text:
Carbon Fiber 2013 Conference Report
Opportunities knock in Knoxville: CF 2013 featured nearly 30 speakers and almost 300 attendees, representing a wide range of participating industry, government and academic organizations.
#cuttingtools #precursor #sheetmoldingcompound
At CompositesWorld's Carbon Fiber 2013 conference, held Dec. 9-12 in Knoxville, Tenn., CW's conference director Scott Stephenson capped 16 years of experience in conference organization on this subject with his best attended and most informative event yet. The 2013 edition featured nearly 30 speakers and almost 300 attendees, representing a wide range of participating industry, government and academic organizations. HPC staffers were on hand and identified the following highlights (for more, see "Automotive CFRP: The shape fo thigns to come," under "Editor's Picks," at top right).
Featured Content
Carbon fiber in transportation
A highlight in recent years has been Chris Red's Market Outlooks. This year, Red's three-hour pre-conference presentation, "Emerging Opportunities and Challenges for Carbon Fiber in Passenger Automobiles: Is the CFRP industry ready for mass production?" asked and answered questions that were top-of-mind for many attendees. Red, who heads market research firm Composites Forecasts and Consulting LLC (Mesa, Ariz.), said the automotive industry today accounts for about 6 percent of the world's total carbon fiber demand. He identified 104 car models that now feature OEM-specified carbon fiber composites to some degree despite the current cost of raw fiber. However, he warned that the continuing raw material cost disparity, carbon fiber vs. aluminum and steel, and even more importantly, processing challenges, will likely stall progress. "We can't get into mid- and high-volume model production scenarios within the next 10 years," he pointed out, but allowed that legislation that mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be a powerful driver for OEMs, who must dramatically improve auto efficiency and meet end-of-life recycling goals in the coming decade. Given these competing forces, Red believes that mid- to full-size luxury cars, luxury sports cars and some SUVs and CUVs hold the most promise for carbon composites adoption.
Red asserted that there are good opportunities beyond exterior body panels for carbon fiber composites, particularly in suspension components, such as chassis frames, powertrain elements, brakes and wheels. Of the OEMs examined in his research, BMW (Munich, Germany) and the Volkswagen Group (Wolfsburg, Germany) are the biggest users of carbon fiber at present. A joint venture between Brembo SpA (Curno, Italy) and SGL Carbon SE (Wiesbaden, Germany) is one of the largest single users of carbon fiber materials, with a dominant market share. Not surprisingly, 70 percent of carbon fiber composite part suppliers are located in Europe. Among the largest are ITCA Colonnella SpA (Colonnella, Italy), Sotira (Meslay du Maine, France) and Mubea Carbo Tech Composites GmbH (Salzburg, Germany). Some North American firms made his "biggest" composites supplier list, including Morrison Molded Fiber Glass Companies (Ashtabula, Ohio), Multimatic Inc. (Markham, Ontario, Canada) and Plasan Carbon Composites (Bennington, Vt. and Walker, Mich.). Red concluded that, despite a drop in carbon fiber usage in automotive of nearly 50 percent between 2005 and 2010, the identified vehicle population in his research will, over the next 10 years — and without a speculative demand add-on — consume more than 173 million lb/78.6 million kg of carbon fiber. "Outside of wind energy," he concluded, "the automobile represents the biggest growth opportunity for carbon fiber market growth and penetration." (For a more in-depth look at Red's findings, see "Learn More," p. XX)
In addition to Red's preconference observations, conference attendees were offered a mixed menu of auto-related presentations. Plasan's chief technology officer Gary Lownsdale updated attendees on his company's work in developing equipment and processes for medium-volume manufacture of composite parts and structures for automobiles. The company's 200,000-ft2/18,580m2 plant in Warren is producing 30,000 to 50,000 vehicle sets per year, Lownsdale reported, with new equipment on the way that will boost capacity to 100,000 vehicles sets annually. Most of the facility's carbon fiber work is focused on General Motors Co,'s (Detroit, Mich.) Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and Corvette Stingray and Chrysler Goup LLC's (Auburn Hills, Mich.) SRT Viper. Parts for these programs are manufactured using Plasan's RapidClave system, developed in partnership with Globe Machine Manufacturing Co. (Tacoma, Wash.). The RapidClave acts as a high-speed autoclave, reducing cycle times from 90 to 17 minutes by use of a ram-actuated air column inside a sealed chamber. Lownsdale said the RapicClave produces parts with Class A surfaces and has been a significant technology upgrade for the processor. "We're moving from hours per part to parts per hour," he quipped.
As work at the Warren facility evolves, Lownsdale said Plasan is looking to increase layup automation, reduce RapidClave cycle time to 7 minutes and develop RTM capability — the latter coming by way of a recently announced investment in Plasan by carbon fiber source Toray Industries Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). Plasan also is looking at increased thermoplastics use by way of a combined pultrusion/compression molding process that might offer cycle times as short as two minutes.
The transportation market will continue to be Plasan's major focus for the next several years, Lownsdale said, adding that the company is considering establishment of miniature plants globally to serve a variety of geographies.
Volkswagen AG's Hendrik Mainka, part of the company's materials and processes group, confirmed that the company is building a carbon fiber production facility in Germany, and is also involved with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tenn.) lignin precursor production facility to evaluate that material's possible application to automotive parts. Despite lignin's shortcomings, such as greater brittleness than polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor, use of a lignin precursor could save 40 percent in production costs compared to PAN-based fiber, he predicts.
Mike Siwajek, director of research at Continental Structural Plastics (CSP, Auburn Hills, Mich.) described his company's work on producing carbon fiber sheet molding compound (SMC), a material that is 45 percent lighter than glass SMC and up to 72 percent lighter than steel. The company has produced and tested demonstration parts, and is currently fine-tuning forms and fibers. The company's Pouance, France plant, formerly a Sotira Automotive facility, is the location for trials of resin transfer molding (RTM) processing of carbon parts, at very fast cycle times with highly reactive resin systems.
Sigmatex (UK) Ltd. (Runcorn, U.K.) technical manager Chris McHugh spoke about his company's efforts is to improve the "attractiveness" of carbon fiber for high-volume automotive applications. The key, he said, is multifunctionality, combining different fibers to create hybrids, making lighter-weight fabrics with spread tows, or weaving preforms in a high-speed process. For example, Sigmatex has developed a "scaffolding" method to minimize crimp in 2-D woven fabrics, with no surface resin treatment needed. The company also has developed a high-speed spread-tow weaving technology with reduced crimp. He also described how the company's waste fibers are reused, by combining and consolidating the dry fibers into a mat or "sliver" (pronounced sly-ver) and commingling them with a thermoplastic matrix, forming a product called sigmaRF. The product offers automotive parts producers a lower-cost and environmentally sustainable carbon material option, says McHugh.
Many eyebrows were raised at the conference by Patrick Blanchard, technical leader, Composites Group at Ford Motor Co. Research & Advanced Engineering (Dearborn, Mich.), who addressed emerging CAFE standards and Ford's lightweighting efforts. He reminded the audience that CAFE targets progress annually and require 3.5 percent fuel-efficiency improvements, year over year, through 2025. He also noted that Ford research shows that consumers are not concerned about vehicle weight. They are most concerned with vehicle handling and braking and safety. Although vehicle weight affects these things, he said, weight by itself is unimportant. Finally, he claimed that powertrain advances that involve hybrid electric and plug-in electric technologies alone will enable Ford and other OEMs to meet CAFE targets. Reductions in vehicle weight, he argued, will extend the range of high-efficiency cars, but weight elimination is not necessary to increase efficiency. That said, he did note that weight is an issue, because new customer features in cars and trucks, since 1998, have added 17 lb/year to each new car model and 43 lb/year to each new truck model. Ford, Blanchard noted, is looking at aluminum and lightweight steel to help trim mass (Ford subsequently announced that its newest Ford F-150 pickup truck would use an aluminum frame). These "legacy" materials, he explained, fit best with Ford's manufacturing systems, which of course favor metals. By comparison, carbon fiber composites, he noted, are lacking in several respects: Their production processes are not scalable to auto OEM volumes. Design and CAE tools need improvement. Robust repair technologies are not yet available. An adequate fiber supply is not yet in evidence. And carbon composite are not yet proven to be compatible with vehicle painting processes. Notably, Blanchard's objections did not include the high cost of raw fiber, but in a subsequent Q&A session, he said he left price out of his presentation because Ford's infrastructure requirements present the bigger hurdles to the material. Blanchard noted that Ford has 39 assembly plants, globally, which produce 7 million vehicles per year. Reconfiguring those plants to accommodate carbon fiber manufacture, he clamed, would be prohibitively expensive. Nevertheless, he did say that he thinks composites usage in automotive has a future, particularly in multimaterial applications, but he made clear that carbon fiber use at Ford is not a forgone conclusion.
Mark Campbell of MW Industries Inc.'s (Rosemont, Ill.) Hyperco division offered an example of how elegant and simple a composites solution can be. Despite his position as the leader of new product development at the world's largest supplier of suspension components and springs to the racing industry, company management made the decision to explore carbon fiber composites for racing springs. Initial helical designs were complete failures, because they lacked sufficient strength in torsion. While the company looked at other ways to use carbon fiber, including in "bump stops" (cushioning devices that limits the upward movement of the wheel suspension to prevent damage from metal-to-metal contact) on NASCAR race cars (which were ultimately banned by NASCAR racing officials), Campbell said an "a-ha" moment resulted when several thin "Belleville washers" (saucer-like carbon/epoxy discs) were stacked — back to front to back, etc. — atop each other (see photo, p. XX). The MW team found that by molding in lip/flange details, the discs could interlock when stacked, and could be flipped over and restacked in different configurations to achieve different spring rates. Hyperco is able to achieve very high spring rates when the discs are compressed, without any internal side loading friction on the spring shaft that is typical of conventional coil springs, because the discs remain parallel in compression. A&P Technology supplied the fiber forms, which were prepregged by TCR Composites Inc. (Ogden, Utah). The spring design, which Campbell calls "game-changing," goes by the name of Carbon Composite Bellow Springs and is reportedly "revolutionizing" the sports car racing industry. Other sporting goods applications are on the horizon, says Campbell.
Although much attention was focused on forms of motorized transport, Lance Criscuolo, president of Zyvex Technologies Inc. (Columbus, Ohio), provided an update on his company's efforts to bring carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to composite structures in the world of bycycling. Zyvex sells resin systems and prepregs that feature carbon nanotubes integrated within the resin matrix and functionalized to enhance product performance. Noted advantages included intermediate-fiber performance from standard carbon fibers, good abrasion resistance, high fracture toughness, good crack resistance and better transfer of mechanical loads to the carbon fiber, — and a minimal cost premium (+3 to +6 percent). Criscuolo pointed in particular to Zyvex' work with Enve Composites (Ogden, Utah), which manufactures carbon fiber mountain bike racing wheels. Typical mountain bike wheels, Criscuolo said, fail after only one race, necessitating expensive and frequent replacement. Enve developed the Arove 250, made with Zyvex' Arovex prepreg with CNTs, and demonstrated substantial improvement: One wheel now lasts more than 125 races before failure.
Carbon fiber in commercial aerospace
Mark Rigalski, a senior technical fellow at The Boeing Co.'s (Chicago Ill.) operations in Seattle, Wash.), discussed in broad terms his company's current and future plans to incorporate carbon fiber into large aerostructures. He reported that Boeing is bullish about commercial air travel globally in the next 20 years, anticipating annual growth of 4.1 percent in airline passengers, 5 percent in total air traffic and 5.1 percent in cargo traffic. Boeing, he noted, is focused primarily on 787 Dreamliner production ramp-up, 777X material and manufacturing decisions, and material selection for a 737 replacement. He reported that the economics that drove composites use on the 787 are not yet as good on a 737 replacement, but said that a switch to carbon fiber wings for the 777X will make that plane 35 percent composite, by weight — second only to its 787 in terms of composites content on Boeing aircraft. Expanding on Boeing's recyclability and sustainability goals, Rigalski said that material choice in aircraft is becoming increasingly important, but must always be balanced against efficiency. He commented that aluminum's easy recyclability still makes it attractive, but admitted, "you wouldn't want to use a heavier material on a plane just because it's recyclable."
In what the CompositesWorld staff believes was the first public disclosure of this work, Dave Kehrl of A&P Technology Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio) described his company's support of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner program. It began in 2003, during initial trade studies, at a time when Boeing thought that 787 fuselage frames would be titanium. According to Kehrl, a Boeing employee at the time, composites were ultimately selected, but a different solution was needed — one that could conform to the curved fuselage shape. A&P developed a braid architecture and the equipment necessary to align the central, axial fibers with the tangent of the frame curvature. Defined by the braiding mandrels, the part curvature can be varied to form overbraided, multi-ply curved preforms that can meet the many load cases at each skin/stringer/frame intersection, as defined by the finite element model. According to Kehrl, The frames were the first braided, resin-infused primary structure for an aircraft. Begun in 2005, production is now ramping up to meet the 787's production schedule. Infusion is done by C&D Zodiac - Advanced Composites Div. (Huntington Beach, Calif.) in North America, and by Alenia Aermacchi (Venegono Superiori, Italy).
Gary Roberts, a research materials engineer with NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, Ohio), discussed work in collaboration with A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio), Drexel University (Philadelphia, Pa.) and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL, Adelphi, Md.) on a hybrid composite/metal gear concept for rotorcraft drive systems. A helicopter's drive system constitutes up to 15 percent of the craft's empty dry weight, and OEMs and operators have long wished for ways to reduce system weight. Using composites with steel, Roberts pointed out, shifts the gear dynamics to a higher frequency, which could help control vibration and noise at critical frequencies. Replacing the central web of a small, round toothed steel "spur" gear with carbon composite, in a sandwich design that maintained the outer steel teeth and inner steel hub, brought a 20 percent weight reduction. Moreover, no damage or degradation was sustained during a stringent endurance test. Although static testing showed some slight delaminations at loads far beyond design loads, there was no crushing of the composite, despite myriad load cases that included radial, torque and vibration loads. Roberts says the team is scaling up to a full-size helical bull gear, and looking at ways to emulate the dynamic loads at realistic hot-oil temperatures and strains. Three major U.S. OEMs are reportedly interested in the research results.
One of the most anticipated presentations detailed use of carbon fiber in the forthcoming CFM International LEAP aircraft engine, which will be used on the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body commercial jets. Presenters Bruno Dambrine, a composite expert at Safran-Snecma (Paris, France) and Jon Goering, a divisional chief technology officer with Albany Engineered Composites (AEC, Rochester, N.H.) supplying carbon fiber preforms and other components to SNECMA for the manufacture of fan module and low-pressure turbine structures in AEC's expertise is in weaving preforms to be used in resin transfer molding (RTM) of LEAP engine blades, fan case and other smaller parts. Dambrine said material development for the engine focused primarily on finding the best combination of weaving method and resin toughness, settling in the end on the jacquard weaving method. The concern, he said, was how the composite would perform when damaged. Jacquard, he said, offered the composite structures the ability to sustain loads throughout damage development, giving the pilot time to put the aircraft on the ground without catastrophic failure in the air. Blade tests of proved this out, he reported, showing that microcracks were readily arrested by the material and design combination. The use of composites in the engine is expected to save about 1,000 lb/454 kg per aircraft. Because the A320neo and 737 MAX programs are progressing rapidly, Dambrine noted, "the greatest challenge we have is to make sure we can do the ramp-up." SNECMA will manufacture 1,800 shipsets per year by 2020, with preforms coming from AEC's U.S. facility and a similar plant in Commercy, France. Dambrine acknowledged that much work remains to meet production goals, but said that process development work done so far has proven that "we know exactly how many fibers we have in each preform. The closed mold, fixed resin quantity and process repeatability will help us meet weight specifications." (Read about HPC's recent tour of AEC's New Hampshire facilities on p. XX.)
Carbon fiber in alternative energy
In this category, the wind industry has long been forecast as a major consumer of carbon fiber, particularly in wind blade spar caps. Projections offered at the conference indicated that the aerospace and wind energy are and will be for several years to come the two largest markets for the material. Two presentations, however, cast some doubt on carbon fiber's future in wind turbine blade applications. Although he was overall positive about the wind energy market in North America — wind, at $0.06/kWh is reportedly competitive with natural gas in electric power generation — Steve Johnson, manufacturing engineering manager at GE Wind Energy (Fairfield, Conn.), noted that manufacturing costs must be kept in check if wind is to remain competitive . "Cost is king in the wind industry," he said. Although low blade weight is important, it's not critical, he says. For that reason, carbon fiber is not considered by GE as an essential manufacturing material, particularly given its relatively high cost. A carbon fiber spar cap, Johnson said, weighs 80 percent less than one reinforced with glass fiber, but it costs five times more. "We love carbon fiber, but we hate the cost associated with it," he concluded.
Like Johnson, presenter Aaron Barr was optimistic about global wind energy production. The technical advisor at MAKE Consulting (Chicago, Ill.) said 2013 would be a "down" year but would be followed by several years of anticipated expansion. He claimed that only two blade manufacturers, Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Aarhus, Denmark) and Gamesa (Madrid, Spain), are now using carbon fiber in spar caps, with Vestas accounting for the vast majority of the total. However, Barr reported that Vestas, is struggling financially and faces an uncertain future, one reason why carbon fiber's penetration as a percentage of installed wind blades is expected to drop from a high of 23 percent in 2012 to 19 percent in 2013, and to 18 percent by 2016. "There's no magic number for when you need carbon fiber," he said, and he projected "flat" carbon fiber use in wind blades through 2020. "All of this, however," he said, "is underpinned by just a few OEMs using carbon fiber." The tipping point for carbon fiber might come in the form of a cheaper precursor, which would be expected to reduce the cost of carbon fiber to $5/lb, which MAKE anticipates will occur by 2018.
Meanwhile, Neel Sirosh, vice president and general manager of LightSail Energy (Berkeley, Calif.), highlighted carbon fiber's role in emerging energy storage and natural-gas storage technologies for alternative energy scenarios. He highlighted LightSail's storage solution that uses electricity to drive a small, proprietary compressor; a water spray absorbs the heat of compression. Energy is thus stored in the form of compressed air and warm water, to help even out transmission grid spikes. To make the technology work, large 12m/29.4-ft long, 2m/6.6-ft diameter ASME-standard tanks are required, for which Sirosh (formerly with Quantum Technologies (Lake Forest, Calif.) is pursuing carbon outer wraps with a polymer liner. He believes the shift to renewable energy and the shale gas boom will drive a big demand for carbon for storage tanks.
Carbon fiber in construction
That was the subject of John Carson's presentation. Carson is the executive director of AltusGroup Inc. (Bethlehem, Pa.), a consortium of precast concrete producers that use "C-GRID" carbon grids, pioneered by Chomarat North America(Anderson, S.C.), to replace traditional welded steel-wire mesh for concrete reinforcement. The group's CarbonCast precast concrete solutions have grown steadily over the past 10 years and are replacing heavier and thicker steel grid-reinforced precast elements. According to Carson, carbon fiber reinforcement lends "pseudo-ductile" behavior to the precast concrete and improves its fatigue performance, corrosion resistance, crack control and insulation properties, and allows the use of castings with thinner profiles and less mass. CarbonCast has been used in more than 125 parking garage structures to date, and is growing in architectural cladding — 50 to 65 percent lighter building façades are possible. "The cost of the carbon is insignificant compared to the crane cost," noted Carson, referring to the installation of façade panels during skyscraper construction, and added that the energy savings are significant as well.
Carbon fiber out of the autoclave
The push to reduce carbon composite molding cycle times drew many attendees to presentations about out-of-autoclave (OOA) manufacturing systems. Dale Brosius, president of Quickstep Composites (Dayton, Ohio) reported on application of his company's fluid-based pressure/heating/cooling technology, called Quickstep, to a SBIR research project with Dayton-based Vector Composites Inc. Conducted with U.S. Air Force cooperation, it assessed quality in the manufacture of 72-inch/1,829-mm tapered spars made with a prepreg of Cytec Aerospace Materials' (Tempe, Ariz.) Cycom 977-3 OOA epoxy and IM7 carbon fiber from Hexcel (Stamford, Conn.). The goal, said Brosius, was to reduce dwell time of the spars from six to three hours but still meet all mechanical and aesthetic requirements. Flat-panel tests using the process proved the viability of the shorter dwell time; this was followed by tapered spar production and evaluation. After 50 cures of 3-inch and 5-inch 76 mm and 127 mm) wide C-channels and full length spars, the process demonstrated the ability to make "zero-void" laminates with 4-ply and 8-ply debulks up to 32 plies thick. Radius thinning was 0 to 6 percent and total cycle time was just over four hours.
In line with the OOA theme, Mathieu Boulanger, business development director at Roctool Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.; Le Bourget du Lac, France), summarized his firm's work in technology for high-speed compression molding. The company's emphasis has always been on rapid heating and cooling, and its applying that technology in a variety of processes. RocTool's 3iTech molding system uses a steel tool and an inductor coil or braid to provide close-to-the surface heating in specific, prescribed areas of a tool so as to maximize heating efficiency. Cooling is provided by water. Boulanger reported on a compression molding process that used this technology to manufacture a carbon fiber composite electronics housing that is less than 1.1 mm/0.04 inch thick. Heating and cooling for the part, he said, cycles from 80°C to 260°C to 80°C (176°F to 500°F to 176°F) in 2.5 minutes. Finished parts, he reported, offer a high-quality resin-rich surface. On the horizon is an RTM/3iTech process that uses polyurethane and reduces cycle time from 60 to 5 minutes.
Notably, Jim Martin, who is responsible for composite process and business development at Globe Machine Mfg. Co. described the RapidClave machine technology used by customer Plasan Carbon Composites. It works by enclosing a thin tool and layup in an air-tight chamber, applying vacuum and heat and filling the chamber with compressed air, producing autoclave-like consolidation pressure for a very fast cure, without the energy, nitrogen or consumables required with an autoclave. Quickly engaged smart connectors and mold shuttles help accelerate part processing times. Martin discussed recent tests that show that out-of-autoclave chemistry is not required — standard autoclave-cure prepregs can be used in a RapidClave with good Class A results, he claimed, even with very short ramps and an accelerated cure. For example, a Hexcel epoxy prepreg cured in the RapidClave still fell within the supplier's autoclave-cure specifications, and Globe is continuing tests with other prepregs as well. The equipment promises cure in mere minutes, particularly with improvements under development, such as infrared heating and more automation.
Also part of the out-of-autoclave discussion were reports exciting developments at ORNL by Chad Duty, group leader of lab's manufacturing demonstration facility. He and his group are demonstrating new ways of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, using new materials, better polymers and better, faster systems. A big focus is the use of continuous carbon nanofibers as a reinforcement in fused deposition modeling (FDM) to improve z-directional strength of printed parts. Duty says that strength can be improved three-fold, based on his group's tests. Another focus is "big-area additive manufacturing," or BAAM, which uses thermoplastic pellets with short fibers; build rates can reach 20 lbs per hour. GE is reportedly interested in Duty's group's work, as are other firms anxious to push this technology.
Carbon fiber in thermoplastics
Carbon-fiber reinforced thermoplastics were a strong subtheme at the conference. Jason Carling, Toho Tenax America Inc. (Rockwood, Tenn.) global research and development manager, focused here, with predictions about where carbon fiber will be adopted and used in the next decade. Although more than 90 percent of today's carbon fiber goes to continuous filament applications in thermoset resin, he said he believes that will change: "The future is continuous carbon fiber in thermoplastic resins." Aerospace, automotive and durable goods will be the primary market sectors that adopt carbon/thermoplastic forms, he claimed. If the right surface treatments and sizings are used on the fiber to help tailor strength and modulus, he contended, then continuous carbon fiber will be successfully combined with commodity resins like polyolefin for high-production automotive parts.
Addressing a not often visited corner of the carbon fiber market, Randal Spencer, president and CEO of Concordia Manufacturing Co. Inc. (Coventry, R.I.), explored his firm's work in development of commingled yarns with thermoplastic prepreg. In commingling, a carbon fiber yarn is woven together with a thermoplastic, also in fiber form, to create a fabric material (2-D or 3-D) in which the thermoplastic is integral with the carbon fiber. Spencer noted that a carbon fiber commingled with polyetheretherketone (PEEK) fiber was first developed in the late 1980s for the F-22 fighter jet. Although it was not ultimately specified for the plane, commingled carbon and thermoplastic fibers found application later in the 1990s, in the Prince Vortex tennis racquet. This time, carbon fiber yarn was commingled with a nylon fiber in a prepreg. Today, said Spencer, commingled carbon fiber/thermoplastic materials are being considered particularly for tubing applications, using carbon fiber and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). Voids, reported Spencer, are less than 1 percent.
Carbon fiber design tools
A key enabler in the effort to make composites more economically competitive is found in the virtual world of design and simulation software. Brett Chouinard, the chief operating officer of Altair Engineering Inc. (Troy, N.Y.), described how far simulation of composite materials has come during the past decade. He and his company are proponents of virtual testing because it offers "infinite exploration" of a process thanks to the huge numbers of model nodes that can be quickly built in Altair's software, as well as the ability to rapidly modify a design, based on the simulation, to meet performance requirements. Despite this progress, however, and the software's ability to provide micromechanical solutions, Chouinard says the huge complexity of composite part data, due to the multiple plies and orientations, means that physical testing will continue to be necessary, but he added, "Larger computers, the integration of micromechanics and integrated math engines are coming in the future."
Robert Judd, chair of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology and the director of the Center for Advanced Software Systems Integration (CASSI), both at Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), discussed a spreadsheet-based cost modeling software program trademarked Gcalc/Compeat$, that he, his students and staff from GE (Schenectady, N.Y.) developed to more accurately estimate, upfront, the cost of composite material and manufacturing costs. "Cost estimating needs to be done early in the design cycle," he explained, noting that estimtes must lifecycle costs if composites are to gain market share. He and his team believe that up to 75 percent of the opportunities for cost savings occur in the conceptual and preliminary design phases of a project — thus, it is absolutely critical to have a good handle on costs during these early stages. The software reportedly delivers "bottoms-up" detail and functionality with parametric estimating ease of use. It allows users to enter many detailed levels of material and process information, including fiber type, scrap rates, autoclave energy useage, ply buildups, trimming time and much more. And the spreadsheet can be integrated with a part's CAD program. Although currently not commercially available — it is an in-house tool for GE engineers — Judd claims the software enables cost estimates for composite parts as accurate as those available for metal parts.
Carbon fiber from alternative precursors
Much has been written about the potential for lignin precursors, (the subject of research at nearby ORNL, which conference attendees had the opportunity to visit while in Knoxville). But Anthony Vicari, research associate at Lux Research Inc. (Boston, Mass.), revisited one of the hotter topics in the carbon fiber of late: The prospect of developing a non-polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor for the manufacture of commercial (heavy-tow) carbon fiber. He reported that more efficient and alternative heating systems, combined with a polyolefin-based precursor, likely will help produce carbon fiber of about $10.50/kg, down from an average of about $19/kg today. Looking more broadly, Vicari said Lux Research has been evaluating material development trends over the last few decades, trying to determine what they say about the future. In particular, Vicari said Lux correlated key material patent years with significant commercial adoption milestones (called inflections), such as the first use of a given material in an aircraft, car or medical device, for example. Lux applied this assessment to glass fiber in an attempt to predict carbon fiber's future in the automotive industry. The result: Lux found two patent inflections, one in 1996 and another in 2006. The first heralded the introduction of the BMW i3 in 2011, which features a passenger cell made entirely of carbon fiber. The 2006 inflection, in turn, predicts the introduction in 2016 of the first mainstream car made "largely of CFRP," said Vicari.
In a key presentation, however, Tracy Albers of GrafTech International (Parma, Ohio) the company's research and development manager, described how GrafTech has actually incorporated ORNL's lignin-based carbon fiber into a commercial product. Despite concerns about nonuniform characteristics of lignin, which include a branching, relatively amorphous structure that varies from tree to tree, GrafTech has created a GRAFSHIELD heat management product for casting furnaces that incorporates the lignin carbon in a composite facing. "Lignin is a drop-in replacement for our GRAFSHIELD GRI product," Albers claims. "And it performs as well as a pitch-based carbon fiber we used previously." Albers argued that lignin-based carbon is a "promising technology" and urged attendees to consider working with ORNL's carbon fiber consortium.
Carbon fiber marketplace
Steve Carmichael, director of sales at Mitsubishi Chemical Carbon Fiber & Composites Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.) offered a high-level view of the carbon fiber marketplace, and a sense for where it might be headed in terms of supply and demand. He reported first that global nameplate capacity for all carbon fiber types (actual output is lower, due to knockdown effects) is about 99,000 metric tonnes (218.26 million lb). Demand, he said, is expected to reach 80,000 metric tonnes (176.37 million lb) by 2020. Looking at emerging markets for carbon fiber (beyond aerospace), Carmichael referenced recreation, transportation, infrastructure and natural gas pressure vessels. He also walked attendees through one of the paradoxes of the carbon fiber market: Carbon fiber manufacturing is capital-intensive — new capacity is added in large chunks that take much time to develop. Growth of carbon fiber consumption, on the other hand, tends to be more sporadic and, thus, out of sync with manufacturing cycles. He also commented on demands from some composites industry customers for more standardization and less complexity in the product offerings of carbon fiber suppliers. But Carmichael argued that carbon fiber's complexity is, in fact, one of its greatest virtues in that it enables its users meet a variety of end-market needs. That complexity, he said, needs to be "sold" to customers, not minimized.
Carbon fiber and export control
John Larkin, president of LTI Assoc. (Alpharetta, Ga.), led attendees through one of the more complex aspects of manufacturing carbon fiber composite structures: U.S. export control. He noted that such controls, which are used by China, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, France, Japan, Korea and others, are designed primarily to prevent the spread of weapons and related sensitive technologies. He then walked the crowd through some critical concepts and definitions, including defense article (something specifically designed, developed, configured, adapted, or modified for a military application), dual-use products (those designed primarily for commercial use, but could have military applications, and deemed export (any communication of controlled information or technology to a foreign national within the U.S.). This was followed by an exploration of export law too complex to summarize, but Larkin did finish with some basic advice. He said an exporter must obtain an export license when 1) the product in question is on an export control list or 2), is not listed but one of the parties in the transaction is on the exporting country's blacklist, or 3) the product's end-use is controlled. Last but not least, he pointed out that noncompliance with export control laws can be expensive (up to $1 million in penalties) and could result in imprisonment. Contact Larkin for more information about export control: email@example.com.
Related Topics
- Reinforcements
- Carbon Fibers
- Materials
- Markets
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Consumer
- Defense
- Wind/Energy
- A&P Technology Inc.
- Altair Engineering Inc.
- Chomarat North America
- Composites Forecasts and Consulting LLC
- Continental Structural Plastics
- Fiber Materials Inc.
- Globe Machine Manufacturing Co.
- Hexcel
- Lux Research Inc.
- Mitsubishi Chemical Carbon Fiber & Composites Inc.
- Molded Fiber Glass Companies
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Quickstep Holdings Ltd.
- Roctool Inc.
- Roctool SA
- SGL Carbon SE
- Sigmatex (UK) Ltd.
- Solvay Composite Materials
- TCR Composites Inc.
- Teijin Carbon America Inc.
- Toray Industries Inc.
- Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables
- Zyvex Technologies Inc.
The first commercial Type V composite pressure vessel
Composites Technology Development's first commercial tank in the Type V category presages growth of filament winding in storage of compressed gases.
The fiber
The structural properties of composite materials are derived primarily from the fiber reinforcement. Fiber types, their manufacture, their uses and the end-market applications in which they find most use are described.
Bionic design: The future of lightweight structures
Biomimicry evolves into a systematic design process for optimizing efficient, lightweight structures.


text:
Boutique Pépin is your supplier of choice for riding equipment of all kinds in Terrebonne.
Classic, Western and Racing
Since it was founded in the 1950s, Boutique Pépin has been the preferred choice for high quality harnesses designed for all types of riding. The store has the distinction of having the largest inventory of riding equipment in all of Quebec.
Riding Is in Our Blood
Founded by Robert Pépin and headed by Jacques Letendre until 2001, Boutique Pépin is now headed by Fernand Brodeur who has managed to maintain the family aspect of the trade. Aside from having worked in the riding field for over 50 years, he is also the owner of Brodeur Sulky, a company that specializes in harness manufacturing.
In order to better serve our customers, Boutique Pépin also exports equipment to the United States and Europe.
Call our toll-free number 1-866-725-7764 for more details!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
If you do not know how to contact your Senators ask why you don't and even if you don't have a nutfuck or two like we have here in Tennessee nothing is stopping you from calling as a Citizen of the United States. And if they will take your check why not your phone call? Besides you can look up an address of a Public Storage and give that as your address as you may well be moving here soon. Why I have no idea unless you are truly desperate.
I was asked by a Lyft driver the other day if Nashville was everything I expected. I informed him I had none and that my primary reason was Medical/ so while that is pretty much as expected my only true horror was the public schools and what dumps they are. But thankfully a book came out last year to confirm I wasn't insane and I was right so now I am good with them and care even less so that is about all I can do at this point to comment on Nashville as that is all I know. No one wants the truth but shit I actually don't give a flying fuck about liking or not liking Nashville. I am in a coping strategy which means I work around how I feel every day living in a city of ill educated and informed idiots.
But there is one thing I do know that most of the people here are not covered by insurance and that the State is a hot mess of problems, which I think was intentional by the right wing nut fucks to sabotage the ACA and instead got a whole new set of problems called medical debt, unhealthy sick citizens that drain the system versus the swamp. Whoops bad call there!
The ACA as flawed as it is works for those who don't work in conventional gigs (aka semi retired or on contract) or are self employed.
If you don't know who to call here are the current Senators who are not standing by the phone but their aides are. Call, email, write, walk into their local office. Just help someone other than yourself just once. You might feel good.
Flexibility That A.C.A. Lent to Work Force Is Threatened by G.O.P. Plan
By REED ABELSON
In recent years, millions of middle- and working-class Americans have moved from job to job, some staying with one company for shorter stints or shifting careers midstream.
The Affordable Care Act has enabled many of those workers to get transitional coverage that provides a bridge to the next phase of their lives — a stopgap to get health insurance if they leave a job, are laid off, start a business or retire early.
If the Republican replacement plan approved by the House becomes law, changing jobs or careers could become much more difficult.
Across the nation, Americans in their 50s and early 60s, still too young to qualify for Medicare, could be hit hard by soaring insurance costs, especially people now eligible for generous subsidies through the existing federal health care law.
Continue reading the main story
This news scares Fern Warnat, 59. She has gotten insurance on the federal marketplace a couple of times in the last few years. When she and her husband moved from New York to Boca Raton, Fla., she bought a policy for a few months to tide her over until she got coverage from a new job. A year later, she needed to buy insurance again when she found herself unemployed. The policy was expensive — around $800 a month.
"It wasn't easy, but it was available," she said.
Now she worries what would happen under the Republican plan if she left her job at a home health company that provides insurance.
"I need something to be there," she said. "I'm going to be 60 years old. All my conditions pre-exist."
Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, companies have become less worried about people who want to leave but feel locked into their jobs because of health insurance, said Julie Stone, who works with corporations at Willis Towers Watson, a benefits consultant. The law "removed one of the barriers to leaving your job," she said.
Fewer employers now offer health insurance for their retirees, she said. The other alternative is Cobra, the federal law that requires companies to allow workers to remain on their employer's plan if they pay the full monthly premiums, which are often extremely expensive and out of reach for many people. The coverage generally lasts no more than a year and a half. Cobra was a "Band-Aid on a broken market," Ms. Stone said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in an analysis last month that states covering one-sixth of the population would take waivers that allowed insurers to charge people with pre-existing conditions more. It predicted that such consumers "would be unable to purchase comprehensive coverage with premiums close to those under current law and might not be able to purchase coverage at all."
The budget office did note that the House bill would potentially lead to lower prices, especially for younger and healthier people. In most markets, the low premiums would "attract a sufficient number of relatively healthy people to stabilize the market."
But the budget office also warned that markets in states that allowed insurers to charge higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions — whether high blood pressure, a one-time visit to a specialist or cancer — could become unstable. Some places are already experiencing a dearth of insurers. More companies could exit as they struggled to make money in highly uncertain conditions.
Millions of people could also wind up with little choice but to buy cheap plans that provided minimal coverage in states that opted out of requiring insurers to cover maternity care, mental health and addiction treatment or rehabilitation services, among other services required under the Affordable Care Act. Consumers who could not afford high premiums would wind up with enormous out-of-pocket medical expenses.
The individual market has always been characterized by heavy churn, and insurers struggle to meet the needs of these short-timers, particularly the young and healthy, for whom coverage can be expensive. "It's a huge challenge, even independent of the A.C.A.," said John Graves, a health policy expert at Vanderbilt University.
Insurers say they have had a hard time accurately estimating the medical costs of the changing pool of customers who need relatively short-term coverage and pricing their plans high enough to cover those costs. Aetna, one of the large national insurers that has decided to leave the market, said about half of its customers were new, and it blamed "high churn" as one reason the company lost money.
Older people with potentially the most expensive conditions account for almost 30 percent of those who enrolled for insurance on the exchanges this year.
David Clark wanted to retire from his job at Sam's Club at age 62, three years before he would qualify for Medicare. He and his wife, Phyllis, who now live in Delray Beach, Fla., were not in good health. He has a heart ailment, and she has diabetes. Before passage of the Affordable Care Act, he said, he would have had to keep working.
"We wouldn't have been able to buy insurance at any price," he said.
But he was able to retire and get coverage on one of the marketplaces. "This has been three of the greatest years of our life," said Mr. Clark, who spends much of his time mentoring college students. When he needed triple bypass surgery at age 64, he was covered.
Many people are keenly aware that the existing marketplaces provide a safety net, even if it is far from ideal.
Dr. Marie Valleroy was able to stop working because she could afford to buy insurance on the federal exchange for four years until she was old enough to get Medicare. She has multiple sclerosis, and her symptoms were making it harder for her to see patients in Portland, Ore. "It was time for me to retire, truthfully," she said. Her medications cost upward of $5,000 a month.
And the law made it possible for Bobby Evans, now 35, to move to New Orleans two years ago to be with his girlfriend, now his wife. Because he was working part time until he could find a permanent position, he bought a policy through the state marketplace.
He and his wife have talked about opening their own consulting firm, but the plan is being delayed, he said, depending on what happens with the federal law providing individual insurance. "Health care is a big-time barrier for a lot of people's professional growth," Mr. Evans said.


text:
Almost there!
Loading website!
Ohorongo Cement in partnership with Dundee and Agra decided to construct a Volley ball, Netball and Basket Ball court for the community of Otavi. The construction of the facilities will cost N$2.6 million to construct.
Ohorongo Cement is the main sponsor and appointed GI construction to construct the sport facilities. Of the people who are working there, 60% are from Otavi. This was one of the requirements to empower locals to be involved in community development. The project will also create employment during the construction process as well as after it is completed.
The Town Council avail land to Ohorongo and its partner to set up the sport facilities. Once the project is completed the facilities will then be given to Otavi Town Council to be used by the community. The maintenance of the facilities will be done by Otavi Town Council.
The project was initially started by 2012, but they were delays in the process of getting the project up and running. The revamp was done in 2015. The sponsors announce that the project has been approved and contractors will be appointed as soon as possible.
Quotations in search for constructors were then done and the suitable constructors were then appointed. The sport facilities will contain a pavilion which is estimated to accommodate more than 150 spectators.
Speaking at the foreman at the site Mr. George Theophilis said they are ready to provide the community of Otavi some quality sport facilities. They are working hard to make sure that the project is completed in time as planned, rain how-ever is a hindering factor but will not stop them. The project is expected to be completed by end of April this year.
Ohorongo Cement (Pty) Ltd believes that good corporate citizenship can only be achieved through the creation of a supportive and fair working environment, conducive to employee satisfaction in the service of produc...
Ohorongo (Pty) Ltd. is one of the first of Namibia's cement manufacturers and owns one of the most modern cement plants in Africa. It was constructed over the course of two years by leading international engine...
An admixture is a material other than cement, supplementary cementatious material, water, aggregate and fibre reinforcement that is us...


text:
I cant reach my web site bolnicabar.me
This site can't be reached The webpage at http://bolnicabar.me/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.Search Google for bolnica bar meERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED
This site can't be reached
bolnicabar.me's server IP address could not be found.
Hi @gravexcomp. Sorry to see you're having issues. While those errors seem to be related to DNS, there are a lot of 500 errors in your Host Tracker results as well. I'd suggest trying to address those first to see if it helps the other situation.
With a cPanel account, you should be able to find your error log in the root directory of your site. Look for a file named error_log with no extension. I hope that helps.


text:
Looks like my Civic burned or lost 2L of oil in the past 6 months, I think that is excessive. At previous oil change garage mechanics advised me to use 5w30 viscosity oil because 0w30 is too thin. I used 5w30 just to see now that consumption is exaggerated.
I always used high quality oil and replaced it often ( twice per year, around 12000km between drains ). I fear bad/warn piston rings, I must admit that I drove the car at the limit sometimes, maybe more than needed, like revving the engine to the redline. I fear bad rings because enigne always used a bit of oil like 1L per 10000.
Is there a chance for worn piston rings on an gasoline engine which has only 130.000km on it?
However, according to this increasing to a thicker oil might increase oil consumption because of bad rings.


text:
What Are The Skills Of A Plumber?
Regardless of where you live, if you need a plumber in Tracy CA or all the way down to San Diego, there is no doubt your problem are the same and the solutions are the same. The solution of course is a plumber. There are simple jobs that can be done by the handyman, things like a plugged drain that can be relieved with a plunger or replacing the washer in a faucet, but for anything more complex, it really is suggested that a plumber be called in. The plumber not only has the skills to fix the problem, he has the knowledge to determine the problem in the first place and the proper tools to get the job done.
What Skills Does A Plumber In Tracy CA Have?
Becoming a master plumber is a long process. The stages are apprenticeship, journeyman and final master. A master plumber will be licensed by the state in which he resides and works. The skills needed by a plumber, not only during his training, but for the duration of his career are:
Reading – a plumber is expected to know a great deal about plumbing codes, installation procedures for various systems, health and safety awareness and suppliers brochures. The science of water is also important as water with different properties has different effects on materials used.
Use of documents – The ability to maintain daily notes and logs on the job progress, the study and understanding of drawings to find municipal connections for water sources and to identify and find existing piping and sewage installations.
Numeracy – is important. The gauges and manufacturers standards and instructions must be followed, measuring and locating pipe connection positions, job estimates, adjusting work schedules, preparing daily work orders and invoices and calculating angles based on the pipe fitting being used.
Writing – making lists of components required for the job, maintain a daily log of hours worked, tasks completed and problem reports and write up incident reports in the event of a job site incident.
Oral communication – to talk to suppliers, communicate with other trades on a major site, communicate with the boss to receive assignments and talk to customers are all demands that the plumber must meet.
Working with others – participate in discussions about work processes; demonstrate tasks to other workers, co-ordinate tasks on a multi-discipline work site and co-ordinate with customers.
Thinking – to decide on priorities, clarification of issues with others, identify and rectify repairs often done by inexperienced homeowners and plan work schedules.
Continuous learning is very important as is computer skills. In the trade there are always new materials, components and processes that the serious master plumber and his apprentices and journeymen will have to stay abreast of. It is a dynamic trade and to stay current is to stay employed.


text:
CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew (Video)
Try this delicious Sweet and Spicy CrockPot Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew for something a bit unusual to make in the slow cooker. This stew is great served over cauliflower rice! Use Stew Recipes to find more recipes like this one.
PIN Sweet and Spicy CrockPot Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew to make it later!
Watch the video to see if you'd like to make CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk!
I'm still updating older recipe favorites where I feel the photos are not up to par, and I'm happy to have new photos for this CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew! The recipe started out as a sweet and spicy pork stew I spotted in Real Simple Magazine years ago, and my version with ground turkey has had quite a few fans through the years.
Of course you know how I am; when I'm updating a recipe I often make a few small changes that I feel will improve it from the original version. In this recipe I originally added a little brown sugar to balance out the flavor of the sweetener, but this time I used Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link), which I thought was great in this. (Read here about why I like Monk Fruit Sweetener if it's new to you.) I also upped the amount of turkey for more protein and this time I ate the stew over cauliflower rice instead of the Uncle Ben's Brown Rice I used in the original recipe.
This recipe cooks on high in the slow cooker and it's done in about three hours, so it would be a good option to start after lunch on the weekend, and if you're lucky you might even have some leftovers to eat during the week!
How to Make CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe, including nutritional information.)
- Heat 2 tsp. olive oil and cook the ground turkey until it's nicely browned. Spray slow cooker insert with olive oil and put the browned turkey into the slow cooker.
- Then add the other tsp. of oil and brown the onion. Add it to the slow cooker over the turkey.
- While the turkey and onions are browning, peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1 inch pieces.
- Mix together the soy sauce, chicken stock, sweetener of your choice, chile garlic sauce (affiliate link), minced ginger, and minced garlic.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the slow cooker and pour the sauce over.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 – 3 hours, or until the sweet potatoes are soft and starting to break apart.
- When sweet potatoes are done, add a can of coconut milk and sliced green onions, turn heat to low, and cook 30 minutes more.
- Make the cauliflower rice (or cook some brown rice) during this time if desired.
- Serve hot over cauliflower rice or cooked brown rice if desired. I like it with more sliced green onions to garnish!
More Tasty Ideas with Ground Turkey:
Taco Turkey Black Bean and Rice Bowls ~ Aggie's Kitchen
Cheesy Stuffed Poblanos with Ground Turkey ~ Kalyn's Kitchen
Turkey Stuffed Zucchini Boats ~ It's Yummi
Asian Lettuce Cups with Spicy Ground Turkey Filling ~ Kalyn's Kitchen
20 Minute Turkey and Bean Soup ~ Rachel Cooks
CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk
Try this delicious CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk for something a bit unusual to make in the slow cooker.
- 1 3/4 lbs. lean ground turkey (Or use 2 pounds if that's the size package you find.)
- 1 T olive oil (divided)
- 1 small onion, chopped in pieces about 1/2 inch
- 2 large orange sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces about 1 inch (often called yams or sweet yams in U.S. grocery stores)
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (gluten-free if needed)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/3 plus 2 T granulated Monk fruit sweetener (or other sweetener of your choice)
- 2 T Chili Garlic Sauce (see notes)
- 2 tsp. minced ginger (see notes)
- 2 tsp. minced garlic (see notes)
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 cup green onions sliced in 1 inch pieces + more thinly sliced green onion for garnish if desired
- Spray CrockPot with non-stick spray. I used a 3.5 quart CrockPot (affiliate link) for this recipe.
- Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in a heavy frying pan and brown the ground turkey, breaking it up with the turner as it cooks. This may take 7-8 minutes but don't rush the browning step.
- Put browned meat into the CrockPot.
- Add 1 tsp. more olive oil if you need it and cook the onions until they are soft and lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add onions to the CrockPot.
- While the turkey and onions are cooking, peel the sweet potatoes and cut into pieces about 1 inch square.
- Add sweet potatoes to the CrockPot.
- Mix together the soy sauce, chicken stock, Stevia-in-the-Raw granulated sweetener (affiliate link), granulated Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link), or sweeteners of your choice, Chili Garlic Sauce (affiliate link), minced ginger, and minced garlic and pour over ingredients in the CrockPot.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until sweet potatoes are done and starting to fall apart just a little. (I stirred it a couple of times, but it's not essential.)
- When the sweet potatoes are done, add the can of coconut milk (affiliate link) and the green onion pieces, turn heat to low, and cook 30 minutes more.
- Serve hot, over cauliflower rice or Uncle Ben's Brown Rice if desired, and garnished with thinly sliced green onions.
To Make This Recipe with Leftover Turkey: Follow instructions above to cook sweet potatoes in the slow cooker with the sauce, then add 3-4 cups diced leftover chopped turkey about 10-15 minutes before you add the coconut milk.
Two tablespoons of chili-garlic sauce was plenty spicy for me but use more if you prefer! I used minced ginger from a jar and minced garlic from a jar.
Recipe inspired by Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder from Real Simple Magazine.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Sweet potatoes are a low-glycemic ingredient, but they probably have too many carbs to make this CrockPot Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew suitable for a stricter low-carb eating plan. Sweet potatoes also make this recipe limited to phase 2 or 3 on South Beach, and if you're making this for South Beach, they would recommend lean ground turkey (with less than 10% fat) as well as light coconut milk. Obviously, serving over cauliflower rice would make this lower in carbs, and I think a low-carb version with more turkey and with a low-carb vegetable like red bell pepper, green beans, or broccoli replacing the sweet potatoes would also be really good.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn's Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I'm sharing there. Click here for more Slow Cooker / Pressure Cooker Recipes on my other site!


text:
Salesforce Implementation Services
Los Angeles based Salesforce partners.
Salesforce Implementation Services Los Angeles
Cloudsquare is a Top Rated Salesforce Consulting partner headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Our team is united by a passion for revolutionizing the way clients use Salesforce while committing to best in class service. Inquire today to see what we're all about and how we can provide immediate value.
100 + Salesforce Implementations
9.76/10 on AppExchange, Top 1 %
Best in Class Services
Request your complimentary Salesforce consultation
Salesforce Implementation
Cloudsquare implements robust Salesforce solutions that will increase efficiencies and drive revenue.
Every project begins with discovery sessions to properly architect your Salesforce environment. We are process first driven; first identifying your ideal Salesforce environment that aligns with your business needs.
Once the solutions are approved, we shape your unique Salesforce environment with configurations, development, and automation. Your Salesforce org will be able to adapt comfortably as your business grows with clicks not code modifications.
"CloudSquare has continued to impress with their superior work. They have become a truly reliable partner for our SFDC needs. Very responsive, highly recommended."
"They understand my unique needs and are always accessible to get the job done quickly and professionally. I would recommend Cloudsquare to anyone who is working with Salesforce and needs to have it customized."
"They are trustworthy, legitimate, and able to assist and deliver far above any other implementation company I have hired."
Ongoing Support & Maintenance
Cloudsquare offers ongoing support and maintenance plans to continue enhancing the platform over time. We work will all size budgets and assign dedicated project leads to drive your maintenance requests forward. In addition, we proactively monitor your Salesforce org, discuss best practices, and make recommendations on how you can better leverage the platform. You're in good hands.
Cloudsquare is a registered consulting partner of Salesforce. All of our Project Leads and Developers have at least one if not two or three certifications with over 5 years of Salesforce experience.


text:
I have been fishing down there since the late 90's. I have a friend whos parents lived off Foisy. I have always loved late summer and early fall down there. I went down last winter, I liked it so much, I have now bought a lot and am building a bardominium toward the quiet end of Harrison.Yes, POC. And yes that place behind speedy stop is my dads. He has the other boat that they popped a mold off mine with. It is in bad shape so it will be trashed. Making mine the only one.
I ran aground between Sunday beach and fishpond entrance. Do you frequently visit? Cool to see someone else from POC on here.
I have seen that hull down there forever, figured it was a jet or a very unfortunate outboard.
Last time I went out to fishpond, the tides were high but Sunday Pass is doing some interesting stuff with the sand. Jhook has definitely changed a lot since the hurricane. I kinda like the water flowing through there. You could get a long way from deep water in there.
The boat runs in a little over 6", how much does it take to float?
I built a GF16, I am curious to see how it does down there. I have a 19' boat to take out anywhere that might be rough. I figure it will work if I can get around the creek end of Pringle. I will flag you down if I see the Jet.


text:
Risk Advisory and IT Consulting
Information Systems Management
An implementation or refreshment of the ERP system is often times a stressful process and involves multiple challenges and associated risks. A successful implementation can improve the internal process, allow reduce the costs, lead to the better business decisions and achieve faster ROI. On the other hand, a wrong system could be detrimental to the business.
Business Analysis and Diagnostics
Analyze the company's business processes and procedures, recognize main business needs, develop preliminary scope of requirements, and propose recommendations on process optimizations.
ERP and Business Applications
Objective and non-bias selection of best solutions for your business and minimize the risk of bad business decisions during the selection for ERP solutions.
Project management
Assist managing all stages of system implementation, integrations between different systems, system refreshments and updates.
Cyber Security
Our main aim is to help Mid market and Municipalities in raising awareness, enhancing competence and implementing internationally recognized standards of information security as well as ensure quality of protection against cyber threats.
IT audit: Compliance Audit/Information Security Audit/IT Due Diligence
Compliance with ISO, PCI-DSS, and SOX standards, assessment of the level of information security, IT function evaluation.
Penetration Test
Critical Software Architecture/Web Application analysis for any vulnerabilities and technical deficiencies.
Application and Code Security
High level of security for application data through protected business application and program codes.
Crisis Management/Fraud Investigation/Incident Response/Information Security Awareness/Cyber Security Monitoring
Business interruption risks reduction and recovery, identification and prevention of fraud, cyber incidents investigations, organizational formal safety trainings, continuous security monitoring.
Information Security Maturity Level and Compliance Assessment
Assess the level of development of information security management processes and determine to what extent these processes are actually effective .
Get In Touch...
Let's talk about your accounting pains and needs. Call us, email us, visit us, or fill out the form.
Call us: 403-375-9955
Email us: email@example.com
Calgary Office:
400, 906 12 Avenue SW
Toronto Office:
4240 Bloor St W,


text:
Auntie SparkNotes: She Dumped Me, Then Said We Were Never Dating
Hey Sparklers! We're sorry that we haven't posted the Auntie column in a few weeks; when the site redesign launched, it caused a glitch that prevented us from uploading pix and publishing new content! But our tech wizards figured out a solution, so things should go back to normal now!—Sparkitors
Hey Auntie,
It's been more than six months since this happened, but I could still use the advice (hence the letter, I suppose).
I used to be really close friends with this girl, Red. After we'd known each other for about a year, she asked me out on a date (the word "date" was definitely used), whereupon she admitted that she'd been flirting with my oblivious self for months. We had a great time, and went on several more of these outings together. It was, in general, pretty standard high school stuff.
After about a month, I asked Red if I could tell anyone else that we together (given that we're both female, I wanted to make sure that I didn't accidentally out her or anything). Instead of answering yes or no, she went on a bit of a rant about how we weren't dating, we were never dating, and isn't sixteen way too young for a relationship anyway? This surprised me. Even so, I immediately (and profusely) apologized for the misunderstanding. Once my anxiety levels dropped, I belatedly realized that the whole situation was weird. How had I managed to misread someone so dramatically? (Granted, I'm not good with people, but this definitely crossed the line into unbelievable.)
Red actively avoided me for two weeks. I figured that it was due to lingering awkwardness, and so I let her have her space. But then she continued to ignore me. Conversations were cut short, plans were bailed out on, and it became increasingly clear that she wanted nothing to do with me. Every couple weeks for about two months, I'd send a text to her pretending nothing was wrong (as a sort of a plea to continue our friendship), but the only contact we had was her asking about homework, coldly and via text. Which for some reason (*cough* thinly veiled desperation *cough*), I still answered.
I think the worst part of the whole situation (besides losing one of my two total friends), was that I never got any closure. I still have next to no idea why Red acted the way she did. And so I have come to you, all-powerful Auntie, following the path of so many confused high schoolers before me in my quest for answers. What did I do wrong? Did this whole situation really stem from one huge misunderstanding? Are friendships usually this easy to destroy? Should I have given up on Red? Did I quit too easily? What is the meaning of life? And most importantly, does it count as being dumped if they claim that you were never dating in the first place?
And the answers to your questions, in order, are: Nothing, not likely, not usually, definitely, definitely not, I see what you did there you sneaky minx, and of course it does—particularly when that claim is a baldfaced and patently ridiculous lie.
Not that these answers are going to give you the closure you're looking for. Because the problem, my darling Sparkler, is that you're asking the wrong questions. To wonder where you went astray is to imagine that this whole messy saga was the result of some misstep on your part—a lack of effort, a wrong approach, a failure to understand—when actually, it's not your mess at all. The person responsible for this is the one who initiated and pursued a relationship in plainly romantic terms, only to freak out and push the panic button when she got what she wanted.
So when you ask how you could have managed to misread your friend so badly, the simple answer is that you didn't. You read her exactly right! It's just that she abruptly changed the message, and then tried to erase a bunch of the existing text for good measure.
Which was awful and confusing, of course, and it's natural that you were left aching for answers—which is absolutely the appropriate human response to being a) dumped, and then b) told that you essentially hallucinated the source of your heartbreak, even when you know in your marrow that you're being lied to.
What you need to realize, though, is that the lie you've been told was never really intended to convince you. Your friend claims that you two were never dating because that's what she needs to believe, and she'll do whatever it takes to keep that narrative intact—including distancing herself from anyone (read: you) whose very presence serves as a reminder that the story she's telling herself is a bunch of hot baloney. And while I have no way of knowing for sure what her motivations are, I think it's worth noting generally that this kind of frantic denial is not unusual for a person with deep-seated identity issues (ahem), which she isn't yet willing to confront herself (ahem!), let alone reveal publicly by way of coming out as being in a same-sex relationship (AHEM). So if, hypothetically, your friend hadn't quite come to terms with the idea of being something other than straight, then it wouldn't be altogether surprising if an innocent question about your relationship status sent her straight into panic-and-burn-it-all-down mode.
And for what it's worth, she'll probably come to regret it after maturity and experience lead her to a better understanding of how badly she mistreated you. But you don't need to wait around for that to happen, and I hope you won't. Red doesn't have to validate your disappointment for you to feel it, nor does she need to supply an explanation before you can move past it. You don't need her to give you closure. You can give it to yourself, by letting yourself understand that whatever her reasons for doing what she did, they were her reasons. It's not your fault; what she did to you is what she would have done to anyone. But since she did do it to you, and since she's clearly chosen to shut you out of her life rather than own up to her issues, this is the moment where you should resolve to let go, stop dwelling, and look forward to better things—and they are coming, I promise.
Got something to say? Tell us in the comments! And to get advice from Auntie, email her at email@example.com.
Want more info about how this column works? Check out the Auntie SparkNotes FAQ.


text:
Watching a Free Movie Online is the best way to enjoy the film rather than Download the movie onto the device. Because Downloading the film is a time taking process, and it consumes lots of your Device (Laptop, Mobile, and PC) Memory and one film you can watch it repeatedly for a long time. To watch a Film on Free Movie Websites when we can't watch the movie for long there no meaning to download the movie on Device and also you can Download the Hd movie Using Movie HD Apk. But If your Internet Connection Is week (Slow) it's better to Download because The Movies Are Online Is Play on Streaming. the movie is playing well without any lagging when the internet connection is fast.
But If your Internet Connection Is week (Slow) it's better to Download because The Movies Are Online Is Play on Streaming. the movie is playing well without any lagging when the internet connection is fast.
When it comes to a watch movie on streaming is the nice option when you have the speed internet and there are so many websites which are the time waste and malware uploaded sites which can waste your time and your laptop performance.
The Best Part of the streaming online is you can play the video on the screen of the website itself. there is a short button which you can play directly on the online Player and the some of the websites as I told above they are with full of scams and malware injected But the free movie website that I am going to tell you these are the best online streaming sites which you can't get irritated about the ads and other useless entertainment stuff.
If we Talk about the best part of the Online free movie sites is you can watch the film where you like in scene wise because of it, you will save lots of your data as well as your time. when it comes to Movie Download you have to waste your Complete size of the data which the movie had.
Ok, now I will be going to tell you the best "Free movie sites" which you can watch movies online without any Advertisements and Scam issues.
So let's start the best sites for watching the movie online: (free movie websites):
Free Movie Websites List:
1. Crackle
Crackle is the website where you can have lots of HD Videos, Movies, and TV Serials at one place. If you want to access more movies you need to register on this online streaming Free movie websites. when you register on their email letter they will notify you by your Mail of new movies and new updates of video adding and so on. your Mail will be safer on crackle.
There is a beautiful option on the top of the site is to search the movie by title, artist, and genre. Crackle has Lots of the Different types of movie categories like Actions, Romantic, Emotional, Drama and much more you can sort the movies by the type of the movie categories.
2. Primewire
Primewire is one of the best movie sites, when it comes to best watch online movies free movie Websites because the reason is it a very updated site I mean the movies on this site will update and the new movies also update very fastly on this website.
Especially on this website, you will get lots of free Hollywood movies for free to watch. just you need to register on the website and enjoy the unlimited online streaming movies on your hand.
In the website also you will get the categorize movie list like Action, Drama, Horror, and comedy much more. and on the website Home page, you will see the best-arranged lists like best-featured movies and just added movies.
The just added movie list you can find the latest film list which you can enjoy the latest films with the Best Quality of the movie.
3. Hulu
Hulu is the best site to watch free movies online. But there is a Premium membership on this website which you can get the unlimited free movies and best TV serials and top Tv shows on the site for free but as I said above you need to take the membership on this website.
If you want to try this once there is a free trial available for one month just try if you like it then you can take the membership. the best part of this website is you will get all the HD movies for free.
There are lots of categories of films and shows and much more. you will get the films on the home page with the new release and the best TV shows you can start by the best of the best. Hulu is the site which you will get all the types of the movie and shows list.
4. Vumoo
Vumoo is one of the best online streaming websites where you will get all the best movie online for free. you can get unlimited free movies and tv shows with Great video Quality.
Vumoo is the website with a good interface to the user. the user who browsing to the website he will feel very easy to access this website you can see the website has lots of categories on the top of the list of this website you can browse by then by its genre.
There are lots of genres available on the EVOO like Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Musical, History, Thriller, Horror, and drama.
Likewise, you will access for even TV shows by Trending. Also, you can Browse by Currently Watching, Popular this week, trending Tv and recently added.
5. Views
ViewSter is also the best site for online free movies website. You access lots of movies for free on views by different types of categories.
You can browse the movies and Videos by the Drama, Action, Adventure, Horror, Comedy, Documentary, Kids, Classic and Western and more.
This website has a Direct Music player which you can play the movie Direct Online on this website with just Sigle click for play pause, Stop and Next.
6. WolowTub
WolowTube is also the best Free online Movies site. you can search the movie on the search engine it will take you to the movie album. there are lots of movies are available on this site.
You can watch all the full HD movies and videos on Wolowtub for completely free. Even you can watch the films without taking any subscription on WolowTub.
7. Movie4k
Movie4k is a cool website to watch films online without any issues. the Quality of the movies is very high I mean HD Quality and it's very compatible with all types of devices like Android, iOS, Tablet, and PC and this will be top 10 list of Free Movie Websites.
You can browse the unlimited videos and movies for free here you can access all the types of movies and different genre.
8. Youtube Movies
As all, we know youtube is the biggest video search engine in this world. On Youtube, you can browse unlimited videos and official trailers and Movies for free.
There is A Youtube Movies Section where you can watch all the HQ videos for free but you need to take a subscription for first. youtube is a very safe place to see the movies rather than watching on pirated websites.
9. Hotstar Movies
HotStar Movies Is Also one of the best Website to watch the free movie online by streaming. as well as its very Nice site for HD Quality films. there are lots of movie categories is there to browse very easy to the user.
When it comes to Movies Online on Hotstar there are multiple different languages movies are available on the hot star. The movies are available in all languages like English, Hindi, Tamil, and many other languages and the movies also well categorized like Popular Movies, Trending movies, and you may like also movies.
As well as There are big Tv shows also there to enjoy the Tv shows on the Hotstar. you can access the Tc shows and tv serials also very nice genres. Hotstar is also offering the best Sports videos and live streaming matches on the Hotstar website.
Also, you can search the Movies or videos by the Actors, directors, and genres on your local languages. You can access this site on any device. For Sart Phone Users there is Application also is available to enjoy the directors' movies and live sports and Live TV Showa or Serials on Your Smartphone.
10. Go Movies
If you want to talk about free movies online Go Movies is always the Top 10 list of Free Movie Websites. because this is the site where you can get all the best videos from A-Z and all kind of TV serials and Movies.
This website is the Biggest Collections of the movies, TV serials and best Shows With different kinds of Categories and its huge collections of entertainment.
You can browse the movies and best Tv shows by countries and Video Quality as well as Year also. finally, you will not go to any irritation with Advertisements when the movies are on streaming.
These are the Best "Free Movie websites" where you can enjoy the free Unlimited Movies and TV Serial and many more videos on these sites. If you have any doubts regarding the Free Movie Download please write a comment in the Comment section.


text:
Eric Biggers authored
Callers of sprint_oid() do not check its return value before printing the result. In the case where the OID is zero-length, -EBADMSG was being returned without anything being written to the buffer, resulting in uninitialized stack memory being printed. Fix this by writing "(bad)" to the buffer in the cases where -EBADMSG is returned. Fixes: 4f73175d ("X.509: Add utility functions to render OIDs as strings") Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <email@example.com> Signed-off-by: David Howells <email@example.com>8dfd2f22


text:
Cotton backed minky blankets
- Product Code:
- Availability: In Stock
Available Options
Double sided cot/ pram blankets. One side 100% quality cotton, the other side soft minky. Cotton wraps around edge of minky providing border. Comes in two sizes 1m x 1m and 80cm x 80xm. Buyer to state size and colour on ordering
Price 1m x 1m $25 80cm x 80cm $20


text:
Teams from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences swept the awards at the WMU Business Pitch Competition with products ranging from a heat-to-cool mattress pad that combats insomnia to a rotating drying rack that serves as an indoor alternative to hanging laundry outside.
First- and second-place awards went to teams from WMU's industrial and entrepreneurial departments. The teams that pitched their idea are part of Dr. Bob White's Entrepreneurial Engineering course, IEE 2010. Third and fourth place awards -- as well as the People's Choice award -- went to students from WMU's mechanical and aerospace engineering program.
The WMU Business Pitch Competition is named in memory of Dr. K.C. O'Shaughnessy, a professor of management in the Haworth College of Business and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, who passed away in 2011. The work he started in the area of entrepreneurship led to the creation of events like the pitch competition, a major and minor in entrepreneurship, and the formation of WMU's business accelerator, Starting Gate. His legacy lives on in the students who now benefit from these programs.
1st Place ($2,000)
Just Right Temp - Victoria Blaine, Morgan Kronner, Sarah Jozwiak, Aseel Munshi, industrial and entrepreneurial engineering
2nd Place($1,400)
The Rotating Drying Rack - Emma Dubensky, Cortney York, Jasmine Fails, Michael Leonard, industrial and entrepreneurial engineering
3rd Place ($800)
SmartShot - Conner Knepley, Jorge Diaz-Sanin, mechanical and aerospace engineering
4th Place ($500)
Multi Use Recyclable Arcade - Ramin Mirshab – mechanical and aerospace engineering
People's Choice ($300)
Smart Shot - SmartShot - Conner Knepley, Jorge Diaz-Sanin, mechanical and aerospace engineering


text:
Practicing and Spending
I've stop recording for a while as I decided it was time to actually dedicate a bit more time to learning to play. A couple of longish recording sessions was taking away valuable practice time in these early stages. I'll be recording a new piece i've written soon. Just for a change, i'll upload the sheet music first. I just need to decide what instruments/sounds to use to record it!
Sheet music – Batoidia
Gear head alert !! I've also had a little spend!!
An all new mini-mixing desk – Behringer Xenyx 502 – a bit less bulky on the desk so frees up my other mixer for things going in whilst this deals with things going out, I thought Victoria would find it cute as its a small version of a mixing desk, but for some reason, the ladies aren't so impressed with musical gear!
Purchase two is the Schlaagwerk FPS10 floor percussion set The idea being to utilise my left foot bouncing up and down when playing the cajon by putting this under it! Shown in the pic below with my other percussion including a homemade cajon.
Posted on August 17, 2012, in Music, Piano and tagged batoidea, behringer, bucket, cajon, mixing, percussion, piano, schlaagwerk, tentacles. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.


text:
You are here
NetLink NBN Trust launches S$2.3b IPO
FIBRE network owner NetLink NBN Trust on Monday announced its initial public offering (IPO) price at S$0.81 per unit, confirming market talk that it was going to price its units near the lower band of the indicative range of S$0.80 to S$0.93 each.
The offering price values the market capitalisation of the trust at about S$3.1 billion.
The S$2.3 billion IPO is also the biggest in Singapore since 2011 when Hutchison Port Holdings Trust raised S$7.6 billion, and the second largest IPO in Asia this year after the listing of Netmarble Games Corp in South Korea. The mobile games firm raised 2.66 trillion won (S$3.1 billion) in May this year.
At a media briefing, when asked to explain the pricing, Vijay Vaidyanathan, managing director, head of Southeast Asia global capital markets at Morgan Stanley, said: "We are targeting a positive after-market performance for this transaction."
Your feedback is important to us
Tell us what you think. Email us at email@example.com
Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore), along with DBS and UBS AG, Singapore Branch, are the joint issue managers and global coordinators for the offering.
The offering units, subject to the over-allotment option, consist of an international placement of 2.71 billion units to institutional and other investors in Singapore, and another offering of 185 million units to the public. The price represents a distribution yield of 5.43 per cent for forecast period 2018, and 5.73 per cent for the projection year 2019 respectively.
Immediately after the offering, Singtel will hold about 24.99 per cent of the units in NetLink NBN Trust, which will own all of the units of NetLink Trust.
In a separate announcement on Monday, Singtel said that the public offering fulfils Singtel's undertaking to the Info-communication Media Development Authority (IMDA) to divest its 100 per cent stake in NetLink Trust to less than 25 per cent before April 22, 2018.
On the listing date, Singtel will sell its stake in NetLink Trust to NetLink NBN Trust, for about S$1.878 billion, comprising a cash consideration of S$1.095 billion and the 24.99-per-cent stake in NetLink NBN Trust.
The 24.99-per-cent stake in NetLink NBN Trust will be held through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel, Singtel Interactive, upon divestment.
Singtel was required to divest at least 75 per cent of NetLink as part of the structural separation requirements for the state-led Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NG-NBN) project. IMDA required operational and structural separation among the passive fibre network infrastructure, the active infrastructure, and the retail service provider layers to promote healthy competition in the retail market.
Singtel said it plans to use the net proceeds from the divestment of its stake in NetLink Trust for debt repayment, re-investments into its existing businesses, acquisitions and other capital management initiatives.
The NetLink Group plays a fundamental role in the delivery of fibre services throughout Singapore. It is the sole appointed network company for Singapore's NG-NBN.
As at end-March this year, the NetLink Group supports about 1.1 million residential end-user connections, equivalent to a penetration rate of about 76 per cent, which it sees room for growth to 100 per cent and above. The company recorded a revenue of S$299.2 million and net profit of S$79.4 million in the financial year ended March 31, 2017.
The public offer opened at 7pm on Monday, and closes at noon on July 17.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes


text:
CAPE of good hope
CAPE of good hope
You have no idea how much I would KILL for these capes on Valentino's collection for F/W. I am so DYING right now. (...ping!!! having an idea on what I wanted to wear for our Fashion Week here.) Every pieces on Valentino's collection are so clean and crisp, unmistakably rich and luxe!!! <3 Truly Orgasmic....haha
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply.


text:
Rates and products offered may differ from state to state. To see the rate and offering available to you, please select the state where you bank. (Your privacy is important to us—see our Privacy Notice)
What Can We Help You Find?
Where can I find the wires functionality in Online Banking?
Wire transfer functionality can be found in Online Banking under the Payments tab. If this functionality is not enabled, you will see a Wire Application link under the Tab menu.


text:
The luscious lady up above is Cleo Moore, one of the bad girls that populated film noir. She's the focus, and what a focus, of three films in a two volume set of Bad Girls of Film Noir.
Volume 1
The Killer That Stalked New York—Evelyn Keyes, Suellen in Gone With the Wind, plays a smuggler who brings in not only diamonds, but also smallpox. She is tracked by the Treasury agent, and by the medical authorities in an attempt to catch her before she can infect the city. In part it plays almost as a hygiene/health class film that stresses the importance of vaccination. In light of the anthrax attack, and the possibility of bio-terrorism, a possibility that is discussed in this article, the movie has interesting implications.
Two of a Kind—Lizabeth Scott (Dead Reckoning) and Edmund O'Brien (DOA) star as part of a conspiracy to convince a rich couple that O'Brien is their missing heir. This requires Scott to slam a car door on O'Brien's finger hard enough that he will lose the tip. She does this with a good bit of relish. Is Lizabeth Scott worth losing part of a finger for?
Bad For Each Other—Charlton Heston and Scott costar in a medical drama set in a Pennsylvania coal town, named, oddly enough, Coalville. (I should note that while Coalville is fictional, there is a town called Petrolia in that neck of the woods.) My major complaint here is that the film dwells on society doctors, those who care for the rich. It portrays them as catering to a bunch of rich, idle, neurotic hypochondriacs. Now while rich people don't get diseases that are associated with slums, they are just as likely to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc., as poor people. Scott tempts Heston to a career as a society doctor, but a mine disaster brings him to his senses.
The Glass Wall—My wife and I are fans of The Naked City. I really hate saying that title because it sounds like a nudist camp. (In fact I think there is one called Naked City. Never been, and probably never will.) Naked City was nominally a cop show, in reality it was an anthology drama that used NYC as a major character in the plays that unfolded. The Glass Wall has some of that feel. It's the story of an Hungarian displaced person (Vittorio Gassman) who has stowed away on a boat to come to the US. He gets involved with Gloria Grahame (Violet in It's A Wonderful Life). The glass wall of the title is the UN building. While the story deals with an illegal immigrant, there are several important differences from the current discussion on immigration. Gassman's character accepts American values, and wants to partake in the American system. He does not regard that US as simply a source of money to send back to his family. The immigration authorities actually care about enforcing the immigration laws. The UN Commission on Human Rights was actually a respectable institution, not the voice for every anti-Semitic bum on the planet.
Volume 2.
Night Editor—Janis Carter is the bad girl in this one. In fact she's the baddest of the lot so far. The story centers around a married cop who is having an affair with a society dame (Carter). They witness a murder, and for him to do anything means the end of his career, and the breakup of his family.
One Girl's Confession—A girl feels that her father has been cheated. She robs the perp, and confesses, but does not reveal where she hid the money. There is an ironic twist at the end, and Cleo Moore is lovely.
Women's Prison—I can't say this has an all-star cast, but it does have Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, and Howard Duff in addition to Miss Moore. A woman is sent to prison and suffers at the hands of a sadistic warden (Lupino). An interesting version of the prison genre.
Over-Exposed—Cleo Moore again. This time she plays a girl who after being arrested for allegedly hustling drinks becomes a photographer. She hooks up with reporter Richard Crenna, romance ensues, as well as romantic complications. She accidentally snaps a picture of a gangster that implicates him in a murder.
The picture of Cleo with her Rolleiflex TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) accompanied an article in the NY Times. For some reason that picture stuck with me.
The girls aren't really all that bad, and the films aren't, for the most part noir, certainly not in the same way as Out of the Past, or Gun Crazy, but they're decent stories, and a pretty enjoyable way to spend a little under 90 minutes.


text:
I am an Italian American Catholic male...I believe in feminism...With three daughters and four granddaughters, each of whom I love specially and dearly, how could I NOT be a feminist...???
My purpose for writing this post is to beg some prominent CHRISTIAN FEMINISTS to come forward and boldly make a case for the difference between SECULAR FEMINISM which tears apart the moral fabric of a true Judeo Christian society, and REAL CHRISTIAN FEMINISM which espouses conservative Christian family values, virtue, and morality...
As the French would say...VIVA LA DIFFERENCE...!!!
We have an upcoming election where it appears that the 'FEMALE VOTE' may be the swing vote that ultimately determines who's agenda will be carried out both in the White House and both halls of Congress...!!!
Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of their country...!!!
Without throwing support to any specific candidate, TRUE FEMINISTS need to support the men who are campaigning as candidates for our next president...!!!
True feminism draws the lines of demarcation clearly to divide selfishness from selflessness...!!! True feminists are 'othercentered'...secular feminists are 'selfcentered'...!!! True feminists are 'partners in progress'...secular feminists seek to promote themselves and their 'godless' agendas...!!!
AGAIN, my intention for writing these thoughts is not to speak for others or put my opinions on the lips of others, but rather to elicit from the many strong, wise, intelligent, and caring women who I have either personally known, or whose writings or views I have become acquainted with, to provide personal witness that Christian Feminism is more mainstream in America than the secular feminism we see portrayed by the media...
Several years ago when the debate about STEM CELL RESEARCH was in the mainstream, secularists and the media portrayed the CATHOLIC CHURCH as being opposed to STEM CELL RESEARCH...that was then, and is now, far from the truth...What the church was opposed to was 'EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH' which was a disguised form of abortion...BTW, that type of research has never brought about any positive medical results, while ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH (very much encouraged by The Church), has shown many positive health care results...!!!
The secularists and the media are trying to do the same thing today by their attempt to cloak in the word 'CONTRACEPTION' a negative blanketing of The Catholic Church's real teaching...Under their use of the word 'CONTRACEPTION' are included abortifacients (drugs and appliances which do not prevent conception, but cause the fetus to be aborted AFTER CONCEPTION has taken place)...there is much more to this topic...
The Catholic Church has not changed its teaching on these matters, while, at the same time our government seems to be drifting away from our first amendment rights of freedom to worship and other freedoms...!!!
A sincere look at the Papal Encyclical 'HUMANAE VITAE', on Human Life, written in the 1960's clearly restates The Church's official position on these matters...For a brief summary for those with little time to read this, CLICK HERE...!!!
I believe that the majority of American women are God fearing, life loving, selfless, nurturing, and wise citizens of our beloved Country, and I encourage them to come forth and make themselves heard in this all important debate at this critical time in our nation's history...!!!
UPDATE: I discovered this letter on Saturday morning while perusing The National Catholic Register...CLICK HERE...!!!