radiocarbon acclimatize: February 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Singapore Property Guide For Beginners Part 4: Know Your ...

The real-estate market has its own jargon and acronyms that may be confusing to the newbie. No fear, the terms below will cover the most generally used language you'll hear when people talk about the market, and will face if you're buying a property.

CSC

The Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC) is issued by the Commissioner of Building Control once the building works have been finished and all needs have been gone along with. It involves legal completion and is usually specified after the Brief Occupation Permit is issued.

Downpayment

This is the initial upfront portion of the total amount due when you buy a place. The downpayment can generally be paid in part in notes and in part using your CPF.

Enbloc

Enbloc is the combined sales of a bunch of owners of separate units in a personal residential or commercial building. Units sold in an enbloc sale sometimes get bigger price versus what the market price would be, as the developer needs to offer a premium to persuade all of the owners to sell.

Freehold

Freehold is a kind of property tenure where you own the property for an indefinite period of time.

Leasehold

Leasehold is a form of property reign where one party buys the right to absorb land or a building for a given period of time. Frequent lengths of the lease for home property are 99 years and 999 years.

LTV

Loan To Value (LTV) is the mortgage quantum divided by the total appraised cost of authentic property. LTV is one of the risk factors that banks assess when certifying borrowers for a mortgage.

OTP

The Option To Purchase (OTP) is a right given by the seller of a property to a customer to buy the property at a specified price within a mentioned period of time (the validity period of the choice). The purchaser must shell out a booking fee to obtain this right, and has to exercise the OTP inside its validity period if he decides to purchase the property.

MOP

The Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) is the period of time a buyer of an HDB flat has to remain in it before he can sell it.

Plot proportion

The plot ratio is the total sheltered area on all floors of all buildings on a definite plot divided by the area of the plot. The plot ratio informs the density of the development on that piece of land.

PSF

Per Square Foot is a unit of measurement of area, and $/psf is the total cost of the property divided by the land area (in sq. feet).

SIBOR

The Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) is a daily reference rate based totally on the IRs at which banks offer to loan unsecured funds to other banks in the Singapore wholesale cash market (or interbank market). It is comparable to the globally used LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate).

Strata title

Strata title is a kind of ownership often used for loft blocks or condominiums. Typically a project is divided into lots (units or residences), and each lot will have a share of the complete project. This is distinct from landed property where typically the owner will have title to the land.

TOP

A building can only be occupied by the owner or renters when it receives the Transient Occupation Permit (TOP), which is granted by the Commissioner of Building Control once certain wants are met.

Hope that you enjoyed reading this Singapore property market article!

Propwise.sg, a top Singapore property blog, is dedicated to helping you understand the real estate market and make better decisions. Visit us to read more Singapore property market articles.

?Mail this post

Posted under Resources

Source: http://southjerseyrealestateagent.com/?p=8705

jerry yang stop sopa justified protect ip act sopa blackout southland wisconsin recall

Saturday, February 18, 2012

BC-US--NFL Players Concussions-Lawsuit,1st Ld-Writethru, US

BC-US--NFL Players Concussions-Lawsuit, 1st Ld-Writethru,353Ex-NFL players sue league in La. over concussionsEds: Updates with additional details, quotes from lawsuit. Adds byline.By MICHAEL KUNZELMANAssociated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Nearly a dozen former NFL players living in Louisiana have sued the NFL, the latest players to accuse the league of failing to protect players from the risks associated with concussions.

Several former New Orleans Saints players, including John Fourcade, are among the 11 ex-players named as plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in New Orleans. The lawsuit says each of them has developed mental or physical problems from concussions or concussion-like symptoms.

Several similar suits blaming the NFL for concussion-related dementia and brain disease already have been consolidated in Philadelphia. More could be added. The NFL has vowed to vigorously defend itself.

Football helmet manufacturer Riddell Inc. also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in New Orleans.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses the NFL of ignoring players' concussion risks for years "despite overwhelming medical evidence that on-field concussions led directly to brain injuries and frequently had tragic repercussions for retired players."

"Wanting their players on the field instead of training tables, and in an attempt to protect a multibillion dollar business, the NFL has purposefully attempted to obfuscate the issue and has repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury to the disgust of Congress, which has blasted the NFL's handling of the issue on multiple occasions," the lawsuit says.

A 2000 survey of more than 1,000 former NFL players found that more than 60 percent had suffered at least one concussion, while 26 percent had suffered three or more during their careers, according to the lawsuit.

"Those who had sustained concussions reported more problems with memory, concentration, speech impediments, headaches and other neurological problems than those who had not been concussed," the suit says.

The lawsuit claims the league has only recently taken action to address the problem.

The other plaintiffs are: Tyrone Hughes, Eric Hill, Curtis Baham, Raion Hill, Maurice Hurst, Treverance Faulk, Keaton Cromartie, Vince Buck, Charles Commiskey and Tyrone Legette. Wives of the players also are named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Fourcade, 51, was a quarterback for the Saints from 1987 to 1990 and played at Mississippi.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-02-18-NFL%20Players%20Concussions-Lawsuit/id-772a3f7624d44f23bbb450a7c8872849

paris jackson paris jackson howard stern americas got talent china aircraft carrier barbara walters most fascinating person 2011 golden globe nominations los angeles clippers

Video: Discovery Reports Distribution Growth

Cable content giant Discovery reported strong viewership, advertising and distribution growth with a positive 2012 outlook, with CNBC's Julia Boorstin.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Afghan leader asks for Pakistani help in peace bid

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, right, invites visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai for talks upon his arrival at Prime Minister House in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks on how Islamabad can facilitate peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, shakes hands with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at Prime Minister House in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks on how Islamabad can facilitate peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, arrives with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, center, at Prime Minister House in Islamabad, Pakistan for bilateral talks on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks on how Islamabad can facilitate peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, arrives with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at the prime minister's house in Islamabad, Pakistan for bilateral talks on Thursday, Feb 16, 2012. Karzai has arrived in Pakistan for talks on how Islamabad can facilitate peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, fourth from left, talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, right, at the prime minister's house in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Feb 16, 2012. Karzai has arrived in Pakistan for talks on how Islamabad can facilitate peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? The Afghan president is appealing for Pakistan's help in negotiating a peace deal with Taliban militants ahead of a summit that will also include the leader of Iran.

The meetings in Islamabad come at a time when momentum for peace talks with the Taliban seems to be growing, even as all parties to a stuttering process marked by intense mistrust say that success in ending the 10-year war in Afghanistan is far from certain.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday that talks among the U.S, the Afghan government and the Taliban had taken place in the past month. If true, it would mark a significant development because until now the Taliban had said they would only negotiate with the Americans, contending that Karzai was a puppet leader and that their movement was the legitimate ruler in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied Karzai's comments that negotiations have already taken place. "The Taliban did not talk with the Kabul government anywhere," he said in a statement.

Pakistan is regarded as a key player in any peace process because its historical ties with the Taliban and other insurgents mean Islamabad could help bring them to the table or be a spoiler. The Taliban leadership is widely believed to be based in Pakistan, and under some influence of the country's security establishment.

Iran, which also neighbors Afghanistan and Pakistan, is also important to the future stability of Afghanistan. In the past, it supported campaigns against the Taliban, a radical Sunni Muslim group opposed to the Shiites who make up a majority of Iran's population. But some reports have suggested Tehran ? Washington's archenemy ? also has supported the Taliban against U.S. troops.

The U.S. launched the war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, but has been unable to defeat the Taliban, which once sheltered Osama bin Laden. Washington wants to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and try to ensure the country remains moderately stable.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been badly strained, but the meeting between Karzai and President Asif Ali Zardari suggested that ties are improving. An Afghan statement said the leaders had agreed to restart a joint peace commission that was shelved after the assassination last year of Afghanistan's envoy to Taliban peace talks in Kabul.

Afghan officials had accused Pakistan of playing a role in the killing ? allegations it denied.

In a statement, Zardari said Karzai said at the meeting Thursday that Pakistan's support "was critical to the success of the Afghan owned and Afghan led peace process" and that both countries should cooperate for peace.

Earlier, Ismail Qasemyar, the international relations adviser to the Afghan-government appointed council for talks with the Taliban, said Karzai would ask Zardari to "put positive and constructive pressure" over the Taliban.

During his three-day trip, President Karzai is also scheduled to meet Pakistani clerics and politicians who are close to the Afghan Taliban in a bid to get their support for peace. They include Maulana Samiul Haq, who is known as the spiritual father of the Taliban because he runs an Islamic seminary in northwestern Pakistan that has taught many of the group's leaders.

"This is a time when the Taliban are defeating Western forces in Afghanistan," Haq told The Associated Press. "A forceful stance by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran will bring peace and stability in this region by pushing out the foreign forces."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Islamabad in the late afternoon and met separately with Zardari. The two men discussed a proposed pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, according to a statement from Zardari.

The U.S. opposes the initiative. It wants to isolate Tehran because of its nuclear program, and is threatening sanctions against Islamabad if the project goes ahead. Pakistan says it needs the gas to meet chronic energy shortages.

On Friday, all three leaders will meet for talks likely to focus on the Afghan war.

Ahmadinejad's trip coincides with rising Western concerns after Iranian state TV broadcast pictures of the president overseeing what was described as the first Iranian-made fuel rod being inserted into a research reactor in northern Tehran. Tensions between Israel and Iran are also rising following an attack in India on an Israeli diplomat, an attempted bombing in Georgia and a botched bomb plot in Thailand ? all of which Israel has blamed on Iran.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-02-16-AS-Pakistan/id-602b7ade0bc140d0aa538bef17595c51

marianne gingrich what is sopa gabrielle union merle haggard ladainian tomlinson mark wahlberg yu darvish

Thursday, February 16, 2012

New York Times correspondent Shadid dies in Syria

FILE - In this April 12, 2010 file photo, Anthony Shadid, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with The Washington Post, poses for a portrait at the Watson Institute for International Studies, on the campus of Brown University, in Providence, R.I. The New York Times said Shadid died Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, apparently of an asthma attack, while on assignment in Syria. He was 43. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - In this April 7, 2011 file photo, New York Times Beirut Bureau Chief Anthony Shadid discusses his capture by Moammar Gadhafi's forces in Libya, during a talk at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in Oklahoma City. The New York Times said Shadid died Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, apparently of an asthma attack, while on assignment in Syria. He was 43. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

In this Feb. 2, 2011 photo provided by The New York Times, Times journalist Anthony Shadid, middle right, interviews residents of Embaba, a lower class Cairo neighborhood, during the Egyptian revolution. (AP Photo/Ed Ou for The New York Times) MANDATORY CREDIT: ED OU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) ? New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who strove to capture untold stories in Middle East conflicts from Libya to Iraq, died Thursday in eastern Syria after slipping into the country to report on the uprising against its president.

Shadid, shot in the West Bank in 2002 and kidnapped for six days in Libya last year, apparently died of an asthma attack, the Times said. Times photographer Tyler Hicks was with him and carried his body to Turkey, the newspaper said.

"Anthony was one of our generation's finest reporters," Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger said in a statement. "He was also an exceptionally kind and generous human being. He brought to his readers an up-close look at the globe's many war-torn regions, often at great personal risk. We were fortunate to have Anthony as a colleague, and we mourn his death."

Shadid's father, Buddy Shadid, told The Associated Press on Thursday his son had asthma all his life and had medication with him.

"(But) he was walking to the border because it was too dangerous to ride in the car," the father said. "He was walking behind some horses ? he's more allergic to those than anything else ? and he had an asthma attack."

The Times reported that Shadid and Hicks recently were helped by smugglers through the border area in Turkey adjoining Syria's Idlib Province and were met by guides on horseback.

Hicks told the newspaper that Shadid suffered one bout of asthma the first night, followed by a more severe attack a week later on the way out.

"I stood next to him and asked if he was OK, and then he collapsed," Hicks told the Times.

Hicks said that Shadid was unconscious and that his breathing was "very faint" and "very shallow." He said that after a few minutes he could see that Shadid "was no longer breathing."

Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, had a wife, Nada Bakri, and a son and a daughter. He had worked previously for the AP, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He won Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in 2004, when he was with the Post, and in 2010, when with the Times, for his Iraq coverage.

In 2004, the Pulitzer Board praised "his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended."

Shadid also was the author of three books, including "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East," in which he wrote about restoring his family's home in Lebanon, forthcoming next month from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Shadid was a native of Oklahoma City and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the AP in Milwaukee in 1990, worked on the International Desk in New York and served as the AP's news editor in Los Angeles. He was transferred to Cairo in 1995, covering stories in several countries.

AP Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski, who worked with Shadid in Baghdad during the U.S. invasion in 2003, called him "a brilliant colleague who stood out both for his elegant writing and for his deep and nuanced understanding of the region."

"He was calm under fire and quietly daring, the most admired of his generation of foreign correspondents," Daniszewski said.

Ralph Nader, the former third-party presidential candidate, called Shadid "a great, great reporter."

"His courage, stamina, intellect and extraordinary powers of observation respected his readers' intelligence while elevating his profession's standards," the longtime consumer advocate said in a statement.

Nader added in a phone call to the AP that he knew Shadid from his time at The Washington Post and had met his family.

"What a loss," he said.

Shadid had been reporting in Syria for a week, gathering information on the resistance to the Syrian government and calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, the Times said. The exact circumstances and location of his death were unclear, it said.

Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson sent a note to the newsroom Thursday evening, relaying the news of Shadid's death and remembering him.

"Anthony died as he lived ? determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces," she wrote.

Shadid, long known for covering wars and other conflicts in the Middle East, was among four reporters detained for six days by Libyan forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi last March.

Speaking to an audience in Oklahoma City about a month after his release, he said he had a conversation with his father the night before he was detained.

"Maybe a little bit arrogantly, perhaps with a little bit of conceit, I said, 'It's OK, Dad. I know what I'm doing. I've been in this situation before,'" Shadid told the crowd of several dozen people. "I guess on some level I felt that if I wasn't there to tell the story, the story wouldn't be told."

When Shadid's wife was asked at the time whether she worried about him returning to writing about conflicts, she said as a journalist she understood that he might need to.

"At the end of the day, he's my husband, and the thought of going through life without him and raising our children alone is terrible," she said afterward.

Shadid's father, who lives in Oklahoma City, said a colleague tried to revive his son after he was stricken Thursday but couldn't.

"They were in an isolated place. There was no doctor around," Buddy Shadid said. "It took a couple of hours to get him to a hospital in Turkey."

___

Associated Press writer Rochelle Hines contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-02-17-Obit-Shadid/id-c384b3e983b54e229cf9c7ee189edec0

the thin man republic wireless space ball drops on namibia prometheus colts colts matt barkley

Counterfeit drugs becoming big business worldwide

This product image provided by Genentech shows a vial and package for the cancer drug Avastin. The maker of Avastin is warning doctors and patients about counterfeit vials of the product distributed in the U.S. Roche's Genentech unit says the fake products do not contain the key ingredient in Avastin, which is used to treat cancers of the colon, lung, kidney and brain. (AP Photo/Genentech)

This undated photo provided by Genentech shows a counterfeit package for the cancer drug Avastin. The maker of Avastin is warning doctors and patients about counterfeit vials of the product distributed in the U.S. Roche's Genentech unit says the fake products do not contain the key ingredient in Avastin, which is used to treat cancers of the colon, lung, kidney and brain. (AP Photo/Genentech)

This undated photo provided by Genetech shows a counterfeit vial of the cancer drug Avastin. The maker of the best-selling cancer drug Avastin is warning doctors and patients about counterfeit vials of the product distributed in the U.S. Roche's Genentech unit says the fake products do not contain the key ingredient in Avastin, which is used to treat cancers of the colon, lung, kidney and brain. (AP Photo/Genetech)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The discovery that a fake version of the widely used cancer medicine Avastin is circulating in the United States is raising new fears that the multibillion-dollar drug-counterfeiting trade is increasingly making inroads in the U.S.

The criminal practice has largely been relegated to poor countries with lax regulations. But with more medicines and drug ingredients for sale in the U.S. being manufactured overseas, American authorities are afraid more counterfeits will find their way into this country, putting patients' lives at risk.

The Avastin discovery follows other recent instances in the U.S. of counterfeiting, involving such drugs as Viagra, the cholesterol medicine Lipitor and the weight-loss pill Alli.

"We do know there are counterfeits continuing to try and make their way onto the U.S. supply chain," said Connie Jung, an associate director in the Food and Drug Administration's office of drug security.

The FDA announced Tuesday it is investigating fake vials of Avastin that were sold to at least 19 doctors and clinics, including 16 sites in California, two in Texas and one in Chicago. Tests showed the vials did not contain the active ingredient in Avastin, which is given intravenously in hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices to treat several types of cancer.

The contents of the vials are still being analyzed, and the FDA said it has not received any reports of patients who were harmed.

FDA officials said the counterfeit Avastin was imported from Britain and distributed by Volunteer Distribution, a wholesaler based in Gainesboro, Tenn. British regulators notified the FDA about the products in December, but the agency didn't confirm they were fake until last week.

The FDA gave assurances Wednesday that the U.S. remains one of the most secure pharmaceutical markets in the world. But the news sent cancer doctors scrambling to check their records.

Mary Mathias, a nurse who orders drugs for one doctor on the FDA list ? Dr. Phillip L. Chatham in Granada Hills, Calif., ? said they had stopped using the company in question at least a year ago.

Because Avastin treatments are spaced one to two weeks apart, it is not likely that someone would get more than one infusion from the same vial. And because these are people facing a life-threatening disease, it is hard to say whether missing one treatment with the real drug would compromise their care.

Gauging harm from a counterfeit cancer treatment is nearly impossible, said Dr. Robert C. Young, former president of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and now a consultant to cancer centers.

A colon cancer patient, for example, might receive 18 to 20 Avastin infusions over six months. Missing one dose seems unlikely to have a dramatic effect on survival odds, but it's not provable either way because cancer's course and a patient's response to treatment are not predictable, he said.

Counterfeits have traditionally been more of a concern in developing regions like Asia and Latin America, where as many as 30 percent of drugs sold are fake, according to the World Health Organization. The group estimates just 1 percent of drugs dispensed in the U.S. and other developed nations are fake.

But incidents of counterfeiting reported by drugmakers have increased steadily over the decade to more than 1,700 worldwide last year, though only 6 percent of those were in the U.S. There are few reliable estimates on the value of the global counterfeit drug trade, though most place it in the tens of billions.

Counterfeiting has become more prevalent as pharmaceutical supply chains increasingly stretch across continents. Over 80 percent of the active ingredients used in U.S. pharmaceuticals are now manufactured overseas, according to a recent congressional report, and experts say this has made it easier to move counterfeit products into this country.

"With today's transportation networks, it's no longer a stretch to move these materials from a source in Pakistan or India to the U.S." said Tom Kubic, president of Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a trade association set up by two dozen pharmaceutical companies.

In 2005, federal prosecutors indicted 11 employees of a Missouri business on charges of conspiring to sell $42 million in counterfeit Lipitor. It was manufactured in Costa Rica and illegally imported to the U.S., where it was sold to wholesalers.

Industry experts also say a combination of big profits and low penalties has made drug counterfeiting an increasingly attractive business for criminals in the U.S. and abroad.

A single vial of Avastin sells for $2,400, and the drug had nearly $2.7 billion in U.S. sales last year, while the sentence for drug counterfeiting in the United States is about three years in prison. That compares with 15 years for counterfeiting money.

John Clark, head of global security for Pfizer Inc., said counterfeiters can make several million dollars quickly and, if they're caught, get off with as little as six months in jail. He also said counterfeiters can set up an operation at a fairly low cost ? perhaps $50,000, including about $20,000 for a pill press.

"It's a no-brainer for criminal organizations that it's worth a gamble," Clark said.

Clark said Pfizer's anti-counterfeiting team around the world has seen a number of fake vaccines and biologic drugs sold in developing countries, not just pill-based drugs.

"They're getting much more sophisticated," often getting ahold of legitimate vials that had held such medicines, from patients, trash cans or recycling operations, and then filling them with oil or water.

___

AP writers Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J., and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this story

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-02-15-Fake%20Drugs/id-86218274f2aa4e119e56aec3038d9773

bears vs packers after christmas sales 2011 tyson chandler tyson chandler best ipad apps chris paul chicago bulls

Battleground Lightning Review: Political Science/Fiction [Video]

Click here to read Battleground Lightning Review: Political Science/Fiction

First Netflix debuted its so-so Norwegian comedy-drama Lilyhammer. Today brings us Hulu's original series response: Battleground, a well-timed political 'dramedy' (ugh) that takes us behind the scenes of a fictional Wisconsin Senate campaign. It's very almost good! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KwyuYQa7nk4/battleground-lightning-review-political-sciencefiction

juelz santana greg halman greg halman dancing with the stars results ucla basketball walmart black friday sales walmart black friday sales

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Regular Maintenance Can Avoid Costly Computer Repairs ...

Creating a computer is typical nowadays, but it is not required that you?re knowledgeable about the computer repair tasks. After prolonged usage, it is evident that the body will run slow. Many people among us are not well versed with all the rising trend of technology which is one of the greatest reasons that we cannot detect what problem our computers coping. One such issue with the majority of the people is that their system runs slower compared to what it used to be when it was new. It?s not an approach to play in the blame game and finding out who?s responsible for that. Generally in most of the cases, the consumer is in charge of slow performance of the computer.

Regular maintenance is the key to produce your pc be in excellent for too long period. Will you have a car or bike? That which you caused by maintain its performance at its peak? You have to perform regular servicing such as changing engine oil and other stuffs. It is quite similar using the computers, since it also needs regular tuning and cleaning with the old registry programs, updates of spyware along with other essential settings. These are not the only real reasons for slow performance of one?s computer, but it?s a well known fact that regular maintenance will help it to supply fast performance for a long time. Take your personal computer to a repair center or hire a professional to talk to your place for regular examination of the system, just like everything you do for servicing your automobile.

Have a look at for that unused programs and files which are present in your pc. Many such programs and files remains within hard drive of one?s computer and you also never rely on them. It captures a specific space in the hard drive and thus the performance gets slower. It is recommended that you utilize a drive to store such programs and files. Also, remove the unnecessary shortcuts from the desktop to enhance the rate of your computer.

One of the common reasons behind the slow performance of your computer can be virus attack. Various kinds of malware, spyware, Trojans, etc. are some of the vital factors that creates problem of slow problem and other issues in your system. As an example, spyware leads to unauthorized access of organizations for your computer without you knowing. These outsiders send your private data and increase the risk for slow performance with the computer. Simply having updated antivirus software program is not enough to offer full protection because it just cuts down on the likelihood. Getting a computer repair professional can perform the herpes virus scan and conduct other essential tasks that will detect the root with the problem and take off it from your computer. This helps one?s body to regain its speed and efficiency of performance.

Through regular maintenance you avoid costly computer repair. Check out to know more about computer repair.

Filed Under: Business

Tags: computer repair

Source: http://weeklyshredder.com/regular-maintenance-can-avoid-costly-computer-repairs

netflix stock home affordable refinance program harp harp world series game 5 moammar gadhafi harry connick jr

Monday, February 13, 2012

What Music Would Look Like If It Were a Physical Object [Art]

Click here to read What Music Would Look Like If It Were a Physical Object

Artist Martin Klimas came up with a clever idea: he put splatters of plaint on a scrim over a speaker and played music. As the volume was turned up, the paint popped up in the air and he captured the moments in a photograph. It's a synchronized cacophony of art and music. It also looks fantastic. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nEcxlP2XMwA/what-music-would-look-like-if-it-were-a-physical-object

apple keynote apple keynote seattle news seattle news jenna fischer ben bernanke anwar al awlaki

Barley Investing Better Than Gold and Silver? :: The Market Oracle ...

How You Can Identify Stock Market Turning Points Using Fibonacci

Commodities / Agricultural Commodities Feb 11, 2012 - 12:04 PM

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Best Financial Markets Analysis Article Over the past five years, barley, of the eighteen commodities we follow, was the top performer. Rising by 180+% it bested Gold, +170%, and Silver, +150%. But why quibble? Nearly all commodity prices have done than paper equities. And perhaps they should, as real assets require real work to produce and are essential to the real world.

Paper equities, today really electronic equities, are created for every willy nilly idea around in abundance and without constraint. Does anyone truly believe that Facebook will still exist as a meaningful venture in a decade? Pachinko machines were once a social networking fad, but too faded. The world needs barley and other Agri-Foods to live, and FarmVille will just not do.

Agri-Food Price Index vs SP 500

Above chart portrays the returns over the past 5+ years for Agri-Commodities and the S&P 500. The dominance of those green bars is readily apparent, even to a hedge fund analyst. By the way, we chose red for the equity market bars as it has spent most of the past decade plus generating losses rather than profits.

Over the past 5+ years only one of the Agri-Commodities we follow failed to do better than the S&P 500. That one was eggs. However, to give eggs their due, they serve many useful purposes. Breakfast being one that comes immediately to mind. On the other hand, paper equities apparently provide little of value.

In the above chart one green bar for Agri-Commodities is negative. That is the one for the most recent year. Agri-Commodities have been going through a correction for much of that time. We had been projecting that the correction would be complete by next week. The vagaries of global weather seems to have accelerated the end of the correction. Four weeks ago the Agri-Food Price Index confirmed the low of 10 weeks ago. The Agri-Food Price Index is this week at a 10- week high.

2012 to Date % Change

As is readily apparent in the chart above, some investors have recognized the situation in Agri-Foods. In that chart is plotted the 2012 year-to-date price performance of a sampling of Agri-Equities. ADY, a Chinese milk operation, apparently has disappointed the internet rumor mongers. It has advanced strongly thus far this year on some heavy volume. Seems the Chinese will likely continue drinking milk, lots of it.

HOGS has developed some following as the year opened. These are the ones that are eaten, not driven. HOGS produces branded pork products for retail food outlets in China. Company apparently does know hogs as they once noted on their web site that they had 200+ ways to cut one up.

The next decade may be the best ever seen in Agri-Food. We do anticipate at a minimum one major correction in Agri-Foods in the next 12-24 months. which will be largely focused in popular grains. That development, should it occur, should put in place beginning of Wave V for Agri-Commodities. As many know from their ride in Gold and Silver, Wave V is as good to investors as it gets.

By Ned W Schmidt CFA, CEBS

AGRI-FOOD THOUGHTS is from Ned W. Schmidt,CFA,CEBS, publisher of The Agri-Food Value View, a monthly exploration of the Agri-Food grand cycle being created by China, India, and Eco-energy. To contract Ned or to learn more, use this link: www.agrifoodvalueview.com.

? 2005-2012 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.

Comments

Post Comment (Moderated)

Source: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article33087.html

ufc 143 what time does the super bowl start super bowl 2012 josephine baker askew ufc diaz vs condit ben gazzara

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Vps Hosting For Online Forums

Published by carol | February 11, 2012 | | 38

Nowadays you will find a gamut of global communities on several Internet forums as well as message boards, sharing information and discussing on various topics online every single minute of the day. These communities are actually run by webmasters who perform their regular administrative duties in order to keep the online forums running smoothly. A good Internet forum will have efficiently loaded web pages, while the server downtime would hardly be an issue. Forums need an adequate amount of bandwidth to cater to the thousands of visitors on their web pages working on a single point of time. This becomes particularly imperative in case of online communities having hundreds of members under different categories.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) works the best as a hosting solution for Online Forums, in terms of effective website growth and reasonably-priced dedicated resources. VPS plans uniquely work with the help of a network which is formed by individual server partitions that feed resources to each other, as and when required, paving the way for the Cloud VPS Hosting environments which are presently used by large corporate sites like Google. Nevertheless, even the conventional VPS hosting plans are powerful tools to providing the expansion capability to a web master, at prices from $ 20 to $ 200, as per the plan and the provider. Some of the web hosts offer 5-10 varied VPS hosting plans, catering to the needs of different kinds of webmasters. Online forums generally expand unexpectedly, with more and more members joining in and the site becoming heavily populated

Dedicated web servers, the apex of web hosting, provide private server resources dedicated to specific websites or the site owners. Shared hosting plans are comparatively more limited in its functions unlike VPS hosting plans creating a good balance between both shared hosting and dedicated hosting plans. In essence, you have full access to a dedicated server partition used by your site as well as your own IP address for your sites. VPS hosting plans are somewhat expensive than shared hosting plans, for its unique features and benefits, accommodating your site visitors on Online Forums and Message Boards.

Overall the VPS Plans are considered to be mid level and decently costing options when compared to the shared and dedicated servers. Also you can always start off running a forum on a shared hosting account but make sure you quickly upgrade to a better VPS account to ensure you get the maximum resources out of it and the forum runs smoothly.

Source: http://www.1directory.net/internet-and-businesses-online/web-hosting/vps-hosting-for-online-forums-3183.html

aspergers apple computer pancreatic cancer steve jobs aapl stock aapl stock apple ii

Personal Injury Lawyers Mississauga | Petrillo Law

Last updated 7 hours 42 minutes ago

In a personal injury case, as with any legal situation, it is always best to have a lawyer to advise you and represent you in a court of law.? Personal injury lawyers will benefit your case in several ways:

Legal Expertise

An experienced personal injury lawyer will know precisely which laws are applicable to your case, at both the federal and provincial levels. Typically, the average citizen does not have a working knowledge of every law that can help.? Even lawyers themselves are known to hire a lawyer to represent them, because different lawyers specialize in specific areas of the law.

Proper Procedure

A lawyer will also know all of the appropriate procedures to guide you through your personal injury case. Your lawyer will prepare you and other witnesses for trial, review evidence in the case, assemble the necessary documents, coordinate expert testimony and reports, and negotiate on your behalf.

Knowledge of Deadlines

Your accident lawyer will also be aware of any limitation dates that are pertinent to your personal injury case. Limitation dates vary depending on the case and are vitally important. If you miss the deadline, then you may lose your right to sue.

Organized Evidence

In addition, your accident lawyer will know what evidence to collect to give your case the best chance in court. For example, your lawyer will know which medical reports you?ll need for your case and who may be potential witnesses. He or she will gather evidence from various sources and will know what types of personal records to keep.

Professional Image

Finally, having an experienced personal injury lawyer representing you in court will show that you are serious about your case.? If you are in pre-trial negotiations, then having a lawyer lets the other party know that should you not receive a satisfactory settlement, you will go to court.

If you are looking for a qualified and experienced injury lawyer in Mississauga, then call the law firm of Petrillo Law Barrister and Solicitors at (888) 309-6576.? We will work to settle your personal injury case, in order to satisfy your legal rights.

Source: http://www.petrillolawblog.com/367375/2012/02/10/personal-injury-cases--what-a-legal-consultation-can-do-for-you.html

deion sanders shld 2012 sec football schedule medifast miami heat celtics sinead oconnor

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Home Improvement Has Never Been This Easy ... - Renewable Energy

Home improvement is an area where a consumer can be easily disappointed. Poor planning, hiring the wrong contractor, and tackling jobs that you?re not prepared for are all reasons for this. In this article we will discuss some important tips to help your next home improvement project go well. Read on to learn more.

Light is a premium often overlooked in home improvement projects. There are far, far more rooms in the world that are too dim than there are rooms that are too bright. Adding more light fixtures is almost always a wise home improvement job, and often a fairly simple one. In more extensive renovation work, installing more windows accomplishes similar results.When doing a web search looking for a contractor to hire, do specific niche searches. Many contractors work in niche aspects of home improvement and can do an excellent job for you. These contractors have the experience and expertise that is required for many of the niche home improvement jobs.

Energy Efficiency Tips

Install ceiling fans to circulate the air in your home. During summer the fan can be adjusted to blow down, and during the winter it can adjusted to draw the air up. This increases the efficiency of the utilities in your home so that you pay less in heating and cooling costs and save energy.

There are many tax credits that you can get as a home owner for energy saving improvements. Do some research, find out what they are and go for it. You will not only be increasing the value of your home but you will also be saving yourself on unneeded tax liability.

To increase energy efficiency and save significantly on your utility bills, consider replacing single pane windows with newer energy efficient ones. The investment you make in new windows now will easily pay for itself over time as your utility bills will be lower and, of course, your home will be more comfortable.

If you are looking to replace a door or many doors in your home, consider aluminum-clad storm doors that can be found in your local home improvement store. This type of door is not only energy-efficient, but it will last longer and brave the elements while also insulating and preventing drafts in the entryways of your home.

Get double-glazed windows, or even triple-glazed windows fitted to your house. These windows can decrease your annual energy bills by hundreds of dollars, as they are great insulators. They are also more difficult to smash, so you home is less likely to be broken into. Additionally, they can significantly increase the value of your home.

When looking to save money on energy, adding new energy efficient fixtures is an easy home improvement that can be done without a contractor. Adding energy efficient ceiling fan will not only add beauty, but will cut down on your cooling cost. Simply trading out your old incandescent bulbs to more energy efficient fluorescent ones can save you on energy costs.

Replacing your old windows is a great home improvement project, but do not get fooled into thinking that it is going to be a huge energy savings. The cost of replacing your old single hung windows with new energy efficient double pane windows is far greater than any savings on your utility bill could ever bring. So do not use that as a factor when determining if this is a home improvement project that you want to start.

One energy-efficient improvement you can make to your home is to replace your windows. Older-style single-panel windows don?t insulate the inside of your home nearly as well as the newer double-panel style. New windows will increase the aesthetic beauty of your home while saving you money each month in electricity bills.

When making home improvements, there is a simple way to save on your energy use. Instead of having all of your electronics plugged in, use a power strip. A power strip can be easily turned on and off when not in use. If you are not using an electronic, turn the power strip off, and you will not be using loads of energy.

Many homeowners are irritated by the buzzing and flickering emitting from their large, fluorescent overhead fixtures. For a relatively small charge, most electricians can quickly and easily install an electronic ballast. A ballast will cut down on noise and flickering, while eliminating excessive energy usage. Ballasts are also available for lighting that is on a dimmer switch.

The life of your home and the repairs you do to it could be drastically reduced if you do not know what you are doing. This is why you should take the information you have obtained from this article and devise a set plan for how you will tackle your home improvement issues.

Richie Vee, the site?s editor, is the Chief Engineer of one of the largest Platinum LEED buildings in NYC. His extensive building energy efficiency expertise from working with energy efficient construction helps guide consumers through energy savings for the average homeowner.

Tricks To Conserve Energy Found In Your Home
Easy Tool For Carrying Items
Some Tips To Fix Energy In Your Home

Source: http://ruralthrace-iticu.org/home-improvement-has-never-been-this-easy-before/

ground hog day 2012 aaron carter black history month did groundhog see his shadow nick carter sister rod parsley recruiting rankings

Friday, February 10, 2012

Researchers find important 'target' playing role in tobacco-related lung cancers

Public release date: 9-Feb-2012
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Ferdie De Vega
Ferdinand.DeVega@moffitt.org
813-745-7858
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

IKBKE induces tobacco carcinogens, determines chemotherapy sensitivity

TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 9, 2012) Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have discovered that the immune response regulator IKBKE (serine/threonine kinase) plays two roles in tobacco-related non-small cell lung cancers. Tobacco carcinogens induce IKBKE and, in turn, IKBKE induces chemotherapy resistance.

The study was published in a recent issue of Oconogene.

"IKBKE is a newly identified oconogene, a gene linked to cancer," said study lead author Jin Q. Cheng, Ph.D., M.D., who studies genetic alterations and their molecular mechanisms in cancer. "In our study, we demonstrated that IKBKE is a STAT 3 target gene and is induced by tobacco. STAT3 is a signaling and transcription gene that is activated in various types of cancer and is required for cell transformation."

As a "transcription factor" STAT3 plays a key role in many cellular processes, such as cell growth and programmed cell death, or "apoptosis."

"It has been well documented that STAT3 is activated by growth factors and environmental carcinogenesis, such as nicotine," said Cheng. "STAT3 directly binds to the IKBKE promoter and induces IKBKE transcription."

Tobacco smoke is the strongest documented tumor initiator and promoter in lung cancer. The underlying molecular mechanism is still largely unknown.

"IKBKE is induced by tobacco carcinogens and mediates tobacco action in promoting lung cancer cell survival," said Cheng. "Armed with this knowledge, interventions targeting the IKBKE pathway could be developed."

Cheng and his colleagues found that when STAT3 induces IKBKE expression, IKBKE's expression induces chemotherapy resistance. Conversely, "knocking down" IKBKE sensitizes cells to chemotherapy, suggesting that there is a therapeutic role for targeting IKBKE.

While IKBKE has been found to be "over expressed" in ovarian, breast and prostate cancers, in this study IKBKE has for the first time been associated with non-small cell lung cancer in patients with a history of tobacco use, and particularly by tobacco's nicotine component. The researchers stated that upon exposure to nicotine, cells express high levels of IKBKE protein. In their study co-expression of STAT3 and IKBKE was "observed in primary non-small cell lung cancer."

"Current treatments for non-small cell lung cancer include surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy," explained Cheng. "Advanced patients generally develop chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance, so there is a great need to understand the molecular mechanism of therapy resistance in order to find 'targets' to overcome resistance."

The discovery that STAT3 appears to regulate IKBKE in response to nicotine induced by tobacco carcinogen may also help develop a strategy for an intervention in non-small cell lung cancer by targeting IKBKE.

###

About Moffitt Cancer Center
Follow Moffitt on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MoffittCancerCenter
Follow Moffitt on Twitter: @MoffittNews
Follow Moffitt on YouTube: MoffittNews

Located in Tampa, Moffitt Cancer Center is the only Florida-based National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center, a designation that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Moffitt has 14 affiliates in Florida, one in Georgia, one in Pennsylvania and two in Puerto Rico. Moffitt is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Researchers find important 'target' playing role in tobacco-related lung cancers

Public release date: 9-Feb-2012
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Ferdie De Vega
Ferdinand.DeVega@moffitt.org
813-745-7858
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

IKBKE induces tobacco carcinogens, determines chemotherapy sensitivity

The study was published in a recent issue of Oconogene.

As a "transcription factor" STAT3 plays a key role in many cellular processes, such as cell growth and programmed cell death, or "apoptosis."

Tobacco smoke is the strongest documented tumor initiator and promoter in lung cancer. The underlying molecular mechanism is still largely unknown.

###

About Moffitt Cancer Center
Follow Moffitt on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MoffittCancerCenter
Follow Moffitt on Twitter: @MoffittNews
Follow Moffitt on YouTube: MoffittNews

Media release by Florida Science Communications

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/hlmc-rfi020912.php

alcohol poisoning alcohol poisoning mark ingram mark ingram between two ferns joe the plumber weather colorado springs

Judge refuses to seal probe of Stevens prosecutors (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A federal judge on Wednesday rejected arguments from four attorneys who prosecuted the late Sen. Ted Stevens to keep private a report that reveals details of their mishandling of the case, but said he will not hold them criminally responsible for their "ill-gotten verdict."

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered that a 500-page report into the Justice Department's botched corruption case against Stevens be released March 15, along with any written objections the attorneys targeted in the investigation wish to include.

Last November, Sullivan revealed that the special prosecutor he had appointed, Washington lawyer Henry F. Schuelke III, did not recommend criminal charges against any of the federal prosecutors despite finding widespread misconduct, at least some of it intentional. In an order Wednesday, Sullivan formally confirmed that he is accepting Schuelke's conclusions.

Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in the Senate when a jury convicted him in 2008 of lying on financial disclosure documents to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in home renovations and gifts from wealthy friends, including a massage chair, a stained-glass window and an expensive sculpture. A few days later, Stevens lost re-election to the Alaska seat he'd held for 40 years.

Sullivan dismissed the conviction after the Justice Department admitted misconduct in the case, including withholding from the defense evidence favorable to Stevens. The withheld evidence included notes from an interview with the government's star witness that would have been favorable to Stevens' defense. The witness was Bill Allen, the millionaire founder of a major Alaska company that supported oil producers called VECO Corp. who testified that he oversaw extensive renovations at Stevens' home and sent his employees to work on it.

"The government's ill-gotten verdict in the case not only cost that public official his bid for re-election, the results of that election tipped the balance of power in the United States Senate," Sullivan wrote. "That the government later moved to dismiss the indictment with prejudice and vacate the verdict months after the trial does not eradicate the misconduct, nor should it serve to shroud that misconduct in secrecy."

Sullivan ordered the criminal investigation into the six Justice Department attorneys who tried the senator as he dismissed the conviction. At the time, he said he'd never seen such misconduct in 25 years on the bench.

Sullivan wrote Wednesday that he received motions from two of the attorneys under investigation by Schuelke to permanently seal the report, while two other targeted attorneys objected to the release without making a legal motion to stop it. He did not identify which attorneys made the filings, all under seal. He also said the Justice Department and the two remaining attorneys indicated they do not oppose its release.

Sullivan wrote that the attorneys opposed to releasing the report argued that because Schuelke's investigation was essentially the same as a grand jury investigation, it should be bound by grand jury secrecy rules, particularly since Schuelke is not recommending criminal prosecution. But the judge said the investigation was different from a grand jury proceeding in many respects, including that the subjects were publicly identified from the outset.

"While objecting generally to release of the report as unfair and prejudicial to the opposing attorneys' privacy and reputational interests, those attorneys have not specified any compelling interest that would meet their high burden to justify keeping the report under seal," Sullivan wrote.

Sullivan quoted the report as concluding that "the investigation and prosecution of Sen. Stevens were permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated (his) defense and his testimony, and seriously damaged the testimony and credibility of the government's key witness."

The judge also said the report found at least some of the concealment was intentional and that much has yet to be publicly revealed. But Sullivan said Schuelke is not recommending contempt charges because the judge never issued a direct order spelling out rules of evidence that the prosecutors disobeyed.

"Having appointed Mr. Schuelke to `investigate and prosecute' criminal contempt proceedings as appropriate, the court accepts his findings and conclusions," Sullivan wrote. "The public can neither understand the basis for Mr. Schuelke's findings and conclusions, however, nor the basis for the court's decision to accept those findings and conclusions, without access to the report."

He also said public disclosure of the report is warranted because the public paid not only the cost of the trial, but the costs of the Schuelke investigation and the legal representation for the attorneys who were targeted by it.

"To deny the public access to Mr. Schuelke's report under the circumstances of this case would be an affront to the First Amendment and a blow to the fair administration of justice," Sullivan wrote.

Subjects of the criminal investigation were prosecutors Brenda Morris, Edward Sullivan, Joseph Bottini, James Goeke and William Welch, who did not participate in the trial but at the time supervised the Justice Department's Public Integrity section and had overseen every major public corruption case in recent years.

Another Justice Department attorney who was targeted in the investigation, Nicholas Marsh, committed suicide in 2010. Sullivan said a pleading on the report was filed on behalf of Marsh's estate, but the judge did not reveal what it said.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement Wednesday that she is exploring legislation to reform rules of evidence in criminal cases in response to the scandal.

"The legacy of the Stevens trial ? not just in Alaska, but nationwide ? has become bigger than one man; it's become a national example of abuse of power and a double-standard for the Department of Justice," said Murkowski. "I'm pleased that Judge Sullivan has decided that transparency is not merely the best option, but the only option if Americans are to regain the ironclad and fundamental trust in our justice system."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120208/ap_on_go_co/us_stevens_investigation

vladimir putin vladimir putin rampage jackson prius c crocodile dundee crocodile dundee sharjah

Octagonal window of opportunity for carbon capture

ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2012) ? Filtering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from factory smokestacks is a necessary, but expensive part of many manufacturing processes. However, a collaborative research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Delaware has gathered new insight into the performance of a material called a zeolite that may stop carbon dioxide in its tracks far more efficiently than current scrubbers do.

Zeolites are highly porous rocks -- think of a sponge made of stone -- and while they occur in nature, they can be manufactured as well. Their toughness, high surface area (a gram of zeolite can have hundreds of square meters of surface in its myriad internal chambers) and ability to be reused hundreds of times makes them ideal candidates for filtering gas mixtures. If an unwanted molecule in the gas mixture is found to stick to a zeolite, passing the mixture through it can scrub the gas of many impurities, so zeolites are widely used in industrial chemistry as catalysts and filters.

The team explored a zeolite created decades ago in an industrial lab and known by its technical name, SSZ-13. This zeolite, which has octagonal "windows" between its interior pore spaces, is special because it seems highly capable of filtering out carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ from a gas mixture. "That makes SSZ-13 a promising candidate for scrubbing this greenhouse gas out of such things as factory smokestacks," says Craig Brown, a researcher at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). "So we explored, on an atomic level, how it does this so well."

Using neutron diffraction, the team determined that SSZ-13's eight-sided pore windows are particularly good at attracting the long, skinny carbon dioxide molecules and holding onto their "positively-charged" central carbon atoms, all the while allowing other molecules with different shapes and electronic properties to pass by unaffected. Like a stop sign, each pore halts one CO₂ molecule -- and each cubic centimeter of the zeolite has enough pores to stop 0.31 grams of CO₂, a quantity that makes SSZ-13 highly competitive when compared to other adsorbent materials.

Brown says a zeolite like SSZ-13 probably will become a prime candidate for carbon scrubbing because it also could prove more economical than other scrubbers currently used in industry. SSZ-13's ability to attract only CO₂ could mean its use would reduce the energy demands of scrubbing, which can require up to 25 percent of the power generated in a coal or natural gas power plant.

"Many industrial zeolites attract water and carbon dioxide, which are both present in flue exhaust -- meaning both molecules are, in a sense, competing for space inside the zeolite," Brown explains. "We suspect that this novel CO₂ adsorption mechanism means that water is no longer competing for the same site. A zeolite that adsorbs CO₂ and little else could create significant cost savings, and that's what this one appears to do."

Brown says his team is still collecting data to confirm this theory, and that their future efforts will concentrate on exploring whether SSZ-13 is equally good at separating CO₂ from methane -- the primary component of natural gas. CO₂ is also released in significant quantities during gas extraction, and the team is hopeful SSZ-13 can address this problem as well.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Matthew R. Hudson, Wendy L. Queen, Jarad A. Mason, Dustin W. Fickel, Raul F. Lobo, Craig M. Brown. Unconventional, Highly Selective CO2Adsorption in Zeolite SSZ-13. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012; 134 (4): 1970 DOI: 10.1021/ja210580b

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120208132844.htm

no child left behind no child left behind rock center alyssa bustamante george huguely roland martin weightless