text:
- charlize burstein
- Berlin
- Germany
This conversation is closed.
Debate: Technology will eliminate the need for human employees, and the unemployment rate will increase.
Technology is an easier and faster way to get a job done. It is obvious that technology increases the profitability of companies throughout the world. So why would I hire a human rather than purchasing the technology when the costs of them are the same?
Discuss the situation where you are going to choose one of them with equal conditions (conditions means the costs and several types of expenses).
Gail .
Nov 22 2012: Yes, unemployment will increase into the 90% range. So if you do away with money altogether, then we can use technology to our advantage, rather than to use it to reduce the value of a human being.
- +2
Nov 22 2012: why 90? why not 99 or 75?
Nov 22 2012: None 'bean counter' take it as an approximate value to get to understand the 'message' around it.
Nov 22 2012: yet again i wanted to inspire thinking, but i've failedNov 22 2012: Krisztián, maybe you should revise your encouraging skills if this your comment was meant to 'inspire'.
It truly didn't come across this way to me in any positive way. It rather mocked TED Lover's comment in a way of ignoring the 'core message' and to pick on details instead.
Maybe this is part of your 'amusement' in the way you phrase your comments, but it does not support any fruitful insiration to derive from it.
Nov 22 2012: i don't have encouraging skills. i also don't know how can one revise a skill. i have the skill, on the other hand, to ask the appropriate question that, when one attempts to answer, sheds a light on underlying problems. coming up with such a question is indeed an intellectual amusement. short lived, i might add, as the answer rarely comes.Nov 22 2012: Debate: Technology will eliminate the need for human employees, and the unemployment rate will increase.
Any arguments from your side?
Nov 22 2012: sure, presented multiple times.Nov 22 2012: polemics.
edward long
Nov 30 2012: If empoyees are rendered redundant by self-replicating, self-servicing robotics why would there be such a metric as " Human Unemployment"? My guess is that long before the last human got her pink slip the economy would be terminal. Game over.Nov 22 2012: Your debate headline is a given fact, so there is actually not much to debate about.
- +1
As more technology evolves and as more 'clever' it gets, as less need there is for human employees.
Nov 22 2012: if you ignore all those that disagree
Nov 22 2012: Your disagreement is invalid/irrelevant until you provide us source(s) that proves that technological unemployment is not a fact.
Nov 22 2012: i don't need source to prove that the statement "not much debate about" is false. we are just now debating. the source is me, and all the people that shares my views, including but not limited to all that subscribe to austrian economics.Nov 22 2012: Thing is, Austrian economics is an _economic ideology_, that stem from the late 19th century and is not rooted in the physical reality and it certainly didn't predict or account for the technological advances of the 21st century - which makes it utterly obsolete in terms of our present technological possibilities.
Basing the validity of our current technological possibilities through an economic ideology is utterly nonsensical, since it in no way, shape or form represent our technological possibilities.
Nov 22 2012: and it has zero to do with the statement "not much to debate about". one thing is that you don't believe that argument, and another thing whether it exists.
for example i don't agree with you. but i also recognize that you in fact do exist.
newtonian physics is 400 years old. should abandon it too? or rather, we should judge a theory based on its actual merits. so far, austrian theory is the only economic theory with any predictive power.Nov 22 2012: "and it has zero to do with the statement "not much to debate about".
It has everything to do with that statement.
"one thing is that you don't believe that argument, and another thing whether it exists. for example i don't agree with you. but i also recognize that you in fact do exist."
That is called ignorance. Or scientific illiteracy in this case.
"newtonian physics is 400 years old. should abandon it too?"
Economics has nothing to do with physics, your "credibility" just flew out the window.
My work here is done.
Nov 22 2012: "i also recognize that you in fact do exist. -- That is called ignorance"
so you don't exist? that is an unexpected turn indeed.
"Economics has nothing to do with physics"
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/185/nickcage.jpegNov 22 2012: What is this excitement all about?
I choose 'not much' over 'nothing' so we have a little space left for believers of austrian economics and other schools... ;o)
The given economical system prefers 'profit' over 'people' and the rest is simple math in the balance sheet.
I don't see any significant argument why technology is not killing jobs, so if you have some, make them a contribution in your comment instead of stressing 'newtonian physics' or other non related topics alike...
Wasn't it you who prefers arguments to be 'on the point'? Then act like it. ;o)
Nov 22 2012: "I don't see "
that was a key observation indeedNov 22 2012: How do you form your beliefs if not 'looking' for arguments?
And again, all you deliver is polemics and not a single argument to make your case clear on the topic!
Nov 22 2012: you mean, in this conversation. i presented my arguments in all other conversations about the same topic. it does not count?Nov 22 2012: Sure it counts! But then give reference to those converstions and link to them, instead of beating the drum of polemics only. TED will always have repetitive topics but just to claim different arguments without naming or linking them is not 'inspiring' to those who don't see them.
Nov 22 2012: why? let me decide the content my own comments please. here, i'm presenting different observations.Nov 22 2012: polemics ...Nov 22 2012: "As more technology evolves and as more 'clever' it gets, as less need there is for human employees."
Why would you say something like that? Gut feeling? Personnal theory? Could you provide us with further explanations about your surprising worldview?
Nov 22 2012: Let me summarize what brings me to this conclusion:
The main goal of capitalism is profit maximization and as more 'free' or 'radical' this system runs, as more this goal promotes itself.
In general, a major thread on profit maximization is the cost factor of labour, which is cause why companies produce in low income countries supported by ridiculously cheap transportation costs and the omission of regulating import taxation. In short: The global market.
Due to the invention of assembly line production, in which a complex product gets produced in simple step by step sequences, a human employee can be substituded by machines and robots.
The decision to do so is just a matter of simple math of productivity, acquisition-, repair- and maintenance-costs of those machines compared to the cost of a human worker.
Companies do not see themselves as charity projects, so if there is an overall cost benefit in a machine over a human worker, it will be taken.
As more advanced or 'clever' technology gets, as more jobs will be endangered and substituted by it.
The magic is simple: 24/7/52, no vacation, no illness, no strike.
New technologies are already on the horizon. Rapid prototyping, Machines produce machines, neural network computing, artificial intelligence, artificial evolution, etc.
At the moment machines are literally stupid yet that potential is already enough to substitute people. So what happens when they turn 'smart' and become as cheap as a Chinese migrant worker and as reliable and durable as a Swiss clockwork?
The capitalistic economy will self-destruct itself in the race of the disequilibrium of the global market and comes to an end by viewer and viewer people earning their income by their work to purchase all of those goods with brilliant profit margins.
Capitalism is no long term oriented concept and its vital instinct is only driven by greed.
Look around and you can see 'it' acting as I stated all over the world. And it will become worse.
Nov 23 2012: "Capitalism is no long term oriented concept and its vital instinct is only driven by greed."
Would you have more people in assembly lines? Don't you think certain "robotic" jobs are a waste of human beings?
I thought people took jobs to access comfort. Are you not confusing employment with wealth? In your vision of the future, it seems everybody's well fed and clothed and, since everything is free, a push on a button makes a dream come true.
Capitalism creates wealth, or are you denying this too?Nov 23 2012: 'Capitalism creates wealth, or are you denying this too?'
What in your view was I also denying? And where did I deny the creation of wealth in capitalism?
You asked for 'further explanations' on my 'surprising worldview' that technology is eliminating jobs, so why are you changing the subject in your last question? This is another debate all by itself, yet not on the topic on this one.
'Would you have more people in assembly lines?'
Yes, because the alternative in the given system is unemployment, which does not enable people to 'access comfort' as you phrased it.
'Don't you think certain "robotic" jobs are a waste of human beings?'
Yes, I think so. But don't you think that unemployment is a waste of human beings too? I do, and that's why I criticize the substitution of people by robots but not having those wasteless jobs for them instead.
'I thought people took jobs to access comfort.'
How do you define comfort? What are necessities to you in comparison?
In my view, the purpose of economy is to enable all people to participate and to provide a reliable and sufficient base for a living.
'Are you not confusing employment with wealth?'
Don't you think employment creates wealth? To me it does and this creation shall neither be concentrated for just a view nor parasitic to the cost of others. Is that an evil thought to have?
Is my 'vision of the future', as you named it, really that 'odd', that 'fantastic' that we should stop to think about is how to get there, to move on with business as usual of which we know it will fail?
So would you rather hit this wall or 'push on a button' to avoid this to happen?
Why is it, that those thoughts are either greet with smiles or dismissed as communistic or Utopia?
Have you given up on improvements already? Do you really think there are no better alternatives to the 'given system' possible? To me there are, and they are worth trying. Unfortunately we have to hit the wall first to become more open about it again...Nov 22 2012: The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those thinking in terms of scarcity.
John Smith
Nov 21 2012: "Technology will eliminate the need for human employees"
- +1
Not eliminate it entirely, but reduce it for sure.
"and the unemployment rate will increase"
If we stick to the 40 hour workweek until age 67 then yes, unemployment will eventually increase.Nov 25 2012: High tech industrial production needs a marketplace and naturally sombody to buy it.
No jobs=>no money=>no purchasing power=>no production. That's the way the industrial west has been treating the third world since the start of the colonial period, say three centuries ago. Somebody simply needs to have purchasing power in order for the high tech industrial society to work ... up until now that has been the industrial West, but it needn't stay that way.
The industrial West built its economic strength by dominating the raw material producers in the third world. Cheap raw materials from around the world became manifactured products in the West and sold at a profit around the world. The economic motor that made the West's domination work was control of the means of production.
At this point it looks as though the real problem for the industialized West isn't technological advancement, but that industry opts for cheaper labor in Asia. Within a decade or two there might well be virtually no industrial jobs anywhere outside of China. Wherever production is strongest in the future, will determine where the economy is strongest in the future.
Don't believe for a minute that we can outsource all our labor and still keep our control over economy and trade
I cannot envisage any plausible scenario in which old industrial societies that can no longer poduce any significant part of what they consume, can stay on top.Nov 24 2012: This is a confusing question to me. I believe it's commonly agreed that technology does some jobs well, and human beings do some well. A calculator can add up some figures for you, but it cannot tell you what to do with the figures, only a human being can make that decision.
Nov 25 2012: Let me ask you: If we can make mathematical calculations by ourselves, why we use calculators??
I have my answer to this question: Human being do not stop to find easier and much more easier ways to live, even we see that these easier ways pollute our environment. We do not care about future as much as we should.
Nov 29 2012: Well, I guess the mathematical calculations are so complex that it would take us huge amounts of time to do them by hand. The calculator can do them faster.
By the way, Charlize, how do you do math when you do it? By yourself, or with calculator?Nov 23 2012: If I had to choose between human or technological solutions, my choice would be made first and foremost from a humanistic and environmental perspective. Only then would the conditions of costs and expenses follow.
My reasons are because technology is in danger of going way beyond its own brief of enhancing our own existence. Technology now exists merely for its own sake.
When it gets to the stage where people have to fantasise and dream about using their own hands, their own brains, their own intuition, having pride in a job, using hard-won skills and having vital human to human contact and contact with the natural world - is the stage where technology really has gone too far.Nov 23 2012: Two words: tech support!
(In case someone doesn't get the facetiousness, I'll add that I *make* technology.)Nov 23 2012: It's interesting how all commenters generally agree that automation is increasing, but still a line is drawn between those who are optimistic about the future and those who are pessimistic. In fact, the same division can be seen in the TED talks themselves:
Nov 23 2012: let's put more weight on the bright side:
Nov 23 2012: Agreed, but people often ask "how?"
Should we say, "We are working on it"..?
In effect, zillions of people including factory workers lose their jobs all over the world.
I wouldn't say it's all because of Technology, but it seems like the people in charge of their employment keep saying, "We wish we could help, but for now, our hands are tied."
I'm also the one who tries to look on the bright side of this issue, however, I happen to have the opinion that there has to be at least a certain way out of this problem.
We'll find a solution, someday maybe. But for now, it's quite vague. Any suggestions?
Nov 23 2012: the labour market is just another market, with the same principles as any other market, namely supply and demand. if we have overproduction of shoes, it is a meaningful question to ask why we produce more shoes than people willing to buy? the same question should be asked about labour. why do we have less demand than supply? changes in the shoe production does not change the fact that the market finds its equilibrium. so changes in the productivity of a person should not change the total demand for labor. then what happened?
what happened is we don't have a free labor market anymore. high taxes, high administration costs, minimum wage, employee "protection" laws, state granted benefits all move the labour market in the direction of reduced demand.Nov 23 2012: True. The inability to see the "unseen" on this particular market, however, wrecks havoc in the whole of the economy like nothing else.Nov 23 2012: This line of optimistic and pessimistic views about the future of human employees seems to rise from the given uncertainty of how and if we will rearrange our econmy to compensate for it.
At the moment, if you are an highly educated and experience specialist at the age of 20 you could not care less about this debate, as it will take years to effect you personally.
On the 'lower end' of unlearned and poorly educated worker the given technology level already is a real threat, and if not technology is the cause, then low income countries are instead.
And even if we would 'produce' only highly educated workers from now on, the question remains if there are enough jobs left for all of them.
As the development in technology will not put itself 'on hold' societies have do re-invent themselves as well to cope with the problems of a high-tech future.
At present I don't really see any effort made on this transformation process, on the contrary, all there is to see is 'protection of vested rights' of an old-fashioned and well nursed, established system. The 'bail out' phenomena of todays history ...Nov 23 2012: I don't think people are blaming technology, they're blaming the way our society and economy deal with automation. If properly utilized automation is a blessing, if not properly utilized it will lead to massive unemployment, or many, many people scrubbing the toilets of rich people with toothbrushes for very, very low wages.
Lawren Jones
Nov 23 2012: I think it's just misplaced class envy. Rich people are only rich if there are employed people spending money on there products and services. The wealthier the middle class is, the more money the upper class makes. No one wants high unemployment, or actively works to cause it.
- +1
Steve C
Nov 23 2012: I think this paradigm, (if that's the right word), has been bypassed by the fiat currency system.
- +1
Now there is no need for working-class people to make any money at all to funnel up to the rich. Money is now electronically zapped-into the wallets of the rich, & then they spend it buying-up the world's resources. Any "money" earned by the poor are buried by the next avalanche of currency.
"Inflation is a result of legalized counterfeiting." ~Chris BridgesNov 30 2012: "Rich people are only rich if there are employed people spending money on there products and services."
This is true today but many rich people don't believe in it and even if they do it wouldn't stop them from not caring about unemployment: if a millionaire can increase his net worth by 50% though increasing unemployment he won't really be bothered by the fact that he and all the other millionaires lose a bit of purchasing power per unit of currency (a 50% increase in net worth more than makes up for it), maybe that will eventually come back to bite his great grand kids in the ass, but that's not his problem when he's long dead.
There may also come a day when the rich don't need middle class consumers anymore. Imagine 1% of the population owning huge automated facilities and massive numbers of robotic drones that mine/harvest 90% of the Earth's natural resources and turn it into toys for their rich masters, people within this 1% will still trade with one another. Meanwhile the other 99% live off the remaining 10% of the Earth's natural resources as subsistence level. The top 1% would then be at 90% of the maximum possible wealth level (after all, you can't consume more than 100% of the Earth's natural resources) and the emergence of a middle class among the remaining 99% would actually make the top 1% less rich (because any middle class would be able to consume more than 10% of the Earth's natural resources with their wages since those wages have to be higher than subsistence level for there to be a middle class).Nov 23 2012: This is our opportunity to escape the SURVIVALIST MENTALITY and develop a money-less world enveloped in the new paradigm and new economy of human heroism:
"No longer should our greatest energies be dedicated to the motive of material survival and creature comfort—the status quo, global condition which seeks to reduce all major human initiatives to the commonest value of money. Corporations are not persons, and unenlightened capitalism is beastly! With the birth of a radically new non-profit movement, we might attain to our next evolutionary step. Let our present society be seen for its shameful and no longer quiet desperation, for Henry David Thoreau long ago called us out. If non-profit organizations would arise to compete alongside for profit businesses, for example, propelled by the best and brightest and most talented of our species (individuals no longer seduced by primitive profiteering), our world would gradually transform into a new Atlantis. "
W. Ying
Nov 22 2012: Yes!
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Technology will certainly eliminate all jobs.
And the social wealth will be distributed equally. People need not to work at all.
Then, people will be happy VALIDLY all their life without worrying about jobs.
And the INVALID happiness from the greed of occupation of more wealth will be a crime.
(For the VALID and INVALID happiness, see the 1st article, points 1.1-3, at https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=D24D89AE8B1E2E0D&id=D24D89AE8B1E2E0D%21283&sc=documents.)Nov 22 2012: Technology has created very dumb and enslaving jobs. It began with agriculture and got worse with the age of industry. So a member of the most outstandingly creative species on this planet can be witnessed to sign a 30 year contract for a job that requires half a dung beetle's brain.
This is the self-perpetrated crime against humanity civilizations are responsible of.
But if technology is the poison, it is also the cure. Boring jobs will eventually disappear. Where I live, it's hard to find a job similar to that of Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. Not just because someone in Bangladesh has it covered, but because brainless tasks have become automated, as they ethically should.
To get rid of dumb jobs you need technology. You need innovation. And this is the future of employment : jobs that contribute to the effort of killing stupid jobs.
ps : everyone on earth was unemployed before the presence of technology. Technology creates jobs, period.
Nov 23 2012: 'ps : everyone on earth was unemployed before the presence of technology. Technology creates jobs, period.'
But this is no answer to the original question. It is not asked if technology creates jobs, it is asked, if this technology which creates jobs is going to 'eliminate the need for human employees'.
Would you share your view on this aspect?
And what do you think about jobs which do not require 'Charlie Chaplin' style 'dumb people' but also those which require high skills, education and creativity?
In chess technology already managed to outrun our human grand masters. And what will happen to employees when the first 'intelligent and creative' robots become available and this at a price of a fraction of long term human employment?
For example, some very high skilled, trained and 'intuitive' people - jetfighter pilots - are becoming already and also in another way an endangered species by Drones.
Any geek would be able to play those 'games' without dealing with any g-forces, stress and fear. And the military is already working on autonomous systems to replace even those geeks at one day.
What do we do with all the people who will, sooner or later, have no alternative jobs to earn their living?
The scope of this questions goes way beyond 'dumb and enslaving jobs' as technology will not stop there and so will the economy...
Nov 23 2012: Don't stop there. What are people, in the end, but bits and pieces of machinery that technology could easily mimick?
What then, when technology allows you to build people?
With everything available all around you for nothing. With machines willing to pick up anything you dropped on the floor, you'd still want to get busy at something. People nowadays might call it recreation, but in the future, people's jobs might be playing videogames with virtual salaries, just useless scores. Or people might work on their TEDcred.
Wealth and employment are drifting away from each other.
Nov 23 2012: 'Wealth and employment are drifting away from each other.'
Yes, but for this I don't even need any advanced technology. What is your opinion on this your statement? Is this ok for you? Do you mind? Could you be affected by it? Are you affected by it already?
What can this 'virtual salarie' buy? Food, clothes, housing, energy? Or just 'upgrade items' for my videogame avatar?
Access to basic needs is wealth to me, what is it in your scenario?
I have no trouble to picture your idea of this 'bright future', what trobles me is the process of transition to finally get there. The current system does not lead to it and it uses technology for its own simple 'greed' mechanism only. So how do you get to your point in time without poverty of the masses, without hunger, starvation and even more wars for resources?
Technology still is our tool, not our master, so how do we use it wisely? Any suggestions?Nov 23 2012: "So how do you get to your point in time without poverty of the masses, without hunger, starvation and even more wars for resources?"
I have access to the same technology, pretty much, as any billionaire. This is because companies like Samsung are greedy. They know that if they find a way to make cell phones cheaper, they'll sell more of them. Someone building cheap solar panels will be rich. He might be environment-concerned, or he might be a capitalist bastard, who cares : the result would be the same.
The current system allows technology to be democratic.
'Wealth and employment are drifting away from each other.'
Yes I think that's a good thing, because wealth-driven employment is not homo-sapiens friendly.
Nov 23 2012: I understand that you have no suggestions. You choose to ignore that cheap products often stem from cheap labour and that those who made them can't affort them. Do you think Apple is successful because their design team is based in California? Or is it China who makes this possible? And how many Chinese assembly line worker do you think have their own i-products?
The current system only seem to allow technology to be democratic, but think globally, look at the whole picture and you may understand what I was trying to make understandable. Well, probably not ...
'... wealth-driven employment is not homo-sapiens friendly' to you, yet you seem to react provoked if someone states that capitalism is driven by greed. Honestly, I don't understand your true thoughts on this, as you are not explaining how a 'homo-sapiens friendly' system would look like to you. Maybe you could share this view in case it differentiate from the 'status quo'.
And no, not any result justify the means. The pollution of this planet is one sign that is doesn't. But on the current wave of ignorance you probably don't care as well.
In this case we then desagree.Nov 23 2012: " those who made them can't affort them."
That's true. But it seems to be on the decline. The gap between rich countries and poor countries is diminishing, everyone knows that. And the cause of this is not philanthropy.
The polution on this planet is only due to expensive and wasteful technology. It's a necessary transition towards a greener (cheaper) way of life.Nov 23 2012: it is the opposite of the truth. in fact, the jobs that gets automatized are the most monotonous, less satisfying, most back breaking jobs. nobody wants them back. nobody wants to plough with an ox or horse, let alone without it. nobody wants to pick fruits by hand. nobody wants to wash clothes in the river. nobody wants to carry around water on their shoulders. machines save us from these awful jobs.
Nov 23 2012: You missed my point, I think, because I agree with everything you say. Let me clarify.
Hunter-gatherers "worked" two days a week, and had the rest of the time off. The back breaking activities you mention came with agriculture. Plows were perhaps supposed to create constant food with little effort, but in the end, people just started to work their asses off, tempted by the wealth their could build. I was suggesting that we might be heading towards a ballance between our biological needs to laze about as much as possible and our limitless appetite for wealth. Hence I expect our descendants to have exciting jobs for a couple days a week, with every dumb task left to machinery. Unemployment would not necessarily result in misery, but people like to have jobs nonetheless.
Nov 23 2012: "Hunter-gatherers "worked" two days a week"
i'm not convinced about that. animals seek food all the time. tribes in abandoned parts of the world too.Nov 23 2012: The hunter-gatherers I've read about are the !Kung San and the Ache, to name a few. They behave as I've described. You can now check
As for other animals, baboons and lions, for instance, only seek food 3 hours a day.
I don't just speculate!
Nov 23 2012: interesting. i wonder what made man abandon leisure, and start to work more when agriculture came about? certainly they had a choice, as they could just opt for doing farming on a lesser scale. maybe that "leisure" was more like unwanted idle time during which they could do nothing to further improve their condition.Nov 23 2012: Why you ask?
I see people all around me who are willing to trade 30 years in a factory for a home with three bedrooms and a shiny car. They could do just fine if they work three times less. So why don't they?
Children in settled tribes spend a lot more time left to themselves, crying, while both parents work their asses off, and play time is replaced with field work and household chores as soon as they can stand. So much for "improving their condition". But people always want more. Right?Nov 22 2012: Technology would not neccesarily increase the rate of unemployment; it creates a demand for new kind of skills, it is an industry on its own which does not cause shortage of labour but metamorphosis of it.
Like Krisztian Pinter has stated, we've had this conversation before.
Nov 22 2012: "Technology would not neccesarily increase the rate of unemployment; it creates a demand for new kind of skills, it is an industry on its own which does not cause shortage of labour but metamorphosis of it."
Wrong. We don't have infinite jobs. The 'invisible hand', which I guess you are referring to, will not simply provide new jobs over night. That is physically impossible.
Nov 22 2012: wrong. we do have infinite jobs.
Nov 22 2012: And because we have them, all unemployed people are lousy beggars, right? Or is it because of the governments? Again? The governments? Maybe there are no unemployed people at all and the whole buzz about it is nothing but another conspiracy theory of those socialists and communists people? Hmm, may be..., may be ... ;o)Nov 22 2012: "wrong. we do have infinite jobs."
When automation progresses faster than general technology (the capacity to make more using the same amount of natural resources), the only ways to keep employment up are lowering of wages and shortening of working hours. Maybe you assumed those things would happen but I'd be very surprised if you did because the free market would never implement them unless it's ordered by to do so by governments (because it's not very profitable to lower the productivity per employee).Nov 23 2012: Yes, we do have. And we will have. But depending on our social statuses, talents, competence, and quite often sociability, we don't get to choose what we want to do at times. Unemployment rate is not just a mere signal. It reflects particular demands of our society and a sign that says, "Society doesn't need your skill anymore." And it goes like, "but however there are plenty of jobs out there so, do what you want. Many many opportunities are waiting for ya."
Is it merely about distributing job opportunities? Or.. maybe because of lack of people's flexibility?
I like your comment here—that's why I gave you a thumbs-up—but despite the way it sounds, telling the unemployed that there are 'Infinite jobs' may sound some kind of sarcasm(even if you don't mean it).
Mats K
Dec 5 2012: Don't confuse infinite tasks/challenges with paid jobs that make a living. Yes, there is always going to be a lot things left to do if we automate the entire service sector tomorrow, but these tasks or challenges will not give sufficient or if any income to the producers or workers as the whole socioeconomic system is set up to fix/repair/service things constantly, not produce abundance, efficiency and sustainability. Why do you think there's nobody in the "air-business" selling clean air? Because there is an abundance of air. There is simply nothing to sell. And we've reached that paradigm in terms of robotics and automation, where we can produce goods and services in such abundance that money (as an exchange for goods) becomes irrelevant.Dec 5 2012: what is a paid job decided solely on the participating people. if i sing you a song, and you in return help me make my room look cool, it is just as valid economic transaction as an exchange of a loaf of bread for a can of peas. we already have a service based economy, industry and agriculture have shrunk in size. there is no need to produce any physical to participate in the economy.
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Apr 22, 2009
NXT 2.0 Box
While at WorldFest, the 2.0 kit box was being shown around... eye catching colors and graphics. Our very own Laurens has his name and a robot he built using the kit's parts featured on the back of the box (a little hard to see in the photo, but in lower middle area of box).
The Betarex (is that the right name?) seems to be an improvement over the Alpharex... but the poor fellow had his new Color Sensor "borrowed" early in the event... fortunately LEGO brought a replacement and he was repaired.
4 comments:
- megamindstorm101 said...
wow image and sound control cool. No more needing to make custom pictures or custom sound with some other program. The robots are great and laurens (the one that looks like johnny 5? or the one under it...both are cool :P) is awsome. I like the new alpha rex and the color sensor is definately an improvemnet from like regular light sensor.
- Apr 22, 2009, 8:15:00 AM
- William said...
I gotta admit, NXTwo is growing on me!
- Apr 24, 2009, 3:42:00 AM
- javapda blog said...
is the brick different from the Intelligent Brick (9841)?
- May 23, 2009, 2:23:00 PM
- Génération Robots said...
How a company such as Lego can do something like that ? There is no more NXT 1.0 available on the market and the NXT 2.0 kit won't be available before september (at least !!). If it was for a really improved robot that make the previous one unsaleable, I could have understood but as you said, there nothing revolutionary in the NXT 2.0 kit.
Lego won't be the Apple of the robotics for sure...
- Jun 5, 2009, 12:21:00 AM


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Each carbon atom must have 4 bonds (either C-H or C-C bonds), and each hydrogen atom must be joined to a carbon atom (H-C bonds). A series of linked carbon atoms is known as the carbon skeleton or carbon backbone. In general, the number of carbon atoms is often used to define the size of the alkane (e.g., C2-alkane).
An alkyl group is a functional group or side-chain that, like an alkane, consists solely of singly-bonded carbon and hydrogen atoms, for example a methyl or ethyl group.
Saturated hydrocarbons can be linear (general formula CnH2n+2) wherein the carbon atoms are joined in a snake-like structure, branched (general formula CnH2n+2, n>3) wherein the carbon backbone splits off in one or more directions, or cyclic (general formula CnH2n, n>2) wherein the carbon backbone is linked so as to form a loop. According to the definition by IUPAC, the former two are alkanes, whereas the third group is called cycloalkanes. In other words, saturated hydrocarbons are divided into alkanes and cycloalkanes, depending on whether or not they have cyclic structures, and, in the technical sense, cycloalkanes are not alkanes. However, cycloalkanes are sometimes called cyclic alkanes, which can be confusing when "real" alkanes are called acyclic alkanes. Saturated hydrocarbons can also combine any of the linear, cyclic (e.g., polycyclic) and branching structures, and they are still alkanes (no general formula) as long as they are acyclic (i.e., having no loops).
The simplest possible alkane (the parent molecule) is methane, CH4. There is no limit to the number of carbon atoms that can be linked together, the only limitation being that the molecule is acyclic, is saturated, and is a hydrocarbon. Saturated oils and waxes are examples of larger alkanes where the number of carbons in the carbon backbone tends to be greater than 10.
Alkanes are not very reactive and have little biological activity. Alkanes can be viewed as a molecular scaffold upon which can be hung the interesting biologically-active/reactive portions (functional groups) of the molecule.
Alkanes with more than three carbon atoms can be arranged in a multiple number of ways, forming different structural isomers. An isomer is like a chemical anagram, in which the atoms of a chemical compound are arranged or joined together in a different order. The simplest isomer of an alkane is the one in which the carbon atoms are arranged in a single chain with no branches. This isomer is sometimes called the n-isomer (n for "normal", although it is not necessarily the most common). However the chain of carbon atoms may also be branched at one or more points. The number of possible isomers increases rapidly with the number of carbon atoms . For example:
In addition to these isomers, the chain of carbon atoms may form one or more loops. Such compounds are called cycloalkanes.
August Wilhelm von Hofmann suggested systematizing nomenclature by using the whole sequence of vowels a, e, i, o and u to create suffixes -ane, -ene, -ine (or -yne), -one, -une, for the hydrocarbons. The first three name hydrocarbons with single, double and triple bonds; "-one" represents a ketone; "-ol" represents an alcohol or OH group; "-oxy-" means an ether and refers to oxygen between two carbons, so that methoxy-methane is the IUPAC name for dimethyl ether.
It is difficult or impossible to find compounds with more than one IUPAC name. This is because shorter chains attached to longer chains are prefixes and the convention includes brackets. Numbers in the name, referring to which carbon a group is attached to, should be as low as possible, so that 1- is implied and usually omitted from names of organic compounds with only one side-group; "1-" is implied in Nitro-octane. Symmetric compounds will have two ways of arriving at the same name.
The first four members of the series (in terms of number of carbon atoms) are named as follows:
Simple branched alkanes often have a common name using a prefix to distinguish them from linear alkanes, for example n-pentane, isopentane, and neopentane.
IUPAC naming conventions can be used to produce a systematic name.
The key steps in the naming of more complicated branched alkanes are as follows:
|Common name
|IUPAC name
So-called cyclic alkanes are, in the technical sense, not alkanes, but cycloalkanes. They are hydrocarbons just like alkanes, but contain one or more rings.
Simple cycloalkanes have a prefix "cyclo-" to distinguish them from alkanes. Cycloalkanes are named as per their acyclic counterparts with respect to the number of carbon atoms, e.g., cyclopentane (C5H10) is a cycloalkane with 5 carbon atoms just like pentane (C5H12), but they are joined up in a five-membered ring. In a similar manner, propane and cyclopropane, butane and cyclobutane, etc.
Substituted cycloalkanes are named similar to substituted alkanes — the cycloalkane ring is stated, and the substituents are according to their position on the ring, with the numbering decided by Cahn-Ingold-Prelog rules.
It is almost certain that the term paraffin stems from the petrochemical industry. Branched-chain alkanes are called isoparaffins. The use of the term "paraffin" is a general term and often does not distinguish between a pure compounds and mixtures of isomers with the same chemical formula (i.e., like a chemical anagram), e.g., pentane and isopentane.Examples The following trivial names are retained in the IUPAC system:
Alkanes form a significant portion of the atmospheres of the outer gas planets such as Jupiter (0.1% methane, 0.0002% ethane), Saturn (0.2% methane, 0.0005% ethane), Uranus (1.99% methane, 0.00025% ethane) and Neptune (1.5% methane, 1.5 ppm ethane). Titan (1.6% methane), a satellite of Saturn, was examined by the Huygens probe, which indicate that Titan's atmosphere periodically rains liquid methane onto the moon's surface. Also on Titan, a methane-spewing volcano was spotted and this volcanism is believed to be a significant source of the methane in the atmosphere. There also appear to be Methane/Ethane lakes near the north polar regions of Titan, as discovered by Cassini's radar imaging. Methane and ethane have also been detected in the tail of the comet Hyakutake. Chemical analysis showed that the abundances of ethane and methane were roughly equal, which is thought to imply that its ices formed in interstellar space, away from the Sun, which would have evaporated these volatile molecules. Alkanes have also been detected in meteorites such as carbonaceous chondrites.
The most important commercial sources for alkanes are natural gas and oil. Natural gas contains primarily methane and ethane, with some propane and butane: oil is a mixture of liquid alkanes and other hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons were formed when dead marine animals and plants (zooplankton and phytoplankton) died and sank to the bottom of ancient seas and were covered with sediments in an anoxic environment and converted over many millions of years at high temperatures and high pressure to their current form. Natural gas resulted thereby for example from the following reaction:
These hydrocarbons collected in porous rocks, located beneath an impermeable cap rock and so are trapped. Unlike methane, which is constantly reformed in large quantities, higher alkanes (alkanes with 9 or more carbon atoms) rarely develop to a considerable extent in nature. These deposits, e.g., oil fields, have formed over millions of years and once exhausted cannot be readily replaced. The depletion of these hydrocarbons is the basis for what is known as the energy crisis.
Solid alkanes are known as tars and are formed when more volatile alkanes such as gases and oil evaporate from hydrocarbon deposits. One of the largest natural deposits of solid alkanes is in the asphalt lake known as the Pitch Lake in Trinidad and Tobago.
Methane is also present in what is called biogas, produced by animals and decaying matter, which is a possible renewable energy source.
Alkanes have a low solubility in water, so the content in the oceans is negligible; however, at high pressures and low temperatures (such as at the bottom of the oceans), methane can co-crystallize with water to form a solid methane hydrate. Although this cannot be commercially exploited at the present time, the amount of combustible energy of the known methane hydrate fields exceeds the energy content of all the natural gas and oil deposits put together;methane extracted from methane hydrate is considered therefore a candidate for future fuels.
Certain types of bacteria can metabolise alkanes: they prefer even-numbered carbon chains as they are easier to degrade than odd-numbered chains.
On the other hand, certain archaea, the methanogens, produce large quantities of methane by the metabolism of carbon dioxide or other oxidised organic compounds. The energy is released by the oxidation of hydrogen:
Methanogens are also the producers of marsh gas in wetlands, and release about two billion tonnes of methane per year—the atmospheric content of this gas is produced nearly exclusively by them. The methane output of cattle and other herbivores, which can release up to 150 litres per day, and of termites, is also due to methanogens. They also produce this simplest of all alkanes in the intestines of humans. Methanogenic archaea are, hence, at the end of the carbon cycle, with carbon being released back into the atmosphere after having been fixed by photosynthesis. It is probable that our current deposits of natural gas were formed in a similar way.Fungi and plants
Alkanes also play a role, if a minor role, in the biology of the three eukaryotic groups of organisms: fungi, plants and animals. Some specialised yeasts, e.g., Candida tropicale, Pichia sp., Rhodotorula sp., can use alkanes as a source of carbon and/or energy. The fungus Amorphotheca resinae prefers the longer-chain alkanes in aviation fuel, and can cause serious problems for aircraft in tropical regions.
In plants, it is the solid long-chain alkanes that are found; they form a firm layer of wax, the cuticle, over areas of the plant exposed to the air. This protects the plant against water loss, while preventing the leaching of important minerals by the rain. It is also a protection against bacteria, fungi, and harmful insects—the latter sink with their legs into the soft waxlike substance and have difficulty moving. The shining layer on fruits such as apples consists of long-chain alkanes. The carbon chains are usually between twenty and thirty carbon atoms in length and are made by the plants from fatty acids. The exact composition of the layer of wax is not only species-dependent, but changes also with the season and such environmental factors as lighting conditions, temperature or humidity.Animals Alkanes are found in animal products, although they are less important than unsaturated hydrocarbons. One example is the shark liver oil, which is approximately 14% pristane (2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane, C19H40). Their occurrence is more important in pheromones, chemical messenger materials, on which above all insects are dependent for communication. With some kinds, as the support beetle Xylotrechus colonus, primarily pentacosane (C25H52), 3-methylpentaicosane (C26H54) and 9-methylpentaicosane (C26H54), they are transferred by body contact. With others like the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans morsitans, the pheromone contains the four alkanes 2-methylheptadecane (C18H38), 17,21-dimethylheptatriacontane (C39H80), 15,19-dimethylheptatriacontane (C39H80) and 15,19,23-trimethylheptatriacontane (C40H82), and acts by smell over longer distances, a useful characteristic for pest control.
One example, in which both plant and animal alkanes play a role, is the ecological relationship between the sand bee (Andrena nigroaenea) and the early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes); the latter is dependent for pollination on the former. Sand bees use pheromones in order to identify a mate; in the case of A. nigroaenea, the females emit a mixture of tricosane (C23H48), pentacosane (C25H52) and heptacosane (C27H56) in the ratio 3:3:1, and males are attracted by specifically this odour. The orchid takes advantage of this mating arrangement to get the male bee to collect and disseminate its pollen; parts of its flower not only resemble the appearance of sand bees, but also produce large quantities of the three alkanes in the same ratio as female sand bees. As a result numerous males are lured to the blooms and attempt to copulate with their imaginary partner: although this endeavour is not crowned with success for the bee, it allows the orchid to transfer its pollen, which will be dispersed after the departure of the frustrated male to different blooms.
As stated earlier, the most important source of alkanes is natural gas and crude oil. Alkanes are separated in an oil refinery by fractional distillation and processed into many different products
However, at times it may be desirable to make a portion of a molecule into an alkane like functionality (alkyl group) using the above or similar methods. For example, an ethyl group is an alkyl group; when this is attached to a hydroxy group, it gives ethanol, which is not an alkane. To do so, the best-known methods are hydrogenation of alkenes:
Alkanes or alkyl groups can also be prepared directly from alkyl halides in the Corey-House-Posner-Whitesides reaction. The Barton-McCombie deoxygenation removes hydroxyl groups from alcohols e.g.
and the Clemmensen reduction removes carbonyl groups from aldehydes and ketones to form alkanes or alkyl-substituted compounds e.g.:
Propane and butane can be liquefied at fairly low pressures, and are well known as liquified petroleum gas (LPG). Propane, for example, is used in the propane gas burner, butane in disposable cigarette lighters. The two alkanes are used as propellants in aerosol sprays.
From pentane to octane the alkanes are reasonably volatile liquids. They are used as fuels in internal combustion engines, as they vaporise easily on entry into the combustion chamber without forming droplets, which would impair the uniformity of the combustion. Branched-chain alkanes are preferred, as they are much less prone to premature ignition, which causes knocking than their straight-chain homologue. This propensity to premature ignition is measured by the octane rating of the fuel, where 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (isooctane) has an arbitrary value of 100, and heptane has a value of zero. Apart from their use as fuels, the middle alkanes are also good solvents for nonpolar substances.
Alkanes from nonane to, for instance, hexadecane (an alkane with sixteen carbon atoms) are liquids of higher viscosity, less and less suitable for use in gasoline. They form instead the major part of diesel and aviation fuel. Diesel fuels are characterised by their cetane number, cetane being an old name for hexadecane. However, the higher melting points of these alkanes can cause problems at low temperatures and in polar regions, where the fuel becomes too thick to flow correctly.
Alkanes from hexadecane upwards form the most important components of fuel oil and lubricating oil. In latter function, they work at the same time as anti-corrosive agents, as their hydrophobic nature means that water cannot reach the metal surface. Many solid alkanes find use as paraffin wax, for example, in candles. This should not be confused however with true wax, which consists primarily of esters.
Alkanes with a chain length of approximately 35 or more carbon atoms are found in bitumen, used, for example, in road surfacing. However, the higher alkanes have little value and are usually split into lower alkanes by cracking.
Some synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene are alkanes with chains containing hundreds of thousands of carbon atoms. These materials are used in innumerable applications, and billions of kilograms of these materials are made and used each year.
Alkanes experience inter-molecular van der Waals forces. Stronger inter-molecular van der Waals forces give rise to greater boiling points of alkanes.
There are two determinants for the strength of the van der Waals forces:
Under standard conditions, from CH4 to C4H10 alkanes are gaseous; from C5H12 to C17H36 they are liquids; and after C18H38 they are solids. As the boiling point of alkanes is primarily determined by weight, it should not be a surprise that the boiling point has almost a linear relationship with the size (molecular weight) of the molecule. As a rule of thumb, the boiling point rises 20 - 30 °C for each carbon added to the chain; this rule applies to other homologous series.
A straight-chain alkane will have a boiling point higher than a branched-chain alkane due to the greater surface area in contact, thus the greater van der Waals forces, between adjacent molecules. For example, compare isobutane and n-butane, which boil at -12 and 0 °C, and 2,2-dimethylbutane and 2,3-dimethylbutane which boil at 50 and 58 °C, respectively. For the latter case, two molecules 2,3-dimethylbutane can "lock" into each other better than the cross-shaped 2,2-dimethylbutane, hence the greater van der Waals forces.
On the other hand, cycloalkanes tend to have higher boiling points than their linear counterparts due to the locked conformations of the molecules, which give a plane of intermolecular contact.
The melting points of branched-chain alkanes can be either higher or lower than those of the corresponding straight-chain alkanes, again depending on the ability of the alkane in question to packing well in the solid phase: This is particularly true for isoalkanes (2-methyl isomers), which often have melting points higher than those of the linear analogues.
Their solubility in nonpolar solvents is relatively good, a property that is called lipophilicity. Different alkanes are, for example, miscible in all proportions among themselves.
The density of the alkanes usually increases with increasing number of carbon atoms, but remains less than that of water. Hence, alkanes form the upper layer in an alkane-water mixture.
The molecular structure of the alkanes directly affects their physical and chemical characteristics. It is derived from the electron configuration of carbon, which has four valence electrons. The carbon atoms in alkanes are always sp3 hybridised, that is to say that the valence electrons are said to be in four equivalent orbitals derived from the combination of the 2s orbital and the three 2p orbitals. These orbitals, which have identical energies, are arranged spatially in the form of a tetrahedron, the angle of cos−1(−⅓) ≈ 109.47° between them.
The spatial arrangement of the bonds is similar to that of the four sp³-orbitals—they are tetrahedrally arranged, with an angle of 109.47° between them. Structural formulae that represent the bonds as being at right angles to one another, while both common and useful, do not correspond with the reality.
The structural formula and the bond angles are not usually sufficient to completely describe the geometry of a molecule. There is a further degree of freedom for each carbon – carbon bond: the torsion angle between the atoms or groups bound to the atoms at each end of the bond. The spatial arrangement described by the torsion angles of the molecule is known as its conformation.
Ethane forms the simplest case for studying the conformation of alkanes, as there is only one C – C bond. If one looks down the axis of the C – C bond, one will see the so-called Newman projection. The hydrogen atoms on both the front and rear carbon atoms have an angle of 120° between them, resulting from the projection of the base of the tetrahedron onto a flat plane. However, the torsion angle between a given hydrogen atom attached to the front carbon and a given hydrogen atom attached to the rear carbon can vary freely between 0° and 360°. This is a consequence of the free rotation about a carbon – carbon single bond. Despite this apparent freedom, only two limiting conformations are important: eclipsed conformation and staggered conformation.
The two conformations, also known as rotamers, differ in energy: The staggered conformation is 12.6 kJ/mol lower in energy (more stable) than the eclipsed conformation (the least stable).
This difference in energy between the two conformations, known as the torsion energy, is low compared to the thermal energy of an ethane molecule at ambient temperature. There is constant rotation about the C-C bond. The time taken for an ethane molecule to pass from one staggered conformation to the next, equivalent to the rotation of one CH3-group by 120° relative to the other, is of the order of 10−11 seconds.
The case of higher alkanes is more complex but based on similar principles, with the antiperiplanar conformation always being the most favoured around each carbon-carbon bond. For this reason, alkanes are usually shown in a zigzag arrangement in diagrams or in models. The actual structure will always differ somewhat from these idealised forms, as the differences in energy between the conformations are small compared to the thermal energy of the molecules: Alkane molecules have no fixed structural form, whatever the models may suggest.
|Density/g cm -3(20oC)
They react only very poorly with ionic or other polar substances. The acid dissociation constant (pKa) values of all alkanes are above 60, hence they are practically inert to acids and bases (see: carbon acids). This inertness is the source of the term paraffins (with the meaning here of "lacking affinity"). In crude oil the alkane molecules have remained chemically unchanged for millions of years.
However redox reactions of alkanes, in particular with oxygen and the halogens, are possible as the carbon atoms are in a strongly-reduced condition; in the case of methane, the lowest possible oxidation state for carbon (−4) is reached. Reaction with oxygen leads to combustion without any smoke; with halogens, substitution. In addition, alkanes have been shown to interact with, and bind to, certain transition metal complexes in (See: carbon-hydrogen bond activation).
Free radicals, molecules with unpaired electrons, play a large role in most reactions of alkanes, such as cracking and reformation where long-chain alkanes are converted into shorter-chain alkanes and straight-chain alkanes into branched-chain isomers.
In highly-branched alkanes, the bond angle may differ significantly from the optimal value (109.5°) in order to allow the different groups sufficient space. This causes a tension in the molecule, known as steric hindrance, and can substantially increase the reactivity.
for example methane:
See the alkane heat of formation table for detailed data.
The standard enthalpy change of combustion, ΔcH
o, for alkanes increases by about 650 kJ/mol per CH2 group. Branched-chain alkanes have lower values of ΔcH o than straight-chain alkanes of the same number of carbon atoms, and so can be seen to be somewhat more stable.
These reactions are an important industrial route to halogenated hydrocarbons. There are three steps:
Experiments have shown that all halogenation produces a mixture of all possible isomers, indicating that all hydrogen atoms are susceptible to reaction. The mixture produced, however, is not a statistical mixture: Secondary and tertiary hydrogen atoms are preferentially replaced due to the greater stability of secondary and tertiary free-radicals. An example can be seen in the monobromination of propane:


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Found 13 Items Tagged "sexy"
The Boa and their neighbors, the Lega, carve spoons of elephant ivory and bone. Among the Lega, these are not used for eating but as emblems...
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Tourism and Hospitality
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Tourism as a Service Industry
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A teacher explains that tourism covers a number of tangible and intangible aspects.
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A Time Away from Home
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A woman explains what tourism means and enumerates its five essential aspects.
Source: Garnet Education
Key Learning Points
- describing a process
- giving examples
Travel Broadens the Mind
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The speaker enumerates some advantages of going to other places for fun.
Key Learning Points
- stating advantages
- offering options
Why Tourists Travel
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Travelers want to experience a change in their daily routine in a safe, secure and welcoming place.
Source: Garnet Education
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"Somewhere" is a witty, moving, and empathetic look into the orbit of actor Johnny Marco. You have probably seen him in the tabloids; Johnny is living at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. He has a Ferrari to drive around in, and a constant stream of girls and pills to stay in with. Comfortably numbed, Johnny drifts along. Then, his 11-year-old daughter Cleo from his failed marriage arrives unexpectedly at the Chateau. Their encounters encourage Johnny to face up to where he is in life and confront the question that we all must: which path in life will you take?
Rated R for sexual content, nudity and language.
Visit the official site
Cast: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio del Toro, Laura Ramsey, Robert Schwartzman
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Directed by: Sofia Coppola
Written by: Sofia Coppola
Running time: 1hr 38min
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BBQ Pro Shop carries a wide variety of Barbecue sauces from famous pitmasters, competition cooks and gourmet chefs. Our BBQ sauce selection includes gluten-free barbecue sauces, BBQ Sauces that do not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup and are also low in sodium. We carry Hot BBQ Sauces as well as fruit based BBQ sauces and a number of unique, micro batch Barbecue sauces. Our selection of Barbecue sauce contains main of the five start rated sauces from Barbecue Sauce Reviews and we pride ourselves on being your one stop shop for all of the sauces you will love. We carry 17th Street BBQ, Plowboys, Willingham's, Killer Hogs, Big Butz, Rooftop Competition Sauce, Smoque and Peg Leg Porker sauce.
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Adapted from a recipe on Drinksmixer.com
1 1/2 oz Koval rye whiskey1/4 oz Heering® cherry liqueur1 oz lemon juice1/4 oz sugar syrup5 oz soda
Shake rye whiskey, Cherry Heering, sugar syrup and lemon juice well over ice cubes in a shaker. Strain into a tall glass over ice cubes, fill with soda, garnish with a cherry, and serve.
Recipe: kosher, spirits


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Prams, Pushchairs & Baby Equipment at great prices.
Babys-Mart has been helping parents since 2001, one of the oldest online baby stores in the UK. We pride ourselves in offering the best selection of pushchairs and prams for your baby. We have carefully chosen brands that you can trust that not only offer great value, but will offer years of happy parenting. All our fully trained staff are on hand to offer advice on your choice of pram, pushchair or travel system we also have specialists available for advice on baby car seats from leading safety specialists Britax, Maxi-Cosi and Recaro. Our online catalogue changes frequently with new offers added every month, so be sure to check our special offers page for great deals.
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Happy Birthday, Hermione Granger
Sep 18, 2009
Posted by EdwardTLC
As it is now September 19th in the UK, the calendar on J. K. Rowling's official website has been updated to wish Hermione Granger a happy birthday. Please join us here at TLC in celebrating the birth date of this most marvelous character! Cheers to you, Hermione!


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Regular meetups are held in the bay area – see the Facebook page and the Meetup.com page. There is also a New York meetup group (see the Facebook page) and more coming soon.
If you'd like to start a new meetup group, please sign up as a seasteading ambassador and contact us.
January 2011 – March 2013
The Seasteading Institute joined Reason Magazine on a a seven-day Caribbean cruise aboard the Solstice, Celebrity Cruises' beautiful luxury liner. Featured speakers included executive director Patri Friedman, author Matt Ridley, and Reason writers Nick Gillespie and Ronald Bailey.
The Future of Free Cities Conference took place on the tropical island of Roatán in Honduras. This event brought together leaders from different fields and countries for a series of high-level discussions about free cities–how they can emerge, and how they can lead to a better world.
Michael Keenan presented seasteading to an eclectic group of futurists, activists and counter-culturalists at the Extreme Futurist Fest in Los Angeles, focusing on why the world needs a new startup sector for governance.
Michael Keenan will present seasteading at the Dipsea Cafe in Mill Valley, California, at 4pm. He will be making the case for working to establish new countries in international waters as a viable and necessary supplement to engaging in traditional political activism. He will also talk about the the ways that remaining challenges related to homesteading the high seas are being broken down into incremental, realistic goals.
Michael Keenan will present seasteading to the UC Berkeley SFL group at 7pm in 87 Evans Hall. He will inform students on opportunities to further our mission while simultaneously satisfying graduation requirements. We recently launched a new "Students" section of our website that shows students how to craft research proposals and navigate their schools' independent study requirements, to enable them to tackle practical questions facing early seasteading ventures in exchange for school credit.
Following Peter Thiel's keynote address on February 17th, Michael Keenan promoted our new volunteer research program for students to the largest gathering of young liberty activists ever held.
The Seasteading Institute is sponsoring the 2012 BIL conference, a community-sponsored event featuring talks by some of the most interesting figures from a wide variety of fields, including technology, D.I.Y biology, life extension, social change and open hardware hacking. The event will be held on the historic Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, and will be open to the public.
Patri Friedman, founder and chairman of The Seasteading Institute, will talk at TEDxSF – Big Blue.
A landmark event featuring the vanguards of the seasteading movement. Network with fellow entrepreneurs, ocean law experts, maritime professionals, industrial leaders, investors, and seasteading enthusiasts for two days of cutting-edge presentations. Enjoy catered meals and refreshments throughout the day at the luxurious Le Méridien Hotel in San Francisco's financial district. Show your support for The Seasteading Institute by participating in an exclusive dinner at historic Forbes Island, a 700 ton floating island complete with palm trees, waterfall and lighthouse. Close the weekend out in style with a sunset dinner cruise around the San Francisco Bay.
For more information and to register, visit the main conference page.
The Seasteading Institute will be attending this year's Ephemerisle.
Ephemerisle is a floating festival on the Sacramento Delta originally started by The Seasteading Institute, and now crowd-sourced and community operated independently of the Institute. Last year 300-400 people passed through the festival over the course of the weekend. Participants are encouraged to "bring their own land," which means arrive on a houseboat, sailboat, raft, or other structure that provides a floating home for the course of the event. We hope attendees of The Seasteading Conference will spend the following weekend with us celebrating in a temporary floating village. More information about how to participate can be found on Ephemerisle's Wiki page and Facebook pages.
The Seasteading Institute will be tabling all afternoon at the 15th Annual Progressive Festival, on July 22 at Walnut Park, in Petaluma, CA.
More information can be found at www.progressivefestival.org.
The event is produced by the Petaluma Progressives and is cosponsored by KPFA 94.1 FM (kpfa.org), the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, The Bohemian (bohemian.com) and the Committee for Immigrant Rights (immigrantrightssonoma.org), Sonoma County (peaceandjusticesonomaco.org). It takes place at Walnut Park, Petaluma Blvd South and D Street, downtown Petaluma. It is free to the public.
Confirmed Speakers:
MEDEA BENJAMIN – co-founder of Code Pink and Global Exchange
WILL DURST – Political comedian extraordinaire
CON. LYNN WOOLSEY – retiring co-chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.
DAVID COBB – spokesperson for the Move To Amend campaign
C. J. HOLMES – spokesperson for the movement to stop home foreclosures
NORMAN SOLOMON – activist, author, media expert
MICKEY HUFF – director of Project Censored
Also speakers on immigrant rights, the Occupy movement, and more.
We hope to see you there!
This event is now filled to capacity!
This event is being hosted by our board member, John Chisholm, and will be attended by numerous seasteaders.
Dr. Barbara Kolm, Executive Director, Austrian Economic Center & President, Hayek Institute, will be speaking at the Infinity Lounge in San Francisco on advancing the work of Nobel Laureate Friedrich von Hayek and others who represent the free-market economic thinking of the Austrian School of Economics.
Check out the website at www.austriancenter.com.
To honor Milton Friedman's 100th birthday and his vision, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, The Millennium Project and Economic Thinking bring together several experts to share their perspectives on the ideas of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG8oAJaVgfY&feature=youtu.be
7:30 – 8:00 pm: Registration
8:00 – 8:20 pm: Videos with Milton Friedman, David Friedman and Patri Friedman
8:20 – 8:30 pm: Gregory Rehmke, Economic Thinking
8:30 – 8:40 pm: John Chisholm, MIT Club of Northern California
8:40 – 8:50 pm: Linda MacDonald Glenn, Albany Medical Center
8:50 – 9:00 pm: Christine Peterson, Foresight Institute
9:00 – 9:20 pm: Jose Cordeiro, The Millennium Project
9:20 – 9:40 pm: Vernor Vinge, "Creator" of the "Technological Singularity"
9:40 – 10:00pm: Q&A
10:00 – 11:00pm: Champagne and Orange Reception
Gregory Rehmke
Program Director for Economic Thinking (Seattle, Washington)
John Chisholm
MIT Club of Northern California, President (San Francisco, California)
Linda MacDonald Glenn
Albany Medical Center, Faculty (Burlington, Vermont)
Christine Peterson
Foresight Institute, Co-Founder (Palo Alto, California)
Jose Cordeiro
The Millennium Project, Venezuela Director (Caracas, Venezuela)
Vernor Vinge
Writer, Creator of the idea of the "Technological Singularity" (San Diego, California)
NASA Research Park, Building 152 (behind Building 583C)
Moffett Field (between Bailey and Dailey Roads)
Mountain View, Silicon Valley, CA 94035
Map: http://kepler.nasa.gov/images/AmesMap.jpg
Seasteading Author Joe Quirk will deliver a speech at Burning Man's Tedx: "How Ocean Cities will Save the Environment, Cure Diseases, Feed the World, and Jettison Millions Out of Poverty"
The 2012 TEDxBRC theme will be "PRO:CREATION" (see Theme) and will revolve around the nature and possibilities of Creativity. TEDxBlackRockCity will take place on August 30, 2012 at 1PM, located at Play)A(Skool —9:45 & Esplanade.
Joe Quirk is a bestselling novelist and bestselling science writer. Joe is co-writing a book with Patri Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman, called Seasteading: How ocean cities will save the environment, cure diseases, feed the world and jettison millions out of poverty.
Global warming. Overfishing. Food shortages. Fresh water depletion. Peak oil. Resource wars. Poverty. Health care crisis. Government gridlock.
Nine entrepreneurs plan to solve these nine global problems by building sustainable cities on the ocean. Inspired by Burning Man, Patri Friedman proposed "seasteads," where ocean pioneers will be free to experiment with new societies. His idea has stirred a tsunami of marine biologists, nautical engineers, maritime lawyers, and a billionaire to make Patri's vision a reality.
Neil Sims, fisheries biologist, is transforming carbon pollution into sashimi-grade fish. Ricardo Radulovich, marine agriculturalist, plans to feed billions with seaweed and give farmland back to the songbirds. Lissa Morganthaler-Jones, a biotech entrepreneur, plans to replace oil with pond scum to end Middle East wars. Michael Strong, education entrepreneur, plans to jettison millions out poverty with "a thousand floating Hong Kongs."
Seasteading Enthusiast Steven Fowkes is opening his home for our this San Francisco Bay area meetup. Please visit the meetup page to RSVP.
Steven Fowkes address is 22560 Poppy Drive, Cupertino, CA.
This gathering will be held outdoors, so bring layers in case the temp drops in the evening.
Chef Joni will create a simple gourmet meal, served buffet style. A plate of food costs $15 per person, which should compare to the cost at a restaurant. If you have food issues, send them to Steve (email@example.com). The entree will be chicken and there will be plenty of veggies.
The house is three minutes from the Highway 85 Interstate 280 interchange. Exit off 280 at Foothill (the first exit north of 85). If you are coming north on 85, take the 280N exit, stay in the rightmost lane and immediately exit onto Foothill. Turn left at the light. If you are coming north on 280, watch the merge! The Foothill exit is very close to 85 and there is only 99.44 feet to make the merge for the Foothill exit.
There is a waterfall-creek feature next to the patio which makes a great place to hang out and talk. The creek will be running by 6:00 PM, if you get there early.
Ambassador Matt Pritchard of The Seasteading Institute will be featured at the NYU College Libertarian at their third meeting of 2012:
We often hear people gripe about government and society in general. Often times these sort of conversations begin with the words, "If only we could…"
In Pritchard's case, it might begin, "If only we could create floating micronations on the open sea." Wait, what? Yes. You read that correctly. The Seasteading Institute aims to establish floating cities which will give people the opportunity to peacefully test new ideas about how to live together, the most successful becoming thriving societies that might provide cues to the rest of the world.
Intrigued? Then stop by on Tuesday to hear more from the man himself, and while you wait on the edge of your seat for the date to near, try to imagine how nice a floating Libertarian society would be.
On October 29, Miguel Lamas Pardo will be presenting his PhD dissertation, "Establishing Offshore Autonomous Communities: Current Choices and Their Proposed Evolution," at the University Francisco Marroquin (UFM), a leading South American educational institution located in Guatemala. UFM is known as a leading light promoting free thought and free societies. They have awarded Honorary Doctoral Degrees to distinguished proponents of liberty including Institute co-founder, Peter Thiel, and Nobel Prize winning economists Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, James Buchanan and Vernon Smith. UFM places a heavy emphasis on public choice theory, a line of thought that heavily influenced the intellectual foundation of seasteading and related enterprises. Miguel's dissertation builds on this foundation and explores the practical possibilities for seasteading. The piece was translated into English last year, and can be downloaded on our engineering research page.
Listen to stream on your browser here.
Join Students For Liberty at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, November 3 for the 2012 Students For Liberty Northern California Regional Conference. Berkeley is home to one of the strongest pro-liberty student groups in the country and the UC Berkeley Students For Liberty are proud to welcome students from across California to the home of the free speech movement for one incredible event celebrating liberty.
Several members of the seasteading community recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to support the Voice & Exit event in Austin, TX, to be held on Saturday, March 9, 2013 (in parallel with the SXSW interactive conference). The event is designed to bring people together in celebration of big ideas, social entrepreneurship and radical community formation. Speakers will include Max Marty, CEO of the seasteading startup Blueseed, along with Institute board member Michael Strong, Reason Magazine Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, and many more. Each of the speakers will highlight a different vision for using innovative social technologies and persuasion, rather than coercive institutions, to move toward more collaborative communities.
From the campaign homepage:
We know that people are individuals with unique visions to share. But forming community means finding common values. Within a diverse range of communities, individuals will be able to seek out environments they believe best contribute to their thriving. In a world with so many different possible forms of association, everyone will need both the right to voice her opinion and the right to exit if a community isn't working for her. So we ask: What if humanity placed higher value on the rights of voice and exit? What would the world look like? We think it would be a world of continuous innovation – a world in which people "criticize by creating." This is what Voice & Exit is all about.
Those who are interested can contribute to the inaugural event, or contact the campaign organizers at email@example.com.


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This competition, in which Iowa's Governor exhibits an animal, gives proceeds to The Ronald McDonald House.
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http://ravenblackwings.proboards.com/in ... 143&page=1
link to a story my friend and i have been writing, my character is based on Sam Vimes, but her's is just random. it's meant to be set in somewhere similar to the discworld. PTerry style is not really tried, he's just too great to try and copy xD my username there is moonwing, my friends is ravenheart
Read and review? critique? would be muchly appreciated. By the way, it's very much unfinished


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Want to join EWN's original e-fed? Join EWNCW NOW!Want details? Just ask me!
"For the Druids' legends are true..."
Kaige Chamberlain
Ballad of an Asshole
Former RTE Tag-Team Champion(w/ Xavier Hightower[1])
Current EWNCW Tag-Team Champion (Solo; 3/30/14) [1]'Father' Black Angel:
Preacher of the Voices
Winner of BotN[Seraphim]
I'm trying to be number one, why would I settle?
@IWACreative_Parody Tweeter


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Top Searches:
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July 22, 2013
Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest at Museum of Glass
Wsu Master Gardeners of Pierce County at Master Gardener of Pierce County
The Shape of Things by Neil Labute at Dukesbay Theater
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Karim works at an ostrich farm outside of Tehran, Iran. He leads a simple and contented life with his family in his small house, until one day one of the ostriches runs away. Karim is blamed for the loss and is fired from the farm. Soon after, he travels to the city in order to repair his elder daughter's hearing aid but finds himself mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver. Thus begins his new profession: ferrying people and goods through heavy traffic. But the people and material goods that he deals with daily starts to transform Karim's generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished.
Rated PG for brief mild language.
Visit the official site
Cast: Shabnam Aklaghi, Maryam Akbari, Hamed Aghazi, Kamran Dehghan, Reza Naji
Produced by: Majid Majidi
Directed by: Majid Majidi
Written by: Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani
Running time: 1hr 36min
Opens: Apr 03, 2009 NY/LA


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Tinea Versicolor Center - Corpus Christi, TX
Corpus Christi Dermatologist Doctors for Tinea Versicolor
Type of Physician: Dermatologist
What is a Dermatologist?
A certification by the Board of Dermatology; practitioners treat pediatric and adult patients with disorders of the skin, mouth, hair and nails as well as a number of sexually transmitted diseases. They also have expertise in the care of normal skin, the prevention of skin diseases and cancers, and in the management of cosmetic disorders of the skin such as hair loss and scars.
Specialty: Dermatology
Common Name: Skin Doctor
Dermatologist Doctors in Corpus Christi *
Morgan Pediatric Center
South Texas Dermatology
South Texas Dermatology
South Texas Dermatology
South Texas Dermatology
South Texas Dermatology
Affiliated Dermatologists
Carmen C Casas MD
Dermatology Associates Inc
Carmen C Casas MD
Mary Cathleen Cole-Perez MD
Frederick F Lykes MD
Coastal Skin Care&Wellness Ctr
Coastal Skin Care&Wellness Ctr
Roy J Aimone MD
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. It is the principal city of the three-county Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger Corpus Christi-Kingsville Combined Statistical Area. The translation from Latin of the city's name is Body of Christ, given to the settlement by the Spanish, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament (Eucharist). The city has been nicknamed The Sparkling City by the Sea, particularly in literature promoting tourism.
The city is home to the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and is served by the Corpus Christi International Airport.
Tinea Versicolor
Tinea versicolor facts
Other Related Tinea Versicolor Articles
Emergency Contact for Corpus Christi
Nearby Corpus Christi Hospitals *
Corpus Christi Specialty Hosp
Christus Spohn Hosp Shoreline
Christus Spohn Memorial Hosp
Corpus Christi Medical Center
Driscoll Children's Hospital
Christus Spohn Hospital South
Corpus Christi Medical Center
Corpus Christi Medical Center
Northwest Regional Hospital
Care Regional Medical Center
Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg
*Provider Directory Terms of Use:
The WebMD 'Provider Directory' is provided by WebMD for use by the general public as a quick reference of information about Providers. The Provider Directory is not intended as a tool for verifying the credentials, qualifications, or abilities of any Provider contained therein. Inclusion in the Provider Directory does not imply recommendation or endorsement nor does omission in the Provider Directory imply WebMD disapproval.
- Home
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- Allergic Skin Disorders
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- Medical Anatomy and Illustrations
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See All Quizzes (119)
& Conditions
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text:
Liza Benson >> See More Coed Girls
Galleries in Full HD!
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Playboy: Are you involved in any activities or clubs at school? Liza: I'm in an outdoors club, and Knoxville is about a 30-minute drive to the beautiful Smoky Mountains which are great for all sorts of fun activities. I played an intramural sport just for fun, and I've m...
Get this complete pictorial in stunning resolution & HD video! View Full Gallery!


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LoftHome by The Company Store® Headboard
Overview & Details
- Please allow 3-4 weeks for delivery.
- Upholstered headboard from LoftHome.
- Upholstered over generous polyurethane foam padding for comfort.
- Height-adjustable headboard accommodates thicker mattresses.
- Attaches to most standard metal bedframes (metal bedframe not included).
- Spot clean.
- USA/Imported.
Shown With:
- Harrison Quilt and Sham in Heather (CY77, N3X6)
The right headboard can make all the difference in your bedroom. Whether you're looking to completely redo the room or incorporate a few decorative accents to refresh the space, our distinctive upholstered headboard from LoftHome is an effortless solution that makes a big impact. One of the simplest ways to pull your whole room together and add a sophisticated focal point, this upholstered style from LoftHome transforms any ordinary space into something extraordinary. Wrapped with fabric over generous polyfoam padding, this plush LoftHome headboard creates a warm and inviting ambiance in an instant. The height-adjustable headboard accommodates thicker mattresses for a wide range of possibilities. This upholstered headboard from LoftHome also adds a layer of protection for both you and the wall. Frame your bed in welcoming comfort with this essential LoftHome headboard.
Well-crafted with sturdy construction and stylish details, this upholstered LoftHome headboard gives your bedroom that extra special something. Choose from twin, full, queen, king and California king sizes to find the perfect fit for your metal bedframe. This LoftHome headboard is a classic and versatile style that suits many bedroom decors.
Pair our LoftHome sophisticated upholstered headboard with a wide range of sheets and bedding available in the LoftHome collection for a complete LoftHome bedding experience. See what a difference the right details can make—you'll look forward to slipping into bed every night of the week!
Due to the size and weight of our larger items, special care and handling is required. Therefore, an additional shipping charge of $50.00 will be added to the Queen, King, and Cal. King size headboards.


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Guards! Guards! wrote: He is also bearing a sword presented to him in mysterious circumstances. Very mysterious circumstances. Surprisingly, therefore, there is something very unexpected about this sword. It isn't magical. It hasn't got a name. When you wield it you don't get a feeling of power, you just get blisters; you could believe it was a sword that had been used so much that it had ceased to be anything other than a quintessential sword, a long piece of metal with very sharp edges. And it hasn't got destiny written all over it. It's practically unique, in fact.
Guards! Guards! wrote: Wonse made no signal. There was no scream or cry. He just rushed at the Patrician, sword raised.
And it was therefore a total mystery to him why he chose to dart forward, bringing Carrot's sword up in a half-baked attempt at blocking the stroke . . .
Perhaps it was something to do with doing it by the book.
There was a clang. Not a particularly loud one. He felt something bright and silver whirr past his ear and strike the wall.
Wonse's mouth fell open. He dropped the remnant of his sword and backed away, clutching The Summoning.
Men At Arms wrote: "But, but the boy was adopted by Discworld dwarfs. They found him as a baby in the forests of the Ramtop mountains. There were some b-urning wagons, corpses, that sort of thing. B-andit attack, apparently. The dwarfs found a sword in the wreckage. He has it now. A very old sword. And it's always sharp."
Men At Arms wrote: A thought broke through to Vimes' attention. Carrot's sword was a couple of feet long. He'd run Cruces clean through. But Cruces had been standing with his back to—
Vimes looked at the pillar. It was granite, and a foot thick. There was no cracking. There was just a blade-shaped hole, front to back.
Is the sword magical or not?


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All of a sudden, the ubiquitous 383 is the wee-man on the block. With 400-plus cubic-inch small-blocks becoming more the rule than the exception, yesteryear's stroker combos have developed a bad case of Napoleon syndrome. The 540ci Rat is the new 496, and if you want to build a 632, tracking down the short-block components necessary to fulfill your displacement fantasies-and finding enough cylinder head to feed it-is only a mail order catalog away. What makes it all possible is the massive influx of affordable stroker crankshafts. Gone are the days of offset grinding factory cranks for miniscule displacement gains, and scouring salvage yards for that elusive 400 crank for your small-block build. Today's aftermarket cast-steel cranks can take a serious beating, and modern 4340 alloys can handle as much abuse as you can realistically throw at them.
Even so, there are some very basic questions that need to be addressed when shopping for a new crankshaft. Everyone knows that forgings are stronger than castings, but how much stronger are they, and how much power can they take? Where do billet cranks fall into the hierarchy? What differentiates the various grades of alloys? What are the different heat treating procedures, and how effective are they? How advantageous are lightweight cranks? To find some answers, we contacted the foremost authorities in the crankshaft business including Alan Davis of Eagle, Tom Lieb of Scat, Dwayne Boes of Callies, Tim Langley of Lunati, and Shawn Mendenhall of Coast High Performance. Here's what they had to say.
Cast vs. Forged vs. Billet
Alan Davis: "Understanding the hierarchy of crankshafts can get confusing due to nomenclature. Take a 4340 forged steel crank, for instance. The '4340' refers to the type of metal alloy a crank is made from, and the 'forged' refers to how that steel is manufactured. You could make a cast 4340 crank, but that would make no sense because you'd be putting a very expensive metal alloy through a very basic manufacturing process that doesn't yield the strongest final product. As its name implies, a cast crank starts out as liquid iron or steel, and is poured into a mold that closely resembles the final shape of a crank. The benefit of the casting procedure is that it reduces the finishing machine work required to get the crank from a raw state to a finished state, which cuts down on costs. Likewise, the equipment used to make a cast crank is relatively inexpensive. This explains why most production engines use cast cranks, and why quality aftermarket cast-steel units can be had for as little as $170.
"On the other hand, manufacturing a forged crank is a much more involved process. With a forging, you start with a large ingot of steel alloy, and then pound it into shape with 200-ton press and dies. The heavy-duty presses needed to forge a crank cost at least $100,000, so you have to commit to building a ton of cranks before you can even recoup your investment in equipment. Additionally, the forging process isn't as precise as the casting process as far as the shape of the crank is concerned, so it requires more extensive machine work. That's why forged cranks cost three to four times more than cast cranks, but the trade-off is a dramatic increase in strength. A typical small-block cast crank is good up to 500 hp, while a 4340 forging can take 1,500 hp.
"Billet cranks are similar to forged cranks in that they also start out as a big ingot of steel. The difference is that the billet blanks are already forged, and they're machined into shape instead of being pounded into a die by a hydraulic press. However, the benefit of billet cranks is that they're highly adaptable to short production runs since you don't have to invest in expensive presses and dies. It might cost $3,000, but you can order up a billet crank with any length stroke and any journal diameter you want. You don't have that flexibility with a forged crank. Even if you manufactured a batch of 1,000 cranks, you still wouldn't be able to recover the costs of the dies and presses needed to make it."


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D'Vontz Rimless Round Vessel Bathroom Sink with Stand
D'Vontz Rimless Round Vessel Bathroom Sink with Stand
Additional Documents
Weights & Dimensions
|Installation Type: Vessel sink
|Style: Rustic
|Sink Shape: Circular
|Material: Metal
|Number of Items Included: 1
|Non-Toxic: Yes
|UV Resistant: Yes
|Fire Resistant: Yes
|Scratch Resistant: Yes
|Stain Resistant: Yes
|Rust Resistant: Yes
|Mildew Resistant: Yes
|Shock Resistant: Yes
|Fade Resistant: Yes
|Antimicrobial: Yes
|Drip-Free: Yes
|Drain Assembly Included: No
|Drain Placement: Center
|Faucet Included: No
|Number of Faucet Holes: 0
|Overflow: No
|Backsplash Included: No
|Number of Basins: 1
|Outdoor Use: Yes
|Compatibility: GS-4411 Grid Drains without overflow
|Commercial Use: Yes
|Recycled Content: Yes
|Eco-Friendly: Yes
|Product Care: Wipe clean with a dry cloth and do not use strong liquid or abrasive cleaners
|Country of Manufacture: Mexico
|Assembly Required: No
|Product Warranty: Limited lifetime
|ADA Compliant: Yes
|CARB Compliant: Yes
|CSA Certified: Yes
|UPC Certified: Yes
|Low Lead Compliant: Yes
|EPP Compliant: Yes
|ASTM Certified: Yes
|General Conformity Certificate: Yes
|ISO 9000 Certified: Yes
|ANSI BIFMA Certified: Yes
|NAHB Compliant: Yes
|IAPMO Certified: Yes
About the ManufacturerD'Vontz distinguishes itself with a commitment to product excellence and selection. Each of their exclusively designed product lines are hand-crafted with the finest natural materials available.
D'Vontz Rimless Round Vessel Bathroom Sink with Stand
Customer Reviews
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Tell us what you think about this product. It will help us provide you with better products in the future and help your fellow shoppers make better purchases.Write the first review
OUR SKU # XDZ1101Rimless Round Vessel Bathroom Sink with Stand is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: LV7001L15DS, LV7001L15SC


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Have problems with content sprawl? According to AIIM, 90% of organizations have at least 7 content repositories including Documentum, OpenText, FileNet, Sharepoint, file systems, databases, web sites, blogs, wikis, and now Cloud based file systems and repositories.
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Come learn how Source Seekers (an Alfresco Partner) can help you take control of your content with the Simflofy product.


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Restore Total Body Foam Roller 36"
Roll out more stiff muscles at once with this large foam roller.
Get the relaxed feeling of a deep tissue massage with this foam roller that gets right into muscles to gently release built-up tension and loosens stiffness while elongating and aligning the spine. The included 25-minute DVD teaches you gentle roller exercise routines to help relieve stress and tightness, increase circulation, restore soft tissue, and self-massage trouble trigger points.
Restore Total Body Foam Roller Features:
- Relieves stress and muscle tightness
- Increases circulation
- Improves spinal alignment
- Includes 25-minute workout
Foam Roller:
Measurements: 36"L x 5.75"D.
Materials: 6P Free: Free of DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, and DNOP phthalates.
Muscle Massage Routine DVD:
Total Run Time: 25 minutes.
Restore Strength & Agility
Our Restore Line is designed for recovery, pain relief and releasing tension. These products are small and portable so that they can easily be brought to the gym, office or even on-the-go!
Product Q&A
Ask your questions. Share your answers.
Have read reviews for this product, on other websites. Has anyone had a problem with the roller "flattening", "indenting", or losing its shape?
6P Free: These products contain less than 0.1% (1,000 parts per million) of the Phthalates DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, and DNOP. Products with the suffix NP or EP are 6P free products. Our Polyfoam does not contain any harmful chemicals banned under California Prop 65. The color is a dye in the foam that does not contain any harmful chemicals.