in about 90 percent of US gas and oil wells. The process involves injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don't have to disclose what chemicals they use. According to a report issued by the Environmental Working Group, fracking has already been linked to drinking water contamination and property damage in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/23178
Satellite Data Show Plant Growth is Declining on Earth
One idea about climate change suggested that higher temperatures would boost plant growth and food production. That may have been a trend for awhile, where plant growth flourished with a longer growing season, but the latest analysis of satellite data shows that rising global temperatures has reached a tipping point where instead of being beneficial, higher temperatures are causing drought, which is now decreasing plant growth on a planetary scale. This could impact food security, biofuels, and the global carbon cycle. "This is a pretty serious warning that warmer temperatures are not going to endlessly improve plant growth," said Steven Running from the University of Montana. http://www.universetoday.com/71575/satellite-data-show-plant-growth-is-declining-on-earth/
Not on my beach, please
Across the world, wind technology produces as much political heat as electric light—stirring local arguments as well as global ones
"OF COURSE I'm all in favour of clean energy, especially wind power, but…" That is a familiar opening gambit in a new sort of political storm, raging ever more fiercely in corners of the world where electric power comes, or may soon come, from flashing blades rather than blazing furnaces.
Yet advocates of wind insist that tourists and turbines can go together. In 2002, a survey of visitors to the west of Scotland (where wind farms abound) found that only 8% said their feelings were negatively affected by the blades; some 43% said the mills made them feel better about the region. "In China and Poland people go to wind farms to have wedding pictures taken," notes Steve Sawyer, of the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council. http://www.economist.com/node/16846774?story_id=16846774
Market for Water Recycling & Reuse Technologies to Reach $57 Billion in 2015 as Global Demand Intensifies
Demand for water is increasing as the world's population grows, agricultural needs increase and developing nations become more affluent. Unfortunately, there is not an increase in water supply to match this growing demand; in fact, as weather patterns change and water sources continue to be overused, fresh water supplies are decreasing.
DNA from transgenic plants found in milk and animal tissue http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/12427-dna-from-transgenic-plants-found-in-milk-and-animal-tissue
Fair enough, Steve.
Toronto, Canada.
Duke Energy drops NC wind turbine project
Construction in shallow water would also have potentially disturbed underwater vegetation more than originally expected, the company said. http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20100819/ap_on_bi_ge/us_duke_energy_wind_power.html
Underwater vegetation?
carbon fiber-reinforced resin poles
Made from carbon. As I recall, that carbon and the resin are both from crude oil. Like Koch industry refines.
Speaking of climate-related disasters, is this AQUA/MODIS satellite picture (from 18.Aug) really showing a new crack running diagonally across Petermann glacier? If so, is this a sign that the entire glacier is priming for a collapse along its entire length?
Davis Smith says: August 19, 2010 at 5:45 pm
As I recall, that carbon and the resin are both from crude oil. Like Koch industry refines.
Yes, and isn't wonderful that instead of us setting it on fire like cavemen, we'll use it for something better?
One of the things I find really disturbing about oil companies is their constant encouragement for us to burn a mineral resource that is useful for so many things. We're profligately wasting hydrocarbon molecules we'll have to assemble later, once the fossil fuel pyre goes out and "we're sitting in the dark" as these numbskulls are so fond of saying.
Stewards of a precious resource? Sure, right.
The Coming Flood of Climate Refugees http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/08/18/coming-flood-climate-refugees
Atlantic Hurricane Season Set to Intensify
Brian McNoldy, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who maintains a useful Web site on tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean, has distributed an alert about a particularly noteworthy wave of low pressure moving west from Africa that appears likely to become a hurricane within a week. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/atlantic-hurricane-season-set-to-intensify/
Massive 926 mb extratropical storm generating huge waves off Antarctica
One of the most intense extratropical storms in recent years is churning up the waters near the coast of Antarctica in the South Indian Ocean. The powerful storm peaked in intensity yesterday afternoon with a central pressure of 926 mb–the type of pressure typically found in a Category 4 hurricane. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1581
Surely wind stalks are quieter than windmills.
A very thorough analysis of the NZ ETS has been published. Its not pretty. All units will be given away (no auctioning) and there is no cap.
However, the scheme may be better than nothing and should encourage some forest planting over BAU.
For wannabes, wish-they-weres and maybe professionals, here climate modeling software. Maybe someone here will know if this is a good investment.
climate modeling software
In most places the good wind is up high, not down where the stalks would live.
That's why towers have been getting taller.
China to Invest Billions in Electric and Hybrid Cars
The Chinese government, determined to become a world leader in green technology, says it plans to invest billions of dollars over the next few years to develop electric and hybrid vehicles.
The government said a group of 16 big state-owned companies had already agreed to form an alliance to do research and development, and create standards for electric and hybrid vehicles.
The plan aims to put more than a million electric and hybrid vehicles on the road over the next few years in what is already the world's biggest and fastest growing auto market. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/energy-environment/20car.html
Students Design Zero-Emission Electric Car
During the test run, the developers recorded a fuel economy of 300 mpg for the car. The students are now finding a suitable automaker, who can make their project turn into full-scale commercial entity on a world platform. During the test run, the developers recorded a fuel economy of 300 mpg for the car. http://www.nitrobahn.com/news/students-design-zero-emission-electric-car/
UK wheat ethanol plant fails the smell test
…odor complaints, and the initial fix – doubling the height of the chimneys- has not solved the problem.
The Health Protection Agency has stated that though unpleasant, the odor will not cause any health issues. The new fix being contemplated is the retrofit of thermal oxidizers at a cost of millions. http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/08/20/uk-wheat-ethanol-plant-fails-the-smell-test/
Scientists working in Chernobyl have found a way to predict which species there are likely to be most severely damaged by radioactive contamination.
The secret to a species' vulnerability, they say, lies in its DNA.
"What we have discovered is that when we look at the species in Chernobyl, we can predict, based on their substitution rates, which ones are most vulnerable to contaminants." Brightly coloured birds and birds that have a long distance migration were some of the organisms most likely to be affected by contaminants.
"One explanation may be that these species have, for whatever reason, less capable DNA repair mechanisms," … that there is a shared causal relationship between accumulating mutations over time and the ability to withstand radiation." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11023530
More than 50 whales die after being washed up on New Zealand beach http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/20/whales-washed-up-new-zealand
One German Town's Fight against CO2 Capture Technology
The next Chernobyl? A death blow to tourism? Poisoned drinking water? The residents of Beeskow, Germany worry that a planned CO2 storage facility under their town could end in disaster and are fighting the project. Europe, though, hopes the technology will drastically reduce emissions. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,710573,00.html
Eyewitness: Indonesian deforestation exposed
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/picture/2010/aug/20/indonesia-deforestation
Finland aims to build the world's first green highway
Aiming is to create the model for an ecological highway that could be used anywhere in the world, Finland has take up a project under which it will build the world's first "green highway". The 81-mile stretch of pavement yet to be built on a highway linking Turku on Finland's southwestern coast with Vaalimaa near the Russian border will include service stations offering charging points for electric cars and pumps filled with local biofuels.
The plan involves the production of ethanol from waste and other resources found along the way, as well as clean electricity to power both the cars and infrastructure along the way. Other proposals include installing geothermal heat pumps, providing information to users on their emission levels and installing smart lighting systems along the way that adjust illumination levels depending on the weather and other factors. http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/finland-aims-to-build-the-world-s-first-green-highway/
Partner says BP hiding oil spill documents http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100820/bs_afp/usoilenvironmentpollutionbpswitzerland
Japan's government plans to subsidize domestic plants producing clean-energy and energy-efficient goods under steps to support the slowing economy http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67I6AQ20100820
Maine offshore energy project exceeds expectations
"largest ocean energy device ever installed in U.S. waters," the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) announced Wednesday.
That device is the company's Beta Power System, which was installed in Cobscook Bay off of Eastport, Maine, and includes a submerged Turbine Generator Unit with a capacity of 60 kilowatts.
"Experts estimate that the Gulf Stream currents are capable of generating between 4 and 10 gigawatts of power–the same amount of energy produced by 4 to 10 new nuclear power plants. If ocean energy technology harnessed just 1/1,000 of the Gulf Stream's available energy, we could power up to 7 million homes and businesses in the state of Florida with renewable, reliable, emission-free electricity," ORPC says on its company Web site. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20014115-54.html
60 kilowatts AWESOME! We are now in the position to counter the threat of CC! Great Progress!
Rwanda harnesses energy from exploding lake
At first glance, the lake's placid blue waters appear harmless enough (shown to the right). But beneath its beautiful exterior lie huge reservoirs of methane and carbon dioxide that, if released onto the surface, would endanger the two million people living around its shores.
Kivu is one of the three known "erupting" lakes in the world. Only a stone's throw away from Nyurangongo volcano, the lake has thousands of years worth of dissolved volcanic gases trapped in its waters.
It's a ticking time bomb, but one with a silver lining. Rwanda's government recently built the Kibuye power plant along the lake's shore, which siphons off the noxious gases and uses the methane as fuel for three large generators. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38769516/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Radical transparency could lay bare the eco impact of our shopping
Economic theory applied to ecological metrics offers a novel way to ameliorate our collective assault on the global systems that sustain life. There are two fundamental economic principles that, if applied well, might just accelerate the trend toward a more sustainable planet: marketplace transparency about the ecological impacts of consumer goods and their supply chains, and lowering the cost of that information to zero. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/20/radical-transparency-eco-impact-shopping
Is climate science a settled matter?
POLITICO reports that a series of candidates running for the House, Senate and governor's mansions have gotten bolder in stating their doubts over the well-established link between man-made greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. If climate change doubters win in November, including Republican Senate candidates Sharron Angle (Nev.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.), would that kill the chances of any form of cap an trade legislation in the near future? Would supporters of stronger environmental regulations find themselves arguing over first principles about the linkage between human activity and carbon dioxide emissions? http://www.politico.com/arena/energy/
Gov. Chris Christie signs offshore wind power bill
The Offshore Wind Economic Development Act was signed by Christie at a former BP Oil Company facility in Gloucester County, where a port that once held tanks of fuel oil will become New Jersey's launching point for an ambitious renewable energy program.
Paulsboro Marine Terminal, a port on the Delaware River the state has struggled to revitalize, is envisaged under the legislation as the preferred hub for manufacturing wind turbines. Through these turbines, the state hopes to one day generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity from farms located 12 to 20 miles off the coast. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/gov_chris_christie_signs_offsh.html
How Will Your Campus Adapt to Wacky Weather in the Climate-Change Era?
Our item last week about the floods at Iowa State University—along with alarming reports about the heat waves and flooding around the world—got me thinking about the mayhem that wacky weather will bring to colleges and what colleges are doing to prepare.
Two years ago, following the disastrous floods at the University of Iowa, The Chronicle ran a story on this very topic, in which we quoted analysts from insurance companies who are trying to grapple with the risks of climate change. Of course, one cannot connect any single weather event, like the Iowa floods, to climate change—but the overall trends are unsettling, even to scientists who are cautious about making such links. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/How-Will-Your-Campus-Adapt-to/26341/
Why it matters that spilled Michigan oil came from tar sands
Environmental experts said it was likely tar sands oil — the controversial asphalt-thick bitumen whose mining and drilling operations are causing major environmental destruction in the forests of Alberta, Canada.
While reporting on the spill, I asked Enbridge Energy Partners CEO Patrick Daniel several times whether his company's pipeline was carrying oil from tar sands — or "oil sands," as the industry typically calls it. He definitively told me that it was not.
That turned out to be false — the spilled oil did come from the Alberta tar sands, as the Michigan Messenger reports. Enbridge later backtracked on his statement http://www.grist.org/article/2010-08-16-why-it-matters-that-spilled-michigan-oil-came-from-tar-sands/
Government proposes higher energy taxes in 2011 budget
Finland's government on Thursday concluded its budget talks
Taxes on various forms of energy production such as peat, natural gas and coal, are being increased in the budget proposal, which is expected to raise heating bills in Finnish homes. http://helsinkitimes.org/htimes/domestic-news/politics/12205-government-proposes-higher-energy-taxes-in-2011-budget-.html
Hi Lewis-
Roughly five gigatons of CO2 is equal to more than one year of U.S. coal fired power plant emissions.
So, if your CO2 estimates are correct, the Russian fires have just injected more CO2 into the air than all U.S. coal fired power plants did last year.
It's something like 18 months worth of U.S. coal fired power plant emissions.
Even if ALL U.S. coal fired power plants were converted to carbon negative BECCS (Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage), it would take us 18 months to put all of that carbon back underground.
On the other hand, if all coal fired power plants worldwide were converted to BECCS, we could put that much carbon back underground in a couple of months.
So, it's a lot of carbon, released by the Russian fires.
On the other hand, assuming 20% charcoal yields from the fires, about 300 million tons of carbon has been removed from the active carbon cycle for a hundred or more years.
It all seems to be happening much too quickly. And these global warming catalyzed events seem to be overwhelming our ability to deal with them, even under scenarios where radical and radically effective action is taken.
And of course, we are not taking any effective action, let alone radically effective action to put carbon back underground.
The mainstream media is covering the Russian fires, a little.
They are covering them as either natural disasters, with no mention of global warming, or as "smog in Moscow" mostly.
Fires break out that release more CO2 into the atmosphere than an entire year of U.S. coal fired power plant emissions.
And the MSM covers them as "smog in Moscow".
It's diabolical, and it goes beyond stupid, IMO.
I think the windstalks make a great artistic project. I doubt they make sense economically. Looks like you need lots of them to replace the output of a few traditional windturbines. And they can't be cheap. As far as I know, piezoelctrics should be able to last a long time, no moving parts….
Hi Lewis, again (Comment #2)
The situation regarding carbon release from the wildfires in Russia might not be as clear cut as we were thinking. Some studies at Oregon State University that I have been looking at seem to indicate that only a small percentage of carbon is released from a forest ecosystem during a wildfire. A great deal of carbon ends up as charcoal, and this results in longer term sequestration of carbon. So, your 5 gigaton estimate for the amount of carbon released by these fires may be high, by a factor of ten, perhaps.
These studies have also been examining the use of woody biomass from forests to make biofuels, and have generally seen a decrease of forest carbon storage for all such efforts.
One thing that such studies have not examined, however, is the use of woody biomass and understory growth for BECCS, a strategy that would put the carbon back underground as supercritical CO2 rather than releasing it to the atmosphere.
Even if the amount of carbon immediately lost to wildfires is small, I wonder myself about the decay processes in burned forests over the next few decades, and the carbon released by decay. Certainly, it will take decades before these burned areas can become net carbon sinks again.
Certainly, if the climate change was happening more slowly, one could see how charcoal generation in wildfires would actually be a negative feedback, taking carbon out of the active carbon cycle for a century or even thousands of years.
But this climate change is happening so quickly, I wonder if many of these burned areas will in fact come back as forest. I wonder if many of them will in fact become grasslands.
It's an important question, the effect of wildfires on boreal forests. Is this a positive feedback, a negative feedback, or a feedback that was negative in the past but is being overwhelmed by the pace of climate change?


text:
OSI-Approved Open Source (27)
- GNU General Public License version 2.0 (13)
- BSD License (6)
- GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 2.0 (4)
- MIT License (3)
- GNU General Public License version 3.0 (2)
- Common Public License 1.0 (1)
- GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 3.0 (1)
- Open Software License 3.0 (1)
- Creative Commons Attribution License (1)
Hardware Software
- Hardware Drivers
- Mainframes
Hot topics in Hardware Softwarecanfestival canopen cobol database driver swd cobol libswd xlib/xfree86 xbee fprint alcatel flash tool
Universal JTAG library, server and tools
UrJTAG aims to create an enhanced, modern tool for communicating over JTAG with flash chips, CPUs, and many more. It is a descendant of the popular openwince JTAG tools with a lot of additional features and enhancements.194 weekly downloads
C++ Application to Control a Logitech Harmony Hub43 weekly downloads
XFree86 Project
Open Source port of the X Window System. XFree86 home page is at http://www.xfree86.org. Bugs may be reported here or at http://bugs.xfree86.org. Information about accessing the XFree86 CVS repository can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/.111 weekly downloads
Cobol and RPG data reader and converter
cobol2j reads or writes COBOL or RPG data files imported from mainframes, AS/400 or Baby/36 environment. Packed decimal, zoned or packed date fields decoding included. EBCDIC conversion. ETL ISAM data to any other platform. PC Cobol ( ASCII ) supported.55 weekly downloads
LPC214x USB stack
lpcusb is a USB core stack for the built-in USB device of LPC214x microcontrollers. It handles the hardware interface and USB enumeration/configuration. Included are usage examples like USB joystick HID, USB virtual COM port and USB mass storage on SD-ca22 weekly downloads
CanFestival focuses on providing an ANSI-C platform independent CANOpen stack that can be implemented as master or slave nodes on PCs, Real-time IPCs, and Microcontrollers. A WxPython based CanOpen Object Dictionary editor GUI is also provided.26 weekly downloads
Driver para impresor / controlador fiscal EPSON en JAVA. Utiliza JNI para comunicacion con puerto serie. Testeado en winxp, linux x86_64, win7 32 / 64 sobre TMU-220AF. solo rollo papel continuo (chicos)10 weekly downloads
fprint aims to plug a gap in the open source desktop, by providing support for consumer fingerprint scanners as standard.39 weekly downloads
CPU Informer
CPU Informer - CPU recognition program. A very useful tool for CPU detection. It recognizez all types of x86 CPU's including new Intel and AMD Dual Core CPUs. Also CPU Informer can work with most popular LPC SuperIO sensors.16 weekly downloads
CanoScan FB630U SANE backend
This project was used to develop an OS-independent driver for the CanoScan FB630U flatbed scanner in the form of a backend for the SANE package. Since integration with the SANE project in 2002, there has been no activity here.16 weekly downloads
The SpaceNavigatorDriver project is an attempt to create a platform independent library to extract the HID data from the SpaceNavigator and send the position data to a registered listener. An attempt will also be made to make a config GUI.8 weekly downloads
Casio fx-9860G communication utility
xfer9860 works with the fx-9860G (AKA Graph85) versions of Casio's graphing calculators. It allows you to transfer files to your calculator, and works on platforms where libusb is available - including Linux and Windows.4 weekly downloads
Keyboard Upgrade
Generic firmware for homebrew computer keyboard controllers.2 weekly downloads
Serial Wire Debug Open Library
Serial Wire Debug (SWD) Open Library for low level Debug Access Port (DAP) on new ARM Cortex CPU devices. PROJECT HAS MOVED TO https://GitHub.com/CeDeROM/LibSWD PLEASE UPDATE YOUR LINKS! :-)3 weekly downloads
Using the new C# Dll from swig portability of Openobex/ObexFtp to write a nice GUI able to transfer file between two devices with obex protocol. More Info's here: http://cs-obexftp.wiki.sourceforge.net/2 weekly downloads
VDT - Visual Disk Test
VDT - Visual Disk Test : performs I/O tests on files, partitions, and/or disks with visual feedback/follow-up, offering flexible test area selection by size, location, percent, or combinations thereof, plus test duration control by time or size.2 weekly downloads
Library for handling XBee / XBee-PRO RF modules. The library is written in C and supports the following platforms: Linux (x86, MIPSel), Windows (x86), AT91 SAM7 microcontrollers.1 weekly downloads
64128 Graphics LCD Driver
A device driver in 'C' for interfacing a uController with a Displaytech 64128A LCD display (or its variants).It was written and tested on a Renesas R8C/25 microcontroller proto-board. It provides control, text and graphics functions as function cal1 weekly downloads
Advanced Irrigation Controller
Automated Irrigation Controller for computers1 weekly downloads
Platform-level utilities on .NET Framework 4.0 (C#)1 weekly downloads
Pico .NET Driver Imports
Portable .NET driver imports for Pico USB oscilloscopes and data loggers. Verified to be working under Windows and several Linux distributions.1 weekly downloads
The DirecPC Project
Provide a Linux driver and application in order to allow satellite Internet users the use of their favorite Operating system.1 weekly downloads
Voltcraft DL-141TH controller
A tool to download and configure Voltcraft DL-141TH devices.1 weekly downloads
Modchip-like software for using backup copies on the Nintendo Wii video game console, running on both microcontrollers and desktop PCs
Embedded Memory Management
Kernel level infrastructure for dynamic management of heterogeneous internal memories in embedded platforms.

subset: commoncrawl


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Iggy Azalea Sinks The Shot You've Been Attempting For Years
In case you were too busy getting your BBQ on this weekend and missed out on checking your Instagram feed, you really need to watch this trick shot from ... Iggy Azalea. What? You thought I was going to say a basketball player or something? Pshhh.
The Australian rapper joined her boyfriend, Los Angeles Lakers star and beloved Internet treasure Nick "Swaggy P" Young, in the gym on Saturday and showed off an impressive shot from behind the backboard.
Just further proof that she really doesn't want no mediocre. Only the best for I-G-G-Y.
See something entertaining on social media that you think deserves to be shared? Let me know on Twitter, @darcymaine_espn.


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I found RU4MERESCUE while searching for a senior cat. They had a pair of cats that needed to be adopted together if possible.... more »
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Faith, Hope, Love Charity are people who really care about the veteran. The have helped me get back on my feet with love and... more »
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hurt, although St John Ambulance were called to the scene.
Tauranga and Mount Maunganui firefighters were also called
but stood down before arriving at the airport, the spokesman
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Come this Tuesday, the 28th, it will have been 3 weeks ago that CXW gapped-up +15� on rather convictionless volume on the order of +172% of its (then) 3-months' ADV.Back then, CXW's 50-EMA was on the ascension and its 150-EMA was in the midst of its process of bottoming out. Since then, its 150-EMA has begun its rising track and, as has been mentioned on this mb in an earlier message, the 50-EMA has crossed above the 150-EMA while both were on the rise, triggering what technician Victor Sperando considers a "Buy" signal.Back then (6/07/05), the industry's Group Relative Strength (GRS) numerical ranking for the Commercial Services-Security/Safety (CS-S/S) group, was 125th out of IBD's 197 groupings. In its NYSE reporting, IBD shows that numerical ranking as equating to a letter-designation ranking of "C," which doesn't make sense to the General since 125th out of 197 should be more like a "D+".CXW's Accumulation/Distribution (A/D) rating on gap-up day was a (neutral) "C".As of the close of last Friday's session, the CS-S/S GRS ranking has slipped to 166th out of 197, which the IBD calls a "D" (insofar as its reporting of NYSE stocks) and which, to the General, seems more like an "E+".CXW's A/D rating remains a neutral "C".BTAIM (Be that as it may), the 6/06-07/05 gap-up's price discontinuity (from 37.58 to 37.73) of +15� remains unclosed and, at its i-d l of 37.87 last Friday, it came within 14� of starting that closure, a process that CXW seems intent on completing before it moves on with wherever it's bound for (which Sperando . . . & the General believe is higher).
Hey General,Have you pulled a Westy on us? "Light at the end of the tunnel?" Price went up, as you predicted 6/26, but it's lower now, five weeks later. Time to retreat?ICB
i_c_b, the General's answer to your question, << Time to retreat? >> would have to be, "It depends."What it "depends" on, is whether the reader is a short-term oriented trader (which the General is NOT), or a long-term oriented investor (which the General IS).If the reader is short-term oriented, then the General still sees "technical" weakness in its recent chart behavior, which is not surprising given that its Commercial Services-Security Safety (CS-S/S) industry group is currently ranked 141st out of 197 groupings.Converted to a 'letter'-ranking rather than a numerical one, IBD calls that a "D+". The General thinks that that's somewhat 'generous' on IBD's part. He'd call it a "D," bordering on the cusp of a "D-".3 months ago, the CS-S/S group ranked 74th out of 197 groupings (a "B-") and 6 months ago it commanded the 28th ranking (an "A-" on the cusp of an "A").So its industry grouping has been declining in market favor over the past half-year. Nothing like that ever happens in the stock market, as we all know. Today's heroes never become tomorrow's bums and vice-versa.If one looks at CXW's long-term chart's trend since Ferguson has been at the helm, one sees that, while there have been periods of decline and consolidation, some lasting as long as a year,there are still viable long-term UPTREND lines, each succeeding one being greater in positive slope than its proximate predecessor.The General has not taken the calc'ing time to present them here, but if anyone's interested, he might do that (schedule permitting).The "revelation" that the General's prediction was correct some time ago now puts him in a quandry. He can't remember what brand of Ouija board wax he was usin' at the time.
The 6 weeks-old gap-up has now been closed.
About time - now let's roll!!!!!
I can't say I'm a believer in TA but I believe there are solid fundamental reasons for the recent strength in CXW. The Co. has said that they originally expected a tax settlement with IRS to be expensed in equal payments during all 4 qtrs. in 2005, and then IRS req'd. the payment be made in the 1st. qtr. As a result, this expense will disappear in qtrs. 2,3, & 4. In addition, 2qtr. will have Ohio Pen. 50% take or pay for 30 days, 60 days take or pay in 3qtr. and 90% take or pay for 30 days, and 90% take or pay for 120 days in qtr. 4. So there will there be a clear uptrend for rev.and earnings thru the rest of this year, all other things being equal. The upward trend of incarceration is continuing its long term pattern w/o any indication of interruption, CXW is continuing its qtrly free cash flow of about 30$ million AND if you look closely you will see that during late afternoon trades in the last several months the stock has been rising on strong volume, including Friday's ending trade, in volume, indicating that someone or group is accumulating.
It should also be kept in mind that in the 1st qtr. CXW exchanged $250 million 9.875% debt for the same amount at 6.375%. This is enough to bring a tear to the eye.


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Until we get a parking space at Paramount, Kiss.Wrks is a full-service, digital workshop in Hollywood providing online solutions for large and small brands, businesses, plumbers and professional portfolios.
Highly motivated by the interactive experience, future technologies, innovative design and only the finest coffee... we consistently engage audiences across an impressive array of industries, multiply conversions, and elevate brands to new heights. This is no time for humility.
It won't matter if your business is entertainment, exotic cars, or selling pillow cases from your home... we are radical about blending brains and beauty with brawn, and electrifying the visitor experience to be no less than edu-taining. Nobody writes a single line of code until we've listened closely to your fantasy, and fully understand the goal. Always architecturally sound, we conceptualize a genius solution - whatever the scale - package, present and pour the foundation to be built upon. Then, we go to work to Keep It Simply Spectacular. Bring us any project or problem, or get your website Kissed™.
We Have Kissed™
Established brand or company logo
Sample Emblems & Logo Renderings
Taking a "mobile first" approach, we automatically future-proof by looking as far ahead as possible. Retina image support is always built in, so your images and graphics will look razor sharp on the very latest mobile phones, tablets and smartwatches. Touch and swipe reactions are built in too. Adjust the size of this window and see the website adjust, expand and collapse to fit your device. That's a "responsive" design, and is par for the course.
Built to exact specifications, we handle everything under the hood that nobody ever sees... and architect a custom content management system (CMS) where you can log in yourself, manage, control and add new content anytime. Need to automatically add your YouTube® videos from your channel to your website? No problem. We will even pull the thumbnail images down and resize everything to fit. We build from scratch whenever it's required and have our heads around the core fundamentals.
We have built some highly advanced image manipulation tools that rotate, scale, crop and watermark images on the fly, generating thumbnails and dynamic layouts of complete photographer's galleries with thousands of images if required. Also fluent in the realm of digital video & audio, we can even create custom-branded video and audio players. If you don't what you want, that's fine too. Creative freedom is real pleasure.
Creating our own terminology is fun, because we're not bound by the lexicon.
While we draw inspiration from some great creative minds past and present, we also discover and create our own based on the need itself. "Keep It Simple" is what we do - after we've listened to you. Good design is not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Mozart hated "too many notes", and if we can eliminate just one mouse click, it's a big deal, because it's the difference between interest and a sale. We have taken sites from 500 to 7000 members/day in less than 4 months - just by changing the way a user signs up. So tell us what we can do for you. We're listening.
Until recently, if you wanted a mobile site to compliment your existing website, you would build a separate. But now, it's possible to make one website look and work properly on a smartwatch, phone, tablet, and retina displays up to 5K resolutions.
Retina displays have pixels so close together the human eye doesn't see the dots anymore. It makes for razor sharp text, adds impressive realism to images, and jagged edges on type are now history. With all this in mind, we approach every project with "today's best" as the future expected minimum. In the same way that game developers stretch the limits of CPU performance and make you want to buy a better machine, we create web & mobile experiences ahead of their time - keeping you ahead of the curve.
This doesn't mean we don't care about older browsers and low resolution displays. That's still a big audience, and you want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. So we make sure to account for backward compatibility at least as far as we look forward.
But, you also don't hold up a flight because 2 passengers are still sitting in the lounge. If 2% of your visitors are still on Internet Explorer 8, would you want your website to suffer to accommodate them?... or make the experience that much better for the other 98%. We consider all of this very carefully and insist on establishing a minimum system requirement before breaking ground.
A sample of award-winning brands, games, apps, websites, contests, promotions, signup processes, motion graphics trailers, video players, content management systems, experimental projects, dynamic galleries, slideshows, interactive flash projects and highly-advanced interactive online experiences for web and mobile enjoyment. Contact Us below for a complete tour or personal preview of our works. We would be delighted to speak with you.
Awards & Accolades
Although we are occasionally in Toronto, we primarily based at the center of the entertainment universe in Hollywood, California. You know, dinner with Beyoncé, and lunch with George Clooney…. that sort of thing is a nev'ryday occurrence. So if you're anywhere near Los Angeles or Toronto, we would be delighted to meet in person and shake your hand. Although we often work VERY closely with clients in Japan, Germany, New York, Chicago and Florida, we aim to cultivate everlasting one-on-one relationships with our clients whenever possible. Give us a great reason to fly to Japan, and we will be on the next flight.
Know it? We breathe it, eat it for breakfast, and we're not kidding. Going as far back as 1997 when DVDs were a new technology, we were already creating video motion menus and authoring DVD's while most people were still watching VHS tapes and renting movies from Blockbuster – which has since gone totally out of business. But we're still here. We have even created full-blown, stand-alone video tube sites.
We created this trailer below for a DVD in the year 1999 (16 years ago on a Macbook) for 3D software company ElectricImage®, which was our preferred 3D software package of choice. Fully hand-modeled in Form•Z, textured in Photoshop, rendered and animated on a machine 100X slower than what you're using now, we set out to create a real cinematic trailer that looks like it was created by a major motion picture studio. In fact, just for fun, it uses the Universal Pictures® music but contains models of lighting objects that also appear in 20th Century Fox's Trailer. This is what actually brought us to Hollywood.
Here is another – which is almost totally indistinguishable from the original – and is based on George Lucas' 1997 theatrical title trailer for the re-release of the StarWars™ Trilogy | Special Edition. Instead of the titles of the films, we changed the flying logos to say "Work Hard. Render fast. Retire Young". This is ElectricImage's tagline. When we submitted it to them in 2000, they showcased both on their website to show what their software is capable of.
ElectricImage was also used to create special segments of the actual LucasFilm StarWars™ movies. So we also created spaceships, cars, TIE Fighters, Planes, flying logos and more – to look like a major Hollywood Studio created them.
Of course. We are fully equipped and actually prefer to handle it for you – so you won't need to. It also eliminates countless hours on the phone, and you get peace of mind knowing someone is continually looking out for your website as if we own it ourselves. For clients we host, the monthly fee is slightly higher, but it pays for itself several times over because we include a handful of hours per month for automatic updates, maintenance, server administration and whatever else may arise. If you need something extra beyond those hours, we will just invoice for the extra requirement.
We know you have a business to run, so make your online business our business… and we will take care of all of your online needs. We work with some very big brands and businesses who are too busy selling cars, food, clothing & houses, and they don't know what their website needs. So we provide all the maintenance, automatic support, greasing the wheels and making the initiative they wouldn't even consider or think to ask for. Our white-glove service ensures we have as few lengthy conversations as possible, and we attack a problem like we're going to kill it – and eat it.
Kiss really works.
It's not just a pretty name. It's our methodology.
We certainly build anything from static websites… to dynamic websites. A website may just be someone's online business card that exists so they can be found and contacted. It remains generally *static*, and does not change over time. Dynamic websites grow and have content added to them constantly. Perhaps you have a member base, or online store, that is a *dynamic* website with a CMS (Content Management System) allowing you log in and add future content yourself, without the need for daily or complex assistance.
We can build anything on top of a fully self-managing CMS. We can even customize it for you to manage yourself, and have it fully tailored for your specific needs …. to upload photo galleries…. of thousands of pictures….. adding products with images that need to be automatically resized…. have thumbnails created from them…. rotated….. cropped …. and even watermarked with your own logo on the fly. Drag and drop and album of images, and it's all done in seconds.
A big-name automotive client asked us for this, and what used to take them an hour or more, now takes seconds with unbelievable simplicity. They can list a car for sale and add a supporting gallery of pictures in 60 seconds. Previously the would create a new web page manually, crop, resize and adjust all the images in Photoshop and upload it themselves. We automated the entire process, so now they can concentrate on building and selling cars.
That's just one example.
We have built some unbelievably complex features on top of very basic WordPress-driven sites too.
Whatever the scale, simplicity and ease of use is always the number one consideration.
We are fluent in the latest social media APIs (Automated Programming Interfaces). Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google and Youtube all have mechanisms for advanced programmers to display your latest social news and content directly on your site – as you make it – LIVE. You just added YouTube® video to your business channel and want it to display on your website? It's highly complex, but no problem! We hook into youtube and "listen" for changes. When you make any, your website can display your most recent videos, images or tweets automatically.
There is no limit to what you can do with this. We would even strongly recommend it. As an example, we have a client who requested pulling the images thumbnails and all existing YouTube video data (including views counts!) down to their website video gallery – eliminating the need for them to enter all the information AGAIN on the website. So we hooked into YouTube, pull all the video data, and inject the title, description, images, view counts, likes, status, dislikes, publish date and even subscriptions(!) to populate their website with all their videos – automatically. Most impressive, we don't mind saying. If you want to go crazy with this, you certainly can.
Naturally basic social "sharing" functions are part of the parcel and we add the ability for your site visitors to share your content across all major social networks.
When it comes to Flash, the only thing we're missing is a cape.
Until 2011, high-impact Flash interactivity was our business, and we created some of the most successful interactive website join processes on the internet. Twenty-six of them to be exact, for major high-traffic & high-volume sites. We also created a fully customized Flash video player for a food company in 2013. That company won "best in show" for the best website that year – thanks to us. We made use of the latest and most advanced YouTube API at the time, and we were the just people to it.
For one client, we filmed an actress walking out on stage and interviewing YOU to sign up for a dating site. She would ask a question, buttons with sound effects would magically appear around her and you would click them to move to the next step. With a background in the arts, we actually choreographed her movements, how many steps she should take, how to stand, where to stand, how to move her arms, what to point at – and what to say. The poor girl had no idea who she was talking to or what the point of it all was. Until we brought it to life:
One of our example projects for The Wonderful Company® (Wonderful Pistachios & POM Wonderful etc.) was a Gangnam Style interactive Facebook APP contest… with interactive music and sounds. You would upload a photo and dress yourself in props – like PSY from the extremely popular "Gangnam Style" music video – and it would create an e-card you could add to your Facebook timeline. Moreover, it would connect to Facebook and select and post images from and to your Facebook albums and timelines directly. Pretty slick.
So yes, our knowledge and kissperience with Flash is un-paralleled and totally off-the-charts. We would be happy to give you a complete presentation with plenty of examples that are certain to blow your hair right back. Contact us anytime.
Great question. We're up until all hours solving all kinds of problems while you sleep. That's our job, and we know it. If there is a power outage, or a website crashes at 3:00 AM, we don't sleep until it's fixed and you're back up and running. We have alerts set up to going straight to our mobile phones every 15 minutes. Like Batman, if a website goes down, we get the signal.
On New Year's Eve 2014 , we sat at our computers until 5AM and have witness testimony to prove it. Last Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, we emailed two clients informing them of progress, and provided solutions at the drop of a hat. They were not available to respond and on vacation until several days later, but we took care of it.
It's all part of our Kisstacular service and most of our clients have no idea what we put in.
That's why we're still in business. Because kiss.works – even when you're on vacation.
We have created award-winning work for every genre you can think of. From IT (information technology)… to music & classical ballet. Yes, really. Automotive, fitness, food & beverage, clothing, water, medical, sports, real estate, cheese, vodka, nuts, construction, technology, photography, online dating, design, architecture, industrial design, hobbyist, night club, parties, children's music & story books…. the list is long and distinguished. Do you have an hour?
Difficult to say without understanding the scope, but often, a client can have one of three restraints. Time, quality, or budget. There is a saying in the industry: "Fast. Cheap. And Good. Pick two.". In simple terms, if you need it "cheap and yesterday", you can expect it to be of lesser quality. Likewise, if it needs to pass several stages of approval by several tiers of managers, then exacting quality and plenty of deliberation takes place, so it will take longer and cost more. You get the idea.
It's not a deflection, but at least one conversation (or meeting) will come before that – in order to understand the scope, deadline, travel requirements, and a number of other factors. There are simply too many questions to be answered before we are in a position to answer accurately. For some needs, we invoice hourly, and occasionally, for the entire project. It's always agreed upon in advance so there are no surprises. Skill set required plays a part in it too. We have different rates for different needs.
Our role is to present ourselves as the best possible choice and give you the best value. Frequently, the client (or business) already has a budget ceiling. This is also good, because providing the budget ceiling will put us in the position of presenting an attractive solution within your affordable range. It also happens often that a client doesn't care what it costs. They need it right now. So whichever you are, be upfront and let us know, and we will do the same for you. When you prefer that kind of relationship, we will really enjoy working with you too.
We also make a very concerted effort to build in features & enhancements so you won't need to call us later. That may cost 6 extra hours today, but it will save you 60 hours in the long run. We do that whenever possible and will always discuss it with you. Saving you a little money when we can means you won't hesitate to call us again.
Whenever possible, we are fully willing to be there along side you in person, although we don't need to be. It depends on the nature of the project and your business, and the tools required to deliver…. but we will deflect that towards your preference. We are equipped with everything you need without you having to supply it, but if it's possible to travel to you – even just occasionally – being there with you in person allows us to work remotely on our own, and also connect personally if there are any questions. So we are absolutely flexible that way depending on availability.
You will be a favorite client. When granted full (or partial) creative license, we really run with it. We'll listen closely to your business goal and take it from there. Depending on your line of work, genre or niche, it often *designs itself*. When you provide your materials, content, images, videos and copy…. we are able to pre-visualize what the complete package might look like – when you (or others) may not be able to. It's our forté. But if you do know exactly what you want, we love that too, because it eliminates experimentation. Alternatively, you may know what you like AFTER you see it. This isn't a problem, but it does extend deadlines and can be more costly in the end. So if something needs to be fully created before you approve it, this process can certainly take longer. Something to keep in mind.
©2016 This website has been Kissed™ | MMXV.


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Line 255 of wp-cache.php checks against permissions 0755, but on my shared hosting, the hosts recommendation is to set to 0700 (my apache/php user is my ftp user so no group or world permissions are necessary.)
Can that check be changed to something more permissive of stricter settings? I'm hoping to conform to the host's recommendation but I can't convert the file permissions until that scary message won't cause all kinds of support calls ;-)
Thanks, you're plugin is a five star!


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Cambodia FAQs
Experience sun rise or set from the breath-taking ruins of Angkor Wat, once the largest preindustrial city in the world. The centuries weigh heavy at the towers of Angkor Thom, where giant, stone-carved faces gaze silently at the four points of the compass, and Ta Prohm, a lost temple shrouded in mystery and twisted banyan trees. Friendly Planet makes discount travel to Cambodia both easy and affordable!
Tours & Packages in Cambodia
Cambodia FAQs
Check out our Fast Facts about traveling in Cambodia, including currency conversion, tipping, weather, the best time to travel, what to wear, what to buy, voltage & plugs, immunizations you should get, and more.


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The Illinois Fighting Illini have completed their 2014 non-conference football schedule with the addition of games against Texas State and Western Kentucky, the school announced today.
Illinois opens the 2014 season with consecutive games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. Youngstown State visits on Aug. 30 in the season-opener for both schools. The following week, Western Kentucky visits for their first ever match-up with the Illini.
On Sept. 13, the Fighting Illini hit the road to face the Washington Huskies. Illinois trails in the overall series 5-4, but the two schools haven't met since 1972.
Illinois' final non-conference game in 2014 is at home on Sept. 20 against Texas State of the Sun Belt.
The Big Ten has not yet announced the 2014 conference schedule, but Illinois knows they will face Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin from the West Division and two teams from the East Division.
Today's announcement means that Northwestern, Rutgers, and Wisconsin are the only three Big Ten schools that have yet to finalize their 2014 non-conference schedule.
The Sept. 6 game at Illinois also completes the 2014 non-conference schedule for Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers open the season at home against Bowling Green on Thursday, Aug. 28. They also travel to Navy on Sept. 27 and later host Army on Nov. 15.
Football Schedules
WOW, I wish I had season tickets for the Illini now!!! Adding Western Kentucky and Texas State along with Youngstown State to the non-conference home schedule puts shivers all over me. This is the best they could do???????????????
Illinois is such a crappy team that they will not schedule any decent teams. I am surprised that they did not cancel the Washington series so that they could play Peoria junior college. Their argument would be that it is a natural home state rival, just like arm wrestling your 85 year old grandfather at Thanksgiving .
Texas State wins this game. They are a sleeping giant.
No Texas State is a POS.
What a tool
Western Kentucky would beat 80% of the high schools in Texas-they are that good!
What's that a Big 10 program and fan base doubting a Mid-Major Program from Texas? Now where have I seen this before…hmmmmm? Reminds me the smell of Roses :)
At last an honest Texan. Thanks for validating what we all suspected—TCU is a mid-major.
Illinois 2-10 Overall Record, 0-8 Conference? If anybody should be disappointed about the scheduling it should be Texas State & Western Kentucky fans and not the Illinois Fans.
Texas State fans are excited to play a B10 team. We could get rolled or we could win a squeaker. All I know is that road tripping plans are unfolding as I type this up.


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Video Industry News Video Company News Technology Industry News Technology Company News Novelty Industry News Novelty Company News Gay Industry News Gay Company News Legal Industry News All Company News
Released: Feb 01st, 1998
Running Time: 114
Directors: Jack Nichols, Jeff (I)
Company: Puritan Video Productions
Cast: Dave Hardman, Toni James, Shawna Edwards, Dakota (I), J.J. Michaels, Timber, Johnni Black, Michael Black, Ian Daniels, Valentino (I), Rick Masters, Alyssa Allure, Earl Slate, John West, Joey Edwards, Kristi Starr, Tyra Olsen
Critical Rating: AAA 1/2
Genre: All-Sex
This is an unexpected jewel. Co-directors Jeff and Jack Nichols have made a very good video that should please just about everyone. There are five excellent segments. Three are outdoors: at a construction site, on a sailboat and by a lake. Two are indoor: one in a body shop, the other in a fight ring. There's one four-way, one couples scene, one orgy, one guy/girl/guy three-way, and one girl/guy/girl three-way that ends up in a double couples scene. There are anals, d.p.'s, b.j.'s, ass licking, cunt sucking, multiple and single facials, and a superb scene as Shawna Edwards gets pronged anal doggie by hubbie Joey, then gurgles the cum with her asshole to let it dribble out and down her puss.


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Aug 10
Aug 19
Sep 16
Nov 18
Dec 16
Label: Rocksauce Records
Bio: There's a source in rock n roll music, a well from which most of the great musicians and songwriters have drank deeply. Born in the Mississippi delta and raised on the streets of Chicago's south side, The Blues is often recognized as the source. The Black Oil Brothers draw from the same well ou...See Full Bio
"The South Side quartet known as The Black Oil Brothers has figured out how to transport the sounds of the Mississippi Delta straight to the Chicago music scene. The 10 tracks that make up the band's latest release, The High Road To Ruin, are pure country-blues-folk bliss. From the sincere storytelling to the soulful slide-guitar riffs to the perfectly placed handclaps and stomps, it's an album that might even convert the country-haters. (theblackoilbrothers.com). "


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1995 Ford Windstar Repair and Maintenance
A guide to problems, costs, maintenance and repair for your 1995 Ford Windstar
Verified by mechanics, reported by drivers like you
Ask a mechanic in our community
Never overpay. Check prices with our estimator
Our experts translate recalls into plain English
1995 Ford Windstar ProblemsKnocking Noise Due to Broken Intake Runner
A knocking noise from the upper engine area may indicate a loose intake runner. Our technicians tell us if this is the case, replacement of the upper intake clamshell will be necessary.
Warped front brake rotors may cause the steering wheel to shimmy when the brakes are applied. Our technicians tell us the brake rotors and pads should be replaced to correct this concern.
White smoke coming from the exhaust and an illuminated Check Engine Light could indicate the head gasket has blown.
1995 Ford Windstar QuestionsStarts fine, runs good until warm,then develops bad miss? (1 answer)
After driving for about 20 minutes my 3.8 Windstar develops a bad miss.If I cut it off , idles ruff,runs bad.
is there a local place to buy premade brake lines
Vehicle located in Hampton VA 23669.
Information for my brother
Just bought this vehicle. It has been well cared for but it came with no maintenance history nor even owner's manual. Wondering about maintenance schedule repairs such as timing belt/chain replacement or other issues that someone will tell me I should have taken car of, after the fact.


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Video Industry News Video Company News Technology Industry News Technology Company News Novelty Industry News Novelty Company News Gay Industry News Gay Company News Legal Industry News All Company News
Accessories Adult Games Adult Gifts Adult Novelties Anal Toys Apparel Bachelorette Party Supplies Bath Products BDSM Gear Books, CDs, DVDs Cock Rings Dildos Fetish Gear Lingerie Lubricants Massage Masturbators Miscellaneous Penis Pumps Sex Furniture Sex Kits Sex Toy Storage Sexual Enhancers Sexual Health Smoking Accessories Strap-Ons Vibrators
Manufacturer: CalExotics (formerly California Exotic Novelties)
At seven inches long and fairly narrow, this green vibe is perfect for the gal looking for length over width. I found it very soft and pliable and I enjoyed the cool little nubs at its base, which hit my clit just right. I was surprised at the power it put out, as some of the gel vibes usually don't have the energy as their hard-shelled cousins, but it didn't seem affected here.


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Please enter a valid city, state or zip code
21 reviews | 4.7 out of 5
I had been going back and forth about buying a warmer for a long time and finally I decided to get one. I must say I'm SO happy with it! This warmer is wonderful! Totally worth the money. I will be buying more for my house! :)
This product is amazing. I live in military housing, with 2 dogs and 1 cat. The house never smells good or even welcoming. There are alot of military wives who sell Scentsy and they're constantly trying to get me to buy from them. Even if I came to the grips to buy Scentsy, I couldn't afford it. I've been contemplating about this product at Walmart for over a month now and finally just bought it 20 minutes ago. I put this product in the Laundry Room where the litter box is, and I can't believe how fast it started working. I've been sitting in the Living Room now and I can smell it in here now!! I'm going to definetely buy more once I have more money :) Don't spend your money on a Scentsy item. This does the trick without the expensive fees! By the way, I NEVER waste my time doing these reviews.
I bought a Scentsy burner a few months ago for around $40, and yes, it's nice. But for $15, this burner is just as good. I bought 4 of these at Walmart, 3 for me, 1 for a gift, and stocked up on the $2 wax melts (scentsy sells them for $5) and LOVE the Baked Apple! If you like fragrance in your home, these are a MUST HAVE! I was thrilled to see Walmart add this item to their stores, and I guarantee you will love them also! My friend walked in last night and said, "OMG, your house smells SO nice!"
I have two of these burners one for my room and one for the living room, although i only use 1 because it alone fills my entire house (4 bedrooms and 3 bath) with its lovely smell!!! This is way better and cheaper than scentsy. I have used 1 cube for up to 15 days then switched because i wanted a different smell. My favorite cubes are wild berry cheesecake (amazing) and cupcake!!
This is $15 WELL spent
I have been enjoying this product very much since it arrived. The item was shipped very fast and arrived exactly as described. Will order again.
Having become tired of the plug-in room "freshener" because the scents are all so...unappealing, I finally tried a tart burner. And I love it. I cannot figure out why I waited so long to try one. This is an attrative burner, not too big or too small, easy to use and fits in well with my decor. The wax melts not quickly but the scent fills the room and ajoining rooms very well when it does. Walmart has a nice selection of melts to try, though I will be looking online for other choices. I like it so well that I plan on giving a couple to family members for christmas.
I bought two of these for my home, one for my parents' home and two for the office. They are very cute and are way cheaper than Scentsy. Now we do use Scentsy wax in them because Scentsy wax I find lasts longer than other stuff you can buy. Although we have used Mary's Candles little wax things too. Bottom line....these wax warmers work great and they are cute.
I have wanted a tart warmer for a very long time. I love candles but with a two year old who likes to grab things off the counter, it's not very realistic at this time. I debating on getting one for a while and finally said what the heck and bought one today. I've had it plugged in for about 1/2 hour and my whole house smell absolutely wonderful!! The ceramic gets a little hot so make sure to keep it out of the way of children and pets. Worth the investment!! Smells just as good as scentsy and bath and body works, but lasts alot longer and alot cheaper! I bought the ginger spice cake tarts and it smells amazing, definitely a fall favorite scent!
I love this and can not say enough about it. I have owned this for about 6 months and have had it on every day since. It literally makes the entire house smell so good!!! The wax is cheap; you can buy an 8 pack for $2.00 and the wax warmer is about $15. I have received so many compliments on how good my home smells and how beautiful the wax warmer is. I will definitely be giving this out as Christmas gifts this year!!
I love this wax warmer! The charming design fits in with any decor and is my favorite. Pair it with scented wax cubes or scented cookie tarts to make a great gift for so many occasions. Warmers are great for filling your home with great scents without the mess , soot and worry of a candle burning. It is so easy to change the scent from day to day. Every home should have one or more!!
I received the Better Homes and Gardens Fleur De Lis Wax Warmer along with a package of Ginger Spice Cake wax as a birthday gift from a friend. The first time I used it I was really impressed. We have two small house dogs and I am paranoid about any "doggie" odors. After about 15 minutes of use, this warmer had the lower floor of the house (about 1200 square feet) smelling as if I were baking gingerbread. I continued to use it for several more days with exceptional results. I have now gone to Walmart and bought four more warmers in various styles and 16 packages of wax to give as Christmas gifts for teachers, hair stylist, etc. As an added note, my local Walmart had many more styles and colors of warmers than the website indicates. The warmer and two packages of wax make a really nice $20.00 gift. Each wax package has six cubes and I have estimated that the scent from each cube lasts between four and five days with about eight hours of "burn" time daily. The warmer does get fairly warm to the touch (especially the sides) so I keep a trivet under the unit and I unplug it when not in use even though it has an on/off switch on the electrical cord. If I have any small complaint...the cord is white and I think it would look better in a brown or black. I have now tried the Ginger Spice Cake, the Cinnamon, the Frasier Fir and the Apple Cider scents...all with great success. The Cinnamon is FANTASTIC! It is the family favorite by far. Although I didn't purchase any of the floral or fruit scents they would be great for the spring and summer. This warmer definitely beats all those scented candles and air fresheners!
This is a beautiful wax warmer. It works great. I love not having an open flame and still getting the glow and lovely scent of a candle.
I had heard that a new acquaintance sold Scentsy, but, I had NO idea what it was! After checking out their website, I was turned off by their prices & thought "it's just not for me". Shopping at WalMart one day, I came across the Better Homes & Gardens Wax Warmer (Live, Laugh, Love, Family - different design than the one above, but they all work the same) and couldn't believe the price ($15) for the warmer! I was intrigued enough to buy one & figured I could take it back if I changed my mind. I also purchased the BH&G wax bar in Vanilla Sugar Cookie (can you say YUM?!!) & fell in love with both the warmer and the wax cubes scent (I've had them a month now)! I went back to WalMart and bought 10 more bars of the same scent - it's THAT good!! The first time my husband smelled the warmer, he didn't know what it was & asked what I was baking! :) I decided to explore Scentsy; went to one of my now (new) friend's Scentsy parties and purchased a plug-in warmer (at $20, it costs more and is smaller than the full-size BH&G warmer & they each work just as well as the other)! I think the BH&G warmer designs are much better looking than the Scentsy warmers! BH&G's wax cubes smell much better than Scentsy's too. Scentsy's are too man-made, flowery and perfumed smelling. I found several Scentsy scents to actually be offensive & off-putting. I couldn't say that a single one was delicious, as I could about SEVERAL of the BH&G scents. The scent of 2 BH&G cubes will last for 2 weeks (the scent will obviously wane as 2 weeks nears). As a matter of fact, the best I could say about only some Scentsy scents was that they were "good" or "okay". PLUS, the price of the wax bars - WalMart's BH&G bars - $2 vs. Scentsy's bars - $5!! GET YOURSELF ONE OF THESE BH&G WARMERS!!! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!!
Overall I love how this warmer looks and makes my home smell so good when it melts the wax. It does however get pretty hot, so I just ordered a warmer stand from Scentsy itself to raise it a little since I was afraid it might burn my countertop. I really enjoy it though and it was a great price.
I went to a scentsy party today but didn't want to pay that much for a warmer. Instead I went to Walmart and purchased this one. I had burrowed my friends scentsy before the party and the one from Walmart I bought work just as good. I even was impressed with the scents from Walmart I found alot that smelt better than I did at the scentsy party. This wax warmer from Walmart doesn't get hot like others say and takes the same amount of time to warm the wax as a scentsy. I strongly recommand getting this wax warmer. They even have night light plug in warmers!
The warmer is pretty , but the bulb was crushed when I recd it.
My daughter loved this for her room--the first two days. Then the light bulb went out and I can't find a replacement. It claims to have a 25w bulb but the one in te warmer is a 20w and it has a small base like a night light but the bulb is round..I've been to Walmart and Home depot. Anyone know where to get replacement bulbs?
This is just beauitful. I was really surprised. It is much prettier and bigger than the picture. It was a gift and they loved it. I am thinking about getting one for myself.
This is just as good or better than the Scentsy products. I dropped mine onto hardwood floors and it survived. Very satisfied.


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Walker, 68, injured at Dolgoch Falls in Snowdonia
- 13 August 2014
- From the section North West Wales
A 68-year-old walker from Peterborough suffered head and leg injuries after he slipped and fell 40ft (12.2m) in a steep river gorge in south Snowdonia.
The man fell at Dolgoch Falls, a beauty spot near Abergynolwyn, while with his family on Tuesday.
Paramedics treated the man before 13 members of the Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team carried him down a rocky path on a stretcher.
The injured man was flown to hospital at Bangor by air ambulance.


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Olympic Lifting for Dummies
View Single Post
-Ross Hunt
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 166
There's metcon, and then there's metcon.
Chippers and long, slow distance are one thing; short circuits with moderate loads are quite another. Since all
care about right now is improving my total (and, of course, big guns), I do neither.
But before I went all the way over to oly lifting, when I first started it after doing the WOD for a while without strength gains, I took the middle way of restricting my metcon to low-rep, medium-weight, rounds-for-time circuits. Really low reps, e.g., once a week a did this after an oly workout:
Max rounds in 10 minutes of:
-5+5 2 pood snatch.
-5 light back squat (70%)
-5 weighted chins
Then once a week after an oly practice, I did Grace, which of course was also under 10 minutes. After a couple months of this, with a few 100m-200m sprints easy thrown in before workouts, and I could still run a 5:00 flat mile.
The lesson, IMO, is that you can to some extent--to
extent-- minimize endurance adaptation in muscles and maintain or even improve anaerobic/ short-duration aerobic conditioning while concurrently increasing strength and power--so long as you stick to low reps in circuits.
-Ross Hunt
View Public Profile
Find More Posts by -Ross Hunt


text: God says he knew us even before we were knitted in the dark wombs of our mothers. Even before you were conceived, God know YOU, was creating YOU and had plans for YOU. That is so hard to comprehend. God knows everything about our lives before we are even conceived. His plans for you are good, and his promise is He will NEVER leave you nor forsake you. No matter where you have strayed. In sharing this story my prayer is that You, just like myself, will find hope in the midst of what might seem like a hopeless situation.


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Jazeera Airways Group increases Sahaab Leasing capital by US$ 32 million
Jazeera Airways Group has increased the capital of its fully-owned leasing arm, Sahaab Aircraft Leasing, from KD 20 million to KD 29 million to take advantage of new market opportunities.
Sahaab Aircraft Leasing was launched in October 2008 to acquire and lease high-utility commercial aircraft for customers, and started operations with Jazeera Airways as its first customer. Sahaab was then acquired by Jazeera Airways Group in February 2010 as part of the Group's vertical integration strategy of investing in services that compliment passenger airline operations.
Jazeera Airways Group Chairman Marwan Boodai said: "Sahaab's acquisition brought immediate benefits to our business as planned, such as consistent and stable revenue streams as well as access to global leasing markets. And now less than a year since our acquisition we see additional growth opportunities opening up in the leasing market. Thus, Jazeera Airways Group committed to increasing Sahaab's capital through internal resources."
The leasing company now has six Airbus A320 aircraft placed with Jazeera Airways and four Airbus A320 aircraft placed with the San Francisco-based Virgin America, and one Airbus A320 placed with a third undisclosed customer.
Jazeera Airways Group, which recently closed its best performing third quarter in history by registering KD 4.4 million in net profit, is the parent company for both Jazeera Airways, the passenger airline, and Sahaab Aircraft leasing.
Jazeera Airways Group owns 11 Airbus A320s and is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
Top Headlines
- UAE and China reach for the stars with MOU on outer space research
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- Qatar seals $7.02 billion deal for French Rafale fighter jets
- A year later: how safe is flying after the Malaysian airlines' disasters?
- Nationalist glory or economic revival? Why Egyptians are rushing for two-way traffic in the Suez Canal
- GAC Bahrain Appointed as Cargo Outsourced Agent by Jazeera Airways
- Stingy or frugal? Kuwait Airways chief suspended over plan to buy used aircrafts
- Come home to vote ! - says Jazeera Airways to KKuwaiti women
- Sahaab Aircraft Leasing places A320 with SriLankan Airlines
- Jazeera Airways Group secures USD 18.3 million aircraft refinancing facility through Arab Banking Corporation


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Lunch Boxes & Bags
Help brighten up break time with our wonderful collection of
children's lunch boxes and bags. From brightly coloured
lunch boxes to bags with animated characters at The
Range we have a wonderful selection of lunch boxes
and bags, all at fantastic prices to help make break
time special for your little one's.
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Polar Gear Union Jack 16L Cooler
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High Power AlGaN/InGaN/AlGaN/GaN Recessed Gate Heterostructure Field Effect Transistor with InGaN as the RIE Etching Stop Layer
Award Information
Small Business Information
1195 Atlas Road, Columbia, SC, 29209
Principal Investigator:
Thomas Katona
R & D Program Manager
(803) 647-9757
R & D Program Manager
(803) 647-9757
Business Contact:
Remis Gaska
President and CEO
(803) 647-9757
President and CEO
(803) 647-9757
Research Institution:
AbstractSensor Electronic Technology, Inc. proposes a radically different approach for pushing the GaN HEMT performance above the 200 GHz range. In this approach, called Drain Gate Recess, the shape of the recessed gate is such that the gate metal is CLOSER to the channel near the drain edge of the channel. The result is a variation of the device threshold voltage along the channel that makes the electric field along the channel much more uniform and might roughly double the average electron velocity in the channel. The conventional approach for improving the performance of GaN HEMTs involves field plates that work by introducing a metal gate extension over a dielectric. The gate extension splits the high field region under the gate (typically at the drain side of the gate) between two high field regions rather than one, reducing the maximum field. This results in (a) increase in the breakdown voltage and (b) improved device reliability. Although the field plate approach reduces the maximum electric field under the gate, the additional capacitance and corresponding velocity profile limit high frequency operation for these devices. We propose a radically different approach for pushing the GaN HEMT performance above the 200 GHz range.
* information listed above is at the time of submission.
An Official Website of the United States Government