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Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
versión On-line ISSN 2411-9717
versión impresa ISSN 0038-223X
J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. vol.112 no.7 Johannesburg jul. 2012
High pressure grinding moving ahead in copper, iron, and gold processing
F.P. van der MeerI; W. MaphosaII
IHumbolt Wedag GmbH, Cologne, Germany
IIWeir Minerals Africa (Pty) Ltd
High pressure grinding roll (HPGR) technology is used in an increasingly diverse range of applications, predominantly iron ore , gold and diamonds. KHD Humboldt Wedag HPGRs are applied world-wide, and consistently prove to be well designed and reliable operating units, with their performance meeting the pre-set standards. This publication summarizes some of the features and experiences for recent applications in treatment of copper ore, coarse iron ore, and gold ore. Summary data of roll surface wear life and operating data are given, together with operational observations. In addition, effects of feed segregation and truncated feed are discussed, as well as the implications of a product recycle flow sheet.
Keywords: HPGR, KHD, stud lining, HPGR grinding, partial product recycle, feed segregation, truncated feed, truncation.
High pressure grinding rolls (HPGRs, also known as roller presses) are becoming well accepted for coarse, abrasive, and hard rock applications. When the first HPGR for coarse ore was commissioned at Los Colorados in 1998, there were only 14 HPGRs installed in the minerals industry, mainly for grinding pellet feed to increase the Blaine value (Van der Meer et al., 1997), and only three KHD HPGR units were applied for crushing coarse ore. Nowadays, well over 100 HPGRs have been or are being installed in ore processing applications, and this number is expected to grow rapidly in the years to come.
The Los Colorados plant of CMH in Chile was the first successful operation in which an HPGR was used to replace a conventional tertiary and quaternary crusher. At that time HPGR technology was considered new to this type of installation, and extensive test work and studies were conducted to support the plant design. The grinding circuit was designed to include primary gyratory crushing, secondary cone crushing, and a Humboldt Wedag HPGR Type RP 16-170/180 (roll diameter 1.7 m, roll width 1.8 m) in place of a tertiary crusher operating in closed circuit, with vibrating screens to recycle the oversize +7 mm fraction back to the HPGR circuit. The 7 mm undersize is fed to dry magnetic separation. The capacity of the HPGR is about 2 000 t/h.
Vasilkovka Gold Mining in northern Kazakhstan is the site of one of the recent applications in gold ore treatment. The ore has a high concentration of copper, which significantly complicates gold extraction. The Vasilkovskoye mine is estimated to contain 400 t of gold. In this gold plant, two Humboldt Wedag HPGRs Type RP 16-170/180 (roll diameter 1.7 m, roll width 1.8 m) have been operating in parallel since 2009, each in closed circuit with a partial product recycle, at a capacity of about 1200-1400 t/h.
At the Nurkazgan copper plant of Kazachmyss, Kazakhstan, two HPGR units Type RP 13-170/140 (roll diameter 1.7 m, roll width 1.4 m) are operating in series, each in closed circuit with a partial product recycle and a closing 5 mm aperture screening. The units effectively perform the duties of tertiary and quaternary crushing stages, and were commissioned at the end of 2007. The units have a capacity of about 900 t/h, at a product recycle of approximately 75-125 per cent (effective recycle mass in proportion to fresh feed) for an initial feed top size of 35 mm. Ultimate product size is 80% < 0.8 mm, with up to 60% < 74 (im, at a specific power consumption of 1.8 to 2.2 kWh/t.
Los Colorados operation iron ore
The crushing and pre-concentration plant is located near the mine. After rail transport to the pellet plant, the magnetic pre-concentrate is ground in ball mills to pellet feed fineness and further concentrated by wet magnetic separation. Figure 1 shows a schematic flow sheet of the Los Colorados HPGR circuit.
Operating experience at Los Colorados
The positive findings and downstream benefits observed in pilot testing paved the way for a successful installation of a HPGR at the Los Colorados plant (Table I), with the confidence that the unit would meet expectations in full scale industrial operation.
The Los Colorados Huasco pellet plant reported lower energy consumption in wet ball milling, as well as reduced circulating load in the mill circuits, due to a finer feed and improved Bond Ball Mill work index. The existing ball mill capacity could be increased by 30 per cent.
Wear life
Based on test results, the wear life was guaranteed at 12 000 hours initially. The roll surface, as main wear component, met the guaranteed wear life right from the beginning. This was possible because of good compaction of the ore on the stud-lined surface. The quartz content was about 15 per cent during pilot testing and today varies between 15-30 per cent, depending on ore type. Three factors affect wear the most: quartz content, operating pressure, and quality of compaction of the autogenous wear layer between the studs on the roll surface (Figure 2). Of these, formation of a competent autogenous layer can make a huge difference in achievable wear life (Dunne et al., 2004). For example, when treating taconite material (excess pebbles from a fully autogenous mill circuit) at Cleveland Cliffs' Empire Mine a wear life of up to 17 000 hours was achieved, even though the machine was operated at a high specific pressure of 4.5-5.0 N/mm2 and the quartz content of the ore averaged near 37 per cent (Rose et al., 2002; Dowling et al., 2001; Maxton et al., 2006).
Obviously, the roll surfaces are the most critical parts of the HPGR, in terms of performance and investment. An accurate prediction of wear life of the roll surface during operation is essential, since this is the single largest factor that determines operating cost. It can determine whether a project is viable or not. Each manufacturer has developed its own in-house wear rate test suitable for its proprietary surface. The Humboldt Wedag wear rate tests were developed over the past decade. The result of this test is a wear rate index that is correlated to operating data of the Humboldt Wedag units in minerals operations. The test provides an accurate and reliable specification of wear rate data as basis for process guarantees for minerals applications.
Wear increases with pressure, thus reducing operating pressure would lead to a longer roll surface wear life. Pilot testing determines how product size is affected by operating pressure, and provides a basis to balance between operating pressure and power consumption, generation of fines, and wear rate. There generally is a level above which additional pressure results in excessive energy consumption, and a disproportional increase in the generated fines (Van der Meer et al., 2008). This is attributed to a lower incremental size reduction from a denser particle bed and higher relative proportion of fines within the bed. At Los Colorados it was observed that a decrease in pressure resulted in only a small increase in circulating load. Overall, operating at lower pressure than initially commissioned (2.5-3.0 N/mitf instead of 4.0-4.4 N/mm2) proved to be advantageous, especially when considering the overall energy consumption of the HPGR circuit.
During the life of a set of tyres, wear measurements are taken periodically at, say, 2 month or longer intervals. Figure 3 shows the typical wear profile for coarse ore operations. This illustrates the progress of wear of surface expressed in millimetres of depth over the width of the roll. A total of 58 positions were measured, on four locations over the rolls' circumference (at 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°). Eight measurement series are shown; one baseline of the new roll surface after installation, and one series each for 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 months of operation. The measurements indicate a moderate wear over 10 months of operation, in a pattern that is specific for the CMH coarse ore operation (other ores may show a different pattern, such as a 'bathtub' profile).
The end of the useful life for the rolls in the above example would be reached at about 25-30 mm wear, still some months away.
As shown in Figure 3, the shoulders of the rolls started wearing faster after two months of operation, and over the subsequent eight months. This higher wear leads to an uneven gap and lower pressure at the sides of the roll, where the material is crushed less efficiently and may even partly bypass the rolls.
Eventually, a situation is reached where local wear increases due to the abrasive action of material bypassing the rolls at the edges. To overcome this problem for the next set of rolls (after wearing-out the existing ones), Humboldt
Wedag introduced a stud pattern with a modified distribution of stud hardness over the roll width, with harder studs nearer to the edges and harder lateral studs (which facilitate embedding an autogenous wear layer all the way up to the rim of the rolls). Such a continuing improvement of the roll surface design leads to a prolonged roll surface wear life. An example of improvement between roll set #2 and roll set #3 is show in Figure 4. This illustrates that for a wear of 16 mm on the studs, roll set #3 could treat 3 Mt of additional ore (Barrera, 2005). In total the studs can wear at around 40 mm.
Measures such as described above led to an increase in wear life at Los Colorados, which today is reported to be at about 14 600 hours.
When designing a HPGR circuit, matching capacity and availability with upstream and downstream crushing and grinding equipment is essential. The capacity of a HPGR can be varied by applying variable speed drives, as throughput is generally more or less proportional to roll speed.
The improvements, modifications, and increase in experience on part of the maintenance crew at Los Colorados resulted in an availability of well over 97 per cent. This correlates with the Humboldt Wedag HPGR installed at Argyle Diamonds, Australia where the availability over the last seven years is reported to be around 96 per cent (Maxton et al. 2002, Gerrard et al., 2004).
In coarse ore operations, care has to be taken in the design of the materials handling facilities around the HPGR circuit in order not to create bottlenecks that would have a negative effect on HPGR performance. Adequate tramp metal protection as well as appropriate feed bin capacities ahead of the HPGR are prerequisites to ensure uninterrupted choke-fed conditions at all times. A proper protection against tramp metal in the feed, both by a self-cleaning magnet above the belt conveyor feeding the HPGR and a metal detector, must be installed. The metal detector system, as a safeguard against non-magnetic metal components, must provide a fast response to activate a tramp metal rejection system. Various systems are available, including some that can be operated reliably with iron ore. The best arrangement involves metal detection immediately in front of the HPGR feed bin. The design may be such that the metal detector activates a bypass flap gate that diverts the metal-containing portion of the feed stream to a chute or to a separate bin.
Minimizing downtime during roll changes would require two complete roller assemblies of a shaft with tyre and bearings, each of which is a long-delivery item. The exchange procedure then becomes a simple matter of opening the frame, extracting the worn set and installing the new one (as shown in Figure 5 for a current design unit). Depending on site conditions the time required is approximately 24 to 36 hours (Maxton et al., 2005, 2006). The worn set is then refurbished off-line and serves as ready emergency spare in case of accidental failure.
A standard supply of parts for commissioning and operation is generally provided with the machine. However, minimizing the capital locked up in critical or strategic spares, while still ensuring an operational continuity, may differ for each individual mine site. For Los Colorados a complete set of spare roller assemblies was purchased with the machine, and the bearings and shafts of these have been operating successfully since 1998. It should be noted that no premature bearing, shaft, or tyre failure has ever occurred at the Los Colorados operation, or at any Humboldt Wedag HPGR in a minerals application overall. To a large part this is the success of the closed-circuit oil lubrication system and the patented support concept utilizing a rubber pad to distribute the forces evenly onto the whole bearing.
Influence of HPGR on downstream processes
The positive influence on wet ball milling demonstrated in testing was also observed in full scale operation. For example, in ball milling a 27-44 per cent increase in capacity from about 203 t/h to between 254 t/h and 295 t/h was obtained, depending on ore type, for the same applied energy consumption of 4 MW, when grinding HPGR material to a ball mill product of 80 per cent passing 44 (im (Westermeyer et al., 2000; Gallardo, 2007). This was attributed to both a higher fines content and the generation of microcracks in the particles. The Bond Ball Mill Work Index reduced from 11 kWh/t to between 8 kWh/t and 9 kWh/t, depending on the HPGR pressure applied.
In magnetic separation, a higher quality pre-concentrate at constant yield was achieved. Both of these effects can be attributed to the same two factors: the generation of more fines and the generation of microcracks. The amount of < 150 (im material produced in the HPGR grinding stage was twice as high as what cone crushing would have produced.
Variations in HPGR product particle size distribution also led to side effects in other areas of plant performance. Due to the higher fines content the angle of repose was enhanced by 6 per cent. Consequently, the capacity of stockyards and material handling systems was increased as well.
The particle shape after grinding in the HPGR is somewhat more irregular compared with cone crusher products. This should be considered when designing the screen in a HPGR circuit to ensure sufficient screening efficiency and to avoid excessive moisture carry-over in the oversize of wet screening applications. The influence of feed moisture content on HPGR operation will be discussed in more detail in subsequent paragraphs.
An HPGR can be used effectively in place of tertiary crushers for preparing a suitable ball mill feed. This can be accomplished either by operating the HPGR in open circuit, in closed circuit with edge recirculation, or by operating in closed circuit with dry or wet screening. Each circuit configuration has its own benefits and drawbacks (Van der Meer and Dicke, 2008). Due to the high pressure applied by HPGR, the material is discharged partially as a compacted agglomerate (called flakes or cake), which may fall apart easily, but also may require further disagglomeration. When a screening circuit is considered, the proportion and strength of the flakes will influence the screening efficiency and circulating load.
The strength of flakes is ore-specific, and is also influenced by e.g. feed moisture, clay content, and operating pressure. So as to be able to evaluate flake strength and predict disagglomeration requirements, flake strength tests and disagglomeration tests were developed by Humboldt Wedag in conjunction with the Los Colorados project. At present, these tests are standard procedure included in pilot test programmes at Humboldt Wedag's laboratories.
At Los Colorados the decision was made to install two disagglomerators to ensure high dry screening efficiency, since testing had shown compact flakes. However, with changes in ore type and increasingly dry feed material the flakes became more brittle and were observed to fall apart readily upon material transfer and dry screening. The disagglomerators were thus decommissioned.
With the operating experience from Los Colorados the standard flake test and its relation to plant data was greatly improved. When CMP installed another HPGR at their El Romeral Plant utilizing the same circuit layout as Los Colorados, standard flake tests were carried out and the results suggested that a mild disagglomeration step would be required. With the advice of Humboldt Wedag, the client designed a belt transfer point, consisting of a tower with internal baffle plates, to break the flakes and ensure in this simple way sufficient screening efficiency (Figure 6).
When (wet) screening is used in the HPGR circuit the issue of flake strength may become more severe. Flakes or flake fragments may survive breakage during transport, and a large proportion may also survive the screening stage unbroken, thus significantly reducing screening efficiency and contributing to an increased circulating load. Moreover, when oversize material from wet screening is recycled back to the HPGR, the contribution to higher moisture content in the HPGR feed may lead to difficulties in material flow in and out of the HPGR feed bins, extrusion during compression, and generally may contribute to a deteriorating performance of the HPGR. Testing for flake competency and moisture effects thus is of importance, and these findings should be taken into consideration when designing the (wet) screening circuit.
Vasilkovka operationgold ore
The Vasilkovsky region is one of world's largest gold fields and the site of the largest gold deposit in Central Asia. It is located in Akmola Oblast in north-eastern Kazakhstan and has been producing gold for more than 30 years. Vasilkov Gold JV (Vasgold GOK) is developing this deposit, which has an estimated total gold reserve in excess of 400 t, and is the operating company under the umbrella of KazZinc. KazZinc is a major producer of copper, precious metals, zinc, and lead, with some 21 000 people in mining, ore dressing, metallurgy, power generation, and mechanical production. The company was established in 1997 through the merger of Eastern Kazakhstan's three main non-ferrous metals companies.
Vasgold has recently commissioned a new mine and processing plant, for a capacity of about 9 Mt of ore per year. The Vasilkovka plant treats a complex ore, where the gold is present as free gold, as inclusions to and in sulphide minerals, and as refractory gold. The plant incorporates a complex flow sheet including gravity separation, fine grinding, and a number of new technologies, such as Leachox intensive leaching (Flatman et al., 2010), stirred mills for ultrafine grinding, and HPGR as the third crushing stage, ahead of ball milling.
HPGRs proved to be attractive as the final crushing stage due to their large unit capacity (design over 1 400 t/h per unit), fine crushing performance, low specific energy (Gerrard et al., 2004), and additional advantages in gold liberation. The current application of HPGRs at VasGold is to provide a final crushing stage and increase ball mill throughput by providing a mill feed at a reduced grindability and a high fines content, as a feasible alternative to SABC circuits (Maxton, Morley, and Bearman, 2003.
Operating Experience at Vasilkovka
Steered by the above performance indicators, KHD Humboldt Wedag was contracted for the supply of two HPGR RPS 16170/180 units for the tertiary crushing stage. The units are operating in parallel, in closed circuit with a partial product recirculation (Figure 7). The machines each process 1 500 t/h (HPGR effective feed rate), generating a product of 80% < 5 mm from a 40-50 mm top size feed (Table II).
The circuit does involve recirculation of a part of the HPGR discharge, at a recirculation ratio of up to 180 per cent (recycled material in proportion of fresh feed).
Circuit design with partial product recycle
Depending on the application, a variety of arrangements can be applied for HPGR circuits. This is a result of the inherent process of HPGR grinding, where the size reduction takes place in a particle bed, as disintegration of ore particles through interparticle crushing in the bed created between the rolls. In contrast, conventional crushers rely on single particle breakage for size reduction, as a contact crushing between grinding media (rods, balls, jaw crusher, or cone compartment surface). Thus, in HPGR crushing the particle to be crushed can be, and preferably should be, smaller than the applied operating gap.
One direct effect is that the crushed particles can be recycled through the same HPGR unit, either directly, or after classification, or after intermediate beneficiation. In conventional crushing, this would require a subsequent separate crushing stage in a unit or in multiple units with a smaller gap setting (tertiary and quaternary crushers), or rod mills.
In an HPGR unit, fresh feed with a top size of, for instance, 40 mm could be combined with a recycle stream of crushed material of near 5 mm from a product recycle arrangement without classification, and still be subjected to a very effective grinding at an operating gap of about 35 mm (Van Der Meer and Gruendken, 2008). This does save in additional screening facilities, and still allows for a fine feed suitable for subsequent ball milling.
At Vasilkovka, the latter approach is successfully applied. This is achieved by installing a product splitter following the HPGR, allowing for a partitioning of the product material. The edge material (the relatively coarse material generated at the left and right shoulders of the rolls (Figure 8) and a portion of the centre material are split out by mechanical cutters and returned to the HPGR feed conveyor for re-crushing. This recycle mass also smoothes out any feed fluctuations. The centre portion from the rolls discharge, which contains the finer and more compressed material, is cut out by the splitter and forms the final HPGR product. Obviously, a different arrangement (such as splitting the full HPGR discharge stream after mixing of the centre and edge material) could be applied as well.
The application of a product splitter arrangement is a feasible arrangement, but relies to a large extend on a strict control of the feed rate to the roller press. At Vasilkovka the filling of the pre-bin, to provide choke feed conditions, was warranted by an adequate arrangement of a steady and uninterrupted feed supply from the intermediate feed bin by installation of variable-speed vibratory feeders and a short variable-speed conveyor belt. It was recognized that no short reaction control could be applied to the return flow (approximately 912 t/h) of splitter product, and that the major control available comes from control of the crushed feed supply (approximately 530 t/h). The belt conveyor from the intermediate bin has a relatively short retention time (< 10 seconds), which thus does allow for an adequate control and response time over the filling level of the pre-bin.
One of the phenomena that take place during compression in a HPGR is the generation of compacted material in the HPGR product. This compacted material, also referred to as 'flakes', is generated by a the high compressing force on the bed of particles in the gap between the rolls, causing part of the ground product to discharge in the form of cake-like briquettes (Figure 9).
Thus the HPGR product often is composed of a mixture of loose product and a proportion of flakes and flake fragments, the latter ranging from 0 per cent to 80 per cent by volume, depending on ore, particle size, moisture content, and pressing conditions. At Vasilkovka, the proportion of flakes in the centre product was modest; some 10-20 per cent by volume (Figure 10). Also, the flakes proved to be relatively brittle, and partly fell apart on handling and transfer (on belt conveyors, transfer points, and bins).
A series of standard tests for flake competency was carried out during confirmation testing. These flake competency tests are based on the disintegration of flakes in a tumbling mill, and return a so-called 'tumbling factor' on a scale of zero to 100 per cent, in which zero represents very hard flakes and 100 per cent indicates total disintegration of the flakes. The flakes generated at Vasilkovka scored near 70 per cent.
As the downstream process does not include classification, but only product splitting, with the final product being directed to the ball mill (sump), it is seen that the flakes at the indicated strength do not pose any problems and no disagglomeration stage is required to assure optimum product handling. The flake material disintegrates almost instantly when entering the mill or a pump sump ahead of a hydrocyclone cluster. This was one more reason to apply a product recycle arrangement for Vasilkovka, as disagglom-eration ahead of an eventual screening did was shown to be a less attractive alternative.
Wear life
As with the Los Colorados unit, wear measurements are taken periodically during the life of a set of tyres. Figure 11 shows the typical wear profile for one of the rolls after operation of 10 months. This illustrates the progress of wear of surface expressed in millimetres of depth over the width of the roll. A total of 58 positions were measured, on four locations over the rolls circumference (at 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°). The measurements indicate a low wear over 10 months of operation, in a pattern that is specific for the VasGold coarse ore operation (Figure 11). The end of the useful life for the rolls in the above example would be reached at about 30 mm wear, still some 10-12 months away at the time of measurement.
The shoulders of the rolls were wearing slower, leading to the roll edges standing higher. These would need to be ground off to avoid the roll surfaces touching at the edges, and to maintain an optimum operating gap. In future roll sets, the roll edges will be designed with a softer stud quality to avoid this type of uneven wear. Measures such as described above led to an increase in wear life at VasGold, which today is expected to increase to about 12 000 hours.
Feed presentation and segregation
In all cases where coarse ores are processed, but particularly in cases where a significant circulating load is maintained, a strong emphasis and attention must be given to a proper layout in the feed system upstream of the HPGR. An ill-designed bin and conveyor system may rapidly lead to feed size segregation on conveyor belts and in bins. In such a case, arranging the feed belt discharge lengthwise to the rolls' axis promotes particle size segregation in the HGPR feed bin. Size segregation in the feed bin invariably results in improper material particle size distribution across the width of the rolls, such as coarse feed on one side and fine feed on the other. With most crusher types (cone crushers, impact crushers) or ball mills this is of much less significance, but for HPGRs this may lead to an uneven wear of the roll surface, an impaired size reduction, and roll skewing.
As an example of a condition where a pronounced particle size segregation was present (Figure 12), a particle size analysis for the right side of the a conveyor belt indicated 40% > 20 mm, with 30% < 5 mm, whereas the left side showed a much finer composition of only 10% > 20 mm, with 50% < 5 mm (Figure 13).
Such feed segregation results in uneven process conditions and roll skewing (a condition where the rolls are not parallel to each other, but form a wedged gap opening across the width of the rolls). Although an automated control system is in place to correct temporary skewing, a structural feed segregation does generate a difference in operating pressure, material packing, and gap opening over the width of the rolls. These led to operation away from the specifications, with a coarser product (from lower-than-required specific pressure and a wider operating gap), a lower throughput, and an irregular operation. Moreover, aggravated by uneven nipping conditions, an uneven static pressure from the feed chute above, and relatively high particle mobility, uneven local wear results, leading to a significant reduction in operating life of the rolls' surface and thus higher operating cost.
At Vasilkovka, the feed system includes four vibratory feeders from the holding bunkers, and a recycle of the splitter product from the HPGR discharge, which is loaded on top of the layer of feed mass on the conveyor. The throw of the four feeders was carefully aligned, and a system to ensure an even distribution of the returned fines over the fresh feed was designed to avoid segregation of coarse and fine material.
The filling of the HPGR feed chute was arranged perpendicular to the rolls' axis. Additional baffle plates may be built into the feed bin to enhance proper mixing.
Plant operators have reported that particularly at low feed rate conditions (at maintained roll speed), at low feed bin levels, an imbalanced feed supply and distribution over the rolls occured, promoting a skewed situation, leading to material bypass or coarse material from incomplete compression grinding. A smaller-than-desired operating gap implied a very low effective pressure, and a low grinding efficiency. Figure 14 shows the KHD hydraulic system designed to control roll skewing and distribute the forces equally on the cylindrical roller bearings.
One of the main functions of the KHD control system is to maintain a parallel gap, especially in the more difficult-to-grind coarse and hard rock applications (Maxton and Van Der Meer, 2005; Maxton, Van Der Meer, and Gruendken, 2006).
Nurkazgan operationcopper ore
At the Nurkazgan copper plant of Kazachmyss, Kazakhstan, two HPGR units are operating in closed circuit with product recycle. The units effectively perform the duties of tertiary and quaternary crushing stages, and were commissioned at the end of 2007 (Figure 15).
The units have a capacity of 850-950 t/h, at a product recycle of approximately 75-125 per cent (effective recycle mass in proportion to fresh feed) for an initial feed top size of 35 mm. Ultimate product size is down to 80% < 0.8 mm, with up to 60% < 74 i m, at a specific power consumption of 1 .8 to 2.2 kWh/t. Anticipated roll wear life for Humboldt Wedag's Stud-PlusTM tyres is 8 000 operating hours.
The HPGR centre product is led over a scalping screen to break up any large agglomerates, and is subsequently classified by hydrocyclones to remove the finished product at about 95% < 0.2 mm for flotation. The hydrocyclone overflow is further ground in the primary ball mill (Figure 15).
The high proportion of fines in the HPGR central discharge fractions, which stems from the high circulating load over the product splitters, allows a significant proportion of the ore to bypass the primary ball mill. In addition, the HPGR pre-ground product does reflect a lower ball mill work index, and the energy input in ball milling is reduced.
At the time of writing, a further evaluation of the process and effects of HPGR grinding for the copper plant was being carried out. Where benefits from a high reduction ratio and low energy input achieved by the HPGR units are being recognized, the operation of the two-stage circuit is being reconsidered. Particularly the effect of disagglomeration and wet screening after the first HPGR are subjects of study.
Disagglomeration of the compressed copper ore is a requirement for effective and efficient screening at the 5 mm aperture employed. For this, the initial scrubber was replaced by an impact crusher to avoid introduction of high moisture content in the screen overflow returning to the second HPGR. This high moisture content was recognized as cause for a less-than-optimum performance of the second-stage HPGR.
As an intermediate solution, Nurkazgan selected to run the HPGR circuit as a single-stage operation, with both a partial product recycle and a product screening as-was, at 5 mm aperture.
The screen oversize is re-directed to blend in with the fresh feed, thus keeping the moisture content of the effective
HPGR feed within controllable and acceptable boundaries. This circuit is illustrated in Figure 16.
Truncated feed
In some instances, a proportion of fines can be removed from the final (HPGR) crushing stage feed by screening, in an attempt to bypass the stage with already-finished material, such as feed for the subsequent ball milling, or to avoid a further size reduction and generation of ultra-fines from fines already present in the feed.
Depending on the initial fines content in the feed, the product particle size for a truncated feed in many cases is relatively similar (though slightly coarser) to that from a full feed crushing. This implies that the size reduction from a truncated feed might be more efficient, with a higher net fine product generation.
This so-called truncated feed, however, also generally results in a strongly reduced specific throughput, as a lower bulk density and fewer fines to fill the void space between the ore grains results in a decrease in specific throughput. There is a relationship between the screen size used to prepare the feed and the specific throughput of the HPGR, where the HPGR specific throughput drops by up to e.g. 35-40 per cent with increasing screen size (the top size of the fines removed). This relationship is illustrated in Figure 19.
As the quantity of fines removed from the HPGR feed increases, the apparent trends in performance are that the specific throughput of the HPGR drops due to the increase in void space in the HPGR feed, with a resulting reduction in the operating gap. The efficiency of the grinding increases, in terms of fine particle production. In some cases, the overall HPGR product may become finer, and energy consumption increases with increasing specific energy input and with a finer pre-HPGR screen size.
The shifting balance in a lower mass flow to the HPGR may in some cases make it possible to use smaller equipment, even though a lower specific throughput is achieved, but may also generate a more complex plant layout, with more conveying and screening. The balance of possible advantages (smaller equipment, less ultra-fines) and disadvantages (higher wear, more recycle and screening) must, however, be evaluated for each plant design and ore situation.
As a consequence of the lower specific throughput, from a similar applied press force and overall energy consumption, the net specific energy consumption generally increases, in some instances by up to 50 per cent. In an overall assessment, the advantage of reduced plant and equipment size that would be obtained by bypassing the fines is frequently offset by the reduction in specific throughput and increase in net specific energy consumption. These effects often result in similar required HPGR dimensions and therefore, to compensate for the lower specific throughput, the rolls sometimes have to be operated at a higher peripheral speed, which would increase roll surface wear. In addition, a truncated feed generally generates a less strong 'autogenous wear layer', where the relatively coarse fragments tend to break away the coating on the roll surface. This also increases the roll surface wear rate. Thus operating cost (from a more frequent replacement of worn grinding rolls) may increase for a truncated feed.
Overall, the balance for justification of a truncated circuit is determined mainly by the effects of a truncated feed on the reduction of mass flow to the HPGR (proportion of fines in the HPGR section feed), the additional requirements in conveying and screening, the reduced specific throughput and increase in specific energy, and the anticipated increase in roll surface wear rate.
Installation and commissioning of HPGRs in coarse iron ore, gold, and copper processing plants was concluded successfully, with the 1.7 m diameter KHD Humboldt Wedag HPGR units performing well on specification. The HPGR product recycle arrangement provides a means for size reduction of the feed material without requirement of a screening facility.
The operations confirmed the moisture content of the feed to be a critical controlling variable. Maintaining this moisture at a well-defined range ensures an effective size reduction, as well as steady operating conditions, low wear from an effective autogenous coating of the KHD stud-lined rolls, and minimal difficulties in material transport and hold-up in bins, feed chute, and on conveyor belts.
Feed segregation was identified as another important issue to address. A well-designed feed circuit provides for a well-tuned HPGR feed without significant segregation. In combination with a well-controlled hydraulic pressure and roll positioning system, this allows the units to operate with an optimized gap control and parallel roll surface setting.
The quick exchange facility of the 'SWING' frame of the HPGR allows for a fast roll exchange procedure, reducing downtime to less than 24 hours and requiring a minimum of installed auxiliary maintenance facilities.
Justification of a truncated circuit depends on the effects of a truncated feed on the reduction of mass flow to the HPGR (proportion of fines in the HPGR section feed), the extra requirements in conveying and screening, the reduced specific throughput and increase in specific energy, and the anticipated increase in roll surface wear rate.
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2. DOWLING, E.C., et al. 2001. Applications of High Pressure Grinding Rolls in an Autogenous-Pebble Milling Circuit. Proceedingsfrom the SAG Conference, 30 September-3 October, 2001. Vancouver, Canada. [ Links ]
3. DUNNE, R., MAXTON, D., MORRELL, S., and LANE, G. 2004. High pressure grinding rolls - the Australian experience. SME Annual Conference, Denver, February 2004. [ Links ]
4. FLATMAN, S., BATTERSBY, R.M., IMHOF, R. BATTERSBY M., and IBRAYEV, S. 2010 The Leachox refractory gold process - the setting, design, installation and commissioning of a large scale plant at the VASGOLD gold mine, Kazakhstan. Precious Metals 2010, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK, 15-16 June 2010. [ Links ]
5. GALLARDO, V.H. 2007. Uso de Prensa de Rodillos en Planta Beneficia Mina Los Colorados. Internal communication of CMP, Power Point Presentation, 8 March 2007. [ Links ]
6. GERRARD, M., COSTELLO, B., and MORLEY, C. 2004. Operating experiences and performance assessment of HPGR technology at Argyle Diamond Mine. Proceedings of the Rio Tinto Comminution Workshop 2004, Perth, Australia. [ Links ]
7. MAXTON, D., MORLEY, C., and BEARMAN, R. 200. Recrush HPRC Project - The Benefits of High Pressure Rolls Crushing. Proceedingsfrom the Crushing and Grinding Conference, 29 October-1 November 2002. Kalgoorlie, Australia.
8. MAXTON, D. and VAN DER MEER, F.P. 2005. KHD Humboldt Wedag high pressure grinding olls - developments for minerals applications. Proceedings of the Randol Gold Forum, Perth, Australia, August 2005.. [ Links ]
9. MAXTON, D., MORLEY, C., and BEARMAN, R. 2003. A quantification of the benefits of high pressure rolls crushing in an operating environment. Minerals Engineering, vol. 16, no. 9, pp 827-838. [ Links ]
10. MAXTON, D., VAN DER MEER, F.P., and GRUENDKEN, A. 2006. KHD Humboldt Wedag. 150 years of innovation. New developments for the KHD HPGR. Proceedings SAG 2006, Vancouver, Canada, September 2006. [ Links ]
11. ROSE, D.J., KORPI, P.A., and DOWLING, E.C. 2002. High Pressure Grinding Roll Utilization at the Empire Mine. Proceedingsfrom the Mineral Processing Plant Design Conference, 20-24 October 2002, Vancouver, Canada. [ Links ]
12. VAN DER MEER, F.P. 1997. Roller Press Grinding of Pellet Feed. Experiences of KHD in the Iron Ore Industry. Proceedingsfrom the AusIMM Conference on Iron ore Resources and reserves estimation, 25-26 September, 1997, Perth, Australia. [ Links ]
13. VAN DER MEER, F.P. and DICKE, R. 2008. High pressure grinding; how high can you go? Procemin 2008, Fifth International Minerals Processing Seminar, Santiago, Chile, 22-24 october 2008. [ Links ]
14. VAN DER MEER, F.P. and GRUENDKEN, A. 2008. Flow sheet considerations for optimal use of high pressure grinding rolls. Comminution 2008, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK, 17-20 June 2008. [ Links ]
15. WESTERMEYER, C.P. and CORDES, H. 2000. Operating Experience with a HPGR at the Los Colorados Iron Ore Dressing Plant in Chile. Aufbereitungs-Technik /Mineral Processing, vol. 11, 2000. pp. 497-505. ♦ [ Links ]
Paper received Aug. 2011
revised paper received Mar. 2012.


text:
A clean almost minimalist style portfolio template. However, could be cut up and used for a variety of things.
Template is valid XHTML 1 .0 Strict, CSS tableless design. CSS is easy to understand and nested for clarity. Site content is contained in an animated jQuery based accordion. Full instructions included on how to change the accordion animation. Deep linking is also setup, the accordion has a navigation filter so you can open a panel directly with a URL parameter.
This template uses the following frameworks/utilities which I do not claim to be my own work in any way:
- jQuery
- jQuery UI
- jQuery Flyout plugin
- jQuery GetURLParam plugin
Final file includes the complete PSD file for further modifications if needed.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Millions of students around the world are enrolled in hundreds of MOOCs (massive open online courses), reports the New York Times. To evaluate students' progress, Princeton Sociology Professor Mitchell Duneier is crowdsourcing his Introduction to Sociology class, which enrolls 40,000 students.
"It was really intimidating at the beginning to do these lectures with no live audience, no sense of who was listening and how they were reacting," Professor Duneier said. "I talk about things like racial differences in I.Q., Abu Ghraib and public bathrooms, and I worried that my lectures might come across as examples of American ethnocentrism."
Feedback came quickly. When his first lecture went online, students wrote hundreds, then thousands, of comments and questions in online discussion forums — far too many for Professor Duneier to keep up with. But crowd-sourcing technology helped: every student reading the forum could vote questions and comments up or down, allowing him to spot important topics and tailor his lectures to respond.
Each student must score the work of five classmates to get their own score, which is an average of what classmates have given them. To see whether peer grading matches traditional grading, Professor Duneier and his assistants graded thousands of midterms and finals.
"I had to announce to the students that some had gotten scores that were higher than they should have been," he said. "And as data, the midterm scores are useless. But it helped us learn more about writing rubrics."
. . . So far, he has found an impressive correlation of 0.88. The average peer score was 16.94 of 24 possible points, compared with an average teaching-staff score of 15.64. Peer graders give more accurate scores on good exams than bad ones, they found, and the lower the score, the more variance among graders.
About 3 percent of students copied from Wikipedia.
Princeton doesn't offer a certificate of completion for MOOCs and less than 5 percent of sociology enrollees took the exams. That added up to 2,200 midterm exams and 1,283 final exams, still a heavy scoring burden without crowdsourcing.


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Skip to comments.All Done - Houston's s new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
Posted on 03/29/2008 3:11:10 PM PDT by NYer
Already hailed as "a Houston landmark," yesterday saw the first official preview of the city's new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which'll be dedicated on Wednesday before 60 hierarchs and a very lucky crowd of close to 2,000.
To mark the occasion -- which the regional media has treated as an earth-altering event and then some -- today's hometown Chronicle contains a full package on the festivities.
As Cardinal Daniel DiNardo consecrates the $65 million de facto hub of his 1.5 million-member archdiocese, Texas' oldest and the largest in the South, fellow neo-porporato Cardinal John Foley will be present... in the friendly confines of the commentator's booth.
Yet even for all the red in evidence -- and the local hopes that Purple Rain will fall during the celebrations -- Dedication Day will rightfully belong to the project's "mastermind": founding Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, a native son and once a curate at the heretofore co-cathedral, who said in an interview that the "tremendous [i.e quadruple] growth of the archdiocese in the last two decades" necessitated "a new cathedral that would be sufficiently large for us to gather a large number of our people for the important moments in the life of the church." But even so, despite all the pizazz of the new building, the paper reminds that the official seat of the booming local church remains 50 miles south, in "the cradle" of Texas Catholicism: Galveston's St Mary's Basilica.
The first US mother-church to be dedicated since LA's Our Lady of the Angels in 2002, the Houston cathedral is one of two opening its doors this year; the other, Oakland's Christ the Light, will be inaugurated in late September.
Never to be outdone, the Chron's coverage is capped by an extensive photo gallery from über-photog Smiley Pool, who memorably gave the Vatican shutterbugs quite a run for their money during DiNardo's Thanksgiving Weekend elevation to the "papal senate."
Sia lodato Smiley... and congrats to everyone in H-Town.
Any freepers fortunate to be in attendance on Wednesday?
Any freepers fortunate to be in attendance on Wednesday?
I can ID a cathedral, but I've never seen Siamese-twin cathedrals, so I don't know what a co-cathedral is.
It's beautiful; and a beautiful photo.
If you know of a church that would like to have this kind of photo-documentation done of it, send them my way....
A co-cathedral exists usually when two smaller dioceses have been merged; one of the former cathedrals becomes the co-cathedral. I don't know the history of the Houston diocese, but I would imagine this is what happened to result in the "co-cathedral."
That said, I'm not a great fan of these giant "Risen Christ" images. Looks to me like we're avoiding the Cross.
It looks to me to be a beautiful building which will honor God.
I agree. Look's good.
It's my recollection that as Houston exploded and Galveston stagnated, the functional center moved to Houston, and eventually the Houston church was named cathedral. Rather than stripping Galveston of the honor of being a cathedral, the two were named co-cathedrals.
Per one of the links, Houston received a Cathedral in 1959.
To continue a long, disjointed discussion, this isn't even a candidate for one of our 'ugly church' threads. Full photo essay here: http://www.chron.com/channel/houstonbelief/photogallery/CoCathedral_of_the_Sacred_Heart.html#_self
What a lovely building. The iconography is especially wonderful. I hope that someday I can visit with my family that Resurrection Window is awe-inspiring in person, I bet.
One quibble: no kneelers?
Our choirmaster told me a funny story. He was in a church in NYC, practicing on the organ late one night, and somebody had left the stop pulled out that connected the keyboard with the BELLS in the tower!!!!! He woke everybody up for miles around!
Engraved, just as it should be. " . . . made me, 2007."
That building survived the Galveston hurricane. The priests had taken refuge in the cathedral, and were standing with the bishop at the high altar when the bell tower suddenly collapsed and crashed through into the nave. The bishop turned to the rector, Fr. Kirwan, and told him, "Prepare these priests for death."
As it happened, they all survived.
The artist did good work.
top to bottom, left to right: St. Anthony of Padua (my man!), St. Therese, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Martin de Porres, St. Joseph in his carpenter's apron, St. Juan Diego with the miraculous tilma.
The bishop just waited to go last, like a good commanding officer! I think it was Bishop Gallagher at that time.
>> I can ID a cathedral, but Ive never seen Siamese-twin cathedrals, so I dont know what a co-cathedral is. <<
Prior to the 1900 (?) hurricane, Galveston, and not Houston, was the key city in that area. And Galveston was made the mother church of Texas 1839, and the see of Texas in 1847. Since Houston is by far the more populous and politically significant city, now, it was made a second seat of the diocese, which has been an arch-diocese only since 2004.
There was a great article on the Galveston hurricane, with photographs. Made quite an impression on me.
I still have ALL the issues from when it changed its name from the "Journal of Local and Regional History" in the early 50s, up into the 70s when the old editor retired and they went all politically correct and repetitive.
You can get the text of most of the articles on line now, but what you don't get are the incredible pictures. It was one of the early glossy hardback magazines, each article began with 4-6 pages of coated paper with full color reproductions of paintings, illustrations, prints, etc. and then continued in the back on ordinary paper.
Struck the perfect balance between scholarship and readability. Bruce Catton, the long time editor, also wrote a Civil War trilogy - "Mr. Lincoln's War" , "Glory Road" and "A Stillness at Appomattox". Won the Pulitzer Prize for the last one, back when it meant something.
Wonder if they'll ever celebrate a real Mass in it.
Yes, thank you, I was glad to see a crucifix, and there are certainly many lovely things in that church, especially the carvings.
We don't have a crucifix here in our cathedral in St. Augustine. The altar was renovated in the 1970s, to conform to the supposed dictates of Vatican II, and instead we got a rather ghastly looking "Risen Christ" looming over the altar.
One of our priests makes sure that he brings the processional crucifix out with him for Mass, since in theory, according even to recent things from the Vatican, there should be a crucifix on or behind the altar - as a focal point, at any rate. The pastor doesn't care, and I guess the bishop doesn't either. But it always bothers me when I see a Catholic church without a crucifix, and from the outside, I was afraid that this was another one!
Quite lovely! The statues are particularly impressive. I love St. Therese and San Juan Diego.
Don't bother with anything after 1976.
Here was a really good issue - June of 61. Look at the list of articles to the right - the only hanging for mutiny in the U.S. Navy, the surrender at Appomattox, Frank Merriwell the dime novel hero, Catherwood the discoverer of the Mayan civilization, Yalta, the first New York subway (run by compressed air!), and funny money issued during the Depression.
It is just a real shame that the pictures aren't reproduced -- you don't realize how integral they are to the articles until they are missing! It's obvious that they scanned the articles in, because there are lots of typos, too.
But almost any college or university library should have a full set of these things.
I would love to steal the incredible larger-than-life size wooden crucifix from Immaculate Conception downtown . . . they only bring it out for Lent . . .
Just be glad she's on our side!!! I am almost convinced that she must be some sorta wierd Vatican A.I. super-computer program with access to all the juicy hidden knowledge in the secret templar guarded crypts combined with southern USA traditions as a web cover...
I know where they put the crucifix they took out of our church when the altar was "renovated." I have occasional fantasies of people walking into the church and simply finding it restored one day, no comments, no fuss, just back in its place. But we've moved so far away from the Cross in our happy-slappy Catholicism here that most people would probably be horrified.
LOL! I'm just a newbie convert, they haven't even issued me my Secret Vatican Decoder Ring and Tie Tack yet!
"Engraved, just as it should be. " . . . made me, 2007."
What happened to "Anno Domini?"
You know the saying - if you want to know about Catholicism, ask a Calvinist.
The executive vice president of the company I work at is in this picture! I'm sure she has a seat close to the front. I do know some other people who received invitations to the event. Not me, I'll watch it on the web at work.
And it looks like all the bells' mottos are exactly the same, when they all should be different.
But at least they HAVE one.
Have you read The Nine Tailors?
The bell mottos figure largely in that mystery.
"Have you read The Nine Tailors?"
No, I haven't. Who's the author?
Excuse my ignorance, but this is something I've never known for certain before and should: Is St. Anthony of Padua the same St. Anthony we pray to when we pray, "St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around, something is lost and cannot be found"?
Interesting, thank you.
Or, "Tony, Tony, look around! Something's lost and must be found!"
And when it's found, you have to give something to the poor box right away. That's "St. Anthony's Bread."
He also is the one who preached to the fishes, he was known as "The Hammer of the Heretics" and "The Living Ark of the Covenant" because of his eloquence.
He was responsible for the miracle of the horse (or the mule) and the Eucharist (hence he is carrying a monstrance in the statue).
He is often depicted with the Christ Child in his arms, because another friar saw him so in a vision.
And if he weren't a saint, he would have a full time job just looking after me and the stuff I lose . . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Sabina Gadecki
How gorgeous is this long blonde voluminous hairdo rocked by none other than the stunning young star Sabina Gadecki. Her golden locks really gives her such a sexy and elegant vibe. We love how it's just casually parted at the center flowing down into some beautiful long curls that are a little messy in an elegant manner. A perfect hairstyle for just an evening out with your friends or even a nice romantic dinner with your man.


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The federal government has played a major role in supporting housing since the 1930s. It funds programs that assist homebuyers, renters, and state and local governments. The goals of these efforts include encouraging homeownership and providing affordable rental housing for low-income families. Millions of Americans have benefited, whether by taking out a federally guaranteed mortgage, deducting mortgage interest or real estate taxes from income, or receiving a rental subsidy. In fiscal year 2010, the federal government incurred about $170 billion for obligations for housing-related programs and estimated revenue forgone for tax expenditures.[1] Tax expenditures represent $132 billion (about 78 percent) and may be viewed as spending programs channeled through the tax system because they are federal revenue forgone due to exclusions, credits, deductions, deferrals, and preferential rates.[2]
In the current housing crisis, support for homeownership has expanded dramatically with nearly all mortgage originations having direct or indirect federal support. The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) together invested more than $1.67 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises, which issue and guarantee mortgage-backed securities. Specifically, Treasury purchased about $221 billion of mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and about $183 billion of senior preferred stock, and the Federal Reserve purchased $1.27 trillion in the debt and securities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The ultimate costs of these efforts are not yet known. The federal role also expanded through programs such as the Home Affordable Modification Program and the First-Time Homebuyer Credit. However, fiscal and budget realities call into question continued maintenance of 160 different efforts with similar goals and sometimes parallel delivery systems.
[1]The total does not include other types of emergency assistance. For loan programs, these obligations represent the expected credit subsidy costs for loan commitments made in fiscal year 2010. These estimates are revised in subsequent years and the ultimate cost will not be known until the loans mature. The amount of obligations we reported for fiscal year 2010 may include funds appropriated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
[2]Summing tax expenditure estimates does not take into account interactions between individual provisions. This total also does not include the exclusion of imputed net rental income. Imputed net rental income is the amount that owner-occupiers would have paid to rent a home, less nondeductible costs such as depreciation and maintenance expense. It is not subject to tax. The Department of the Treasury lists the exclusion of imputed net rental income as a tax expenditure and estimated the expenditure at $41 billion for fiscal year 2010. However, the Joint Committee on Taxation does not list the exclusion as a tax expenditure because it views measuring and taxing net imputed rental income as administratively infeasible.
Twenty different entities administer 160 programs, tax expenditures, and other tools GAO identified that supported homeownership and rental housing in fiscal year 2010 (see fig. below).[1] For example, 39 programs, tax expenditures, and other tools provide assistance for buying, selling, or financing a home, such as the single-family guaranteed loan program of the Department of Housing and Urban Developments (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Agricultures (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS), and the Department of Veterans Affairs and the capital gains exclusion on home sales administered by Treasurys Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Eight programs and tax expenditures provide assistance for rental property owners, such as separate project-based rental assistance programs provided by HUD and RHS and accelerated depreciation on rental housing administered by the IRS. Program overlap can occur when agencies and programs address the same or similar needs or target similar populations, and can result in fragmentation.
aSome activities may have multiple purposes.
bActivities undertaken only by the Federal Reserve, not other regulators.
As GAO reported in September 2000, overlap exists between products offered and markets served by USDAs RHS, HUD, and others, and GAO questioned the need for maintaining separate programs for rural areas. GAO recommended that Congress consider requiring USDA and HUD to examine the benefits and costs of merging programs and cited RHSs and FHAs single-family guaranteed loan and multifamily portfolio management programs. In response, USDA noted that such a merger could be detrimental and result in rural areas losing a federal voice. In addition, HUD noted that without legislative changes, any efforts to merge the programs likely would result in a more cumbersome delivery system. The House Committee on Financial Services held hearings in 2011 considering a proposal that would move management of rural housing programs to HUD.
GAOs ongoing work has shown increased evidence that some RHS and FHA programs can be consolidated. For instance, RHS relies on more in-house staff to oversee its single-family and multifamily loan portfolio of about $93 billion than HUD relies on to manage its single-family and multifamily loan portfolio of more than $1 trillion, largely because of differences in delivery structures. RHS has a decentralized structure of about 500 field offices that was set up to interact directly with borrowers. RHS relies on over 1,600 full-time equivalent staff to process and service its direct single-family loans and grants. Since GAOs 2000 report, the trend away from labor-intensive direct loans to guaranteed loans has accelerated. While RHS limits its direct loans to low-income households and its guaranteed loans to moderate-income households, FHA has no income limits and does not offer a comparable direct loan program. HUD operates about 80 field offices and primarily interacts through lenders, nonprofits, and other intermediaries. RHS and FHA programs both utilize FHA-approved lenders and underwriting processes based on FHAs scorecardan automated tool that evaluates new mortgage loans. RHS has about 530 full-time equivalent staff to process its single-family guaranteed loans. FHA relies on lenders to process its loans. Although FHA insures far more mortgages than RHS guarantees, FHA has just over 1,000 full-time equivalent staff to oversee lenders and appraisers and contractors that manage foreclosed propertiescosts for overseeing and disposing of such properties, were $887 million in 2010. In contrast, RHSs costs for foreclosed property management are lower because RHS requires lenders to dispose of foreclosed properties. While the number of RHS field offices decreased by about 40 percent since 2000, its decentralized field structure continues to reflect the era in which it was establishedthe 1930s, when geographic boundaries greatly limited communication and transportation. These limitations have diminished and HUD programs can be used in all areas of the country.
Additionally, the two agencies offer examples of overlap in products offered (mortgage credit and rental assistance), functions performed (portfolio management and preservation), and geographic areas served. For instance, RHS and HUD guarantee single-family and multifamily loans, and offer rental subsidies using similar income eligibility criteria. Also, both agencies have been working to maintain and preserve existing multifamily portfolios. Although RHS may offer its products only in rural areas, it is not always the insurer of choice in those areas. For example, in fiscal year 2009 FHA insured over eight times as many single-family loans in economically distressed rural counties as RHS guaranteed. And, many RHS loan guarantees financed properties near urban areas56 percent of single-family guarantees made in fiscal year 2009 were in metropolitan counties.
As shown in the figure above, Treasury and IRS provide numerous types of housing assistance through tax expenditures. Although often necessary to meet federal priorities, some tax expenditures can contribute to mission fragmentation and program overlap that, in turn, can create service gaps, additional costs, and the potential for duplication. For example, to qualify for a historic preservation tax credit, rehabilitation must preserve historic character, which may conflict with states efforts to produce energy-efficient, low-income properties with tax credits, and could increase project costs. Furthermore, inadequate or missing data and difficulties in quantifying the benefits of some tax expenditures can impede studies of their efficiency, effectiveness, and equity.
Data represent a key challenge, as the data necessary to assess who benefits from tax expenditures is not always collected on tax returns unless IRS needs the information or collection was legislatively mandated. For example, although IRS collects some data on the mortgage interest deduction (the single-largest, housing-related tax expenditure), the data may not contribute to analyses of its effectiveness. Studies by the Joint Committee on Taxation and others differ as to the extent to which the mortgage interest deduction increases homeownership. Some studies suggest that the deduction increases homeownership, while others suggest that the deduction increases the price of housing (and higher prices are negatively associated with homeownership rates). Furthermore, some analyses emphasize the need for additional data to more effectively assess the impact of proposed modifications to the mortgage interest deduction on homeownership.
GAO recommended in September 2005 that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) use information on outlay programs and tax expenditures to recommend to the President and Congress the most effective methods for accomplishing federal objectives. GAO concluded that better targeting by Congress and the executive branch of all federal spending and subsidy programs could save resources and increase economic efficiency. As discussed later, OMB disagreed with GAOs 2005 recommendations.
[1]See appendix III for the list of programs, tax expenditures, and other tools that supported homeownership and rental housing in fiscal year 2010 and their related budgetary information. Many of these programs/activities incurred no obligations in fiscal year 2010 for a number of reasons, such as the program/activity was not part of the federal budget or was inactive during the year.
HUD and RHS have shared beneficial practices. For example, RHS collaborated with HUD on restructuring multifamily mortgages, underwriting guaranteed loans, and making properties more energy-efficient. In 2010, the White Houses Domestic Policy Council established a Rental Policy Working Group to better coordinate among HUD, USDA, and Treasury. The agencies have been aligning rules for rental programs, will examine homeownership programs, and expect to accept each others inspections and forms for housing programs. In 2011, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity developed draft legislation and hosted hearings in May and September on a proposal to move management of rural housing programs from USDA to HUD. At the May hearing, while some industry experts said the consolidation plan merited further discussion, others stated the proposal could negatively affect USDAs efforts to deliver its other rural development programs. In September, the RHS Administrator testified that while she believed RHS and HUD shared an important commitment to meeting the housing needs of rural America, she opposed the draft legislation. She believed that RHS housing services uniquely served rural communities by working in synergy with other rural development programs.
GAO recommended in September 2000 that Congress consider requiring USDA and HUD to examine the benefits and costs of merging those programs that serve similar markets and provide similar products. Further, GAO noted that as a first step, the Congress could consider requiring RHS and HUD to explore merging their single-family insured lending programs and multifamily portfolio management programs, taking advantage of the best practices of each and ensuring that targeted populations are not adversely affected.
The agencies have been working to align certain requirements of the various multifamily housing programs. In addition, in February 2011, the Administration reported to Congress that it would establish a task force to evaluate the potential for coordinating or consolidating the housing loan programs at HUD, USDA, and VA. According to HUD, a benchmarking effort associated with the task force was recently begun. GAOs ongoing work considers options for consolidating these programs and GAO expects to make additional recommendations.
GAO recommended in September 2005 and reiterated in March 2011 that coordinated reviews of tax expenditures with related spending programs could help policymakers reduce overlap and inconsistencies and direct scarce resources to the most-effective or least-costly methods to deliver federal support. Coordinated reviews of support of housing, which consists of tax expenditures and federal programs and regulations, could be useful. Specifically, GAO recommended in September 2005 and March 2011 that the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury should
OMB, citing methodological and conceptual issues, disagreed with GAOs 2005 recommendations. To date, OMB has not used its budget and performance review processes to systematically review tax expenditures and promote integrated reviews of related tax and spending programs. However, in its fiscal year 2012 budget guidance, OMB instructed agencies, where appropriate, to analyze how to better integrate tax and spending policies with similar objectives and goals. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 also envisions such an approach for selected crosscutting areas.[1] Such analysis could help identify redundancies.
[1]The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 established a new, crosscutting, and integrated framework for achieving results and improving government performance. It requires OMB to coordinate with agencies to establish outcome-oriented goals covering a limited number of crosscutting policy areas and to develop a governmentwide performance plan for making progress toward achieving those goals. The executive branch and Congress could use this process to identify a6nd address program areas where strengthened interagency coordination is needed to better achieve results as well as areas of fragmentation, overlap, and duplication.
The information in this submission is based on findings from the products listed in the related GAO products section and additional work GAO conducted. GAO reviewed prior reports as well as collected and analyzed preliminary information from housing industry, USDA, and HUD officials, on examples of overlap or fragmentation in products offered, functions performed, and geographic areas served by various federal housing programs. GAO developed a catalog of direct spending programs, tax expenditures, and other activities used by federal agencies and financial regulators to support rental housing and homeownership, and identified what is known about the purpose, cost, eligibility, and populations served. GAO reviewed the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, agency program documentation, and previous studies by the Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office, and other housing groups, and interviewed agency officials. GAO also reviewed the fiscal year 2012 Presidents Budget, agencies budget justification, the Joint Committee on Taxations estimates of tax expenditures, and a compendium of tax expenditures prepared by the Congressional Research Service to obtain information on obligations, full-time equivalents, credit subsidy costs, administrative costs, and revenue loss estimates incurred by the federal government in administering housing programs. See pages 351-370 of the PDF version of this report (appendix III) for a list of the programs GAO identified that may have similar or overlapping objectives, provide similar services or be fragmented across government missions. Overlap and fragmentation may not necessarily lead to actual duplication, and some degree of overlap and duplication may be justified.
GAO provided a draft of this report section to USDA, HUD, Department of Veterans Affairs, Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, OMB, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, and the Farm Credit Administration for review and comment. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provided no comments. All other agencies provided technical comments, which were incorporated as appropriate. USDA reiterated the position that its rural agencies and programs, including the delivery system, serve a unique purpose and are vital to the rural communities they serve. In addition, USDA noted its recent efforts to streamline and improve the effectiveness of federal programs that serve rural communities, as part of the agencys involvement in the Presidents Rural Council. OMB stated that it agrees that savings might be achieved from the partial consolidation of guaranteed loan programs across agencies, but noted that any savings may be limited because USDAs decentralized field offices support more than loan guarantee programs. OMB also indicated that they will identify tax expenditures which support the achievement of a limited number of cross-agency priority goals along with the fiscal year 2013 Presidents Budget, as required by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010.
For additional information about this area, contact Mathew Scirè at
(202) 512-8678 or firstname.lastname@example.com or James White at (202) 512-9110 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Jump to another area below related to this mission.


text:
Top Picks for Sunscreens Under $15
New rules require sunscreen manufacturers to offer fewer claims (no more "waterproof" labels) and clearer instructions--great news when it comes to protecting you from the harmful effects of the sun. But when you're staring at the selection of sunscreens on the drugstore shelves, the choice of which to buy can still seem overwhelming.
So we've selected five top brands based on research by the Environmental Working Group, an environmental health research and advocacy group, for its 2013 sunscreen guide. Keep reading to find out which sunscreen is right for you. Bonus: None of these costs more than $14.
Best Overall Value
Nature's Gate Aquablock, SPF 50, $10
With chamomile and shea butter to soothe and smooth skin exposed to the sun, we loved this product even more than the EWG because of the price. EWG gave it a great safety and purity rating, too.
Best For Face
Beyond Coastal Lip & Face Screen, SPF 30, $14
Simpy put: Anything that comes this close to your lips and mouth should be made of the purest ingredients. That's why this tub stands out for the high marks it gets from the EWG for healthy ingredients. Almost good enough to eat!
Best Organic
All Terrain Aqua Sport Broad Spectrum SPF 30, $9
Zinc oxide is one of the best purest broad spectrum active ingredients out there. This product has a whopping 16 percent—yet specially formulated so it doesn't leave the trademark thick white paste on skin that zinc oxide is known for. It's also Oxybenzone-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, and made from biodegradable ingredients. No wonder this award-winning lotion is a fave among the green crowd.
Best for Kids
There are a lot of great, safe sunscreens for kids. (Who doesn't look for the purest ingredients for new skin?) However, they can be very expensive. That's why we give a nod to this brand that keeps it real for under $10. One note to new parents: Experts do not recommend sunscreen for infants six months old or younger because of concerns about how their skin will react. So keep them in the shade or indoors during the sunniest months.
Best for Sensitive Skin
Vanicream Sensitive Sunscreen SPF 30, $11
This dermatologist fave is powerful enough to protect against UVA and UVB rays, with main ingredients like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. But it's mild enough to be used by those with sensitive skin (calling all you rosacea sufferers out there). The lotion is free of dyes, lanolin, fragrance, parabens, and other preservatives.
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Summer Styles With Staying Power


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Here's how RW members rated this race in the past (168 votes).
In short: Zoom zoom zoom to a PB !!In full: First time at this event for me and I thought it was great. Flattest course I have ever seen which helped me knock over 90 seconds off my PB. It was fantastic to be able to get into a good running rythym and hardly any turns (only one sharpish u-turn at about 7.5k).Excellent announcer before the race kept us up to date with all that was happening. Nice medal and goody bag - the random appearance of toothbrush and toothpaste made me smile (aha, maybe that was the point as we should all have been smiling on this super duper PB course).Date of review: July 30, 2011
In short: PB heaven!In full: It does not get quicker than this! Pancake flat course and in good weather this course is lightning fast. Well organised and a good atmosphereDate of review: July 30, 2011
In short: Great atmosphere, so well organised. Goody bag, fruit, drink and a great medal at the end. Date of review: July 30, 2011
In short: Great scenery, organisation and PB potentialIn full: I entered this race as I was looking for a 10k this weekend to fit into my half marathon training schedule, and I'm glad I did.It was the first race I'd done with pacers, given my previous best was 51:16 (on a cooler day at Dunsfold with a nasty headwind) I opted to stick with the 50 minute pacers. This was a good plan as they were a minute up pretty much all the way round. In the end I crossed the line with them with a chip time of 48:51, so I was very happy.Otherwise the venue is lovely, the goody bag great - although I have to say it's the first I've ever seen with a toothbrush and toothpaste in (guess it's because of all the sweets they chucked in as well!) and a pretty decent medal to boot.I think it's fair to say I'll do it again next year, hopefully it will be slightly cooler though!Date of review: July 30, 2011
In short: nice flat course, great organizationIn full: Really enjoyed this, nice flat course, no congestion on route and goody bag and very nice medal at the endDate of review: July 30, 2011
In short: well organised and enjoyable event with perfect weatherIn full: just a shame I could not keep up with the 50 minute pacers who should be re named the 48 minute pacers!Date of review: July 30, 2011
In short: super Quick - pacers were a great touchIn full: Have avoided Dorney due to the dull 'twice round the lake' stigma attached to it. But hey, today was accompanied by some glorious weather, and good atmosphere. Quite a large field lined-up with a good mix of club runners and beginners. The pacers made the event for me and I got a PB, so I have nothing to complain about. The goody bag was very generous, and I came away extremely pleased, and will be back next year. The only niggle was not knowing there were plenty of loos. I queued for the main ones, but failed to see the inside ones, or the male urinals - still, we had plenty of time to spare, so it wasn't that much of an issue. Thanks to the organisers, marshals and pacers - you were all excellent.Date of review: July 30, 2011
In short: Dull, but Flat as a pancake! In full: 2010 race. I've done a few races round this lake - it can be dull, but a good crowd makes it better - and we had that. Pacers this year, but I lost them early on. It is flat as a pancake, which is fabulous. Date of review: July 16, 2010
In short: Very well organized .However, a couple of laps around a lake is not the most interesting Date of review: May 15, 2010
In short: Excellent event, look forward to next year!In full: Nice flat run, really enjoyed it. Nice medal and goody bag at the end.Date of review: May 12, 2010
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- Stain-blocking paint & primer in one
- Guards against damage from sunlight, moisture & dirt
- Low temperature application
- Model
- 485005
- Internet/Catalog:
- 205231253
For a classic look on your home's exterior walls, choose BEHR Premium Plus Flat Exterior Paint. This traditional, non-reflective matte sheen minimizes surface imperfections on wood and vinyl siding. It provides excellent touch-up to help maintain the look and it can also be used on stucco, brick and other masonry, as well as fences.
Info & Guides
- Suitable for application on wood, vinyl, stucco, aluminum, metals, steel, doors, windows, trim, shutters, garage doors and outdoor furniture
- 100% acrylic base provides exceptional adhesion and durability
- Extra-protective shell guards against damage caused by UV rays and severe weather conditions for a long-lasting freshly painted look with minimal maintenance
- Enhanced mildew resistant finish
- Exceptional hide, covers up to 2000 sq. ft. depending on color selected and surface porosity
- Flat sheen offers a traditional matte appearance
- Formulated for easy clean-up with soap and water
- Actual paint colors may vary from on-screen and printer representations
- GREENGUARD Certified products are certified to GREENGUARD standards for low chemical emissions into indoor air during product usage. For more information, visit ul.com/gg.
- Online Price includes Paint Care fee in the following states: CA, CO, CT, ME, MN, OR, RI, VT
- Color Family :
- Blues
- Color/Finish :
- After Rain
- Container Size :
- 5 GA-Gallon
- Coverage Area (sq. ft.) :
- 2000
- Dry to touch (min.) :
- 120
- Interior/ Exterior Paint :
- Exterior Paint
- Minimum Temperature for Use (F) :
- 50
- Paint & Primer in One :
- Yes
- Paint/Stain Clean Up :
- Soap & Water
- Paint/Stain Key Features :
- Low Temperature,Mildew Resistant,Splatter Resistant,UV/Fade Resistant
- RGB Value :
- 193:218:235
- Returnable :
- Non-Returnable
- Sheen :
- Flat/Matte
- Time before recoating (hours) :
- 4
- Tint Base :
- Base 1
- Transparency :
- Solid
Ratings & Reviews89% of customers recommend this product
- This product has primer in it...
July 21, 2013
- Recommended Product
One coat of paint to cover. I love the color more in person. I am very satisfied with this selection.Pros Even Application, Easy to Apply, Good Coverage, Easy to Clean, Easy to Use, Looks High End, Dries Quickly
LadySherMaryland, USA
4 out of 4 people found this helpful
Shipping & Delivery OptionsShipping options for [zipcode] (change)
Arrival dates and shipping costs shown above are estimates.See exact dates and costs and select your preferred shipping option during checkout.
Express Delivery from Store is available for items currently in stock at a The Home Depot store within a delivery ZIP code. A driver from a local store will deliver the item(s).
Outside Delivery: Service includes delivery to area outside the house which is accessible by delivery equipment.
Threshold Delivery: Service includes delivery across your first doorway or threshold (ie. garage, backyard, deck, first room of the home).
This item cannot be shipped to the following state(s): AK,GU,HI,PR,VI


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Enjoy these Passover recipes during the Jewish holiday and year-round.
Passover begins next week, and we have a variety of healthy Passover recipes worth celebrating. From modern, healthy takes on traditional Jewish foods to adapted family recipes passed down for generations, this collection of recipes will start the season right. Brought to you by: Spry Living


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Maingear, a well-known maker of advanced personal computers, on Thursday unveiled a new relatively low-cost "Pulse" system that the company calls "the world's greenest" gaming PC. The system is powered by Nvidia GeForce 9300/9400 core-logic set and is equipped with energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs) and graphics cards.
Maingear Pulse is based on Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processors with 65W thermal design power (TDP) and Nvidia GeForce 9300/9400 chipset (also known as Ion platform) with built-in graphics core. The system may be equipped with Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT ECO graphics card, which is claimed to be 40% more energy efficient compared to typical model 9800 GT. Maingear offers to install up to 8GB DDR2 memory, up to 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" Serial ATA hard drive (currently there are no 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" HDDs on the market, there are either 320GB/7200rpm or 500GB/5400rpm – Editor) or up to 160GB solid-state drive. The Pulse features 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 7.1 audio-over-HDMI with LPCM, 5.1 analog audio and may be equipped with Blu-ray disc optical drive and TV-Tuner. Since Maingear uses relatively low-power components, the system utilizes 300W 80+ power supply unit, which limits system upgrade with high-end processors or graphics cards.
"Nvidia's Ion platform has opened up a new realm of possibility for small form factor PCs. By delivering a GeForce-upgradeable product, we are maximizing Ion's potential with high performance, energy efficient CPUs and GPUs to deliver a powerful and balanced computing solution in a sleek, inconspicuous design. It's a tremendous option for the living room, a dorm, or for the kids, said Wallace Santos, founder and chief executive officer of Maingear.
Even though Maingear advertises Pulse as the "world's greenest" gaming PC, the claim may be questioned. For example, the company could use DDR3 memory that consumes less energy compared to DDR2 and also could utilize ATI Radeon HD 4770 graphics card that delivers higher performance than Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT ECO despite lower power consumption. Additionally, computer case made of stainless steel is not exactly good for recycling, furthermore, its manufacturing caused a lot of hazardous emissions. Nevertheless, Maingear's Pulse is definitely among the first systems in the world with reduced power consumption positioned for gamers. In fact, when fully loaded, the system consumes just 145W, according to Maingear.
The base price for the Pulse is $799 and the system comes with Maingear's standard lifetime labor and phone support with 14-month hardware warranty.
Tags: Maingear, Pulse, Nvidia, Geforce, Ion, Intel, Core, G92b


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by Anton Shilov
Qualcomm, a leading developer of system-on-chip (SoC) products, admitted that ARM-based systems in clamshell form-factor - which the company itself called smartbooks* once - have not met the expectations and are essentially dead.
During the company's IQ 2010 event earlier this week Qualcomm's chief executive officer Paul Jacobs confirmed that the smartbooks product category was dead since slates like Apple iPad and upcoming rivals had already occupied the niche Qualcomm expected smartbooks to, reports SlashGear web-site. Tablet personal computers are "always-on, all-day devices" and it does not look like smartbooks can fit into that market.
The fundamental issue with smartbooks is that they are supposed to be based on Linux operating system, which was not too successful with netbooks. However, when it comes to tablets with specifically tailored operating environment along with touch-screen input, Linux may well have a chance. Moreover, since people tend to expect more from clamshell form-factor devices, smartbooks are unlikely to deliver to expectations, meanwhile, the demands from tablets will be much lower, partly because one will hardly use many applications or demanding applications on them. Finally, slate PCs are more suitable for consumption of multimedia content on the go, basic web-browsing or reading electronic books than clamshell PCs and everything shows that e-books and multimedia are gaining market acceptance.
"We see more tablet projects in the works than smartbooks, but the clamshell form-factor is still viable for consumers with heavy text input on the web (email, IM chat). It is subjective, so both tablets and smartbooks will have market acceptance via segmentation," said Bill Henry, director of Tegra product management at Nvidia, in an interview earlier this year.
As a result, going forward Qualcomm itself is likely to tailor its SoCs for slates. Obviously, some companies on the emerging markets can still use them for smartbooks, but the developed world has made its choice: tablets and smartphones.
*While we do understand that the company called Smartbook AG owns the appropriate trademark in certain countries, in this particular article we use the term "smartbook" to refer to mobile computers in clamshell form-factors that are powered by ARM architecture-based microprocessors or system-on-chip devices.


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- Subjects:Classroom Management, Parent and Teacher Communication, Teacher Tips and Strategies, Working with Families and the Community, Technology, Communication and the Internet
Using Web 2.0 Tools in Your Classroom
- Grades: 1–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12
There are many teachers at various levels of tech savviness that are charging into the classroom armed with awesome tools from the Web. Many of these programs can be used with kids and adults in many capacities. Your imagination will determine how to use it. The sky's the limit!
Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com.
edublog — FREE Why start a blog? It's easy to use and makes communicating with your colleagues easy. It also allows students and parents to interact with you and each other. Unlike a static Web site that only allows you to post information, a blog allows other to comment. It allows your voice to be heard out there in the blogosphere where others can validate your ideas and opinions or challenge you to react. (Wikispaces are awesome for that, too. Others can also upload information on Wikispaces and add to your page!)
Jing — This is a program that you can download for free. It allows you to take video screen captures on your computer and record your voice. It's great for making videos on how to open a new word document for kids, for instance, or for recording anything you see or do on the computer. All it takes is a click of your mouse on the Jing icon.
Animoto — FREE A great Web site for making a dynamic slide show with your video clips, photos, and music. Extremely user friendly, it gives you an embed code for your Web site or blog, a link to share with others via email or Facebook, and the ability to download the slide show or burn it to a DVD. Be sure to sign up for the educator version. I used an Animoto slide show in my previous post to create the tour of my classroom.
Blabberize — FREE This site is silly and loads of fun, allowing you to animate portions of a photo or clip art to make it look like the subject talks. So, for example, if I uploaded a photo of a cowboy, I could draw a cutout around his jaw and make the jaw go up and down as if he's talking. Then you record what you want the photo to say via upload, computer mic, or phone message and save it! Kids and adults think the results are funny, and it's super easy to use. I have the kids animate a self-portrait that they draw from the first day of school and tell something about themselves. Later in the year, we animate famous people for reports.
VoiceThread $60/year includes up to 100 student accounts. This Web site allows you to post a thread about anything that includes a video or photos. People can then add to the thread or leave a comment with their computer mic, keyboard, or with an old-fashioned telephone. The thread below explains what VoiceThread is and goes through a few examples. You can fast forward in the VoiceThread book by using the big arrow keys in the voice thread box. There are threads for every age and grade level. If you go to VoiceThread, search for the kindergarten thread on seasons. Many people across the country added to the thread, and it's cool to watch. Sign up for the educator account.
Glogster — FREE Glogster is a cool Web 2.0 tool that you can use in your classroom to introduce a new topic or have your kids create one for a culminating project or report. A glog incorporates video, sound, text, photos, and clip art on one Web page. If your students are creating a report, it's probably geared for grades 4 and up. If you as a teacher are creating a glog to launch a theme, it's a great way to really capture the students' attention. The Glogster Web site has tons of great examples, but Mary Blow, Scholastic advisor for grades 6–8, made an excellent glog to introduce herself. Check out her blog post about glogs. Sign up for the free educator account.
Prezi — FREE This is a great presentation tool to use in lieu of PowerPoint. It's similar to PowerPoint, but it's a little more nonlinear and cleanly designed. Instead of multiple slides in a presentation, Prezi uses one slide that you can zoom into to see your next segment or zoom out to show the next segment. You can also download Prezi onto your computer. Again, sign up for the educator version.
SignUpGenius — FREE This simple and easy to use site allows users to sign up for things online. For example, I use it for my volunteer sign-ups and party sign-ups. It keeps the chart online, notifies me when something changes, and emails a reminder to everyone a day or two before the event.
Creative Commons — FREE This site encompasses several other sites including flikr, jamendo, blip.tv, and Yahoo! images. It has tags that allow you to search for copyright free or limited copyright images, video, or music. This is a great resource for finding the right material to create multimedia presentations, glogs, podcasts, etc.
What is your favorite Web 2.0 tool and how do you use it?
Happy teaching,
Comments (10)
Elisabeth, I'm glad that you found something that you could use! Thanks for your comment.
Happy Teaching, Nancy
Thanks a lot! It helped me a lot! Especially video editing programme!
Betty, Thanks for your comment! I'm hoping that the easy to use aspect will encourage teachers and kids to use them.
Happy teaching, Nancy
Brent, Thanks! If you sign up for the educator account, you can make videos longer than 30 sec. for free.
Happy Teaching, Nancy
Yeah, these are great tools a teacher can use. It is innovative and suitable for today's' generation because kids just love technology and everything about the internet.
Nancy, Nice list and summary of each tool. I have used Animoto. That is easy and fun...even if you only do the free 30 second version.
Prezi is awesome. I have never made a presentation with Prezi, but I have watched them. Very cool when done the right way. And BRAIN FRIENDLY!
I think I am going to try the Sign Up Genius. Sounds useful. Thanks for the insights. Brent
Mary, I'm not sure if this will fit your needs, but it's a great tool for treat sign ups and volunteers. You could probably use it as a calendar tool, but play with it a bit. It's super easy to use. Thanks for your comment!!
Nancy Jang
Nancy, I'm glad that you are enjoying my posts! Jing is an awesome tool and can be used with so many grades and subjects. It's great to see how you are using it in your class!
Happy Teaching, Nancy Jang
Nancy, I can't beging to explain how often I use Jing. If I had to pick the one tool I use the most, Jing is it.
Sign Up Genius is new to me. Can you use this as a calendar reminder. I used to use Google Calendar; however, Google is not forcing the calendar reminders into gmail. I just don't have time to monitor so many e-mail accounts. I prefer a calendar reminder system that will e-mail directly into my school account.
Great post! I love Jing. My students use it paired with Paintbrush to create demo videos on solving different kinds of Math problems. They are completely engaged in the task, and it's fun project. If they are "teaching" each other, they remember it better!


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As the largest barrier island within the Ten Thousand Islands area, Marco features beaches that are consistently ranked among the nation's best. But there is much more to the island's 24 square miles than meets the beachcomber's eye. Discover this Southwest Florida gem with our insider's guide from A to Z.
Art in Marco Island ranges from casual gift shops to serious collections. At the top of the list is the Elizabeth Evans Gallery. Founder Diana Evans Gratz has created a gallery of fine art photography (think Iran Issa Khan and Greg Lotus) where discriminating art lovers fawn over exhibits such as Bryan Bogater's "Forgotten America" collection. Marco Island Center for the Arts also hosts events, workshops and classes, while showcasing the work of many artists at the Lauritzen & Rush Gallery and La Petite Galerie.
|This shot at the Marriott Marco Island Resort & Spa is a prime of example of why Marco Island's beaches are consistantly ranked as some of the nation's best.
Beaches. Marco Island has more than 100 miles of waterways and six miles of shoreline. The beach at Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort is a wide berth of sand that beckons on lazy afternoons between lunch at Quinn's on the Beach and drinks at sunset. Public beaches like South Marco Beach and Tigertail Beach draw water babies and sun worshippers. Family-oriented Tigertail features the famous Sand Dollar Spit (once a detached island) where you can go shelling, fishing and birdwatching to spot everything from herons and egrets to ibis and terns.
Cocktails & Brews. When you've finished exploring and it's time to sit back with a libation, the gazebo holds up the happy-hour fun at CJ's on the Bay in the Esplanade Shoppes. That's where you'll also find locally owned Mango's Dockside Bistro and its lovely tropical cocktail menu. For beer connoisseurs, the Marco Island Brewery is home to excellent craft beers and burgers. And Don Henley's classic tune "Down at the Sunset Grill" may not have been about the Sunset Grill in the Apollo Condos on Marco Island, but it's worth a stop nonetheless—the views and vibe are all island.
Photo by Kelly Merritt
Dining Options. There's no shortage of places to eat on Marco, whether it's a quick bite or a lavish meal—and we're sharing some of our favorites. For a quick bite, try Empire Bagel (239-642-4141) on Collier Boulevard and Marco Island Italian Deli. For a variety of gluten-free options, check out Summer Day Market & Café. When dining out in the evening, some sumptuous dishes we love are the west Florida cobia with vegetables and morel emulsion at Fin Bistro, the mushroom crostini in gorgonzola cream sauce at Verdi's and the shellfish bisque and lobster thermidore at Marek's Restaurant. And we're still craving the melt-in-your-mouth croissants and Comté mac n' cheese at Petit Soleil.
Events. Contrasting with the serenity of the beaches are events happening across the island in any given week. Among the most popular: the Marco Island Paddle Challenge at The Esplanade Marina; Annual Mullet Festival at Stan's Idle Hour; Marco Island Film Festival; Southwest Florida Soap Fest Charity Weekend for local children's charities; and Goodland's Annual Holiday Bazaar (239-734-5523). Event dates are subject to change, so check with the organizations for details.
Continue to page two for F through J.


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