Washington Briefs

The U.S. House approved Senate amendments to the Coast Guard reauthorization with several tweaks that the Louisiana congressional delegation considers favorable to offshore industry.

Among the new provisions are measures like the “Notice of Arrival” so domestic ships will not have to inform the United States Coast Guard as much as they do now while moving from different oil rigs. The provisions could make Louisiana-based vessels and companies more competitive for offshore energy projects.

In another provision, U.S. Reps. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, claimed joint victory for a change they authored to eliminate burdensome Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, rules.

The goal is to ease the application and renewal process for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential that must be obtained by thousands of merchant marines and other similar professions. The issue is that workers must often appear twice in person at regional offices in order to complete and renew the credentials. This is particularly problematic, Scalise said, when people involved are on ships far overseas and cannot immediately return to the country.

While U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, helped push for several of the successful changes, one of his key amendments was opposed by the oil and gas industry and was stripped off.

In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting BP oil leak, Landry had tacked on an amendment requiring secondary “standby” vessels a certain distance from oil rigs to more quickly rescue workers in the event of a disaster.

The Obama administration has denied any plans to propose such a tax, which is a fee on corporations that release greenhouse gases. The president has previously supported an alternative “cap-and-trade” plan, which allows companies with emissions below their permitted cap to sell the extra capacity on their permits to companies releasing more pollutants.

“There’s a lot of talk in Washington about raising taxes, and finding ‘revenues’ in creative ways, to avoid going over the fiscal cliff,” Vitter said in the announcement. “But a carbon tax — which would force more financial hardship upon family budgets, energy consumers and job seekers — needs to be completely taken off the table. Our resolution would enshrine that.”

The resolution comes in response to growing pressure for Congress to consider a carbon tax. At a recent press gathering, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said there was no intent to propose any such fees.

Some groups with environmental ties are already pushing back on Vitter’s resolution.

Manik Roy, vice president of strategic outreach at the non-profit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said closing the door on any revenue-neutral carbon tax swap is wrong.

“Our country faces huge fiscal challenges and can’t afford to take options for meeting those challenges off the table,” Roy said. “One option would be to reduce taxes on things we want more of,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. like hard work and investment, and pay for those tax reductions with a tax on something we want less of: pollution. A revenue-neutral carbon tax swap could be designed to boost the economy,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. protect working families, and safeguard the environment.”

Lntroduced a resolution this past week that would reject any efforts of the executive branch to remove the necessity of congressional approval on federal debt ceiling increases.

The resolution comes in the wake of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arguing that Congress should not have debt ceiling authority. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has warned congressional Republicans not to use the debt ceiling as leverage in the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations.

Fleming said many Republicans would support raising the debt ceiling if Democrats make key sacrifices on “entitlement reform.” But Fleming said he would still oppose any debt ceiling increase even in such a compromise.

The federal debt ceiling has been raised more than 70 times in the past 50 years, including 18 times under President Ronald Reagan and three times under Obama thus far.

The concentration of shipping vessels and oil tankers also make it a prime target for Somali pirates, since about a fifth of the world's oil exports pass through the Strait and the Indian Ocean.

The UAE pledged its commitment to countering regional threats when it led the CTF 152, a joint international coalition against piracy in 2009.

"This was the first time the UAE ventured outside the Gulf to help in the fight against piracy, to protect merchant vessels and control security in the region," said Rear Admiral Al Musharakh.

Thirty-three countries now contribute naval forces to deter piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the eastern coast of Somalia. The international effort has sharply reduced the number of successful hijackings.

The number of piracy attacks fell from 176 last year to 35 until October this year,A specialized manufacturer and supplier of dry cabinet, with nine ships and 154 seamen being held by pirates, according to International Maritime Bureau statistics.

The Navy operates corvette class warships, frigates, missile and patrol boats, as well as technologically advanced vessels such as the Stealth Falaj 2 and ships armed with anti-submarine and electronic warfare weapons,Largest gemstone beads and jewelry making supplies at wholesale prices. mostly built locally by Etihad Ship Building and the Italian company Fincantieri.

Being a developing nation has proved a challenge to manpower, according to Rear Admiral Ahmed Al Sabab Al Teneiji,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic injection mould manufacture, the former chief of the Navy.

"Manpower in the UAE is constrained and not just in the Navy," he said. "There is recruitment, of course, but we have one source and only so many users. We are not a large country so it's important to think technology rather than attracting more people.

Experts offer tips for buying Christmas trees

Emily Grady cautions Grady Christmas Tree Farm-goers that their eyes might be bigger than their living rooms when it comes to holiday decoration.

"The tree never looks quite as big out in the field as it does when you get it indoors," Grady said. "I spent one Christmas with the top of my tree scrunched against the ceiling. The other, the tree was so big I just had to cut it off."

Grady recommends shoppers look at a tree in relation to their own height before chopping down a monster.

"For most people who want a 6- to 6 1/2-foot tree, remember that it won't be that much taller than you are," Grady said. "If it's just a hand on top of your head taller than you are, you're very close to having a 6-foot tree."

In addition to having the right size tree for your home, make sure the tree stand is the right size, too, to keep your holiday season from going downhill.

Blank's Ever-Green Acres owner Jan Blank remembers when a customer brought a tree back to the farm.

"They didn't have a big enough stand or the right stand, and it stood up crooked," Blank said "Then it fell over."

Blank said having the right stand can make a big difference in your tree's success in the home, as well as choosing a balanced and straight tree from the lot.

"You get to see the way it stands in the field, and it should stand the same way in your house," Blank said.

Those who opt for live trees might find themselves sniffling mid-carol or sneezing in their eggnog. Molds or pollens on the tree can agitate allergies for some.

Chris and Jodi White of Germantown Hills took their two youngest sons to Schaer's Country Market to cut down a Christmas tree for the first time in 10 years last weekend.

Their oldest son had allergic reactions to live trees in the past, but now that he's moved out, they were ready to rekindle the family tradition.

"We just had artificial for all these years," Chris White said. "We missed cleaning that mess up every year."

Tree shaking, a service offered at many you-cut lots in the area, can help shake dead or loose needles from the tree to limit the number that fall to your living room floor.

"People that want a fresh tree, they know they do get a bit more work," said Gary Schaer, owner of Schaer's Country Market.

Schaer recommends a Fraser Fir for anyone worried about mess because they're known for their needle retention. For anyone looking for a fragrant tree, he recommends a Balsam Fir.

The Lady Bird Lake boardwalk would become something of a Texas music walk of fame under a public art proposal, with snippets of lyrics from iconic singers and songwriters along the boardwalk’s railings.

Sculptor Ken Little, who is also a guitarist in a couple of small-time bands in San Antonio, envisions a series of 36 bronze belts — cast from actual leather,Find detailed product information for Low price howo tipper truck and other products. alligator and canvas waist wear — that would have short phrases drawn from the repertoire of the state’s leading singers.

Little’s conceptual rendering, for instance, includes this: “Me upon my pony, on my boat,” from Lyle Lovett. And from Willie Nelson: “Crazy for cryin’ Crazy for tryin’ ”

Little foresees belts with phrases from, among others, Townes Van Zandt, Freddy Fender, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Tish Hinojosa, Marcia Ball,Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products. Bob Wills, the Dixie Chicks and, naturally, Gary P. Nunn.

“Home with the armadillo,” Nunn’s belt would say.

The 1.25-mile boardwalk will connect a gap in the Butler Hike and Bike Trail along the south side of the lake. Construction began last month, with an expected completion date of spring 2014.

The art piece, called “Belting it out,” would have the bronze molds of belts, each about 48 inches long and one to two inches wide, bolted to the railings on both sides every hundred yards or so.

“The idea was to basically use haikus out of the songs, short phrases that would bring those songs to mind,Quickparts builds injection molds using aluminum or steel to meet your program.” Little said Monday night before presenting his design to the city’s Art in Public Places Panel. “It’s using people’s imagination to create the artwork.”

That panel unanimously approved his concept, and it will go on to the city’s Arts Commission for what officials say would be a final OK.

Little, who has yet to approach the musicians for the rights to use their work, hopes to pay something along the lines of $150 for each piece. An Amarillo native, Little, 65, teaches art at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He created a piece of public art in Austin, a series of picket fences in the shape of the United States called “Homeland Security,” which was installed in 2008-09 in Butler Park near the lake.

Little’s concept is the first to emerge from the Art Guys, a team of five artists that the Austin City Council in March voted to pay $264,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability.000 to design, execute and install public art on the $21.7 million boardwalk trail. Jean Graham, who is managing the public art part of the project for the city, said the other artists are still working on their proposals.

The project — which begins east of Congress Avenue and goes to International Shores Park along South Lakeshore Boulevard east of Interstate 35 — includes both low concrete bridges over the water and, in a few sections,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. on-land trail. Voters in 2010 approved $14.4 million for the project as part of a $90 million transportation bond issue. The balance of the money for the project is coming from the Trail Foundation, which donated $3 million, and from other other city funds.

What's with the giant gorilla holding a Volkswagen?

As you drive south from Middlebury on Route 7, the vistas are all ramshackle farmhouses, dense forests and rolling fields — your average Vermont fare.

That is, until you hit Leicester, where one roadside attraction has been turning heads and distracting drivers for 25 years. Meet Queen Connie, the enormous concrete gorilla stationed along Route 7, where she proudly hoists a rusting Volkswagen Bug high above her head. Erected in 1987, Connie was the brainchild of sculptor T.J. Neil.An indoor positioning system (IPS) is a term used for a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. He pitched the gorilla as an advertising ploy to attract attention to Pioneer Auto Sales, the used-car lot over which Connie presides.Installers and distributors of solar panel, Neil promised “a sculpture that would get world recognition,” recalls Pioneer’s owner, Joan O’Neil-Gittens.

The stunt worked: Over the next two and a half decades, Connie lured in visitors by the busload. She presided over one wedding, and earned Car & Driver magazine’s kudos, in 1991, at the top of its “Carchitectural Wonders” list.

“I can’t say that it put money in our pockets,” O’Neil-Gittens says, but then again, “It’s served its purpose.” She contends Connie put the dealership on the map.

O’Neil-Gittens met the sculptor who would create Connie during a trip to Cape Cod, where Neil and his family were living at the time. Neil died in 2010, but his son, T.J. Neil Jr., says his father got his start as an artist after leaving the Marines in the late 1950s. He got a job plastering in Boston, repairing old walls, crown molding and eventually the ornate plasterwork on historic buildings. By the time the Neil family moved to Cape Cod, Neil Sr. was experimenting with concrete as a medium for sculpting — “no molds, all hand-sculpted,” his son says.

“I grew up with aliens in the yard, and dragons and whales,” Neil Jr. recalls. He eventually went into the family business, and the Neils created sculptures all over the United States as well as internationally. Among Neil’s favorites is the concrete dragon commissioned by a man in Webster, Mass., who plunked the large sculpture in the middle of a manmade lake on his property. Neil says that, after visitors are buzzed through the gates of the man’s home, they drive around the lake — and the dragon belches fire at just the right moment.

Leicester’s resident gorilla is no fire breather, but Neil remembers her all the same. When I called his studio in Florida to inquire about the sculpture, he responded immediately with “Oh, Queen Connie!”

In 1987, the Neil family had already made the move to Florida, but Neil Sr. was planning a trip to complete a series of commissioned sculptures in the Northeast. He put in a call to O’Neil-Gittens, the automobile dealer who’d purchased a few of his smaller sculptures, including a dolphin and lighthouse, for her property. They were “more or less lawn ornaments,” she says — albeit lawn ornaments that required transportation in a truck.

So Neil Sr. made the pitch: Would O’Neil-Gittens consider something bigger — a landmark?

The sculptor and his clients began tossing around ideas. At first O’Neil-Gittens considered a pioneer woman, the embodiment of Pioneer Auto Sales. (The first female car salesperson and dealership owner in Vermont,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. O’Neil-Gittens says she chose her business name because she felt like something of a pioneer back in 1969, when she set up shop.)

But her son nixed the pioneer idea, so she put the question to Neil. If he could build anything, what would it be? He suggested a “King Kong”-type character — an enormous gorilla — and O’Neil-Gittens agreed. Her only stipulations were that the gorilla be female, in a nod to her trailblazing ways, and that the sculpture have some tie to the automobile industry. The dealership sponsored a contest for local schoolchildren to pick a name for the sculpture, and “Queen Connie” — so dubbed because of her concrete structure — earned a kid from Pittsford a bright-red bicycle.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry,

Neil arrived on the Fourth of July in 1987 and spent the next several weeks constructing Connie on the small rise overlooking Route 7. He mixed his concrete in a wheelbarrow and applied layer upon layer atop a steel rebar armature. “I believe that gorilla’s got some serious steel in it,” Neil Jr. says. They hoisted Connie’s crowning glory,Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers an old VW bug, into place with a crane.

Connie’s seen better days — she needs a fresh paint job, O’Neil-Gittens concedes, and the VW has gone rusty with age. The dealership, too, has struggled in recent years. The family business once specialized in wholesale auto sales. In its heyday, the family stored as many as 100 cars on the lot and sold upwards of 1000 in a given year. Now just nine or 10 languish in front of the dealership, which is housed in an old West Salisbury railroad depot that was relocated to the roadside spot in the 1930s or ’40s. O’Neil-Gittens says that, though she and her son, general manager Michael Cameron, have dialed back operations in recent years, they’re hoping to jump-start the ailing business in the months ahead.

“It’s not easy,” he warns. “You’ve got to be a plasterer, an iron worker, an artist and an engineer to make these sculptures.” But the benefit, he says, is that he can create works of art that the public can touch and sit on.

Asked what he’s working on these days, he mentions a “cat-goyle” — think a mix of gargoyle and cat — and a few manatees and dolphins. Now firmly rooted in the Sunshine State, Neil is in manatee country.

Chanukah lessons in a post-Sandy world

Late last month, I was in Breezy Point, the isolated beachfront neighborhood in Queens, N.Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products.Y., that has become an iconic image for the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Breezy Point was hit full force twice — first by the storm’s surge and then immediately after by a fire that consumed more than 80 houses in one part of the neighborhood.

Nearly a month later, residents could still be found wandering through the burned section, seeking remains from their incinerated homes. Looking around, I could only make out a few recognizable objects: mangled bicycle frames, tangled bedsprings, charred washer-dryer units, the occasional sink or tub. All were covered in rust.

At the late-afternoon hour when I visited, light was fading, and the shadows were getting longer. Earlier in the day, Rockaway Point Boulevard, the main street that runs through Breezy Point, had been packed with recovery and relief traffic — trucks, big and small, many with out-of-state plates — but now the lines of vehicles had thinned.

I’d come to visit this and other Atlantic beach towns thinking about Chanukah, which was soon approaching. Although not many Jews live in Breezy Point proper — it’s known as the whitest part of New York City,The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, and one longtime resident described it to me as “a good Christian community” — still, this town, one of a few that got the worst of Sandy and was blasted by the surge from two sides, sits on the far western edge of the Rockaway Peninsula, a thin spit of land off the coast of Long Island that is home to many, many Jews. I’d also made stops in Far Rockaway, Woodmere and Lawrence earlier in the day, and while they were not as ravaged, it was clear that, throughout the region, celebrating Chanukah will certainly be uniquely challenging this year.

The holiday, which starts on Saturday evening, Dec. 8, is, on one level, a celebration of bringing light into the darkness. This year, light’s preciousness will, no doubt, be acknowledged by all: These days, when the sun goes down, the streets of the Rockaways quickly become dark, empty and cold.

Symbolic rituals may offer only limited comfort to Sandy’s victims. Chanukah candles are traditionally lit at home, and an untold number of residents — thousands of Jews among them — are still not living in their homes, more than a month after the storm. Many whose electrical systems were damaged by flooding during the storm, particularly in the areas I visited, are still without power.

Even many who are in their homes are struggling with extensive and expensive repairs that may not be covered by their insurance policies. Payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can help, but for people who lost everything on the lower floors of their homes to the storm — couches, tables, chairs, beds, large appliances of all types and one or two cars — the replacement costs can be staggering,One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles. possibly unachievable.

And yet, as I talked to people in and around the areas affected by Sandy, they displayed such generosity and resilience that, even in the path of the second-most-destructive weather event in American history, I found myself thinking that Chanukah in these parts of New York and New Jersey may not be quite so dark this year, after all.

Whenever I asked someone involved in the post-Sandy recovery effort about their experiences, more often than not I would hear some variant of this phrase: “I consider myself lucky.”

There was Stuart Slotnick, the managing partner of the New York office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, a large law firm. He and other lawyers recently held a pop-up legal clinic in Moonachie, N.J., to help members of that hard-hit community fill out forms to send to FEMA.

Among the secretaries who work in his office, one still didn’t have power as of Nov. 21. Another was still heating her apartment by boiling water on the stove.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele ,

Slotnick had to move his family out of their house, temporarily. “I only lost power for 10 days, so I consider myself lucky,” he said.

There was Cindy Grosz,Largest gemstone beads and jewelry making supplies at wholesale prices. the homeowner in the Five Towns, who was visibly distressed by the extent of the damage to the first floor of her home. Volunteers from NECHAMA, a Minnesota-based Jewish disaster response nonprofit, were prying wood panels off the walls of the house and removing the lower sections of the drywall, which was soaked and had begun to grow moldy.

Volunteers had helped Grosz’s husband pile up furniture and other large items, all of it destined for the landfill. Meanwhile, in the living room, Grosz and her husband had salvaged a few items that hadn’t been destroyed by the storm. A lot of it appeared to be glassware.

Goldfeder, who wore a kippah and a fleece-lined windbreaker, said his family of four had been sleeping “in different beds, on different couches” since the storm. They only got back into their home after Thanksgiving, about a month after Sandy struck.

And yet, because Goldfeder represents a district that includes most of the Rockaway peninsula — 80 percent of it, he said, had been damaged either by storm or fire — he, too, considers himself lucky.

“I think about what I’m going through, and it just means I have to work harder to make sure everyone else is taken care of,” he said.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty helped to organize the turkey giveaway, one of many efforts it has undertaken since the storm; William Rapfogel, the organization’s CEO, was on hand, as was Lisa Gaon, the director of Met Council’s Jewish Community Network.

Gaon said she had been barred from her apartment in Long Beach — the building’s electrical system sustained significant damage — for more than three weeks and didn’t expect to be back in for another month. In the meantime, she and her 6-year-old daughter are staying with friends.

“The biggest issue is the kids,” Gaon told me, “keeping them in schools and getting them to school.”

The school bus that normally picked up her daughter won’t come to the house where they are staying, across the border in Nassau County. So Gaon drives her daughter — using a loaner car from Met Council because she lost hers in the storm — to and from school every day. And instead of working out of Met Council’s main offices in Manhattan, Gaon said she had been working out of the Rockaway Peninsula location since the storm.

So far, Habitat volunteers — a group that here often includes some experienced responders from Israel — have mostly been focused on clearing homes of flooded belongings and removing the lower drywall to expose the wooden studs of a house. It’s as if everyone in the region is throwing away half — or more — of their belongings: I saw piles of toys and furniture and sodden boxes at the ends of driveways, and one large public park on the peninsula had been converted into a temporary landfill. Among the first things Killoran brought to Breezy Point were 500 boxes of heavy-duty plastic garbage bags, knowing they’d be needed.

Los Haitises is home to huge nature preserve

The water is indigo, then turquoise in the light of the rising sun. Behind, an emerald spit of land reaches for the sky, a green oasis,Directory ofchina glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers, punctuated by a few villas with roofs made of orange, fish-scale-like tiles.

From my balcony at the Gran Bahia Principe Resort on Cayo Levantado, a tiny island in the lee of the Samana Peninsula in the Dominican Republic’s northeast corner, I watch a fishing boat floating lazily in the sheltered waters.

A Dominicano, in his brightly-painted wooden boat, is fishing for the catch-of-the-day.

When we embark on the water two hours later, our goal is neither snapper, nor grouper, but a two-hundred-plus-square-kilometre nature preserve. Los Haitises is a UNESCO-designated biosphere.

Our vessel, a sleek 28-ft. Scarab speedboat. A pair of 200-hp black Mercury outboar engines hangs off the stern. The motors roar, the boat smashes through the waves washing the Bahia de Samana. The shores ahead are devoid of human life. The water belongs to us.

In Januray, the bay will be crowded with tour boats whale-watching. But not today.

After a two-hour crossing, we approach the first of the Los Haitises islands and our skipper throttles back. The boat drifts lazily.

Los Haitises boasts some of the Caribbean’s most significant stands of mangrove and rainforest, seven hundred different plant species, an equal number of bird and animal species, and a collection of tall limestone islands that float above the water as though they are castles.

We glide into the shadow of a massive limestone cave, carved by wind and waves.

On board, two women have been showing off their Larimar and amber jewelry. I’ve been discussing the relative merits of Presidente beer and Brugal Rum with a Vancouverite named Frank. The boat clears a headland and the conversation dies.

Islands grow up almost straight out of the water. A surreal caravan of great camel humps of land plods toward the eastern horizon. They are clad in vegetation in many shades of green; liana vines hang down and sway in the wind from heights of 200 ft. The vegetation is so thick on shore, you feel like you’re in the middle of the Amazon.

Directly overhead nest a flock of frigate birds, throats red as Mcintosh apples. Off our beam, a hundred pelicans float on the water.

Our skipper guides the boat into a green tunnel, a mangrove swamp where the branches meet overhead, where the arching roots and glittering water make you feel as though you are entering the nave of a great cathedral. And we haven’t even seen the caves yet.

We head back to open water, turn toward unbroken forest fronted by a rickety dock, the lime-painted park office and a wooden boardwalk leading into the first cave.

Inside it is suddenly, wonderfully cool.

I scan the ceiling with my flashlight. A bat twitches and squeaks in complaint. A section of limestone roof has caved in ahead. Sun streams like a waterfall onto the cave floor, spotlighting stalagmites in the shape of sculptures in an art gallery. Dripping water sounds.

On one wall, we see our first cave painting: red and black, reminiscent of a kindergarten art project, but for the fact it’s graced this chamber since before Columbus got here. More than a thousand pictographs and more than two hundred petroglyphs have been located in the immediate area. Some seem downright innocent, some more ominous.

“El Brujo,” the sorcerer, is evocative of black nights when evil spirits roamed this dense jungle landscape. My imagination, coupled with my claustrophobia, overtakes me. I exit the caves at a quick-march and await my comrades on the dock.

Later, we make way on the boat for open waters. Winds blow at twenty knots. Waves roll and roil, flecked by white foam.A specialized manufacturer and supplier of dry cabinet, One of our party huddles in the stern,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. her face buried in a plastic bucket. Our skipper grins maniacally, showing off a gleaming gold tooth. He jams the throttle forward.

The boat smashes the waves. My drink, a sweating Presidente, spills all over me. The boat’s bow rises up impossibly, crashes onto the flat behind an oncoming wave with a spine-jarring thud.

In the course of this tooth-rattling passage, Los Haitises grows smaller off our stern while Samana looms dead ahead,We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele , and the beach of Cayo Levantado sun-bathes off our port bow.

A room with a view awaits me there with a hot tub next to a seaside infinity pool.

A playground called Samana lingers out there. It is less than a hundred kilometres from Punta Cana’s beaches as the frigate bird flies, but it is a thousand kilometres away in mood and atmosphere.

“They’re excited. They’re proud — as proud as Mennonite farmers can be,” Alderfer said, alluding to the Mennonite cultural and religious tradition of humility, rather than pride.

Drawings show the layout of the barns from the past — designed for a variety of animals on the bottom floor and grain storage on the upper floor. The grains were put there to be kept dry, Alderfer said. Threshing also took place on the upper floor, leading to that level being called the threshing floor, a term still used by some older people who grew up on farms, he said.

The video, “As the Land, So the People,” a part of the museum’s permanent exhibit, fits in well with the new exhibit, he said. Vintage pieces of small farm equipment are also included in the exhibit.

The Pennsylvania German Folk Art Sale and “Painting the Barn: Landscape Art Exhibit & Sale” also begin this weekend at the Mennonite Heritage Center.

“Painting the Barn” features paintings done by Perkiomen Valley Art Center and Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania members or participants in this year’s traditional oil painting workshops at the Mennonite Heritage Center, Sarah Heffner, MHC and MHEP director, said.

“Barns are, I think, a beloved part of our local landscape, and, as you can see, our artists have certainly picked up on the theme,” Heffner said.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of artwork in “Painting the Barn” will go to the Nyce Barn Project, in which a barn built around 1850 and now owned by Franconia Township will be moved to the Mennonite Heritage Center next year and reconstructed, she said.

The total costs of the work are not to exceed $165,000, of which the Mennonite Heritage Center still has to raise $105,000, according to a pamphlet about the project.

The barns depicted in “Painting the Barn” don’t necessarily have to be ones from the local area, but many have names identifying the setting with a family or location, Heffner said.

“Remembering the Farm” will continue to be on exhibit until next summer or fall, but some of the photos in it will change, Alderfer said. Photos of barns received with contributions of $250 or more to the Nyce Barn Project are planned to be added to the display.

“Christmas Market: Treasures & Traditions Through Time” runs 9:30 a.m.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, at the Mennonite Heritage Center, Goschenhoppen Historians museum on Route 29 in Green Lane and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center on Seminary Street in Pennsburg. Admission is free at each of the three sites.

“We all plan our own exhibits and displays, but we coordinate to create a really nice Christmas tour,” Heffner said. “We encourage our visitors to go to all three sites. It just makes a wonderful display.”

Along with the “Over the River & Through the Woods” photo opportunity featuring the sleigh and Currier & Ives, which will be available throughout the weekend, the Mennonite Heritage Center will have scherenschnitte demonstrations by folk artist Pam Rankin Hults Saturday, Dec. 1.

The Goschenhoppen Historians display will include a themed Christmas tree exhibit, “Christmas Garden,” with standard gauge trains, vintage Christmas collectibles and a bake sale.

The Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center displays include the “2012 Christmas Putz,” “Evelyn Schule Paintings,” “Dutch Deco: Pennsylvania German Design in the 20th Century” and “Miniature Millinery from the collection of Joan Nichols.”

Will Russia have new intelligence informational system soon?

What is this – a hard fact or another fake spread by journalists? The Defense Ministry has not yet made any official statements concerning this. However, even if such an intelligent system really appears soon in the Russian army, it wouldn’t be an absolute novelty. Similar systems already exist in a number of countries. Probably, the best known one is a system called “Kolchuga” (which means “chain armor”), which is produced in Ukraine and which was worked out back in the Soviet time. Russia has similar systems as well, called “Vega” and “Valeria”. However, a new, more advanced variant of such a system is, of course, quite possible, and it may be quite true that Russia is now working out an intelligence informational system of a new generation – most likely, with a larger range of interception of signals.

However, making the interception range larger is not the only way in which an intelligence system may be modernized. With the current state of development of technologies, it is possible to make an intelligence system intercept signals from all kinds of sources – from towers of cell communication to TV and radio antennas.

Of course, it is possible to make an airplane which won’t send any signals at all – but there would be little use of such a planeduring a war. And, as it was said, every signal may be intercepted.

If any army wants its military planes to be as “invisible and inaudible” as possible,Western Canadian distributor of ceramic and ceramic tile, in civil aviation, on the contrary, planes are equipped with many lights to be as noticeable for flight operators as possible. A modern intelligence system can not only intercept signals, but it may also be used for additional highlighting of planes.

An intelligence informational station only intercepts signals sent by other devices, it doesn’t send any signals itself,Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products. and, thus, its location cannot be determined by the enemy. However, such a station cannot substitute an entire system of devices that are used for discovering enemy targets, it may only be added to systems.

A larger amount of channels of signals that an intelligence station can intercept allows it to locate enemy targets with higher preciseness. It is expected that in some time from now, data received by such station will be used to give orders to strike systems in real-time mode.

However, it may have been a bit too early to say that Russia will have an intelligence informational system in the nearest future, even if Russian engineers are now really working at it. Before being used in the army, the station has to be tested, which in any case will take some time.Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall,

Since 2001, Marchetti Wines has used the same procedures to make un-sulfited wine that LaRosa’s family used while producing homemade wine in various locations in Italy and later in Aberdeen.

“We are unique in that we make and age the wine in wood and it never touches metal,” LaRosa said. “The wine goes from wood and then into glass and bottles. No chemicals whatsoever are used.”

Using grapes from Eastern Washington, LaRosa produces and bottles the wine at his facility off of Wiggins Road near Olympia. While his property does not allow retail, tours or tastings on sight, LaRosa is pleased by what he has heard about his product.

“The comments that I consistently hear is that ‘I’ve never had wine tasting like this before, and I’ve tasted wine like this in Europe,’” LaRosa said. “That brings a smile to my face.”

LaRosa’s grandfather came from Rome,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. his father from Sicily, and his uncle from Venice, before re-locating to a neighborhood in Aberdeen, where Rich learned the tricks of the trade.

“I grew up making wine, and watching my family make wine for years,” LaRosa said. “I take lots of unique techniques from all of them, and their passion for making wine.”

Classifying his operation as very small, LaRosa produces 350 cases per year, and most of the tasks needed to be done are completed himself. Referring to himself as the chief cook and bottle washer, LaRosa notes his daughter will help out only if necessary. Marchetti Wines are distributed to a number of restaurants throughout the Puget Sound and eastern Washington, along with a number of individual customers and followers.

Since starting the operation, LaRosa has noticed a change in the wine culture of Thurston County.

“I now see lots of passion for quality wine, something that has grown more sophisticated over time and has increased since I began,” LaRosa said. “It’s a cool thing to see.”

While LaRosa enjoys meeting new customers and going to wine tasting events, he also relishes in the solidarity of his profession.

“Going to events and meeting people is fun,” LaRosa said. “But wine making is one of those things you can do in peace and quiet at your own pace, where it can both grow and contract. Sometimes in this business, people want to be around people. In that case, it may not be for them. It’s more of a solitary thing. The wine makers, the ones that I know, prefer to be in the wine making room, not the tasting room.”

LaRosa, who still has family living in Italy, is happy to be living in the Thurston County area, while having the opportunity to use products from the eastern side of the state.

“Thurston County, so often I hear from people, is that it’s a big town with small town feel. It’s a very comfortable place to live,” LaRosa said. “Growing and producing wine in eastern Washington is one of the ideal places on earth. I’ve become convinced that Washington is doing a better job here than anywhere else in the country.Installers and distributors of solar panel,”

Device turns old cars into Internet smart cars

A Vancouver company, moj.io, is planning to turn your ordinary auto into an Internet-connected smart car that has the potential to do everything from talking to Twitter to texting friends to tell them you'll be late.

Your car will even be able to post its own Facebook updates. Or warn you when your teen is speeding. While connected cars aren't new, you have to buy a new car to get that feature and the apps are typically limited to those offered by the auto manufacturer.

Moj.io is changing that with a little device that you can plug into your car to enable it to deliver apps through a cellular connection.

Jay Giraud, chief executive of moj.io and one of three cofounders of the company,Load the precious minerals into your mining truck and be careful not to drive too fast with your heavy foot. said the open-platform moj.io opens up the development of apps for cars to all developers. It also lets anyone with a car built after 1995 turn it into a smart car.

"We are becoming so used to incredibly connected experiences through our phones, yet our cars are not really advanced,High quality stone mosaic tiles." said Giraud, who is also CEO of REV Technologies, a Vancouver company that focuses on network technology for electric vehicle fleets and that spun off the newly launched moj.io.

With 300 million drivers in North America and Europe driving cars built after 1995, Giraud said he sees huge potential for delivering Internet connectivity to those who aren't ready to shell out for a new connected car.

"Internet-connected cars are very expensive," he said, adding that, nonetheless, people have come to expect online services in their day-to-day life - services that can stop at the car door. "There is a big separation between the kind of technology we have become accustomed to and what we have in our cars."

After that, a monthly connection for your car, if you live in the United States, is $7.99. In Canada, where the connection is being provided by Rogers, the monthly rate is $12.99. The device plugs into the on-board diagnostic port under the dashboard. With its launch, moj.io plans to provide eight apps that it has created.

Giraud said he expects by next summer developers will have created hundreds of new apps.

The initial eight apps are: FamilyConnect: sets a top speed and a safe driving zone, alerting you on your smart-phone if your kid goes out of the zone or is speeding.

DriveSmart: disables texts, calls and web browsing on your smart phone until the car is parked or the parking brake is engaged.

TowAlert: lets you know if you're car is being towed, stolen or broken into. VehicleLocate: real-time tracking to let you know where your car is.

MileageTracker: records mileage and sorts out your business and personal driving for your mileage records.This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from.

AutoText: automatically syncs with your calendar so if you're late leaving for an appointment or meeting, the it automatically notify the person you're meeting and pinpoint your location and estimated arrival time.

VirtualMechanic: alerts you to car care needs, how many kilometres who have left in the fuel tank and other info. I paid $89 at indiegogo to be among the first to try out the new moj.io. I have a smartphone, a smart TV - I'd like to have a smart car but I'm not ready to trade in my Honda hybrid. I'll keep you posted on how moj.io works and if it truly smartens up the old Honda.

“Parents recognize that for students to compete in our global economy, they must be prepared for success at a higher level,” says Mark Elgart, president and CEO for Advance Education (AdvancED). “Whether they are using a tutor to improve their grades in an advanced class or to build greater knowledge than they are gaining in their classes, the focus is on high achievement.”

In the past, parents were the driving force behind hiring a tutor when a report card showed less-than-acceptable performance in a subject. But now,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. it’s students proposing the idea, says Steven Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association.

Students are feeling the pressure and are increasingly taking higher level courses, competing for scholarships and trying to stand out to admissions officers, and are turning to private tutoring to give them an edge.

“What has changed is that the kids themselves are saying college is competitive and I want to get into the best school I can,” Pines says. “They’re engaged, they’re looking around, they’re meeting tutors and deciding whether they want to go online, do I want to meet my tutor in the kitchen, or do I want to go to a retail location?”

Seek out referrals about individual tutors or tutoring companies as well as their credentials before hiring one and keep in mind a doctorate or master’s degree doesn’t necessarily make them a good tutor, warns Pines.

“The level of credentials by itself isn’t the guide of a good or bad tutor, it’s important that they’ve learned to individualize instruction as opposed to teaching to a class--totally different set of skills,” he says. “You want to know if they’ve gone through any tutor training process.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing,”

If families are considering a larger tutoring organization, Pines suggests checking with the Better Business Bureau for any history of complaints and guarantee they’re accredited by a legitimate regional accrediting organization.