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Next time they'll bring a bigger pail
March 3, 2012 Comments Off on Next time they'll bring a bigger pail
Imagine my surprise when I heard a knock on the door last Friday night at 11:00 PM. "Who the fuck could that be?" I asked Mrs. WM, but she kept snoring.
I squinched my eye and looked through the peephole. There was this schlumpfy chick in a white lab coat and some sausage stroker carrying a pail. "Who the fuck are you?" I politely asked, cracking the door enough to speak, but keeping the security chain on.
"USADA. Out of competition drug test. Are you Wank J. Meister?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"USA Cycling racing license number 43903D-FL?"
"Yeah. But I'm a 45+ masters hacker. You got the wrong guy. Lance ain't here. We broke up years ago."
"Please open the door and let us in. A refusal to be tested will be recorded as a positive, and you will face disciplinary action, up to and including a two-year suspension."
"You're kidding me, right?"
They just stood there eyefucking me, so I opened the door. The chick glanced around the apartment. "Vat are zose?"
"Ja. Zose." She pointed to several syringes on the dining table.
"Vitamins. Those are my subcutaneous vitamin injections. For my liver. And to add collagen to my hair. It's how I keep it so shiny and soft."
"Fine. Ve're taking zem for analysis." With a practiced sweep, she pushed the syringes along with the needles into a little plastic baggie that had a pre-printed number and my name on it. I wondered if she was also going to test the pistachio shells, bread crumbs, and old shrimp heads that fell in as well.
The guy then set the pail on the floor and faced me. "We're going to need a urine sample, a blood sample, a spit sample, an earwax sample, a lock of hair from your armpit, a snip of fingernail, a swab of toejam, a skin sample from the inside of your cheek, a booger, whatever tartar we can get from the back of one of your molars, and a scraping from the seat of your jockey shorts."
"Are you drug testers, or product development from Clif Bar? And how do you plan on scraping my underwear? I don't see no fuckin jackhammer."
"Very funny. Please urinate into the milkpail."
Cry me a river, but piss me just a bucket
As I was standing there filling up the bucket, the chick says, "Vat is zis?" She had gone into the kitchen and was nosing around in the pantry. Now she was holding up a can.
"That? That's nothing."
"I mean, it's just BlueVeiner Rage D3 Andriosoxylathion Dicarbolmethylalanene."
"Vas is it for?"
"For? It's just an anti-oxidant. It's all natural. It keeps my veins blue and healthy."
"Fine. I'm confiscating a sample of it. Vas is zis?" She held up another bottle.
"That bottle there? That's nothing."
"Does the nussing have a name?"
"Yeah, right there on the side. That's Bulkmaster Duo-Build Tetrafluoroboratepermanganate with XXXSatans Pitchfork Sodium Monoaluminumditelluride. It's for my saddle sores. I can show you."
She wrinkled her nose. "Nein, danke. And zis?"
"Ja, zat."
"That's Jacknutz Swellnodes Bi-urethane with Conpromium Agnate of Zinchromium. It's a water softener I put in my water bottles before a race. Hard water makes me cramp and it makes my hemorrhoids swell up like grapefruit. All the guys use it. They sell it by the case at Lindbag Nutrition, for Dog's sake."
Aw, heck, it's just a centrifuge
Pretty soon the Grand Inquisitress came out of the bathroom holding an armful of pill bottles. She had her "You Are In Serious Shit Now, Son" face on. "Do you haf a TUE for any of zese items?"
"A what?"
"TUE. Therapeutic use exemption. Permission from a doctor to use zese medications to treat a known condition, and approved by USA Cycling and ze UCI."
"Well, uh, sure. Doctor Jose Luis Alvarado de Castandeda-Sinaloa y Michoacan de Sinsemilla prescribed me a whole suitcase load of that stuff when I went down to Mexico last summer. Who can fucking afford health care in California anymore? Those are all for valid illnesses."
"Super Recovery Testosterone Gel?"
"I'm a recovering alcoholic. That stuff helps me recover quicker after I drink so I can drink again quicker."
"InstaGrow Chorionic Gonadotropin?"
"I had a cornea transplant. That shit is helping my corneas grow back so I can see better."
"Third Lung Triple Potency Albuterol?"
"Hey, I'm an asthmatic already. I can hardly breathe without that stuff." Just then I had a sudden coughing attack.
"Zat is the fakest cough I've ever heard," she said, just being rude. "Okay. Vat about zis? Vat possible use do you haf for a tousand tablets of 'Ultra Big' Androstenediol?"
"I got burned and it's helping with my skin graft."
"Show me," she commanded. I held out my pinky where I'd blistered it on the frying pan last week. "Pfffffft," she said. And it was a rather contemptuous "pffffft," I might add.
While all this was going on her cohort was digging around in my closet. "Aha!" he yelled. "Found it! Please explain yourself, Mr. Meister!"
"Oh. That?"
"Yes! This!" He was really worked up.
"It's just a centrifuge. For blood fractionation. Everybody has one of those. I bleed out a couple pints every few months and then zap it with ultraviolet radiation to treat and prevent colds and flu. It is NOT for performance-enhancing purposes or for re-injecting highly oxygenated red blood cells immediately prior to the Cat 4 45+ CBR at Dominguez Hills on Sundays."
Whatever you do, don't waken Mrs. WM
Then disaster struck. The two-gallon pail overflowed and began sloshing onto our lime green shag carpet. "Gott in Himmel!" shouted the schlumpfy Überstormführerin.
The shout awoke Mrs. WM, and if there's one thing she doesn't like more than being awoken out of a deep, bone-rattling, foundation cracking midnight snore, it's awakening to find a giant bucket sloshing warm piss onto the carpet.
Of course since she's Japanese, she was pretty polite about it. "Why have you urinated into a bucket and poured it on the floor?" she asked me.
I pointed at Schlumpfy and Dumpfy. "They made me."
"We're very sorry, Ma'am," said Dumpfy. "It's part of the USADA out of competition drug testing protocol that we enforce to ensure a level playing field among arthritic old people who do 45-minute crits three or four times a year in hopes of winning $75 dollars or some free GU or, after three years, getting an upgrade based on participation."
"Ah," she answered. "Are these the same elderly people who spend $20,000 on their racing equipment, massages, and clothing in order to perhaps win that $75?"
"Well, uh, yes," said Schlumpfy.
"So what happens if the playing field isn't 'level' as you put it?"
"It will destroy the grass roots of the sport!" they yelled in unison.
"Ah, I see. You mean once they realize that the game is rigged, the non-doping old people will choose not to spend most of their disposable income on expensive toys they can crash on the weekend, and instead take up healthier, family-compatible pursuits?"
"Well, yes." They were now doodling their toes in the warm piss.
"And the down side to that is…?" More silence. "Surely you two nice young people have something better to do with your Friday nights?"
Schlumpfy was now holding the bucket, and the overflow was drizzling down onto her shoes. Dumpfy was looking glumly at the four-inch concrete chip he'd chiseled out of my Haynes He-Thong Superbriefs. You could tell the thought of analyzing it wasn't exactly fun.
"Let me make you a nice hot cup of green tea to go with your warm bucket of piss and that small slab of…of…" she trailed off. "Then you can go back to the lab and analyze your, ah, samples. Not that there's anything wrong…" she stared in disgust at the underwear and the bucket "…with that."
The next morning I left to meet up with the Donut Ride and when I passed the dumpster I saw the bucket of urine and the centrifuge. Never heard from USADA again. But I'm going to send them a link to the Home Depot ad I saw for four-gallon buckets.


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Shot this afternoon, here's what it looks like to ride a dragon in the world of Skyrim. You get this ability toward the end of Dragonborn, the new DLC that came out today for Bethesda's open-world RPG. It's kind of... disappointing. It doesn't seem like you can actually control the dragon very much, so don't start getting dreams of soaring over the coastline, shooting fireballs at every city you pass. Dragon riding seems to be more novelty than anything.
These Great Fortnite Creative Maps Show Us What's Possible
(Sorry for the iPhone footage, by the way—I left our video capture box in the office.)
Expect our Dragonborn review tomorrow morning.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hugo Chavez Socialism – 3rd World Exploitation Comes Home to Roost..
I have found no end of humor in watching Hugo Chavez confound the U.S. political establishment with his seemingly crazy comments about "the Devil" intermingled with savvy populist gestures like giving 20 Million gallons of heating oil to U.S. families. "Crazy as a fox," as they say..
Lesser known of Mr. Chavez's efforts to win over American hearts and minds was his offer to give back Petty Island, (a small island off the coast of New Jersey) controlled by Venezuelan state-controlled oil company Citgo, and completely restore it to it's natural state for a game preserve. You see, Petty Island and its abandoned collection of old tankers, refinery and storage facilities, is also an important riparian nesting ground and host to the areas only pair of nesting bald Eagles. The island is also smack dab in the middle of a critical flyway for migrating birds.
Mr. Chavez's offer came with strings attached — the Island could only be used as a nature preserve, and it included $2 million for maintenance and $1 million for a educational and cultural center. Not so surprisingly, Governor McGreevey of New Jersey refused the offer, wanting instead (in true Jersey form) to hand the island over to developers (and presumably contributors) for a hotel, conference center, golf course, (we definitely need another one of those) and 300 homes.
The deal (of which further details can be found in the Buzzflash article HERE) has still not come to fruition due to posturing by the current New Jersey Governor, apparently afraid to be joined to Mr. Chavez at the political hip by Fox News; but it speaks to a far more important issue — the rise of Chavez and Socialism in South America.
Demagogues like Mr. Chavez are a natural result of political imperialism. As vividly documented in numerous books including "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," (featured here on Conspireality) and Mr. Chavez's now best selling gift to our President "Open Veins of Latin America" (a dramatic title for a passionate people) the populist movement in South America is a DIRECT result of American corporate intervention and exploitation of South America for a century or more.
After numerous US backed coups, dictators, and our pointless and horrific "Drug War," our neighbors to the South have finally gotten fed up with the U.S.'s rhetoric about freedom and democracy. The U.S. and its campaign of economic slavery and self-interest in the region have brought them only poverty and stagnation. And Hugo Chavez is a direct incarnation of their well earned distrust of American Freedom.
Of course, proud American defenders, with feigned outrage will attempt to relegate all this to "conspiracy theory" and "leftist propaganda," but the proof is all there for you if you simply read the numerous books carefully documenting the history of American Eco-warfare and exploitation in South America. And an important history it is, for in many ways it mirrors the history of another region where the U.S.has created a veritable political and socio-economic time-bomb — the Middle East. In fact, if it weren't for South America sharing a common religion with the U.S. in Catholicism, it easily could have already become a hotbed of terrorism against the U.S. Fortunately for us, the Catholic Church in South Americais firmly aligned with the U.S. Corporate backed wealthy class, and while ministering to the poor has not so secretly supported the status quo. But the people have finally reached the breaking point, because they KNOW the truth. Much like in Iran — where the local populace know all to well that the U.S. deposed the only democratically elected leader in the region Mohammed Mossedeq in a CIA backed Coup in 1953 – the people distrust our promises of democracy, for history tells a very different story.
And like Iran, if the US does not immediately stop our political posturing and demonizing of Venezuela and the horribly oppressed Cuba, the people are poised to become our enemy, and we have far to many enemies already. Mr. Chavez is not a fool or a nut, he is a just simple, street-smart and superstitious Indian from the ghettos of a Venezuela who knows exactly what has happened there, and his distrust of the American motives is completely justified. Demagogue, populist hero, or both, it doesn't matter– Chavez is intent on promoting a Socialist uprising throughout South America– an uprising that is fueled in part by the detritus of U.S. exploitation and self-interest. We must immediately demonstrate to South America that we are ready to support their emergence as a political and economic power as partners, for with their abundance of natural resources they are an emerging super power whether we like it or not. And they can partner with us, their geographical, social, and religious cousins, or be driven into the arms of China and Russia.
South and Central American relations are a political tipping-point of far greater importance to American security than even the explosive Middle East, for they could become a cornerstone of American partnership and economic growth, or another devastating competitor. Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and ironically, the best starting point for opening the door to an honest, win-win alliance with South America could be through Mr. Chavez.
Even more Ironically, as the American populace has begrudgingly begun consider "Socialism", (or a better description might be "Social Capitalism.") for what it is — a political system which attempts to provide a decent standard of living and fair playing field for all people, instead of leaving it to the ruthless wiles of the predatory free market — and not what the Right would like to frame it as, namely, a contagious disease– we must also reconsider our place in the world, and the rights of all people to not be exploited to artificially support our inflated lifestyles. Yes conservatives, we have the RIGHT to be as wealthy and successful as we can be, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of those who aren't even in the game… But make no mistake, South America is in the game now, and they are no longer our corporate feeding grounds, so we had better get them on our team and fast, or watch them become Little Asia…


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The color green
For years and years, computing was all about performance. Faster CPUs, better video cards, more RAM—all to make sure you had the biggest and baddest box on the block. Recently, we've seen a new trend, focused mainly on lower-energy, more efficient computing. The marketing buzz says that a green PC will result in reduced power bills, smaller servers, and lower carbon footprint for the environment. Couple this lean approach with reductions on hazardous substances (a la RoHS) that have been made over the past two years, and computing is clearly becoming less wasteful.
For corporations, a 10 percent or even 5 percent reduction in power consumption is huge. Add in additional overhead costs to keep those server rooms air conditioned, fed with clean power, secure from the outside and the inside, and the effects of a greener computer are multiplied. Smaller, more energy efficient servers may allow more servers to be packed into less rack space—this may actually increase overall power consumption, but it might also allow one less data center to be built, which means one less building to staff and all of the other associated costs.
For the home user, the benefits are more direct: a lower electric bill, both from reduced consumption and, for those in hot climates, less money spent on cooling your home office. The primary trade-off for individuals is the direct cost of upgrading or replacing an existing system to a less power-hungry one: you may never recoup the upgrade cost, even if the computer is run continuously. At $0.14/kWh, going from a computer that consumes 100W to one that consumes 60W would save $50 a year—which is many times less than what it would cost to upgrade the computer.
If your existing system is a power-hungry Netburst-era Pentium 4, the savings may be more dramatic than the example above, but even if you save $100 a year, upgrading a perfectly adequate computer for the sake of lower power probably doesn't make financial sense. At $300 for a minimal box, that's still three years to pay it off, which is a long time for a computer.
Hence, the real reason to go green is because you want to. Be it bragging rights over the neighbors, maybe your existing system is ready to be retired, or because removing 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 watts of power consumption in your study means you don't have to run the air conditioner, we're happy to see what's available for when you want to go green.
Low-power components
Certain components are major power hogs in a modern computer and can be made more efficient, while others consume relatively little power. It's difficult to achieve practical gains with other components.
Processors and power supplies get most of the attention for good reason, but video cards should not be overlooked. Hard drives are another good place for saving power with more efficient units, especially if you can afford to go to flash-based (solid state disk, also known as SSD) drives.
Once you get past the obvious, shaving watts becomes more difficult—but we're hear to help. You can get by with fewer fans since your system runs cooler, and a smaller case means fewer materials and resources used in manufacture—many of which are recyclable. Integrating everything into the motherboard means fewer add-in cards on PCBs, but again, that may only go so far. Not everyone can turn to integrated video, particularly gamers and multimonitor power users, and "ridiculous" comes to mind when one is obsess over the number of fans in a system, as a low-flow/low-noise fan is typically less than 2 watts.
If you can get by without a desktop, a $499 laptop today typically has power consumption in line with a low-power PC. Even more economical alternatives such as Asus's Eee PC are also worth considering, but such choices call for significant compromises in screen size and performance.
The truly obsessed will find little ways to save power, far beyond what we discuss here. The Intellplug is one of the more practical examples.


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Well, folks, it's all over except for the shouting! This is it. I don't know if I would have made it without the strong encouragement of my friends, especially my online friends.
I do have passion, I have that in spades. It's just been a really difficult last couple of weeks. I've been going through a depression, and it's been affecting my work, my friendships, everything I'm about. It's forced me to dig deep on some reserve I never knew I had in order to finish this commitment.
It's not just about the shiny, shiny blog badge, either (although I'm always up for shiny, shiny things 😉 ). It's about completion. It's about finishing what I start. Last year I completed NaNoWriMo for the first time in a long time and that felt great. This feels a lot like that.
What's your passion? What are you committed to and what's import to finish today? Don't wait another moment. The feeling's indescribable.


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Ben Stewart's day-to-day blog ramblings from the road.
360-degree photos of Bristol, Darlington and Daytona on pages .
The Charger's suspension is compressed flat to the bump stops as it drifts up Darlington's banking. The steering is getting twitchy and so am I. The passenger side mirror nearly brushes the wall off Turn 1. The next turn comes quicker than I can think. My eyes tell me to hit the brakes, my mind tells me to brace for impact, but I hold the line. And instead of decorating the side of the Charger SRT8 with a Darlington stripe, I hook it into the groove off Turn 2 and punch through the 100-mph barrier on the straight. Man, that was good. Man, that was scary.
More From Popular Mechanics
Big-league stock car racing is America's motorsport. Nothing really compares with NASCAR's multi-million-dollar sponsorships, TV deals and gritty metal-on-metal competition. Beneath the hype and glitter, though, the engines still echo with the sport's down-and-dirty roots in that uniquely American livelihood: running moonshine. When guys like Junior Johnson weren't running from the law, they were racing on dirt tracks around the Southeast, as well as on the beaches of Daytona. As the sport caught on in the '50s, NASCAR's pioneers began building modern racetracks where the cars could hit speeds unthinkable even 10 years earlier.
During the lull between the NASCAR season's end and its traditional Daytona 500 season opener, I decided to pay homage to the roots of American racing. My goal was to visit some of the original and still-used tracks, places steeped in the history of the sport. There was no question that a visit to NASCAR's Daytona birthplace was mandatory. After that I would follow the NASCAR trail and set foot--and rubber--on very different, but legendary, surfaces. I couldn't think of a better way to make the trip than in a Dodge Charger SRT8--the Hemi-powered, street-legal personification of Dodge's Nextel Cup Car.
The very first NASCAR-sanctioned race was organized by NASCAR's founder, Bill France Sr., on Feb. 15, 1948. It was run half on pavement and half on the sands of Daytona Beach, Fla. Racing on the beach always sounded crazy to me. Now I get it: The surface seems as hard as concrete, not bad for racing. But that hard sand wasn't the best for spectators: As the cars came around the course they would spray grit at the stands, right into the fans' faces.
However, it wasn't the harsh viewing conditions of beach racing that led France to invest his time and money in a paved track. No, the underlying factor was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"Bill's idea was to take the closed-course speed record away from Indianapolis," Dan Warren says. Warren was a good friend of France, and an attorney and politician who was instrumental in the Daytona track's creation. "He built the track at 2.5 miles specifically to beat Indy's record."
Warren has a near-photographic memory and is a pack rat: He still has the diagrams of the original track. Incredible.
"We were having breakfast and Bill grabbed a doily, pulled out his pen and said, 'I want to show you what I'm proposing to build in Daytona Beach.' And he drew what became the famous trioval." According to Warren, France's dream for a superspeedway began in 1952, and took seven years of financial and political finagling to come true. First he needed enough land for the project. The city engineer and eventual track engineer, Charles Moneypenny, told France about an ideal area west of the airport. "There was a high grade of marl gravel underneath the subsoil there. Most of the soil here is sand and you can't build on it," says Warren. One of the biggest challenges was the banking, which was set at 31 degrees so the cars could run 200 mph. But the transitions from 18 to 31 degrees confounded Moneypenny. According to Warren, they discovered the solution at the Ford Proving Ground in Detroit. "The banking at Ford wasn't as high," Warren says, "but they had the transition from the flat parts onto the banking. They shared their engineering reports so we could do it, too.
"We also had to worry what 31-degree banking would mean for tire wear," Warren tells me. France had heard that the Bethlehem Steel Mills in Birmingham, Ala., had a byproduct--slag--with very fine iron filings in it. France obtained the slag and mixed it with the asphalt for a surface with superb adhesion. Warren says, "That's why the track stood so long."
I'm standing in an eerily silent raceway surrounded by empty stands. As I climb up to the outer wall, it is an almost religious experience. The 31-degree banking feels vertical when I try to stand. I look past the wall, through the catch fence and realize I'm a few stories up. And I shudder when I realize how close I am to where Lee Petty, patriarch of the Petty racing dynasty, went over the wall in 1961 before the 500. His car ended up a crumpled wreck close to the parking area. He was hospitalized for months, his racing career finished.
As I go around the track--barely breaking the limit in a school zone--it's obvious it hasn't been repaved in 30 years. I can't imagine what it's like at 200 mph. Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 19 Dodge Nextel Cup Car, knows exactly what it's like. "The car needs to get as low as possible without dragging," he tells me. "You want to run the springs as soft as you can--actually run them so you get coil bind on compression."
Next stop, Darlington. The SRT8 Charger is the perfect car for this Southern-fried road trip. Only Dodge makes its production cars in the spirit of its Nextel Cup cars--rear-drive and V8-powered. And the SRT8, at 425 hp, is about as close as you can get to NASCAR nirvana. Despite the performance, the car still delivers a respectable 19.4 mpg for the first 345 miles of the dash from Daytona to Darlington. It's nearly 2 am when I arrive. I fill the Dodge's tank and then head off to find the nearest available warm bed in Florence, S.C.
Darlington Raceway is so unassuming that I almost drive right by. Cathy Elliott, the track's director of public relations, says, "Darlington has pretty much retained its 1950s charm." Charming or not, it's scary as hell to drive. Darlington is famous, or infamous, for its egg shape. At the fat end of the 1.366-mile track, the banking is 25 degrees, at the other end, 23 degrees. The tighter turn has less banking than the wider one.
Driving the track right takes more than skill and nerve, it requires experience. In the pre-downforce days, the veterans would stabilize their cars coming off Turn 2 by just grazing the guardrail with the rear quarter of their cars. The rail would leave its mark on the sheetmetal: the Darlington Stripe. It takes major talent and more guts than I have to purposely earn that stripe. Each time I come off the banking on Turn 2, it feels like the wall is jumping out at me at 90 mph--about half the speed Cup drivers are doing there.
This is the oldest paved track on the NASCAR circuit. According to Darlington's president, Jim Hunter, "There were no other asphalt tracks conducting 500-mile races for stock cars when Darlington was built." Construction began in 1949, 10 years before Daytona opened. Like Daytona, Indy inspired its construction. After seeing a race there, Harold Brasington, who owned a sand and gravel business in Darlington, decided people in the South might enjoy watching a race like that. He reportedly negotiated for the property with landowner Sherman Ramsey over a poker game. The only stipulation was that the track layout couldn't disturb the minnow pond that Ramsey liked to fish, hence the egg shape.
Brasington convinced local construction and roadbuilding expert Gene Willis to move back from Florida and help him build the raceway. His son, Frank Willis, tells me, "He built it by the seat of his pants. They put a bulldozer on the top of the embankment [as an anchor] and ran a cable down to hold the grader while it shaped the curves."
I mentioned Darlington to Ray Evernham when I visited Evernham Motorsports near Charlotte, N.C., and he told me, "The track's gotten polished in spots, which makes it slick. Up by the wall where the cars haven't worn it out, there's grip. So you'll watch guys slide, slide, slide until they're a foot from the wall and then boom!--they hook up." More fun for the drivers.
I am so smitten by Darlington that I head right to Homer's Truck Stop, in Statesville, N.C., to fill the Charger's tank and bolt on a new front license plate that says, "I'm not tailgating. I'm drafting."
Denny Darnell tells me about Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee with the ease, grace and cadence of an antebellum gentleman. As we look down into the concrete bowl, Darnell, the track's general manager from 1985 to '88, says, "There used to be grass in the middle. In fact, they once played an NFL exhibition game down there." Bristol is a short track and just about every one of the 160,000 seats offers a good view of the entire oval. But I'll bet that everyone who was there for the 1995 Goody's 500 was only using the front edge of his seat at the race's end: Running second, Dale Earnhardt nudged Terry Labonte at the finish to get by him. Instead, Labonte spun but won anyway, crossing the line sideways.
The brainchild of Larry Carrier, a building contractor, Carl Moore, a local politician, and paving company owner R.G. Pope, Bristol Motor Speedway was built purely as a business venture. The track was going to be built in nearby Piney Flats. But, according to Moore, the town didn't want "bad elements, drinking and gambling and all that stuff." So the men purchased 100 acres of a dairy farm in Bristol. The cost of the land and all the construction was a mere $600,000.
Bristol was paved with asphalt originally and measured a perfect half mile. The turns were banked at 22 degrees. But that lasted only eight years. In 1969 the track was reshaped and the banking was increased to 36 degrees. "Then when they tried to repair any damage to the surface, they found they couldn't get the asphalt to stay on the track with the high banking," Darnell says. So the track was repaved with concrete in '92.
As I hit that banking in the Charger, I'm compressed down into the seat. Thanks to the 6.1-liter Hemi, I get to feel what it's like: The g-forces are incredible.
"You have the same forces in the middle of the corner at Bristol as you do at Daytona," team owner Evernham tells me. "We've probably got 3 to 3.5 vertical g's and 1.8 lateral g's. You really have to have your camber curves and caster splits dialed in."
As I leave Bristol, I stop at the Ridgewood Barbecue in nearby Bluff City at Denny Darnell's suggestion. I'm glad I did: While enjoying the best pulled pork I've ever had, I contemplate the last few days. Amazingly, in less than a week, the Charger's tires have rolled on the sands of Daytona Beach, tackled the banking of Darlington and even left long, black molten streaks on the concrete starting line at Bristol.
After making this dash in three days, I also come to fully appreciate the grind of the typical Nextel Cup team--driving to more than 30 races in less than 40 weeks. I also try to fathom the dark art of chassis setup, which varies so greatly and so subtly from track to track. Finally, I am awed by the natural talents and highly honed skills of Cup car drivers. I cannot understand why they are not considered among our nation's top athletes.
With a better appreciation of my own limitations, I turn off the Dodge's stability control and point its snout toward the twistiest two-laner I can find.
It's not as easy as it looks on television. Not even as easy as fighting freeway traffic, in the rain, during rush hour.
Visiting NASCAR tracks is one thing. Driving on them at nearly race speeds is quite another. The Richard Petty Driving Experience (1800bepetty.com) lets you do just that. I signed up for the Rookie Experience, which gives you eight hot laps in a replica Nextel Cup Car. The Petty Experience travels to 23 NASCAR tracks around the country; I take the program at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. According to my instructor, Sam Rotunda, these cars are nearly identical to Cup cars. Like the race cars, they weigh about 3400 pounds, have tube-frame chassis, four-speed manual gearboxes and Ford 9-in. rear ends. But the small-block V8s in Petty's cars have about 600 to 650 hp, while real Cup cars make around 750 to 800. Oh, one other thing: The Petty cars also use fiberglass bodywork--NASCAR mandates metal.
After a short classroom session, I'm ready to strap in. Rotunda hooks up my HANS neck restraint, and my butterflies start. I slide my right leg in through the window and onto the floor, and then wiggle the rest of me past the massive roll cage and into the racing seat. The harness is cinched so tightly I can barely move. The engine fires, and with about 2500 rpm showing on the tach, I ease out the heavy clutch and power this beast onto Lowe's 1.5-mile oval.
The Petty Experience is a lead-follow program. Rotunda tells me to maintain three to five car lengths. Figuring out three to five car lengths at 150 mph is a brain twister. Falling behind tells the instructor you're not comfortable with the speed. I stay close, mirroring his path around the track. The car generates amazing forces in these 24-degree banked corners; it sticks with more confidence than I can conjure. And those g-forces are fatiguing. With each lap taking about half a minute, I'm exhausted by the end of my eight laps. Imagine doing this with Dale Jr. or Tony Stewart on your tail. I can't.
All said and done, I am positive I was doing 180 mph down those straights. The time sheet says different: My best lap averaged 135 mph.
Guess I'll keep on doing what I'm doing for a living after all.--B.S.
Darlington is the oldest and is generally considered the roughest--literally and figuratively--track on the circuit. Drivers still call it "the track too tough to tame." And it's not just the odd shape of the track that causes the excitement--the surface presents its own problems. Dale Earnhardt Jr. once claimed the track had seashells mixed into the asphalt--a NASCAR myth. The abrasive material in the surface is from the local aggregate--crushed granite. The granite wears tires quickly, and to compound matters, the friction isn't the same in every spot of the track. Darlington's shape and surface make it one of the most difficult tracks for chassis engineers to master.
Click on Image to view panorama of Daytona International Speedway. PANARAMA BY CHRIS RAMIREZ
The famous trioval was last paved with asphalt during the 1970s. Florida's sunny skies and warm weather have kept the racetrack in good condition. The original paving mixture contained iron filings to increase adhesion. The 30-year-old surface is bumpy but still in good shape. However, years of rubber buildup and surface polishing from the tires pose a challenge. "Daytona is getting slicker and slicker," says Kasey Kahne, who drives the No. 9 Dodge Nextel Cup car. "You race a lot differently there than at other tracks because you're drafting. You need the right guys around you and you need to be in the right spot on the track to make a run on somebody."
Ben is a lifelong enthusiast of anything with wheels. He has been contributing to Popular Mechanics for nearly 20 years and lives in Venice with an eclectic collection of vintage pickup trucks, muscle cars, and motorcycles scattered in various garages around SoCal.


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Semi-detached house to rent in Corringham Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb NW11
* Calls to this number will be recorded for quality, compliance and training purposes.
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- Gas
- Private garden
- On street/residents parking
- Central heating
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Property description
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Beverley Cummin, W1G on +44 20 3641 3972 * (local rate)
Property descriptions and related information displayed on this page, with the exclusion of Running Costs data, are marketing materials provided by Beverley Cummin, and do not constitute property particulars. Please contact Beverley Cummin for full details and further information. The Running Costs data displayed on this page are provided by PrimeLocation to give an indication of potential running costs based on various data sources. PrimeLocation does not warrant or accept any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the property descriptions, related information or Running Costs data provided here.


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"You never laughed like this when you had Mirena."
That's what Dan said to me Tuesday night. He was so right.
Sorry to keep harping on it, but I'm so thankful I got that thing out. I'm also thankful that my life is so amazing that I have so many reasons to laugh and smile.
- Bibleinanight Night.
- The smiley poop Emoji.
- New pregnancies. New births, as well! #babyfest
- Tearful worship.
- A birthday hair treatment.
- Quick but jam-packed bible studies over coffee.
- Lunch with Sydney at T-Flats and the hilarious conversation that always takes place with her.
- Spontaneous tickle fights on the floor of E3Kids. (My husband is the best.)
- Haphazardly planned breakfasts at Cracker Barrel.
- Playing with Dax at bath time. He is so fun!
- Dan and Dax visited me at work! For no reason! (Typically it's because Dan needs to bring something to me/get something from me.)
- Great music.
- Naps.
- Serendipitous run-ins at Redeye Coffee.
- Seeing my awesome primary care doctor and my counselor back to back.
- Using art to heal.
- Raw, honest, candid, and enriching conversations over iMessage.
- Giving Dax sorbet for the first time! (He wasn't impressed, but it was funny nonetheless.)
- Walking from my work to my lunch destination to give me the illusion that I was living in a big city again. (It also helped that the weather that day was mimicking that of London and Chicago in the fall.)
- Texting a friend all morning and then running into them on my lunch break.
- This, particularly in the wake of the horror that took place last Friday.
- White elephant gift exchanges, especially one in which a Justin Bieber toothbrush made an appearance.
- gChat.
- Harry Potter-themed insults.
- Hearing someone say, and I quote, "You need to write a book next year and self-publish that SOB."
- Margaritas.
- My non-blood family.
What do you love this week?


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Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Macular degeneration is a disease of the eye which can affect the patient's field of vision. There is a strong link with aging with some ten percent of people over 65 being affected to a greater or lesser extent. The disease is, therefore, often referred to as age-related macular degeneration or AMD.
What is the Macula?
Symptoms of Macular Degeneration
The onset of macular degeneration is usually gradual but the first symptoms that patients usually become aware of are:
Dry AMD Symptoms
Dry AMD, as previously indicated, is the most common form of macular degeneration and affects some ninety percent of patients with AMD conditions. It is characterised by an erosion of the RPE (retinal pigment epithelial) cells on the surface of the macula. The process of these cells eroding is called atrophy, hence dry AMD sometimes being referred to by medical practitioners as atrophic AMD.
The principal indications of Dry AMD are:
There are three main stages in the progression of dry AMD. Clearly, the earlier the condition is identified, the better the chance of any treatment being effective. The three stages are:
Wet AMD Symptoms
Wet AMD is an advanced form of macular degeneration. In most cases it develops from dry AMD. As noted earlier, wet AMD is caused by the eye developing new blood vessels in response to the onset of macular degeneration. These blood vessels, known as choroidal neovascular membranes, have a tendency to leak and form lesions. The result is extremely detrimental to the retina and, in particular, to the macula. It is not yet clear why around one in ten dry AMD patients go on to develop wet AMD. However, early detection is vital to identify the need for treatment to prevent the further deterioration of the patient's vision.
Wet AMD has a number of symptoms, some are the same as those of dry AMD and others are more specific:
Overall, the most compelling factor indicating the onset of wet AMD is the rapidity of the spread and severity of the patient's symptoms.
There is no definitive answer to the question of what causes macular degeneration. However, the principal factor involved in its onset is age: up to forty percent of those aged over seventy-five are affected. As an inevitable consequence of the aging process, the tissue in one's macula begins to deteriorate. The extent to which each of us is affected varies from one individual to another in accordance with a number of other risk factors.
How Is Age-related Macular Degeneration Diagnosed?
People who are experiencing some of the symptoms of AMD and are concerned that they may have the disease should speak to their GP at the earliest opportunity. If the GP thinks a further investigation is necessary he or she will refer you to a specialist practitioner known as an ophthalmologist.
Retinal Imaging – this is a series of processes that may be done in conjunction with the doctor's visual examination of your eye and involves taking images of your retina:
What Treatments are Available for Age-related Macular Degeneration?
Currently there is no cure for either form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, there are steps you and your doctor can take to improve your eye health, slow-down the progression of the disease and maximise the effectiveness of your existing vision.
Treatments for Dry AMD
With dry AMD the deterioration in your vision occurs very slowly and never reaches the point where you lose your vision completely. In addition, your peripheral vision remains unaffected.
There are ways of managing the condition to ensure that you can carry on doing everyday tasks, such as reading and writing, and to help you maintain a good quality of life. In most parts of the country your doctor can refer you to a local low-vision clinic where specialist advice is available to help you find ways of continuing with most of your usual activities.
Diet and Nutrition
Research information is emerging that suggests a diet rich in certain vitamins and minerals can slow the progression of dry AMD and, to a degree, stave off the onset of wet AMD. Lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamins A (beta-carotene), C and E are all thought to be beneficial in this regard.
Whilst the evidence is far from conclusive, a balanced diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables will in any case be beneficial for your all-round good health. Your ophthalmologist can advise on whether this option might be suitable for you.
Carrots, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, oranges and kiwi all contain high levels of A, C and E vitamins. Mangoes, peas, sweetcorn and leafy green vegetables all contain good levels of lutein.
Currently the NHS uses the anti-VEGF drugs aflibercept and ranibizumab. Although other drugs exist, they are almost without exception only available on private prescription. Aflibercept and ranibizumab will only be prescribed if your ophthalmologist believes it will help maintain or improve your vision. Your doctor will base his or her decision on the following criteria:
Photodynamic Therapy
Provided your visual acuity has not deteriorated to too great a degree, photodynamic therapy (PDT) may be recommended. For this treatment to be effective you need to have visual acuity of at least 6/60, which means you can see at six metres objects that those with normal vision can see at sixty metres. PDT is suitable for some twenty percent of wet AMD patients.
The procedure involves having a photo-sensitive drug called verteporfin injected into your arm. The drug circulates in your blood-stream and some of it attaches to the damaged vessels in your macula. The ophthalmologist then shines a low-powered laser into your damaged eye for a short time. The light activates the verteporfin causing it to destroy the damaged blood vessels thus preventing bleeds and leakages which would damage your macula.
The process may need to be repeated every few months as new damaged blood vessels will continue to develop.
Complications of Macular Degeneration
Anxiety and Depression
Coming to terms with a condition that potentially affects your independence and your ability to do ordinary tasks is naturally very difficult. It can be frightening and can undermine your confidence and self-esteem. Some thirty percent of AMD patients experience some degree of anxiety and/or depression. But help is available: your doctor can put you in touch with people with whom you can talk through your fears and help with strategies and adaptations to continue doing everyday tasks.
Non-optical Devices
Age-related macular degeneration is a growing concern. As a society, we are all living longer and the health concerns related to age, such as AMD, are increasingly coming to the fore. But help is available. As yet there is no cure for AMD. However, as we have discussed in this piece, the medical profession has a number of treatments available to slow down the advance of macular degeneration. Strategies and devices are also widely available so that, should you be affected by AMD, low vision assistive devices can help you make the most of your vision and allow you to carry on with the everyday activities you have always enjoyed.
Further Resources on Macular Degeneration:
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At the recent European Science Open Forum conference in Barcelona, for example, I was strolling through exhibits aimed at — please don't gag — science outreach. The underlying theme of all these displays seemed to me to be: since their schooling actually teaches many ordinary people to be discomforted by — if not to actually fear and loath — science, let's see if we can't do something in these venues to get people to hate science a little bit less.And why do people hate science so much? Well it is hard to understand and requires a lot of complicated math and difficult concepts. I'm pretty good with that sort of thing. I understand Einstein but the math is beyond me. String Theory? Fuhgeddaboutit. So how about neolithic technology?
Right across from ITER was an exhibit in which a group of paleo-archeologists had set up a display to show the technology of the past in operation. So you had a guy sitting cross-legged, banging away at a rock to make a hand ax. Chip, chip, and chip. You had someone else weaving plants together to make a mat. Weave, weave, and weave. Someone else was taking clay and making a pot. There was no placard asking: Hand axe making, will it always be 40 years away? There were no critics of the effort calling it a huge waste of national resources.So how should we be thinking about such projects? A little differently to be sure.
So what does the juxtaposition of the two very different demonstrations of technology tell us about disbelief?
To begin with, the ITER project and all hugely expensive big science efforts — think the International Space Station, think Large Hadron Collider, which recently has received a tonne of press — aren't like making hand axes. I looked at the man diligently chipping away and realized that the price of his failure wasn't very high. So what if it turned out the rock type you made axes from wasn't strong enough to chop wood? You simply went back and made axes from something else until you got an ax that worked.
And you, in this case, would simply be some intrepid carver and not some large part of the Paleolithic science world.
On the other hand, if ITER fails, it is massively unlikely there is going to be another effort to correct its errors. Research on its level is simply too big and expensive and time-consuming. But what if it succeeds — but only kinda? What if its results show that you can produce energy, but that it is 10 time times more expensive than energy from other sources? What if figuring out how to make that equation more favorable will require at least three iterations of ITER?
What you put in place with these vastly expensive research efforts is a "can't afford to fail" paradigm. Unlike trying to find the best plant material to weave into a mat, ITER, the Large Hadron Collider, etc., must succeed on first go-round. With ITER, there is no second kind of rock to be chipped away, no other plants to be woven, no different type of clay to be baked into a plate.So what should we be doing about fusion? Lots of small "understand the science" and "proof of concept" projects. Say 100 two million dollar efforts. About 10 twenty million dollar efforts based on the successes of the two million dollar jobs. And one or two two hundred million dollar efforts based on the promise of the $20 million efforts. Total cost of around a billion dollars a year when everything is fully ramped up. Nothing that is too big to fail and nothing where testable results are fifteen to thirty years off.
And that's what I so disbelieve about it. It's not really experimental science; it's risky, we-can't-fail, all-or-nothing science and I would respond to that paradigm with the wisdom of stone axe makers.
Sometimes your research should be based not on how glorious success might be, but on how little you will have lost if you screw up.
Of course I have my favorites. Here is one that I described in the Fusion Report of 29 August 2008.


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HOUSTON (AP) — A gunman who was among three people killed in a shootout near Texas A&M University earlier this week fired more than 65 rounds and also took an officer's gun after fatally shooting him, police said Friday.
Police released a timeline of Monday's deadly incident in College Station, which lasted more than 20 minutes. The new details included authorities finding four weapons in the home of gunman Thomas Alton Caffall III — one of which was a handgun Caffall took from Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann after he fatally shot him. The other weapons were a semi-automatic sniper rifle, an assault rifle and a bolt-action rifle.
Police said Friday that witnesses told investigators that Caffall approached Bachmann after shooting him and removed the gun from his belt. It did not appear that Bachmann's weapon had been fired, police said.
Caffall's family has said he was suffering from an unspecified mental illness and has stated, "It breaks our hearts his illness led to this." Four people also were injured in the incident — three officers, who have been treated and released, and a Houston resident who is still hospitalized.
Authorities said Bachmann, 41, had gone to Caffall's home near the university's football stadium to deliver a notice for him to appear in court on Aug. 23 because Caffall was at least two months behind paying his rent, owing $1,250.
According to the timeline, the first 911 call came in at 12:11 p.m. The caller said an officer had been shot, as well as his girlfriend.
That woman was later identified as 51-year-old Barbara Holdsworth, a Houston resident shot twice as she pulled her vehicle into a driveway located half a block from Caffall's home. She was in College Station to help her daughter move into a house before the start of the fall semester at Texas A&M, located about 100 miles northwest of Houston.
Other 911 calls quickly followed, indicating that another bystander, 51-year-old Chris Northcliffe, who had been checking a rental home he owned about a block away, had been shot. He later died.
Before officers arrived at the scene at 12:14 p.m., a civilian who was about a block away fired five to six shots at Caffall. Police did not identify this person.
After the officers arrived at the scene, Caffall immediately began shooting at them, retreating into his home between rounds of fire.
At 12:28 p.m., two officers used a patrol vehicle as cover to reach Holdsworth and Northcliffe. Northcliffe had already died.
Holdsworth was later taken to a local hospital, where she remained in intensive care Friday. Friends of Holdsworth posted Friday on a website about her recovery that she is improving, off life support and able to interact with family and hospital staff.
At 12:35 p.m., Caffall had been shot and secured by officers. Caffall later died.
Police are still trying to determine how many rounds officers fired during the shooting.
Funerals for Bachmann and Northcliffe are scheduled for Saturday. Thousands of people were expected to attend Bachmann's funeral service, which will be held at Texas A&M's Reed Arena.
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/juanlozano70.
Site dedicated to Holdsworth's recovery: http://bit.ly/RicZvn


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About a year ago, Stephanie Barber looked up Bob Seger's 1976 classic "Night Moves" on YouTube, trying to figure out the lyrics.
"I started reading the comments, and I just spent hours reading, and I cried, and I was like, 'Oh my god, this is so moving, this forum," Barber said.
Barber, a Baltimore artist and writer, turned those unedited YouTube comments into a book called "Night Moves." It's her way of exploring human nature, especially through relatively new public forums like YouTube. Friday, she'll celebrate the release at Atomic Books in Hampden.
"Particularly with 'Night Moves,' there's some beautiful, tender comments that people make, some really emotional statements about the first time they had sex, or their first love or their impending mortality," Barber said. "And then there's these horribly stupid [comments] just out of nowhere. It's really fascinating."
Barber could have used any song for the project, but "Night Moves" works particularly well, she said. It's an ode to youth, "trying to lose those awkward teenage blues / working on our night moves."
"This song is sort of this sexy, bar rock," said Barber. "It's effective and talks about the things I'm really interested in, like sex and death and nostalgia."
Comments in the book come from all ages — teenagers who relate to the song, people in their 60s, who remember listening to the song when it came out. There are opinions of the song, personal experiences and connections.
"It's a pretty neat balance," Barber said. "It's like art contemplation and sex contemplation."
There are also multiple comments scattered throughout the book about the same woman, from someone who is remembering their time together and wondering where she is now.
"In the few years of people writing, every few months some man would talk about this woman, Pam," Barber said. "He ties in the lines from the song, like 'I'm so glad we worked on our night moves together.' It's really beautiful."
And, as with nearly every YouTube comment thread, people argue about the song and swear at each other.
Another type of comment, which Barber refers to as a "palette cleanser" because it doesn't have any emotional content, is about how someone was introduced to the song.
"People throughout the book write the same comment, like 'How I Met Your Mother brought me here' ... letting everyone else know how they first heard the music," Barber said. She points to another comment that simply says "THAT 70s SHOW YEAH."
Re-purposing the work of others to make something new has been done before in the art world, but YouTube is a new medium, Barber said.
"I think it's a really new and potentially really radical forum," she said. "It's something that could have a great impact on our society and be a really powerful force."
Barber's works, including this book, reflect her interest in how people act. YouTube comments, in particular, interest her.
"I feel a lot of times like an alien in the world, so spaces like YouTube are sort of an anthropological gold mine, like 'That's what the people are thinking, interesting,'" she said. "I'm glad to know, and sometimes sad to know. There are a lot that are just so stupid and so mean or just ugly."
The democratic and anonymous nature of YouTube comments, and the speed at which the tone and nature of the comments change are things that interest Barber.
"It's a pretty unique public forum for artistic contemplation, and I think that's rare and important, with all the beauty and ugliness that comes from that," Barber said.
Despite the negative comments that people can make on forums like YouTube, the interaction and dialogue is something Barber thinks is important.
"I guess I often feel sad or worried for our society when I think of how passive people are, and this is a pretty active gesture," Barber said. "They're not just taking in entertainment and going about their day, but they're responding to it, and by doing that they're enlivening the dialogue, even the creepy ones. They're making an art gesture."
The song "Night Moves" may be nearly 40 years old, and YouTube went online in February 2005, but people continue to add comments.
"I just went on the other day, and there are new people," Barber said. "That's another thing that's really fascinating about YouTube comments, is that for the foreseeable future, there's no actual end in sight to when the discussion closes. It's going on right now."
If you go
Stephanie Barber celebrates the release of "Night Moves" 7 p.m. Friday at Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Road. Barber will read exerpts from the book and hold a discussion, and cellist Kate Porter will perform. A cover of "Night Moves" (the song) will also be played. Free. Call 410-662-4444 or go to atomicbooks.com.
About a year ago, Stephanie Barber looked up Bob Seger's 1976 classic "Night Moves" on YouTube, trying to figure out the lyrics.


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21 Jun 2016
London, UK, 21st June 2016 – Canon Europe, world leader in imaging solutions, today announces the launch of eight new 2MP network cameras, unveiled at IFSEC 2016. The new range includes an outdoor 360⁰ endless panning model with 30x optical zoom and fast autofocus, and two new fixed box "bullet" models with 20x optical zoom, a first for Canon.
All eight new models will be on display alongside the recently announced VB-H651V and Canon's flagship low light network camera, the VB-M50B, capable of recording bright, clear images in low light conditions, particularly at the telephoto end.
Julian Rutland, EMEA Marketing Director, NVS, Canon Europe, says, "The security market is always diversifying and evolving, yet achieving high image quality, particularly in low light conditions, remains a key priority in the industry. Our new cameras are a potent addition to our existing range, with all of the new devices benefitting from updated technology and high quality lenses. They demonstrate the range and imaging excellence typical of Canon technology and offer integrators and installers the ability to provide bespoke solutions for their customers across a range of vertical industries."
Outstanding image quality
The new high-sensitivity 2MP CMOS sensor allows the cameras to capture Full HD images, even in increasingly challenging low light conditions. This is essential for a range of security applications, from city surveillance to critical infrastructure, where accurately identifying the faces of individuals or details on a vehicle number plate can provide invaluable evidence.
The VB-R13VE, an outdoor vandal resistant 360⁰ PTZ camera, also incorporates a 30x optical zoom lens with a fast autofocus to keep images in pristine clarity. Coupled with an Ultra-low Dispersion lens, which prevents image distortion from aberrations in the glass, the camera is capable of providing crisp, clear images. This allows for precision imaging and remarkable colour accuracy that results in clear video ideal for critical infrastructure applications.
New technology and features
All of the cameras feature Motion-Adaptive Noise Reduction, a new Canon technology that automatically adjusts noise reduction upon detecting motion within the scene. By dynamically adjusting noise reduction in real time, depending on the scenario and requirements, Motion-Adaptive Noise Reduction reduces noise levels and respective video data size without a loss of quality.
A new graphical user interface (GUI) and dedicated embedded Mobile Viewer have been added to support multiple compatible browsers and mobile devices, designed to offer installers and end-users easy, wireless access to the cameras' features and functionality, making setup easier.
Unique features by model include:
Continuous 360⁰ panning cameras:
· VB-R13VE & VB-R12VE (outdoor with high-end vandal and weather resistance), VB-R13 (indoor): PTZ speed dome network cameras featuring 30x optical zoom, 360⁰ endless panning capabilities, fast autofocus and 450⁰ per second high-speed precision PT control to provide maximum visual coverage and ensure effective monitoring of a wide variety of challenging environments. Thanks to Canon's Enhanced Digital Zoom technology, the cameras can also offer an equivalent 120x zoom when streaming at low resolutions
Bullet cameras:
· VB-H761LVE & VB-H760VE: Outdoor fixed box cameras (IK09 rated) featuring a 20x optical zoom lens, as well as low light performance down to 0.06lx (colour). The VB-761LVE provides lowlight performance in mono down to 0.04lx while the VB-H760VE produces crisp mono images down to 0.003lx without the aid of IR. The VB-761LVE also features Clear IR Mode, which reduces haze and heat shimmering effects to produce clean, clear monochrome images of distant scenery
· VB-H751LE: Outdoor fixed box camera with an ultra-wide 124.3⁰ angle of view, 2.4x zoom lens and low light performance to 0.035lx (colour) and 0.002x (mono), with built-in IR capabilities to allow round-the-clock high quality surveillance
Fixed dome cameras:
· VB-H652LVE: Outdoor vandal resistant dome camera (Ik10 rated) with IR LED illumination, featuring a wide 122⁰ angle of view, IP66 rated water-tight housing, tamper-proof screws, an anti-fog airflow design and an optional heater unit
· VB-H651VE: Outdoor vandal resistant dome camera (IK10 rated) featuring 2.4x optical zoom, wide 122.5⁰ angle of view, and low light performance down to 0.035lx (colour) and 0.002lx (mono)
Both outdoor bullet and fixed dome cameras are designed to work in a range of challenging weather environments, including near salt water or in colder areas that may be prone to frost.
All the new cameras are compatible with ONVIF Profiles S and G allowing for simple integration with the majority of VMS platforms, and the recording, searching and play-back of footage from the edge recording device.
Customers, VMS partners and system integrators can find out more information about Canon's network camera product range at Canon's IFSEC stand, F500, or online here: http://www.canon-europe.com/for_work/business-products/network-cameras/
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All-Energy is the UK's leading renewable energy and low carbon innovation event, showcasing the latest technologies and services for the energy supply chain and both private and public sector energy end users.
SWEP leads the conversion to sustainable energy usage in heat transfer. At All Energy we will present BPHE solutions that support the sustainable development of heat networks and facilitate the efficient use of energy in buildings.
Come see us on stand E20


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Ventilation in the 2019 California Energy Code
It is not unusual for California to be first and unique. Just one year after the 1973 oil embargo exposed this country's reliance on foreign oil, California was the first state to implement a minimum energy standard for buildings, in an attempt to reduce this energy dependency. At the same time, the California Energy Commission was created to maintain and enforce the new California Building Energy Efficiency standards (see "What Is Title 24?").
The energy commission first adopted residential mechanical ventilation requirements based on ASHRAE Standard 62.2 with the 2008 California Energy Code and has adopted versions of ASHRAE 62.2 in each subsequent code cycle. The 2019 version of the California Energy Code has adopted by reference a California-specific version of ASHRAE 62.2-2016 (see "California Hybrid 62.2 Version").
2019 Ventilation Requirements for California
The 2019 requirements will go into effect on January 1, 2020. New dwellings and additions to existing dwellings greater than 1,000 square feet must comply with the mechanical ventilation details published in the California Energy Commission Adopted Version of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings, and in 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings. I will refer to the ventilation requirements of these two documents as ASHRAE 62.2-2016CA.
One important change in the new requirements is that they have been widened to include all multifamily units, regardless of the height of the building.
Another important change is the recognition that unbalanced ventilation affects natural infiltration differently than balanced ventilation does. If an unbalanced dwelling-unit ventilation (DUV) system is used, its airflow rate must be higher than would be the case if a balanced ventilation system were used. Since exhaust-only DUV is often used in California, this change will require the fan flow rate of many ventilation systems to be increased.
The residential ventilation requirements address three primary areas: dwelling-unit ventilation, demand-controlled exhaust ventilation, and contaminant source control.
Dwelling-unit ventilation is intended to dilute the unavoidable contaminant emissions from people, from materials, and from background processes. Local demand-controlled exhaust is intended to remove contaminants from kitchens and bathrooms that, because of their design function, are expected to contain sources of contaminants. Other source control measures are included to deal with those sources that can be reasonably anticipated to be found in a residence. ("Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings", p. 2).
These ventilation requirements apply to spaces intended for human occupancy within single-family houses and multifamily structures, where the occupants are considered permanent rather than transient. Housing for transient occupants, such as dormitories, hotels and motels, and nursing homes, does not fall under the same requirements.
Local Exhaust Ventilation for Bathrooms and Kitchens
All local fans used for compliance in bathrooms and kitchens must exhaust air from these rooms. The objective is to extract contaminants at their source—primarily moisture in bathrooms and hazardous gases and particles from cooking. Half-baths (no tub or shower) do not require local ventilation. Additionally, there are maximum allowable sound levels: 3 sones for demand-controlled fans and 1 sone for continuously operating fans. Remotely mounted fans, such as inline fans mounted at least 4 feet from a ceiling or wall grille, are not required to meet these sound requirements.
Manufacturer's ratings for airflow rate and sound emissions must be certified by the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI).
The requirements for bathrooms are straightforward and have not changed. They specify a demand-controlled fan with a minimum airflow rate of 50 CFM or a continuously operating fan with a minimum airflow rate of 20 CFM.
The prescriptive requirements are more complex for kitchens than the previous requirements. New exhaust fans that are not range hoods must be at least 300 CFM, whereas the minimum demand-controlled airflow rate for range hoods remains 100 CFM.
In addition, for the purpose of determining if continuously operating local ventilation is an option, kitchens must now be classified as enclosed or nonenclosed. An enclosed kitchen is "a kitchen whose permanent openings to interior adjacent spaces do not exceed a total of 60 square feet" (Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings, p. 3). A nonenclosed kitchen has permanent openings exceeding 60 square feet. For continuously operating ventilation, enclosed kitchens may be served by exhaust ventilation with an airflow rate of at least 5 ACH based on the kitchen volume. Nonenclosed kitchens may not use continuously operating local ventilation.
For example, if a kitchen measures 10 feet x 6 feet x 8 feet, the volume of that kitchen is 480 cubic feet. 5 ACH = (480 ft3 x 5/h)/60 min/h = 40 CFM airflow rate for the continuously operating fan. Because this fan operates continuously, it must not operate at a noise level greater than 1 sone. This option only makes sense for small kitchens.
For demand-controlled kitchen ventilation, venting range hoods must exhaust at least 100 CFM directly to the outdoors. On the other hand, if a fan is installed in the kitchen ceiling or wall or is a downward-venting fan at the range, its airflow rate must be a minimum of 300 CFM. This significantly higher flow rate accounts for the poor capture efficiency of a fan that is not installed directly above the cooking surface.
What Is Title 24 and Where Does Ventilation Fit in?
You might have come across "Title 24" if you work with or are interested in California buildings. Title 24 is the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards, which is one section of the larger California Code of Regulations. The diagram below will help show how the relevant California regulations fit together, ending with the ventilation requirements.
Dwelling-Unit Ventilation
Unlike local ventilation, DUV is intended to dilute contaminants throughout the occupied rooms of the dwelling, rather than remove pollution at its source. This airflow rate is based on the simple equation Qtot = 0.03Afloor + 7.5(Nbedrooms + 1); in words, 3% of the floor area plus 7.5 CFM for each occupant (assumed to be the number of bedrooms plus one). Thus, a 2,000 ft2 dwelling with three bedrooms requires 90 CFM of fresh air. This fresh air comes from two sources: air leakage (infiltration) and mechanical dwelling-unit ventilation. Expressed as an equation Qtot = Qinf + Qfan. If 20 CFM is leaking into the dwelling as infiltration, Qinf, then mechanical ventilation, Qfan, must be a minimum of 70 CFM operating continuously.
Determining Infiltration Credit, Qinf. Typically, determining the amount of air leaking into a dwelling from the outdoors is pretty complicated. The results of a blower door test must be included in a few lengthy equations to find the average CFM air leakage, Qinf. This value is subtracted from Qtot to find the required DUV, Qfan.
For the California ventilation requirements, Qinf must be determined as follows:
- The enclosure leakage rate is calculated using a or b:
- A default leakage rate of 2 ACH50 is used for the calculation, thus a blower door test is not required. For example, for a 2,000 ft2 house on a slab with 8-foot ceilings, 2 ACH50 is equivalent to 533 CFM50. Values for enclosure leakage rates greater than 2 ACH50 are not used for the infiltration calculation.
- Otherwise, if the dwelling is field verified with a leakage rate of less than 2 ACH50, use the verified rate to calculate CFM50. For example, for the same house with a verified 1.7 ACH50, CFM50 is equivalent to 453.
- Then using the values from the enclosure leakage rate above, use equation 4.3 in ASHRAE 62.2-2016CA (equation 150.0-E in the 2019 California Energy Code). Using this equation for the example in 1a. above, Qinf = 14 CFM; and for the example in 1b., Qinf = 12 CFM.
It is interesting to compare the new default infiltration rate to that of the previous version of the California ventilation requirements. For the example house above (1a.), under the new requirements, Qinf = 14 CFM. Under the previous requirements, Qinf = 40, which is more than 2¾ times greater. Although this is only one example, and exceptions may apply, generally the new requirements lead to lower default infiltration rates, and thus to increased mechanical ventilation rates.
Determining the Required Dwelling-Unit Ventilation Rate, Qfan. Unlike local ventilation rates, which are fixed prescriptive values, Qfan requires a calculation, and the resulting values differ from one dwelling to the next. The basic equation is
Qtot = Qinf + Qfan (1.1)
Solving for Qfan,
Qfan = Qtot – Qinf (1.2)
Assume Qtot for the dwelling is 90 CFM and Qinf is 14 CFM. Thus, the requirement for Qfan is
Qfan = 90 – 14
Qfan = 76 CFM
Equation 1.2 above is simplified for these examples. See the full ASHRAE 62.2CA documentation for the details of this calculation.
If Qfan is calculated to be less than 10 CFM for new construction, no DUV is required to be installed. This is unlikely to happen because of the low maximum infiltration credit allowed.
Horizontally Attached Dwelling Units
If dwelling units in multifamily buildings do not share floors or ceilings with other dwelling units, they are "horizontally attached" dwelling units. These include row houses, duplexes, and triplexes. Multifamily dwelling units that do share floors and ceilings do not qualify for any infiltration credit. Horizontally attached units are entitled to a partial infiltration credit based on the ratio of unattached exterior envelope surface area to total envelope area. For example, if a unit with a total envelope surface area (all six surfaces) of 12,400 square feet has a shared 2,400 ft2 wall with an adjacent unit, then (12,400 ft2 – 2,400 ft2)/12,400 ft2, or 80% of the envelope leakage rate, may be claimed as an infiltration credit. The other 20% is assumed to be leakage directly to an adjacent unit.
Balanced Versus Unbalanced Mechanical Ventilation
Recent actions by the ASHRAE 62.2 committee account for the effect of building pressures on infiltration, Qinf; thus the airflow rate of unbalanced mechanical dwelling-unit ventilation (exhaust only or supply only) must now have a greater airflow rate as compared to balanced ventilation installed in the same dwelling. (For more information, see ASHRAE 62.2-2016, addendum "s.")
This change recognizes a basic general principle of building science: If a dwelling is pressurized or depressurized, the average natural infiltration is lower than when the same dwelling is NOT pressurized or depressurized.
As a result of this change, the value for Qinf must be multiplied by Qinf/Qtot for unbalanced infiltration, whereas for balanced mechanical ventilation, no change is required by the new California requirements. For example, if Qtot for the dwelling is 10 CFM and Qtot is 60 CFM, then Qtot/Qtot = 0.16. Thus, for an unbalanced dwelling-unit ventilation with a Qtot requirement of 60, the Qfan minimum requirement is 58 CFM. For the same house, the minimum requirement for balanced ventilation is 50 CFM.
California Hybrid 62.2 Version
The California ventilation requirements are based on ASHRAE 62.2-2016, with selected ASHRAE addenda and California-specific amendments found in 2019 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings.
What the Energy Commission adopted from the ASHRAE 62.2 Standard specifically is the full 2016 version plus addenda "b" (automatic control of mechanical ventilation), "d" (Appendix C correction), "l"(simplified infiltration calculation), "q" (addition of BPI 1200 as a means of demonstrating combustion venting safety), and "s" (increase in unbalanced dwelling-unit ventilation rates; balanced staying the same).
This means that once again, California has its own unique version of 62.2, a hybrid of ASHRAE 62.2-2016 and 62.2-2019.
Additional Selected Details
Change in Filtration Requirements. The minimum-efficiency reporting value (MERV) has increased from 6 to 13 for space-conditioning equipment, for supply-only ventilation, and for the supply side of balanced ventilation systems. This increase represents a significant improvement in particle capture by more-efficient filters.
Dwelling Units in Multifamily Buildings. If the dwelling units are served by individual DUV systems, then
- the DUV system must be a balanced ventilation system type; otherwise,
- unbalanced DUV system types (exhaust only or supply only) may be used if
- the dwelling unit enclosure is verified to be tighter than 0.3 CFM50 per square foot of total dwelling-unit surface area by use of a blower door test, and
- the DUV systems in the building all operate continuously (intermittent DUV control strategies are not allowed), and
- all individual dwelling units in the building use the same ventilation system type (either supply only or exhaust only).
If the ventilation system is a central system that serves more than one dwelling unit in a multifamily building, each individual dwelling unit must meet or exceed the minimum DUV and must also have a means to adjust its ventilation airflow to be no more than 20% greater than the lowest airflow provided to any dwelling unit served by that central system. These system-balancing methods may include, but are not limited to, constant air-regulation devices, orifice plates, and variable-speed central fans.
DUV Control Labeling. Manual on-off switches shall be a part of the DUV controls. Such switches shall be labeled: "This switch controls the indoor air quality ventilation for the home. Leave it on unless the outdoor air quality is very poor."
Miscellaneous Items
- Opening and closing windows is not an acceptable way of providing DUV.
- Continuous operation of central, forced- air system air handlers used in central fan integrated ventilation systems is not an acceptable way of providing DUV. Field verification of required DUV airflow rates shall be performed in accordance with California HERS procedures.
- Field verification to confirm that kitchen range hoods are rated by the HVI to meet required sound levels and airflow rates shall be performed in accordance with California HERS procedures.
learn more
California Energy Commission Adopted Version of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings, is available at the ASHRAE.org bookstore for $77.00 (PDF download only).
The California amendments to the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016 can be found in 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings. Section 150.0 addresses single-family and low-rise multifamily buildings and Section 120.1 addresses high-rise multifamily buildings.
What Impact Will the New Ventilation Requirements Have?
The impact of the new requirements will be greater in some cases than in others. Multifamily buildings of any height must now comply with 62.2-2016CA; previously only multifamily buildings of three stories and fewer above grade had to comply.
New requirements for multifamily buildings recognize the importance of limiting transfer air from one dwelling unit to an adjacent one. As a result, new limitations are imposed on the DUV systems types allowed in multifamily buildings.
The maximum infiltration credit under the new requirements is calculated based on 2 ACH50 for most dwellings. As before, this will not require a blower door test on each dwelling, but it will significantly lower the allowed infiltration credit, thereby increasing the required mechanical ventilation rate for compliance with the new requirements.
The effectiveness of air filters used in space-conditioning and ventilation equipment has increased from MERV 6 to MERV 13, significantly improving particle capture efficiency.
Proper labeling of the DUV controls is required. This will enhance occupants' awareness of indoor air quality and is likely to increase their use of ventilation systems.
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text: Just across the border from Gaborone, Madikwe is an easy weekend trip. It's a pretty incredible place. This reserve was the result of land re-appropriation back to the community, so now profits from the reserve go back into the surrounding communities. The quality of the game drives is also very high, as you'll see in the photos!Read More


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Scotland Hills Subdivision
119 Acres from Minnesota Street to Highway 16
Large Luxury Home Lots
Lot 3 at Scotland Hills | 0.64 Acres (+/-)
Tree thinning and utility installation are underway. Lots should be build ready by June 2021.
Zoning: Single Family Residential | Utilities: In Progress. City Water, MDU, BHP
**Images are of the development as a whole and not particular to a specific lot.**
Contact Dream Design
520 Kansas City Street
Suite 101
Rapid City, SD 57701


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The Scots, and later Scottish immigrants to the southern United States, had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat as far back as the middle ages, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. When it was introduced to the American South, fried chicken became a common staple. Later, Africans brought over on the slave trade, became cooks in many southern households and incorporated seasonings and spices that were absent in traditional Scottish cuisine, enriching the flavor. Since fried chicken traveled well in hot weather before refrigeration was commonplace, it gained further favor. In the south, Fried chicken continues to be among this region's top choices for "Sunday dinner." Holidays such as Independence Day and other gatherings often feature this dish as well.
So lets get to the how to's. Making fried chicken is a LOT of work (at least according to today's 30 minute meal prep orientation). The preparation of the chicken, the breading of the chicken, the temperature regulation, the actual cooking, the cleanup of the cooker, the kitchen and you, but the work is worth it in the delight of biting into a fresh, warm, crunchy, piece of perfectly golden, home-fried chicken. It's a food of love thing.
There are three main techniques for frying chickens: pan frying, deep frying and broasting;
Selecting the best chicken
Follow these steps below to help you along the way:
Marinating: Some say that marinating or soaking the chicken in a brine or buttermilk for 30 mins to a few hours can increase tenderness and develop great flavor profiles.
Coating: Apply different coatings and coating techniques. Try dipping the chicken in milk, then flour, then milk, and then the flour again. Some cast-iron cooks dip it in a milk-egg mixture and then dredge it in flour. Some don't use flour at all and cover it with cracker crumbs, potato flakes, or cornmeal.
Air Drying: After you coat your chicken, let it air-dry. Air-drying your chicken for 20 minutes to a half hour after it has been coated lets the coating firm up and produces a crispier crust.
Seasoning: Use plain old salt and pepper or create special seasoning mixes. You may want to season the flour that you dredge the chicken through; you can also season the chicken itself. Some people swear that paprika enhances the flavor; others claim it's just there for color.
Cooking: The real secret to the ultimate in comfort food, Southern Fried Chicken, isn't in the recipe; it's in the cooking. Properly pan-fried chicken is tender and moist (not greasy) on the inside and golden brown and crispy on the outside. Keep your oil very hot. To make sure that your chicken doesn't get greasy, you want the oil hot enough (375 degrees Fahrenheit) that the water in the chicken stays above the boiling point during frying. The force of the steam leaving the chicken keeps the oil from being absorbed. The hot oil also makes the outside wonderfully crispy.
Some tips for keeping the oil at the temperature you want are as follows:
- Use peanut oil, which has a hotter smoking point than vegetable oils or shortenings.
- Allow the chicken to come almost to room temperature before you cook it so that when you put it into the hot oil, it doesn't reduce the oil temperature as much as really cold chicken would.
- Don't overcrowd the chicken in the pan. Putting too many pieces in the pan causes the temperature to drop and takes it longer to heat up again. It can also cause the chicken to steam as opposed to fry.
- Use a deep-sided cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven and an iron cover. Cast iron is the cook's best friend when pan-frying. It absorbs heat evenly, eliminating hot spots and its ability to retain heat keeps the temperature of the oil as even as possible.
- Brown the chicken quickly to seal in the juices. After the initial browning, reduce the heat to allow the chicken to cook through without drying. Then return the heat to medium-high to re-crisp it before you remove it from the pan.
- Use tongs to turn and move the chicken. Tongs won't pierce the chicken and let the juice escape.
- Drain fried chicken on a paper towel and then place it on a metal wire cooling rack in a warm oven. This simple step keeps your cooked chicken crisp and warm. After all, what good is a crispier crust if it just gets soggy and cold while sitting in a puddle of oil?
- Serving: Make sure its crisp, hot, and you have a napkin handy! It's common to serve fried chicken with a creamy gravy, or a kicked up hot sauce.
Simple Southern Fried Chicken
Make 8 Pieces of Buttermilk Fried Chicken
For the marinade:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp ground dried herbs, or poultry seasoning
2 cups buttermilk
3 1/2 pound chicken, cut in 8 pieces
For the seasoned flour:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1-2 qt. Vegetable or Peanut oil (enough to fill a large cast iron pan 1/2 way)
Add the marinade ingredients to a bowl and whisk together. Add the chicken parts and toss to coat well. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure the chicken is submerged. Refrigerate for 6 hours or more.
Mix together the seasoned flour ingredients in a large baking dish. Drain the chicken pieces and toss into the flour. Toss the chicken and coat completely with the flour mixture. Shake off and place on a rack and let dry for at least 1/2 hour before frying.
Fill a cast iron skillet halfway up with oil and heat to about 375 degrees F. Carefully add the chicken, leaving at least 2 inches between pieces and fry for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown, reaching and internal temperature of 180 degrees F. Allow to drain on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serve with smashed potatoes, brown gravy and some corn on the cob. And remember, be sure that the love and effort you put into the preparation carries through to the plate and whatever your cooking pleasure, be it baked or fried, I hope these simple steps help you wow your friends and family...
Bon Appetit
Sources: Daniel Greene/Flickr, cooks.tuckawaytv.com, wkipedia.org, norecipes.com,


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Two things I love are sleeping and data collection. Now, thanks to a new iPhone app, I can do both at once.
Sleep Cycle uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to record vibrations in your mattress caused by you moving in the night. In this way it acts as an actigraph, keeping a record of your body movement, which in this context reflects how deeply you are asleep.
Here is the data from my last night's kip. As you can see I show a fairly typical pattern: sleeping deeper in the first half of the night, compared to the second half, and having alternating patterns of deep and light sleep (although I seem to cycle through the stages of sleep every hour, rather than the typically quoted every one and a half hours).
The app also has an alarm which promises to wake you up during a lighter stage of sleep, so saving you the unpleasant sensation of being woken by your alarm from deep sleep. I've yet to try this out but it sounds like a good thing, as long as avoiding the jarring sensation is worth forgoing the extra minutes shut-eye!
Link: to the Sleepcycle app


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2011 team
Brian Kong
Milton, MA
Milton Academy
Grade: Senior
Reading, Drawing, Web browsing, Finding new music, films, Walking around places
Math Club, Student Newspaper, Investment Club, etc.
International Linguistics Olympiad, US Physics Team 2008 2009, NACLO, etc.
I was born in the States but mostly grew up in Korea before coming to Milton Academy, a boarding school about 10 miles south of Boston. I am a senior and this is my fourth year at Milton. At Milton, I greatly enjoyed classes as well as living together with kids in the dorm who have all become my good friends. As I graduate and move on, I know I will greatly miss this place that has been my home for the past four years.
Ever since I was young, I was interested in math and how things worked. But strangely at the time, I did not really like the science that was being taught at school. All of this changed, when I first encountered a physics textbook in 7th grade. I began to see how interconnected math and science were. I was amazed how the world could actually be described in a very orderly and mathematical language. And this also made me appreciate math and its power of abstraction. I have since been very passionate about physics and have taken some advanced courses in math and physics. I like physics that explains things I experience daily. I am also fascinated by more abstract and counterintuitive branches of physics.
Besides physics, I love to sit back, relax, and think about other things. I love to imagine and draw things. I enjoy going to websites of various architecture firms and browsing through their portfolios. I love to ask somewhat random questions then spend hours on Wikipedia in search of the answer. I like discovering new things such as new music albums and going to concerts to listen to them. I also enjoy going through old stuffs down at my school's archives, where I volunteer to help organize and categorize the material, some dating all the way back to the 18th century.
I greatly enjoyed the experience with the physics team in the past. I'd like to thank my family, friends, and teachers for making this possible. I am honored to be part of this year's team and I am looking forward to the camp this year.
Disclaimer: Information in Physics Team profiles is provided by the Team members and is in no way a reflection of AAPT's opinions or views.


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Per my previous article, you are well aware of my iPhone stand obsession and on this Christmas week, we are excited to review the Milo iPhone stand by Bluelounge. An award winning international design studio, Bluelounge's goal is to combine forward designed accessories that are as functional as visually stimulating. The company recently revamped its iPhone stand with an aluminum base, which matches the Apple aluminum color and gives it a sleek, polished look. Check out our review below and enter for your chance to win one of your own…
Form and Function
iPhone stands, by nature, are typically simple accessories. At their core, the stand holds your iPhone upright, sometimes in portrait, sometimes in landscape. With the primary goal to hold the phone, viewing angle is very important. The Milo does not have an adjustable viewing angle but the supplied angle is good for desktop use. Of course, if it is not perfect for your preference, simply move the stand closer or further away, consequently adjusting the viewing angle.
To keep your iPhone in place, the Milo has a micro suction seal on the display arm. It is both lightly adhesive and slightly concave to hold the phone in place. This is coupled with a similar micro suction seal strip on the stand's bottom. Because the micro suction is used on the bottom, it only sticks to smooth, non textured or perforated surfaces. When removing your device from stand, it is best to hold the Milo base with your opposite hand, helping to break the suction seal from the iPhone. When using the Milo on a porous surface, simply place the phone on the base and lean it against the stand.
While using the Milo, it is still possible to have full control of your iOS device. Using apps and tapping the screen does not cause the iPhone to fall off of the suction pad. However, if you use Milo on a porous surface, pressing on the top of the iPhone too hard can cause the stand to tip over. Bluelounge cautions its customers of this issue, which is why it suggests leaning the iPhone against the stand, but not adhering it using the suction pad.
Overall, I really liked the Milo stand, especially the simplicity. It is somewhat upsetting that it cannot be used to its full potential on a non smooth surface, as I have a textured wood desk. To get my iPhone off the stand, I must first hold the base, but again, Milo is not intended for use on a textured surface.
At $14.95 in black or white, this is a great stand for the price. The aluminum finish and simple design make this a great desktop addition. If you are often hassled by picking your phone up every time it makes a noise, I strongly recommend a stand and the Milo, at such a low price point, is a great starting place, particularly if you have a smooth topped desk.
- Inexpensive for a slick product
- Solid aluminum arm
- Micro suction pad keeps iPhone in place
- Black or white to match iPhone
- Works best on a desk with a solid, non porous, non textured surface
- When used on a textured surface, the iPhone may tip when pressing the top row of icons because the suction pad will not adhere to the desktop surface
What do you have to do to win?
We teamed up with Bluelounge to give away this awesome stand! This contest is open to all readers, internationally. One lucky winner who follows the next steps will be chosen to win a stand in the color of their choice:
- Friend iDownloadBlog on Facebook
- Click the LIKE button at the top or bottom of this post
- Follow @iDownloadBlog on Twitter
- Click here to retweet this post
- Let us know where you would use your Milo and what you like most about it. Do not forget to include your Twitter handle!
Thanks again to Bluelounge for sending over a review unit and offering to give one away to a reader!
Congratulations to @tomdotcom_uk for winning this week's giveaway! He will be taking home a shiny new Milo stand. Thanks again to Bluelounge for providing the opportunity!


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Is there anything cuter than puppies and kittens playing? Yes, yes there is: puppies and kittens playing in slow motion thanks to the wonders of a Phantom camera. That seems to be one of the main premises of Too Cute: Puppie and Kittens.
The show, which appears in Discovery's Animal Planet cable channel, is just about that: filming the antics of puppies and kittens from birth till ultra-cuteness. And, of course, every episode features plenty of Phantom camera footage for overloading heart melting awwwwwww action.
They are now casting kittens and puppies for their second season. You can learn about how to participate with your own little bundles of four-legged love at [The Dogs]


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Ecologix Environmental Systems, an Atlanta-based wastewater treatment company specializing in oil and gas, has enhanced their mobile Integrated Treatment System (ITS) for hydraulic fracturing. The combination of the Mobile Chemical Treatment (MCT) and Mobile DAF (MD) systems gives the ITS the capability to treat 900 gallons of flow back water per minute, from fracking operations.
The MCT-900 is a universal chemical management system for wastewater treatment. Based on a mobile frac tank, the design includes multiple options that are configurable in the field for optimal flexibility.
"Efficient and affordable water treatment is one of the biggest operational challenges with hydro-fracking, and there is a need for new flexible treatment methods that meet the many challenges facing our oil and gas partners," said Eli Gruber, CEO of Ecologix. "The mobility, flexibility and treatment capacity of this system has established a new industry standard. The system is maximized for efficiency and durability providing the highest quality treatment solution at the best value.
The ITS system removes essentially all suspended solids from wastewater, produced water, and frac water.
Other innovative system features include:
Frac tank-based mobile platform Chemical treatment (MCT-900) flexibility Integrated PLC controls Rugged discreet panel operators Dual whitewater pumps Dual sludge pumps
This free webinar will inform attendees on the most significant updates and modifications in the new standard, known as E1527-21 Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process.