text:
Mining Geometallurgy Framework
Geometallurgy is the integration of geological, mining, metallurgical, environmental and economic information to maximize the Net Present Value of an orebody while minimizing technical and operational risk.
The SGS Geometallurgical Framework:
- Allows the definition of the optimum extractive metallurgy flowsheet design over life-of-mine based on the documented geological, geochemical, mineralogical, textural and metallurgical characteristics of an ore deposit
- Involves state-of-the-art methodologies that take into account the specific characteristics of an ore deposit
Geometallurgy quantifies the variability of an ore deposit in terms of process parameters such as ore hardness, flotation, leach response and environmental impact. This data is then applied to the deposit block model or the mine plan, typically through use of geostatistics. Then, geometallurgically enabled mathematical models such as CEET and FLEET can be used to generate economic parameters such as throughput, grind size, grade and recovery. These can then be returned to the block model and mine plan for further handling. Scenarios can then be developed and compared to evaluate and optimize operational scenarios such as mine strategy, energy use, capital equipment needs, carbon footprint etc.
This is achieved through the application of the six stages of SGS's Geometallurgical Framework.
Stage 1 – Multivariate Spatial Domain Definition: Definition of spatial domains with similar geological, geochemical, geophysical, geotechnical, mineralogical and textural characteristics in the ore deposit. This takes into account the extensive information data set associated with the exploration drillhole and geochemical database of the deposit.
Stage 2 – Sample Selection: Selection of samples from various domains across an orebody to provide representative materials for mineralogical, metallurgical and environmental testing.
Stage 3 – Parameter Determination: Determination of the suite of tests needed to generate the technical parameters needed for flowsheet design and environmental testing.
Stage 4 – Multivariate Model Definition: Definition of multivariate relationships that correlate characteristics such as geochemistry, mineralogy and texture with processing parameters related to grindability, flotation and leachability.
Stage 5 – Multivariate Spatial Model Generation: Use of geostatistical methods to populate each domain in the block model with geological, geochemical, geophysical, geotechnical, mineralogical and textural parameters either determined by testing or extrapolated from test results.
Stage 6 – Joint Mining and Mineral Processing Optimization: Optimization of geological, mining, mineral processing, environmental, marketing, economics and corporate strategies to maximize the project value while minimizing risk and several sources of uncertainties.
Geometallurgy significantly reduces the impact of spatial uncertainty in mine planning because it documents the variability in a deposit. The application of the SGS Geometallurgy Framework:
- Lowers project risk
- Optimizes mine resources
- Improves plant performance
- Minimizes Net Present Value
SGS is the market leader in using geometallurgy. Our technical experts have been actively developing and using geometallurgy in project development for many years. We have supported the development of hundreds of projects using the Geometallurgical Framework for large and small companies throughout the world. Team with us and share our intellectual expertise and reduce your technical risk.


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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Why I Quit
When I was a third year med student on my medicine clerkship, a intern named Jim saw me working on the ward at around 6PM. "What are you still doing here?" he asked, shaking his head at me.
"Huh?" I said.
"You should go home and study," Jim told me. "Or else..."
Or else I'll fail my boards? Look bad in front of the attending? Flunk out of med school and end up homeless and penniless on the street??
"...Or else you'll end up in internal medicine."
"Oh," I said, confused by Jim's ominous tone of voice. "Actually, I want to do internal medicine."
"Oh god," Jim said.
Interns typically are the most miserable and bitter people you'll meet in the hospital, but Jim was especially miserable and bitter because he wanted to match in radiology but didn't. He was stuck doing a prelim year in medicine and wasn't having much luck finding a radiology program that would take him. One day he was complaining about it and said to me:
"You know, it sucks. All this work going through med school and you can't even do the field that you want to do."
Those words really haunted me. I eventually came to realize that internal medicine was not my first choice and when I matched in it two years later as a compromise (long geography-related story), I kept thinking to myself, All this work going through med school and I can't even do the field that I want to do. When I hid in the call room during my dreaded internship ICU rotation, I angrily thought to myself, All this work going through med school and I can't even do the field that I want to do.
So I quit. To do the field that I wanted to do.
Thanks, Jim!
5 comments:
That's a nice one to read when I'm less than a week away from the boards! Thanks A LOT, Fizzy.ReplyDelete
For what it's worth, a good number of my friends matched into what they wanted to match into, and ended up quitting after 2 years anyway to do something else because they were miserable too.
I'm glad it worked out for you in the end, though.
A week from step 1, I decided I was interested in rads, so... yea, bad.ReplyDelete
I felt like such a freak for wanting to change my residency, but it turned out a lot of other people in my med school class left their original programs. I guess my Medical specialty quiz didn't help them as much as I had hoped it would (shameless plug :).
You made that quiz? I've always been dying to know the algorithm...ReplyDelete
Yeah, I made it ages ago, back when I was an MS3. I think I gave points to each specialty based on which choice you picked. Like urine-soaked scrubs would give a point to urology. Whichever specialty had the most points at the end won.ReplyDelete
It's funny that I didn't even include my own specialty as an answer. I probably didn't know it existed.
Thanks for this post, I enjoy reading your posts Fizzy :)ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


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Rihanna and Chris Brown have supposedly broken up again.
This is where I don't make a 'What could Chris Brown do to possibly make Rihanna break up with him?' joke.
A source told E! News the couple split after Rihanna decided that, while she will always love Brown, she wants to move on and focus on her career and business ventures.
How can anyone say they 'will always love' someone? I never got that. Do they have a time machine?
Rihanna is currently finishing up her Diamonds World Tour, which stopped at HP Pavilion in San Jose on Saturday, and conceptualizing new ideas for future shows. The star is also reportedly working toward launching a new perfume and continuing with her ongoing fashion campaigns.
Meanwhile Brown is … doing whatever Chris Brown does. Photos recently surfaced of him with what E! News called a 'mysterious blonde' out and about in New York City.


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8634.0 - Tourism Indicators, Australia, Jun 1999
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/11/1999
|Page tools: Print Page Print All
Accommodation up across entire sector in 1998 - ABS
Accommodation capacity in hotels, motels, serviced apartments, holiday flats, guests houses, caravan parks and other accommodation establishments has increased in the twelve months to December 1998 according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Across the sector, the number of rooms, units or sites increased by 4.6% while the number of accommodation establishments (excluding those with less than 5 rooms) increased by 4.4%.
The largest growth occurred for serviced apartments with the number of rooms/units up by 26% and the number of establishments up by 14% over this period.
Visitor hostels also had high growth in both capacity (up 18%) and number of establishments (up 23%).
The number of letting entities for holiday flats, units and houses increased by 9%, leading to an increase in the number of flats, units or houses managed of 4%.
Licensed hotels with five or more rooms were up 3% with number of guest rooms up 4%.
Motels and guest houses with five or more rooms accounted for 35% of all types of accommodation establishments and provided the largest number of rooms/units. Their capacity increased slightly by 1%.
Low growth also occurred over the twelve months to the end of December 1998 in the number of caravan parks (up 1%) and number of powered sites and cabins (up 2%).
The publication, Tourism Indicators Australia, also includes a series of feature articles on:
Further details are in Tourism Indicators Australia, June Quarter 1999 (cat. no. 8634.0), available from ABS Bookshops. A summary of this publication is available on this site. The ABS encourages media organisations with online news services to link to the summary. Please phone us if you need assistance to do this.
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This tool will help you analyze your cost structure and help you pick a good price for your product. You will need to collect some information to use the tool. First, calculate your fixed costs for your product. This is what you have to pay per day no matter what. Maint fees on harvesters are a good example of a fixed cost. Next, calculate your variable costs. A variable cost is a cost that is only met when you produce a new item. A good example of a variable cost is buying resource, such as copper, from the bazaar and using it to craft an item. Note that it is ok to have either a fixed or variable cost of 0. Next, you need to determine how many units of each product you can produce per day. If you are making CDEFs, how many can you produce per day? Enter those values into the first 3 fields of the form.
Entering those values will tell you the Break Even Price of your product. At that price, you make no profit and no loss for the given volume. The next thing you probably want to do is figure out what will happen if you raise or lower your prices. Enter a Price to Test and find out. You will see a Break Even Volume calculated for you. This is the number of units you have to sell at the new price to break even. You are also shown the difference between this value and your current production. A positive value means you need to produce more units to break even. A negative value means you can produce fewer units to break even.
If you are raising or lowering the price, demand for your product is likely to change. If you raise the price, you are likely to sell fewer items. If lower the price, you are likely to sell more items. You can enter an estimate of what you feel the new demand will be at the new price. When you do so, you will be told the estimated profit you will make at the estimated volume with your new price. You want this to be a positive value or you will lose money!
Finally, you might want to know how many units you need to sell for the new price given a profit goal. You might want to make a 2k profit per day. You can enter that value and the form will tell you how many units you have to produce and sell to meet your goal. You are also told the difference between this value and what you estimated the new demand to be.
Lets try some numbers and see what happens. Assume we have a fixed cost of 2000 per day. Next assume it costs 10 credits to produce an item. Finally, assume we can produce 500 items per day. We would enter 2000, 10 and 500 into the first three fields. Once you tab out of the Production box, you should see a value of 14 in the break even price. This tells us that we need to sell each unit for 14 credits. We must also sell all 500 units.
What happens if we raise the price to 15 per unit? Enter 15 in the Price To Test box and tab out. You will see that the break even volume is 400 units per day. Since we are producing 500 per day, the difference is -100. This means that we only have to sell 400 units to break even and the extra 100 units are pure profit.
But if you raise the price, won't the demand go down? Yes, more than likely it will. This means you probably won't be selling all 500 any longer unless you were underselling the market. You can guess what the new volume might be. Enter your guess into the Estimated Volume box and tab out. Lets say we think we will only sell 450 units now. After entering that value, we find that we will be making 250 credits per day.
That sure isn't very much. If we want to make 1k credits per day, we can figure out how many units we will need to sell at the new price. Enter 1000 in the Required Profits field and tab out. We see that we would have to sell 600 units total to meet this goal. We also see that we need to sell 150 more units than our estimate of 450.


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In August, TheBlaze told you about University of Colorado Professors Ken Bickers and Michael Berry and their highly-accurate Electoral College prediction model. As you may recall, Bickers and Berry, using their metrics, are able to retroactively predict every presidential win since 1980.
Their 2012 model made headlines two months ago because, despite polling, it found that Republican presidential candidate Romney would win 320 Electoral Votes, stealing the White House away from President Barack Obama. Now, an updated version of their study has come to the same conclusion -- but it intensifies the numbers behind a predicted Romney win.
Despite the fact that polls still show a dead-heat race (Obama is currently at 48.2 percent, with Romney capturing 47.3 percent of likely voters in the most recent Real Clear Politics average), an updated election model shows an even larger gap between the Electoral College votes that Romney and Obama are projected to win. According to Bickers and Berry, the Republican challenger is projected to take 330 of the 558 votes, while Obama is expected to capture only 208 of them.
With 270 as the major number needed for any candidate to win, this clearly shows Obama far from the mark, sending Romney -- at least theoretically -- to victory come November. While the model did not change, Bickers' and Berry's analysis is based on updated economic data, which clearly helped sway the projection even further in Romney's favor.
The University of Colorado Boulder web site has more about how the model works:
While many election forecast models are based on the popular vote, the model developed by Bickers and Berry is based on the Electoral College and is the only one of its type to include more than one state-level measure of economic conditions. They included economic data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. [...]
The Bickers and Berry model includes both state and national unemployment figures as well as changes in real per capita income, among other factors. The new analysis includes unemployment rates from August rather than May, and changes in per capita income from the end of June rather than March. It is the last update they will release before the election. [...]
In addition to state and national unemployment rates, the authors analyzed changes in personal income from the time of the prior presidential election. Research shows that these two factors affect the major parties differently: Voters hold Democrats more responsible for unemployment rates, while Republicans are held more responsible for fluctuations in personal income.
"We continue to show that the economic conditions favor Romney even though many polls show the president in the lead," Bickers notes. "Other published models point to the same result, but they looked at the national popular vote, while we stress state-level economic data."
According to the prediction, Romney will carry New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. On the flip side, Obama will take Michigan and Nevada.
Of course, Bickers and Berry caution those wedded to the data. Despite being correct for the past eight elections, there are some factors worth noting. The model has an average error rate of five states and 28 Electoral College votes. Plus, states that are close may end up being impacted by unexpected factors not included in the model.
Now, let's get back to that record of accuracy mentioned earlier in this piece. The state-based economic data used by the researchers has been available since 1980, according to the university's web site. When the data is applied to past elections, retroactively, it correctly chooses all of the winners. Most notably, it even correctly estimated the 2000 outcome, when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush won the Electoral College.
In the end, though, anything is possible. Slight and unexpected changes could turn the entire scenario on its head. Still, the model -- considering its viability -- is worth paying attention to.


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Palestinian Youth Slain in Suspected Revenge for Kidnap Killings
(Reuters) — The body of an abducted Palestinian youth was found in Jerusalem on Wednesday, raising suspicions he had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens.
News of the discovery of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, who was last seen being bundled into a van earlier in the day, triggered clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli police in the city.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of killing Abu Khudair and demanded that Israel "mete out the strongest punishment against the murderers if it truly wants peace".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged police "to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive." He called on all sides "not to take the law into their own hands."
The United States also condemned the killing, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a "despicable and senseless abduction and murder." He urged both Israeli and Palestinian officials "to take all necessary steps to prevent acts of violence and bring their perpetrators to justice."
Police said they had found a body in the wooded outskirts of Jerusalem. Abu Khudair's father told Reuters the force had told him the body was his son.
An Israeli security source said Israel suspected the youth had been kidnapped and murdered, possibly in retribution for the killings of the Israeli teens, whose corpses were discovered on Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted in the occupied West Bank.
Israel says Palestinian Hamas militants killed them. The Islamist group has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
Abu Khudair's cousin said the 16-year-old was grabbed off the street after leaving his home in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhood of Shuafat to go to morning prayers with friends.
"Somebody ran into the house to say one of the boys had been dragged into a white van, so (Mohammed's) mother called the police," the cousin, Naima, said.
The abduction came a day after the three Jewish seminary students – Gil-Ad Shaer and U.S.-Israeli national Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19 – were buried in a funeral attended by tens of thousands of mourners.
While the teenagers were laid to rest in the city of Modi'in, several hundreds Israeli demonstrators, some chanting "Death to Arabs", blocked the main entrance to Jerusalem.
Cries for revenge have echoed throughout the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They can be heard at the emotionally charged funerals of Palestinians killed by Israel, and the phrase "May God avenge his death" is often invoked at the burials of Israelis slain by Palestinians.
But deadly Israeli vigilante attacks, in declared retribution for Palestinian assaults, have been rare in recent years.
More common are the so-called "price tag" incidents in which mosques and Palestinian property are torched or damaged – originally a reference by ultranationalist Jews to making the government "pay" for any curbs on Jewish settlement on land Palestinians seek for a state.
Hebrew graffiti found on a building in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday read: "Price tag, Jewish revenge."
Tensions were high in the West Bank, where around 40 Palestinians were arrested in raids on Tuesday, the latest in a campaign by Israel to cripple Hamas there.
Four people were wounded by live bullets early on Wednesday in an Israeli raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin.
Near Hebron, Israeli forces destroyed the home of a Palestinian arrested on charges of shooting dead an off-duty police officer in the West Bank in April.
Israel, which suspended the demolition policy in 2005 as a Palestinian uprising waned, says destroying the homes of Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis has a deterrent effect. Rights groups have condemned the practice as collective punishment.


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gopher n. 1. Any of various short tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Geomyidae, of North America. 2. (Amer. colloq.) Native or inhabitant of Minnesota: the Gopher State. 3. (Amer. colloq.) One who runs errands, does odd-jobs, fetches or delivers documents for office staff. 4. (computer tech.) software following a simple protocol for burrowing through a TCP/IP internet.
-From RFC 1436 describing Gopher
Minnesota is not a proud place—how else to explain the fact that it voluntarily bills itself the "Gopher State" and has as its main university mascot an appallingly bucktoothed rodent known as a "golden gopher"?
So it was no surprise that when University of Minnesota researchers developed an early protocol for organizing and sharing documents over the Internet, they named it "gopher." The initial version of the protocol appeared in 1991; by 1993, it had been codified as a Request for Comment (RFC 1436) that laid out the protocol in some detail.
According to the RFC, gopher was designed as a client-server protocol running over TCP/IP. Much lighter than HTTP and HTML, gopher provided essentially two options: menus and documents, both of which were accessed through port 70. The system was initially text-based, though basic image serving ability came later. There was no decorative markup for menu pages, which all looked basically (and boringly) the same; on the other hand, gopher was quick and consistent.
It was also on the way out pretty quickly. I used it in 1994 during my first year in college, but even there it coexisted with HTML (and the new Mosaic "Web browser"). HTML quickly came to dominate, gopher servers migrated onto the Web, and search engines like Google eventually replaced the arcane gopher search engines like Archie, VERONICA, and JUGHEAD (Veronica-2 continues to monitor gopherspace).
Attempts to improve Gopher did little to stop the weaving of the Web. University of Minnesota computer scientists developed the Gopher+ protocol in the summer of 1993 as a way to "summon new capabilities to bridge the most keenly felt shortcomings of the venerable old Gopher."
Gopher+ was backwards compatible with Gopher, but the protocol's popularity was waning, and Gopher+ never took off (it never achieved RFC status, either).
But, like its namesake, Gopher was hard to kill. As late as 2000-2001, backers like Bjorn Karger were writing the "Gopher Manifesto" and arguing that a return to gopher would be a return to the purity of the early Internet.
"No graphic design means its the ideal navigable interface, a hypertext Eden," wrote Karger. "It gives simplified usage for sight-impaired users, same contents for wired/wiredless, and requires no capital investments in layout and 'design.' Gopher is real—and it was fully functional in 1992, even without advertisements!"
This sense of gopher as an Edenic protocol of innocence (in comparison to HTML, the protocol of commerce and experience) gave power to the calls for its resurrection. Karger features a bit of reminiscence from one Lawrence Rhodes, whose description of using the protocol is telling:
"'Point your Gopher to...' I remember getting excited when almost anything followed these words," said Rhodes. "It was a sign of progress. Or of the impending state of information connectedness we all now experience. Now it seems so quaint. I miss it so not for the underpinning technology (which may or may not have been superior) but for the feeling that the world of information technology, indeed the world itself, was advancing rapidly enough to allow the common man access to the world's great storehouses of data. Of course, in retrospect, I suppose if I had thought about the common man's indefatigable hunger for porn and nonstop commerce and the myriad other forms of bad taste, I would have seen the dangers of the banal. Indeed Gopher represented a simpler, more naive time."
This isn't a view shared by all Gopher enthusiasts, though. Cameron Kaiser is a programmer on the Overbite Project, which brings better Gopher support to Firefox versions 2 and 3. When he writes about the relevance of Gopher in a Web world, he rejects the nostalgia for a "simpler time."
"The misconception that the modern renaissance of Gopherspace is simply a reaction to 'Web overload' is unfortunately often repeated and, while superficially true, demonstrates a distinct lack of insight," he writes. Instead, Gopher's advantages lie in the structure that its simple menu-based interface imposes on content.
"Gopher is a mind-set on making structure out of chaos," says Kaiser. "Within Gopherspace, all Gophers work the same way and all Gophers organize themselves around similar menus and interface conceits. It is not only easy and fast to create Gopher content in this structured and organized way, it is mandatory by its nature. Resulting from this mandate is the ability for users to navigate every Gopher installation in the same way they navigated the one they came from, and the next one they will go to. Just like it had been envisioned by its creators, Gopher takes the strict hierarchical nature of a file tree or FTP and turns it into a friendlier format that still gives the fast and predictable responses that they would get by simply browsing their hard drive. As an important consequence, by divorcing interface from information, Gopher sites stand and shine on the strength of their content and not the glitz of their bling."
As is evident from their manifestos, neither Kaiser nor Karger have much time for "design," which always threatens to overshadow "content." Unfortunately for the Gopherphile, Gopherspace has been stripped of much of its content; even the "mother Gopher" at the University of Minnesota has been shuttered.
Gopher tools
Gopher hasn't wholly died, though, and a bit of poking around in Gopher holes shows that Gopher-based tools are still being actively developed. First, though, you'll need some way to browse Gopher servers.
The easiest cross-platform tool is Firefox, which continues to support Gopher browsing. This is not without controversy; a bug request filed back in 2007 wants to "lessen attack vectors by removing Gopher protocol support." Two years later, however, Firefox continues to support the protocol. The Overbite project, not satisfied with this implementation, has written its own Firefox extension to replace the default Gopher support with something more robust.
Standalone, modern gopher clients are tough to come by, but you can download older programs at the HAL 3000 archive.
For the text-mode-inclined, most Telnet clients can display Gopher's basic output, and browsers like Lynx are a perfect match for Gopher's textual nature.
Finally, to play around with Gopher without installing a client, Floodgap Systems runs a free Gopher proxy that renders Gopher pages as HTML files and allows for seamless Gopher browsing.
Now, what can you do?
Gopher's good times
You can browse the text and images on Gopher servers, of course, which contain everything from Python code to "glog" (Gopher log) entries. You can browse a Gopher server running on a Windows 7 machine with 20MB of RAM. You can browse a UK server with a Swedish domain name.
Or you can throw caution to the wind and browse 4chan, of all things, through Gopher. The notorious /b/ discussion board, home to both the Anonymous movement and the sort of pictures that might send your mother to the hospital, is accessible through Port 70's Gopherchan.
Someone at Floodgap has also built a Twitter browser that can pull any user's tweets into a Gopher page so... there's that, too.
Basically, it's the Web without commercial users, graphic design, Flash video, cookies, and popup windows—and, when put that way, it's possible to see why Gopher's devotees appreciate the stark simplicity of the protocol.
On the other hand, a bit of time spent poking around in Gopherspace offers a powerful reminder that most of the world has moved on, leaving Gopher in its hole.


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Thanks to our friends of Babelzilla, you can now help improve Nightingale localization (L10n).
If you want to translate/review Nightingale localizations you will have:
- To have an account on our forum and PM us (GeekShadow or rsjtdrjgfuzkfg) for locale request
- To register on http://beta.babelzilla.org/ (use Password Reset if you had already a classic Babelzilla account)
- Request on the Nightingale tranlation project page to be on team for the desired locale
- We will make you a post on the forum as well to be able to coordinate your work with the community
- Optional: If you have a GitHub account, give us your GitHub mail so that your work will be committed with your name/mail to the repository
After being approved, you will be able to review your current locale and also complete it if it's not 100% done yet.
We will be adding new strings soon, so stay tuned and help us!
History of L10n
At the beginning, Nightingale had no real L10n support, we only took a verbatim copy of Songbird's langpacks with no changes made to them.
Songbird «had» (has) a translation website platform written in Ruby which was unfortunately never released as open source and was a bit limited with some disadvantages.
- The website was open and everyone could translate like Wikipedia with simple edits, which could have resulted in a mess if there was nobody watching changes and what was going on
- The platform never relied on a physical public repository, it means everything for langpack generation was done on Songbird's servers without file system/tree view for public
- There was no real review system and no way to do things like downloading only translated strings (without en-US strings)
For Nightingale, we have decided to team up with Babelzilla. They are long time friends, and they already have been hosting Songbird add-ons as well as Nightingale's.
The Beta Babezilla platform we are using is based on Transifex, an open source localization platform. Tim Babych made a fork of this platform, improved and adapted it for Mozilla add-ons and Mozilla based applications. You can read more about it in the Babelzilla blog post.
This platform provides us a great set of tools like the Transifex client, team management, review process, ability to test langpacks, etc.
Moreover we have made some cool tools to sync translators' work with our Git repository, so we can track all the work to have a better visibility.
Work done so far
A lot of cleanup work was done before importing Songbird localization files into this platform:
- Improved Ellipsis usage on every locale and replaced "…" by "…"
- Fixed usage of double quotes inside a string in songbird.dtd
- Converted some strings' values to double quotes
- Replaced Add-ons URL by add_ons.url
- Replaced Bugzilla URL by file_bug.url
- Removed spaces on some strings in songbird.properties
- Replaced "Songbird" strings by "&brandShortName;"
- Removed backslashes "\" in foreign languages where it's not needed
We hope you will be able to review and clean more strings in your locale too.
We also have added two new strings and more are coming:
- "Flat" string for equalizer (The default preset)
- "Unnamed Pane" string for display panes (This will later allow you to localize Display pane titles)
We have tested langpack import on both Babelzilla WTS (old system) and Babelzilla Adofex (new system) and decided the new system was a good start because it's smoother and open source. since it is open source, we were able to help testing it and report bugs to improve it!
During the L10n setup, a lot of Bash scripts were made to deal with different tasks, here are a few interesting ones:
- Two first scripts were made to reorder strings in foreign locales, because langpacks came with mixed strings and so it was hard to track differences. One for .properties and another one for .dtd. Those scripts ends up used only for testing because Babelzilla was also able to reorder strings on langpacks
- A script was made to fetch all langpacks from Songbird website and unzip everything
- This wasn't enough, some langpacks were missings (because they are not shipped with Songbird they doesn't have not enough strings translated), another script was made to fetch from translate website
- We even made a Python script to remove en-US strings from langpacks where strings were missing!
- For previous Nightingale releases we made a script to take Songbird langpacks and repack them to be compatible with Nightingale
- Now we have a full script to produce our own langpacks using files from Babelzilla
- Last but not least we made a script to track changes done on Babelzilla and commit those on GitHub when a change is done
Some of those scripts are yet to be released or improved, but everything is working at this time.
The great thing is that once we release the new version of Nightingale, a simple script execution will be able to push langpacks from the latest translation version online 🙂
This cooperation could have not been possible without the help of : Tymofij, Goofy and Pascalc from Mozilla/Babelzilla who helped us providing support so thanks a lot to them!
What's next?
We also plan on hosting Nightingale add-ons and their locales online so you can translate them, along with more tools to help you localize efficiently 🙂


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Lansana Conté (c. 1934 – 22 December 2008) was the President of Guinea from 3 April 1984 until his death. He was a Muslim and a member of the Susu ethnic group.
Born in Moussayah Loumbaya (Dubréka), a member of the Susu people, he estimated his birthdate to be 1934, although he never knew exactly. Conté was educated at a local Quranic school and attended Dubréka primary school. He then went on to study at military preparatory schools in Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire and Saint Louis, Senegal.
In 1955, he enlisted in the French army and was posted to Algeria during the war of independence in 1957. After his service in the French Army, Conté returned to Guinea, which became independent from France on 2 October 1958, and was integrated into the new army with the rank of sergeant. In 1962, he attended the Camp Alpha officer's school in Conakry. Soon after, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion artillery-training center in Kindia. On 1 July 1963, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant. This was followed two years later by another promotion from Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant. On 22 November 1970, a group of Guinean exiles invaded the country from Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) in an apparent attempt to overthrow the government of President Ahmed Sékou Touré. Conté participated in operations to defend the capital and government forces soon suppressed the invasion. For his service to the nation, he was promoted to the rank of Captain on 27 February 1971. In 1973, he was named commander of the Boké operational zone (in Northwestern Guinea) to assist the pro-independence guerrilla movement, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in neighboring Portuguese Guinea. On 10 May 1975, he was named assistant Chief of Staff of the army.


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Changes to Price of Services Require Expiry of Existing Contract Period Prior to Pricing ChangesPage last modified: February 19 2022
Yes No
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Can a Service Provider Change the Price For Service Before a Contract Period Expires?
When a Service Provider Enters Into An Agreement to Provide a Specific Service At a Specific Price For a Specific Period of Time the Price Is Locked In Until The Period of Time Agreed Upon Expires.
Understanding When Monthly Service Fees May Change and Be Legally Binding
A business is without the right to change the price unilaterally and arbitrarily unless a 'price may change' term was previously agreed to. Accordingly, per the case of Ramsey v. BCE Inc. operating as Bell Canada, SC-17-00008757 (unreported case of the Toronto Small Claims Court), where a price is established with a customer service representative within a telephone discussion, unless the contractual agreement entered into during that telephone discussion contains an understanding that the pricing may change, any imposing of subsequent changes in pricing are improper and unenforceable.
Factual Summary
On November 30 2016, David Ramsey engaged in a telephone discussion with a representative of Bell Canada for the purpose of discussing a Internet and TV package known as Fibe 50. During the discussion, the representative advised that the package was available for one hundred twelve 90/00 ($112.90) dollars for a period of twenty-four (24) months. Subsequently, via changes of pricing issued upon invoices, Bell Canada attempted to alter the agreed upon arrangement.
The Law
Basing the case on trite law concepts, meaning principles that are so known and ingrained to legal practitioners that reference may be made without citing precedent cases, Deputy Judge De Lucia stated:
I find that Bell Canada cannot unilaterally insert or impose new terms. Any imposition of new terms without fresh consideration is unenforceable. I also find that that kind of contractual behaviour is high-handed, arbitrary and unacceptable. In particular, terms that speak to price increases, as I've stated, there is no fresh consideration for this price change mechanism and I find that to be unenforceable.
It is true that the court cannot interfere with Bell Canada's rights to impose price changes. That is its commercial right to do so but not during a contractual term, and the term here was for 24 months at $112.90 per month for TV and internet services and therefore those terms are enforceable. To alter or to change the terms, as Bell has requested, would be grossly unfair, grossly prejudicial to the plaintiff and unconscionable.
Contracts are designed to bring stability to transactions, and in particular a consumer transaction as such as we have here. Bell's attempt to unilaterally impose terms are unacceptable. I accept the plaintiff's position that Bell Canada attempted to clarify or to introduce or to bring to the attention of the consumer new terms of the contract through subsequent emails. None of those terms were introduced or brought into the parameters of the transcript of November 30th, 2016. And accordingly, this is not how contract law works and the relevant, as I say, the relevant elements of the contract are found in the transcript of November 30th, 2016.
Accordingly, the case clearly was decided in favour of Mr. Ramsey. Strangely, and as will be unknown to all but Bell Canada and Mr. Ramsey, why this case was unresolved and needed is somewhat perplexing. With such a plain and obvious outcome on legal issues that would be well understood by legal counsel for a company such as Bell Canada, there was likely factors involved that occurred outside the courtroom and kept the matter from settling prior to Trial.
Summary Comment
A business is unable to alter an agreed upon pricing arrangement until the end of the agreed term or unless it was agreed that pricing could be changed at a later date. A business, such as Bell Canada in the case of Ramsey v. BCE Inc., may offer service packages where the specific price changes from time-to-time; however, if a price was agreed to, and agreed to for a specific period of time, the price is locked in for that period regardless of whether the common price of that service changes.


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Just in case you were worried there wouldn't be enough crassness on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Frank Miller has got you covered. His graphic novel Holy Terror, about a superhero who takes down Al Qaeda, comes out Sept. 2011.
The creator of Batman: Year One, Sin City and 300 originally planned to call this comic Holy Terror, Batman!, and feature the Caped Crusader himself fighting the ultimate terrorist organization. And Batman was originally going to square off against Osama Bin Laden, but that's off the table as well. Instead, a superhero called the Fixer will take on the Muslim terrorists. (Presumably he's not called the Fixer because he repairs their dishwashers and reconnects their cable TV after he kills them.)
The comic is being published on Sept. 14, 2011, by Legendary Comics, an offshoot of Legendary Pictures. And if you go to the Legendary Comics site, you can see an animated version of the above image, in which the Fixer and his Arab combatant move as you mouse over them, although sadly the teeth flying out of the Arab's mouth don't move separately.
Here's what Frank Miller said about this project at Comic Con in 2006, according to the Guardian:
Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for ... It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a piece of propaganda.
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Last year, Miller explained his new character, The Fixer, to the L.A. Times Hero Complex Blog:
He's been trained as special ops and when his city is attacked all of a sudden all the pieces fall into place and all this training comes into play. He's been out there fighting crime without really having his heart in it – he does it to keep in shape," said Miller. "It began as my reaction to 9/11 and it was an extremely angry piece of work and as the years have passed by I've done movies and I've done other things and time has provided some good distance, so it becomes more of a cohesive story as it progresses. The Fixer has also become his own character in a way I've really enjoyed. No one will read this and think, 'Where's Batman?' ... My guy carries a couple of guns and is up against an existential threat. He's not just up against a goofy villain. Ignoring an enemy that's committed to our annihilation is kind of silly. It just seems that chasing the Riddler around seems silly compared to what's going on out there. I've taken Batman as far as he can go.
He also told the Times that the Fixer is "not a tortured soul" in the way that Batman is, but rather he's a "well-adjusted creature" who happens to shoot 100 people.
And here's the full press release, via Comic Book Resources:
Comic Scheduled for September 14, 2011 Release
Burbank, CA – June 28, 2011 – Legendary Comics has partnered with Frank Miller, the iconic writer and artist of SIN CITY, 300 and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, to publish HOLY TERROR, a dark, uncompromising superhero tale for the modern era. The announcement was made today by Bob Schreck, Editor-in-Chief of Legendary Comics.
In HOLY TERROR, join The Fixer, a brand new, hard-edged hero as he battles terror. The graphic novel is a no-holds-barred action thriller told in Miller's trademark high-contrast, black-and-white visual style, which seizes the political zeitgeist by the throat and doesn't let go until the last page.
"It has been my extreme pleasure and honor to have worked so closely with Frank for over 20 years now," says Schreck. "HOLY TERROR finds Frank at the top of his game. A fast paced, biting commentary on our uncertain and volatile times, told with some of the most gut-wrenching, iconic images he's ever produced."
HOLY TERROR is a 120 page hardcover graphic novel with spot-color interiors presented in a 10 x 13 landscape format. Distributed by Diamond Books, HOLY TERROR retails for $29.99 and will be in stores on September 14.


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Sabrina Nichole (sabrinanicholebun) pushes her fans to the very edge. They cannot stop edging to her Patreon pictures, that's for damn sure. Enjoy them all in high quality.
Visit this NudoStar forum thread if you're still in the mood for more, by the way.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sabrinanichole
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabrinanicholebun/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sabrina_bunn


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SEJournal Online is the digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Learn more about SEJournal Online, including submission, subscription and advertising information.
Media on the Move
By JUDY FAHYS
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill provided SEJ's members with infinite opportunities to investigate, explore and elucidate one of the most devastating environmental catastrophes of our time.
Among the innovations arising from the spill: SEJ's Joe Davis and a small team of enablers launched a blog dedicated to news about the blowout and information sources to help environmental writers cover it. SEJ has taken this orphan under its wing, and now some funders may want to support it.
Right now, Joe is doing this in his garage (figuratively) in his spare time. With luck, he hopes to expand it soon to a new platform, bring in lots of citizen journalists, and transform the news media.
"Stay tuned," Davis says. "This story ain't going away soon."
SEJ members reported many new honors and enterprises that spanned the most remote reaches of Earth to its busiest cities.
Heather Dewar is editing a new weekly zine for Urbanite magazine focusing on urban ecology — the science and the social movement. The zine, which launched July 5, focuses on Baltimore but will include some national stories. She would like to hear from other SEJ members covering urban ecology: email@example.com
Rae Tyson, SEJ founding vice president, has joined the staff of Environmental Health News. The move reunites Tyson with former SEJ board member Marla Cone, editor-in-chief of EHN.
Michael Casey has moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates to become the Gulf correspondent for The Associated Press. He'll cover sports, news and environment across the Middle East. Previously, he was the AP's regional environment correspondent for Asia based in Bangkok, Thailand. He served earlier as an AP correspondent in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Gustave Axelson recently learned that his story about northern goshawks in Minnesota, "The Alpha Accipiter," is one of 100 selected for Houghton Mifflin's "The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2010" . Axelson noted that it's a coup for the donation-funded Minnesota Conservation magazine to make the cut, since pieces from big-name publications typically dominate the anthology. He also had a tip for anyone who might hazard into this raptor's turf. "Yes, goshawks really do attack when you step into their nesting territory," said Axelson. "Next time (if there is one), I'm wearing a bike helmet."
Magazine editor and freelancer Craig Saunders began a new Media on the Move gig teaching a new course in conventional and on-screen proofreading at Ryerson University in Toronto. Last year, he created the first course of its kind in Canada, at George Brown College.
Dan Sullivan was recently named managing editor of BioCycle magazine. The publication — whose tagline is "Advancing composting, organics recycling and renewable energy" is in its 51st year and is based in Emmaus, PA. Formerly with the Rodale Institute's webzine www.NewFarm.org, where he was senior editor, and Rodale Inc.'s Organic Gardening magazine, he graduated May 15 with a master's degree in environmental studies (MSES) from Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, where SEJ member environmental communications professor Ron Steffens was his thesis advisor.
Freelance writer and editor Erica Gies was the Vermont Law School energy fellow for the summer session.
Emily Gertz has been selected as a 2010 Ocean Science Journalism Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She'll attend the formal program from September 12- 18, and may stay for the optional second week to do some independent reporting.
Adrianne Appel has been awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT for the 2010-2011 academic year. Her egghead gene will be fully expressed, as she studies environmental and health topics.
Canadian author Alanna Mitchell was the first book author to win the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment for her book Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart and by The University of Chicago Press in the U.S. She is also the first Canadian to receive the honor, which includes an award of $75,000 in 2010.
"An engaging work, Sea Sick clearly and eloquently explains the specific dangers facing global marine ecosystems," said Sunshine Menezes, executive director of the Metcalf Institute and Grantham Prize administrator. "Mitchell faced her own demons to craft a story that showcases marine science — and scientists — in a balanced, accurate, and poetic fashion. "
This year, the Grantham Prize committee also gave three Awards of Special Merit, each offering a $5,000 cash prize. One went to Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for his chronicles of the environmental challenges affecting the Great Lakes; Cleo Paskal, author of Global Warring, which examines the dire global security and geopolitical implications of climate change; and Hedrick Smith Productions for the PBS Frontline documentary "Poisoned Waters," which details America's failure to ensure the health of its waterways.
Deborah Fryer's documentary film about Parkinson's — SHAKEN: Journey into the Mind of a Parkinson's Patient — has recently won 2 Telly Awards (1 in the Documentary category and 1 in the Education category); it also won a People's Telly Award, and received 2 Gold Communicator Awards from the International Academy of the Visual Arts (again in the Doc and Education categories). Fryer is working on a 20th anniversary video for the "I Have A Dream" Foundation, which focuses on education for low-income children, and has a feature film in production about stem cells and neuroplasticity.
Judy Fahys is enviornmental reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune and can be contacted at email@example.com
*From the quarterly newsletter SEJournal, Fall 2010 issue.


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Clean-tech firms seek to reuse a variety of rare, potentially toxic materials. New businesses emerge as manufacturers prepare for modules' end of life.
In recent years the electronics industry has gained notoriety for creating an endless stream of disposable products that make their way at life's end to developing countries, where poor people without safety gear cut and burn out valuable materials, spilling contaminants into their water, air and lungs.
Solar modules contain some of the same potentially dangerous materials as electronics, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas. So as solar moves from the fringe to the mainstream, insiders and watchdog groups are beginning to talk about producer responsibility and recycling in an attempt to sidestep the pitfalls of electronic waste and retain the industry's green credibility.
Solar modules have an expected lifespan of at least 20 years so most have not yet reached the end of their useful lives. But now, before a significant number of dead panels pile up, is the perfect time to implement a responsible program, said Sheila Davis, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
The nonprofit environmental group has been a leader in recognizing the problems of e-waste, including hazardous disposal sites in the Bay Area left by the semiconductor industry. Now it is focused on the solar boom in Silicon Valley. Last year the group published a report calling for a "just and sustainable" solar industry, and this year it issued a scorecard of solar companies. The scorecard evaluates recycling and extended producer responsibility for the product's end of life, called takeback; supply chain and green jobs; chemical use and lifecycle analysis; and disclosure.
Vastly expanding industry
Solar energy is the most widely available resource we have. Every hour, enough solar energy strikes Earth to meet human energy needs for more than a year, according to NASA. Now the solar industry is poised for huge growth in the United States, thanks to policy changes, incentives, technological improvements and economies of scale. Solar photovoltaics have recently become less expensive than nuclear energy on a per-kilowatt-hour basis, according to a new report from Duke University. Also, solar is widely expected to reach cost parity with fossil fuels in most markets by 2013.
In 2009, Greentech Media estimated that U.S. solar demand will continue to increase about 50 percent annually through 2012. The report said the U.S. capacity installed during 2008 was about 320 megawatts, and it predicted that about 2,000 megawatts would be installed during 2012. Such growth would put U.S. capacity ahead of solar leader Spain and potentially Germany as well.
While most of the new modules will likely have a long, productive life, factory scrap, transport breakages and field failures are ready for recycling now. Jennifer Woolwich is collecting these broken solar modules in a warehouse near Phoenix.
She founded her company PV Recycling in February 2009 after estimating that she could harvest 500 panels a week from these sources. She is not yet collecting at that capacity, nor does she have enough panels to begin recycling them, but she is talking with solar manufacturers in an effort to win their recycling business.
"Of those we interviewed, 100 percent want recycling," she said. "Eighty percent want an independent third-party doing the recycling."
Woolwich said she has seen a quick evolution in solar manufacturers' attitudes toward recycling: "Last year, there was kind of a 'wait and see, we're not sure how this is going to work' attitude. Over the past 12 months, I've seen a 180. I've seen companies who are hiring consultants to research their whole value chain to identify waste, including the end of life of modules. We've received calls from consumers asking us which companies have takeback programs in place."
Solar companies tend to be secretive about their product recipes, making some manufacturers cautious about, yet conceptually open to, third-party recycling.
"We guarantee that intellectual property will not be put at risk," Woolwich said. "We're not interested in reverse engineering or selling company secrets. We have certificates of destruction that we [will] provide."
For now, though, some companies are doing their own recycling.
SolarWorld, which received an 88 out of 100 on the toxics coalition's scorecard, has been recycling its own panels since 2003 at its main factory in Freiberg, Germany. That factory now receives broken panels from its U.S. plants in Cabrillo, Calif., Hillsboro, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash.
"The fact is, there isn't much to recycle," said Ben Santarris, a spokesman for SolarWorld. "In the future we might expand recycling to our U.S. plants or contract with a third-party recycler."
First Solar earned a rating of 67 on the scorecard. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., it has recycling facilities at its manufacturing sites in Perrysburg, Ohio; Frankfurt (Oder), Germany; and Kulim, Malaysia. Lisa Krueger, vice president of sustainable development, said that so far the company is primarily recycling manufacturing scrap.
"It's our intention that there would be other recycling facilities worldwide as you get into those volumes," she said.
Materials of interest
Solar modules employ a variety of technologies, and even models within the same technology can have different ingredients. These materials may or may not be classified as toxic depending on who is regulating them.
Dustin Mulvaney is a scientist who works on solar issues at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as a consultant to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. He has analyzed solar modules currently on the market and has outlined for each its key ingredients, including potentially toxic elements and materials that would be valuable to recover in recycling.
Used in SolarWorld modules, crystalline photovoltaic is the oldest and most widespread solar technology in the United States, holding 57 percent market share in 2009, according to Greentech Media. "As far as hazardous materials go, you're primarily talking about lead," Mulvaney said.
A thin film technology called cadmium telluride makes up about 21 percent of the U.S. market. First Solar panels use this technology.
Cadmium may be carcinogenic. Exposure affects the lungs and kidneys and can be fatal. "It's gene toxic and a mutagen, so it has the ability to affect DNA, meaning it could affect reproduction and future generations' DNA," Mulvaney said.
Cadmium is technically banned by the European Union's Restriction on Hazardous Substances directive, although the policy currently allows an exemption for its use in solar modules.
Still, there's not a lot of data about whether cadmium is toxic in the alloy form in which it's used in thin film. And cadmium isn't likely to go away anytime soon, as it is uniquely efficient at absorbing light.
Another thin film material, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), also has a cadmium layer. Indium is a potentially hazardous substance, too, particularly in the form of indium tin oxide, Mulvaney said. Studies have linked it to pulmonary disease in flat-screen TV recycling facilities. And selenium has been documented to be a hazardous material.
While CIGS currently has a market share of just 6 percent, amorphous silicon, which also has an indium tin oxide layer, holds 16 percent.
California's Department of Toxic Substances Control has taken note of the European Union's concern about cadmium and is researching the chemical and physical makeup of various types of modules.
"We think some solar panels, probably the cadmium thin film type, might be hazardous waste when shredded or disposed of in a landfill," said Charles Corcoran, a hazardous substances scientist at the department.
Only panels classified as hazardous would fall under the jurisdiction of the department. It is considering regulatory options to try to steer end users toward recycling rather than disposal.
"That gets a little complicated because California and U.S. regulations aren't necessarily in sync," Corcoran said. "An option might be to transport it out of state where disposal is legal."
Today California has no solar module recycling facilities. But recycling locally is an important tenet of an ethical, sustainable industry, said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition's Davis. Recycling locally reduces the process' carbon footprint.
"It would also make people more conscious about what goes into the products," Davis said. "And it would create local jobs."
Designing with recycling in mind
Extended producer responsibility, including module recycling, is currently an expense rather than a source of profit for companies, including Solar World and First Solar.
"As we get to scale, we hope those costs will come down," Krueger said.
A dedicated recycler like Woolwich is counting on economies of scale. Her business plan also includes various revenue streams, including reclaiming and selling materials and providing a service of managing manufacturers' collection and recycling systems.
Davis said recycling costs could be reduced if manufacturers would take the notion of extended producer responsibility to the next level: the design phase.
"If you don't look at the recycling when you're designing the product, then it's really, really difficult to recycle," Davis said. "But if you know you're going to have to pay for the recycling at the end of life, you might make the necessary design changes in your product now to reduce that cost."
Mulvaney said that if the government were to set a price on carbon emissions, that would also help make solar recycling more affordable. Because turning sand into crystals takes 70 to 80 percent of the energy used to make crystalline photovoltaics, he said recycling silicon would "save so much energy in production, it could become a money saver."
Still, most companies that are beginning recycling programs today are proceeding under the assumption that recycling will be a cost. They are preparing for that expense by creating a variety of funding mechanisms based on the principle of producer responsibility.
Via her surveys, Woolwich has found that solar companies are using an annuity program, escrow, maturity bonds, annual fixed contracts, and pay as you go.
Krueger said First Solar uses a trust: "First Solar doesn't have access to those funds except for collection and recycling," she said. "It's designed that way because of the long product life. If something happens to First Solar, the industry won't have to deal with orphan waste."
Some materials in solar modules such as silicon and rare metals could be more valuable in the future, providing an additional incentive to recycle. Material price spikes have caused industry turmoil in recent years. For example, polysilicon shot to $400 per kilogram between 2006 and 2008. It is now down around $55.
Krueger said First Solar currently harvests cadmium and tellurium from its recycling program to use in new modules, even though buying it from a supplier is currently less expensive. She said she expects harvesting costs to come down as recycling scales up.
Mulvaney said that the industry would do well to plan now for the recovery of rare metals such as indium and tellurium.
Of course, materials recovery has an environmental benefit as well. "We'll be able to reduce impact from mining and other environmental hazards by collecting a lot of the metals and other valuable minerals that are being used in panels," Davis said.
Being truly sustainable — and maintaining that green credibility — is a powerful motivator for renewable energy companies.
Santarris said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition's scorecard was an "important step" toward figuring out which manufacturers are the most environmentally benign.
"There's not a lot of sophistication in the marketplace to differentiate among products and manufacturers of varying environmental performance," Santarris said. "Are solar modules all the same? They're not."
This story was funded by the Spot.Us community. Spot.Us is a nonprofit project whose goal is to pioneer "community powered reporting."
The San Francisco Public Press edited this story. The SFPP is a startup nonprofit news organization in San Francisco that aims to do for print and Web journalism what public broadcasting has done for radio and television.


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Trying to find a harmless haven to adopt your young ones to operate, enjoy, and understand? Indoors playgrounds have grown to be a well known option for mother and father looking for a place to let their kids run loose and fitness their brains, as well.
Filled with glides, tennis ball pits, as well as other interactive jumping gyms, interior play areas are exceedingly popular among youngsters and mothers and fathers alike. Kids can enjoy the independence of an entertaining enjoy location, and moms and/or dads can take advantage of a lounge (most including internet connection) to unwind and see their kids perform.
Mothers and fathers can inhale and exhale straightforward realizing that indoor playgrounds are not only enjoyable surroundings for his or her youngsters, but they're also safe. Interior playground staff members routinely clean and sanitize equipment in the interior playground. Additionally, they established soil guidelines for the kids including no hard real estate, socks only, etc.
Most indoor playgrounds offer you inflatable slides, barrier programs, tennis ball pits, enjoyable stuffed toy set up ups, enjoy areas, and a lot more. Some have gown up stations for children to have interaction with, and a few stations are styled enjoy places to get a child's enjoyment.
Inside playgrounds also offer party alternatives for company where they may hire among the perform bedrooms for any chosen length of time to allow to get a exclusive celebration. Most of these celebrations are catered through the interior playground workers allowing for a smooth, stress free practical experience for both the youngsters as well as the mothers and fathers.
Look at taking your young ones with an interior playground in your town. They offer a stress free surroundings for moms and dads to adopt their little ones to blow off some heavy steam within a fun, harmless, and interactive surroundings.
Inspired by: ezinearticles


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For a while, the unease has been running parallel to the Odd Future hype; way back in November, the Village Voice ran a piece titled "On Odd Future, Rape and Murder, and Why We Sometimes Like the Things That Repel Us" (which nicely summarizes itself). More recently, The Guardian, in the throes of near-fatal UK Wolf Gang fever, has devoted two hefty posts to exploring Tyler's lyrics and persona, coming to the conclusions that: a) Tyler probably isn't homophobic, but he does say "faggot" an awful lot; b) Tyler is pretty great, despite the terrible rapey stuff, and here's hoping he outgrows all that.
This week, Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara upped the blogosphere ante with a post that drew the battle lines clearly: if you tolerate Tyler, the Creator, you're down with misogyny, homophobia, and rape culture. "While an artist who can barely get a sentence fragment out without using homophobic slurs is celebrated on the cover of every magazine, blog, and newspaper," wrote Quin, "I'm disheartened that any self-respecting human being could stand in support with a message so vile. . . . I think people don't actually want to go up against this particular bully because he's popular. Who sticks up for women and gay people now?"
It's strange to imply that enjoying (or even tolerating) morbid lyrics means endorsing their content. I don't think digging Clipse makes you gung-ho about selling coke, or liking "Brown Sugar" means you're down with slave sex. But, hey, shit is getting pretty real out there. Politicians are tampering with the actual definition of rape, and few people are in a mood to joke about it — anyone who wants to choose this moment defend the artistic merit of Tyler's grodier lyrics does so at their own considerable peril.
Quin drifts onto a slippery patch by claiming that critics are afraid to confront Tyler's lyrics for fear of being called racist: "In this case I don't think race or class actually has anything to do with his hateful message but has EVERYTHING to do with why everyone refuses to admonish him for that message." I'm not so sure. It seems to me like the debate is so far proceeding along approximately the same lines as the Eminem furor, and he was white and poor, while Tyler is black and, I don't know, upper-middle-classish. Plus, she'd be glad to know that Tyler is getting some pretty sharp admonishment indeed. More than a few reviews have trashed Goblin for leaning too hard on shock, and one or two have flatly condemned the lyrical content. Even the most glowing notices throw in a few obligatory lines of collar-tugging about the problematic lyrics.
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Top 50 science fiction television shows
From animated children's shows like "The Jetsons'' to classics like the original "Star Trek'' series (pictured), there have been plenty of mind bending science fiction shows that have graced television sets over the years. The sci fi genre just never seems to get old.
Based on years of sci fi viewing experience and a variety of online sources. we've come up with our picks for the Top 50 science fiction shows of all time.
50. 'Earth – Final Conflict'
Starting the list at Number 50: "Earth – Final Conflict,'' which aired from 1997 to 2002. It followed a basic, but popular, storyline about aliens who come to Earth and solve the planet's problems. But is there more? Are there any other intentions? Of course. The story focuses on a double agent, William Boone (played by Kevin Kilner), who is in search of the truth.
49. 'The Wild Wild West'
Two Secret Service agents – James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) – fight the forces of evil in the Wild West (thus the title). However, these two good guys' gadgets rival those of James Bond. A great show for its time.
48. '3rd Rock From The Sun'
A group of aliens move to Earth to study humans while at the same time taking on human form so they can blend in. But with human characteristics also come human frailties – complete with emotional issues and basic physical needs. John Lithgow leads the "family'' in this entertaining sci-fi comedy. The series ran from 1996 to 2001.
47. 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'
A 20th century astronaut, Buck Rogers (played by Gil Gerard), is on a space mission when his shuttle runs into a cosmic anomaly. Buck's frozen in suspended animation until he's revived 500 years later. From 1979 to 1981, we watched as Buck helped solve future Earth's dilemmas. And, of couse, we couldn't leave out the lovely Erin Gray as Colonel Wilma Deering. The show also taught us that spandex is in ample supply in the 25th century.
46. 'That Was Then'
If you blinked, you may have missed this short-lived gem of a sci-fi show on ABC. As Travis Glass (played by James Bulliard) turned 30 years old, he realized his life since high school was pretty much wasted. He envies his jerk brother Gregg (played by Brad Raider) who married Travis' dream girl, Claudia (played by Kiele Sanchez). Thanks to a wish, an electrical problem and an old Kink's song, Travis returns to 1988 to change the past. But everytime he hears the Kink's song again, he's catapulted back to the future to see how his changes affected the outcome of his life at 30. The show was canceled long before it had a chance to reach its prime. It ran in the fall of 2002.
45. 'The Greatest American Hero'
An average school teacher, Ralph Hinkley (played by William Katt), and an aging FBI agent, William "Bill'' Maxwell (Robert Culp), are approached by aliens who give Hinkley a super suit. When worn, the suit will allow Hinkley to have super human powers and help mankind. The one problem, Hinkley loses the directions. This classic ran from 1981 to 1983 and also featured a young and lovely Connie Selleca, who played Hinkley's girlfriend then wife, Pam Davidson Hinkley.
44. 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'
We've seen Superman played by many actors but "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' was a new spin on one of the world's best superheroes. In this version, Superman, aka Clark Kent (played by Dean Cain), is in his early 20s working at the Daily Planet with love interest Lois Lane (played by Teri Hatcher). A refreshing interpretation of the man of steel.
43. 'Nowhere Man'
"Nowhere Man'' was yet another show ahead of its time – and canceled way too early. Thomas Veil, played by Bruce Greenwood, is a documentary photographer who's identity and memory are altered. His wife and friends no longer know him (or at least act like they don't) and he finds his existence has been erased. He embarks on a search for the truth. Toward the final episodes of this brilliant series were hints that the whole thing could be tied into a government conspiracy. But, alas, the show was canceled before we could find out the truth. The series ran all too briefly in 1995.
42. 'Science Fiction Theatre'
Older sci-fi buffs may fondly remember "Science Fiction Theatre,'' which aired from 1955-57. Host Truman Bradley introduced stories based on circa 1950s scientific data ranging from life in outer space to telepathy.
41. 'Futurama'
The cartoon "Futurama'' marks our number 41 spot. The hilarious cartoon features Phillip Fry, a pizza delivery guy who gets frozen in 1999 and wakes up 1,000 years later to start his life anew.
40. 'The Thunderbirds'
Perhaps the best puppet sci-fi show of all time. Led by ex-astronaut hero Jeff Tracy, the Tracy family – all marionette puppets – answer the calls for help with their unique rescue vehicles. They call themselves "International Rescue'' and from 1965-1966 helped make the world a safer place for marionettes everywhere.
39. (The New) 'V'
ABC's new remake of the Visitors – or "V'' – showed lots of promise. While the show has had many twists and turns, the pace of the story progression has been somewhat slow compared to its 1980s predecessor. Many wonder whether the show will return after its recent season finale. Still, despite its short comings, it moves up on the list to No. 39.
38. 'Batman'
Before Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale, there was Adam West playing Batman on TV. This was West at his best playing a somewhat hip, yet straightlaced, hero with sidekick Robin (played by Burt Ward). Who could ever forget the time Batman avoided being frozen to death in a giant ice cream cone thanks to his "bat-thermal underwear?'' Yet another genre classic. It ran from 1966 to 1968.
37. 'Space 1999'
When the moon gets pulled out of orbit in 1999, astronauts on Moon Base Alpha are pulled into space with it. Led by the valiant Commander John Koenig (played by Martin Landau) and assisted by Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain), the crew explore and battle their way across the universe. "Space 1999'' lasted only two years, from 1975-1977.
36. 'The Bionic Woman'
"The Bionic Woman'' was like "Charlie's Angel's'' with three women combined into one. When Jamie Sommers (played by Lindsay Wagner) has a horrific parachuting accident, the government rebuilds her using the latest technology. This "Six Million Dollar Man'' spinoff survived from 1976-1978.
35. 'Battlestar Galactica' (Original)
The 1978 series '''Battlestar Galactica'' is a fantastic story of 12 colonies destroyed by a race of mechanized beings called Cylons, who are bent on destroying mankind. Commander Adama, played by the late Lorne Green, leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet across the galaxy in search of the lost 13th tribe, who settled on a planet called Earth. The great cast included Dirk Benedict as Starbuck and Richard Hatch as Apollo.
34. 'The Avengers'
From 1961 to 1969, British Intelligence agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and his lovely female partner, Mrs. Peel battled evil. The show maintained a strong sci-fi edge with plots that included cyborgs, futuristic cities, and the like.
33. 'Lost In Space'
"Danger Will Robinson, danger!'' For three years and countless reruns after, we watched the Robinson family survive against scary and hilarious beings that threatened their existence. The family, as the title implies, was hopelessly lost in space because of a sabotage effort gone awry thanks to Dr. Zachary Smith. The program aired from 1965 to 1968.
32. 'My Favorite Martian'
A Martian named Exodus comes to Earth to live with Timothy O'Hara. Exodus, a wisecracking alien, moves in with O'Hara under the guise of being his uncle Martin O'Hara. "My Favorite Martian'' lasted from 1963-1966.
31. 'Alien Nation'
Alien slaves, bred to be super intelligent and strong, crash on Earth. These "Newcomers'' are assimilated into society. The show focused on one of them, George Francisco, who becomes a police detective partnered with a human cop, Matthew Sikes. They fight crime, learn to respect each other's cultures, and fight the new bigotry between humans and aliens.
30. 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' was like "Star Trek'' with fish. The crew of the Seaview is commissioned to explore the mysteries beneath the deep. This high-tech submarine, commanded by Admiral Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart) and Captain Lee Crane (David Hedison), confronts everything from mechanized robots to aliens bent on world domination. The show ran from 1964 to 1968.
29. 'The Six Million Dollar Man'
Those famous words, "We can rebuild him, we have the technology,'' explain how astronaut Steve Austin (Lee Majors) becomes the "The Six Million Dollar Man.'' Austin is mutilated after a crash and a secret government agency replaces his now departed parts with super powerful mechanical limbs. Austin uses his new superhuman like powers to solve crimes and catch bad guys. Look for the classic episode when he battled Sasquatch, or Big Foot. The series began in 1973 and resulted in a spinoff series called the "Bionic Woman.''
28. Adventures of Superman'
This is the original Superman, at least the television version. George Reeves starred in the 1952-1957 version of the man of steel. Not only did he battle bank robbers and other evil-doers, but he also fought against evil aliens and malevolent robots.
27. 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
A fantastic show about a high school student with a bad reputation who has a destiny to kill vampires meandering about her town of Sunnydale. Buffy Summers is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar (front) in a kick-butt role as the tough, but attractive, vampire slayer. She battled vampires from 1997-2003.
26. 'Stargate Atlantis'
"Stargate Atlantis'' is a spinoff of Sci-Fi Channel's original "Stargate SG-1'' series. When a Stargate portal is found in the ancients' city of Atlantis (beneath Antarctica) a team is formed to explore it. As they use the Stargate to travel to the Pegasus Galaxy, they encounter an evil enemy called The Wraith, who threatens human existence.
25. 'The Jetsons'
"The Jetsons'' is a classic sci-fi show, complete with space cars and a robotic maid. The show lasted from 1962-1988.
24. 'Wonder Woman'
"Wonder Woman'' captures the number 24 spot on our list. Wonder Woman, played by the lovely Lynda Carter, is a believable super heroine who fought the evil Nazis during World War II. After the war, she returned to her island of women. However, during the last season, she re-emerges 30 years later when Major Steve Trevor's son, Steve Trevor Jr., enlists her to battle evil once again. OK, the writers did a poor job in trying to transport her into the modern day, but the show was good enough to cut them some slack.
23. 'Tales from the Crypt'
This great HBO show lasted from 1989 to 1996 and featured scary stories, mostly based on comics from the 1950s. The show was hosted by the gruesome, and funny, Crypt Keeper (pictured here).
22. 'Andromeda'
"Andromeda'' was the brainchild of "Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry. It's the story of Captain Dylan Hunt (played by Kevin Sorbo) who is on a mission to rebuild the All-Systems Commonwealth 300 years after it fell apart. It's not the best of Roddenberry, but it's pretty good.
21. 'Quantum Leap'
Marking the Number 21 spot is "Quantum Leap'' starring Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett. Dr. Beckett leaps through time to inhabit the body and mind of people who have been ruined due to bad choices or dumb luck. With the help of Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell) and his computer, Ziggy, he's able to right the things that went wrong.
20. 'The Hitchhiker'
This HBO classic featured Page Fletcher as "The Hitchhiker,'' who brought a new mystery thriller each week from 1983-1991. It was a lot like a modern-day "Twilight Zone'' but was a little more racy thanks to being on cable.
19. 'Dark Angel'
"Dark Angel'' takes the number 19 spot on the chart. The show takes place in a post-apocalyptic future when a genetically enhanced prototype named Max (Jessica Alba) escapes from military confines and moves to the decadent underground street life of future Seattle. While trying to evade government agents, she searches for other genetically-enhanced humans like her. This is a great sci-fi thriller.
18. (The original) 'V'
This miniseries was nearly 20 years ahead of "Independence Day.'' In 1983, sci-fi loving Americans were glued to their sets to watch the Visitors in the miniseries "V.'' It followed the classic aliens plot — aliens come to Earth to help mankind, but actually want to steal the planet's natural resources. A regular show followed this miniseries, but never quite lived up to the original .
17. 'Firefly'
"Firefly'' was an intriguing show about a crew trying to survive in a small spaceship 500 years in the future. Alas, the show ended after its first season though it showed great promise.
16. 'Flash Gordon'
One critic of the 1950s "Flash Gordon'' television series described the show as "so bad it's good.'' This classic brought Flash, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, and other characters into the homes of countless Americans.
15. 'Logan's Run'
"Logan's Run'' only ran a season or two but makes our list nonetheless. The show featured a futuristic civilization that, at first glance, looks pretty nice. Until you realize that they're going to waste you once you reach your 30th birthday. That's one way to solve the a Social Security crisis (though we hope not). The show followed Logan (Gregory Harrison, right) and his companions as they search for a mythical placed called The Sanctuary, which holds the promise of freedom.
14. 'Star Trek Voyager'
"Star Trek Voyager'' started off slow but ended as one of the better "Star Trek'' spinoffs. In 1995, we watched as the crew of the star ship Voyager was catapulted across the galaxy. The story revolved around their trip back to Earth, which at full speed would have taken 75 years to complete. Led by Captain Catherine Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew), the ship and its crew finally did make it home – but not before several great run-ins with Borg and other creatures.
13. 'The Outer Limits'
"There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture'' is the famous line that marked the start of each episode. This science fiction show featured a different cast each week that focused on space travel, time travel, and more.
12. 'Xena: Warrior Princess'
Lucy Lawless (left) starred as Xena in this top-notch show about a warrior princess who once ravaged ancient Greece and its people. After realizing her mistakes, she vows to use her warrior and healing abilities to help others. Together, she and her companion, Gabrielle (played by Renee O'Connor, right) travel the ancient world looking for adventure. Another series that ended too soon.
11. 'Lost'
"Lost'' promises another exciting season full of mystery and suspense. Just in case you've been living in a hole, here's the plot: Dozens of people survive a plane crash and land on a mysterious island, which is full of secrets and supernatural things, including a huge creature who meanders in the woods. The future ranking of this hit ABC show on our list depends on whether the network is able to keep the mystery tasty enough for its viewers.
10. 'Sliders'
Sliders'' should have been a widespread hit, but it was ahead of its time. The show was about a whiz-kid genius Quinn Mallory, played by Jerry O'Connell (left), and his band of three companions who slide among Earth's alternate realities. Toward the end of the series, the show quickly slid in quality as three of its stars – O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd and John Rhys-Davies (right) – departed and were replaced by others. A tragic demise to a fine show.
9. 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'
A man finds himself trapped on an orbiting space station with wacky robots and a sadistic woman, who forces him to watch the worst B horror flicks ever made. The show revolves around the man and his robots watching the movie, at the same time offering hilarious commentary. The show had a couple of different hosts (including Michael J. Nelson, center) during its run from 1988 through 1999.
8. 'Dr. Who'
No sci-fi show list is complete without "Dr. Who.'' The series started in 1963 and featured several men as the doctor – a time traveling, eccentric alien – and his comrades. Sure, many of the monsters were terribly cheesy, but it is a classic nonetheless. The show was canceled in 1989, made a brief return in a TV movie in 1996 and then was fully resurrected and came back into production in 2003. It continues today.
7. 'The Twilight Zone'
Not only is "The Twilight Zone'' one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever, it's one of the best shows of all time. Rod Serling hosted the show from 1959 to 1964. Each week, he featured a usually creepy, sometime witty, show that ranged from alien invaders to time travel.
Pictured: James Daly as Gart Williams from the "The Twilight Zone'' episode "This is Willoughby.''
6. 'Stargate SG-1'
"Stargate SG-1'' follows a secret military unit that travels across the universe via a stargate, a device created by ancients. A great show with a solid cast.
Pictured from left: Beau Bridges as General Hank Landry and Ben Browder as Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell.
5. 'Babylon 5'
"Babylon 5'' is arguably one of the best sci-fi shows ever made. Some may compare it to "Star Trek DS-9'' but with a better plot and cast – you be the judge. In the meantime, we'll give "Babylon 5'' a thumbs up showing in the No. 5 spot.
4. 'The X-Files'
"The X-Files'' helped inspire a new generation of Americans to fall in love with conspiracy theories. David Duchovny (left) played FBI agent Fox Mulder who, along with his partner, Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson), uncovered extraterrestrial mysteries and tried to use science to explain the unexplainable. The show survived from 1993 to 2002 but quickly faltered when Duchovny went on to pursue a movie career.
3. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
"Star Trek: The Next Generation'' is on many people's list as the best sci-fi show of all time. It nearly made our number one spot, too. The show featured a great cast that evolved throughout its seven seasons, from 1987 through 1994.
Pictured: Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
2. 'Star Trek' (Original)
Recently, the original "Star Trek,'' which aired just three seasons from 1966-69, fell from the number 1 spot on the list to number 2. Yes, perhaps it didn't feature the best acting, or most compelling story plots, but it was a show that set the standard for future space epics since. The show is also more popular today than it was when it first ran. The show went on to inspire several movies, several spinoffs, and hordes of fans.
1. 'Battlestar Galactica' (New)
The new "Battlestar Galactica'' now tops the list after a recent revamp. BG had a cutting edge style with plenty o' bad-ass characters that easily allow it to surpass even the classic "Star Trek.'' The show was a modern-day remake of its 1970s predecessor, but it featured more compelling story plots, a darker tone, and surprising twists and turns in almost every episode.


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Wine feels the effects of a changing climate
The signs of climate change are universally evident, but for French winemakers, already feeling the effects of competition from other countries, the year of volatile weather does not bode well. A lot of rain, a late spring and a summer that never arrived have resulted in earlier harvests. This has contributed to grapes with lower acidity and higher sugar content. In other words, higher alcohol and fruitier resulting in cloying wines - with too much residual sugar and not enough acidity to balance the character of the wine.
The changing climate has affected the delicate balance of weather, soil and other factors central to the production of wine. Last year saw the smallest harvest in at least 40 years, according to the Agriculture Ministry. The estimate is that overall production is down by 20 % because of the temperamental weather across France.
It is believed that if nothing is done to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, vineyards will be displaced more than 1,000 km beyond their traditional boundaries by the end of this century, jeopardising the wine-growing industry. Already, it is becoming difficult to produce fine wines using the Pinot Noir grape on its traditional territory in Burgundy. But the effects of climate change on wine crops have also been visible around the globe.
Professor Gregory Jones, a research climatologist at Southern Oregon University in the United States, believes the changing environment is starting to shake a system that's been central to European wine for centuries. He says: 'Europe has historically been about regional identities based on varieties of wines and particular styles. Those that have adaptive capacity in the face of climate change are going to be much more able to adapt across a range of different climate futures.'
But wine regions can adapt and take on the challenge of global warming by adopting different techniques. These include planting the vines in shallow soil to reduce water consumption, introducing controlled irrigation and shading the grapes from the sun. More drastic measures include large-scale industrial techniques, such as alcohol removal, which is already widely employed in wine regions in Australia, Spain and South Africa.
However, Professor Jones warns: 'Weather fluctuation of more than two or three times more than what you're used to may jeopardise the entire French viniculture system. France has a long, rich history of growing grapes and making wine. Production has varied, there are good years and bad years, and French wine growers have always dealt with that. The issue today is that it appears climates are both changing and varying more than they have historically and our potential to adapt across those climates is more challenged.'
But studies have indicated that climate warming could prove beneficial for some countries previously considered too cold for wine-making, such as Germany and England. It seems that climate change and a taste for 'lighter' wines might hold new promise for Continental European wines.
More information:
www.greenpeace.org/austria/Glo … ima_Weinbau_2009.pdf
www.climateandweather.net/glob … /effects_on_wine.htm
Provided by CORDIS


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Tips to Getting the Best Air Conditioning Repair Services
Are you having some issues with your air conditioning system? It is crucial you find the right technicians who are going to repair your system. The market is full of companies that offer air conditioning repair services and choosing the finest company can be challenging. Fortunately with the correct concerns in mind you are confident that you are going to get the finest services. Here are some of the elements that you ought to consider as a client so that you can choose the idea air conditioning company.
First and foremost you ought to ask for recommendation. Word of mouth is always ideal when it comes to finding the right air conditioning company. Reach out to friends, family members and other colleagues that have worked with an air conditioning repair company and you are positive that you are going to get the best services. Asking for little assistance as a client is wise as you will save great amount of time and resources.
The second element that you need to consider is the experience of the air conditioning company. Before choosing a company to offer you repair services for your air conditioner, it is imperative you find out how long a particular company has been in the industry. As a client therefore the best company to go for is that which has been in this trade for more than five years. An experience company will make sure that it has repaired your system perfectly so that you may not taint the reputation it has been cultivating over the years.
Thirdly, you need to check for licensing. Before you choose an air condition repair company, it is vital you make sure that the company possesses the right credentials required to offer these services. Licensing are documents of grave importance because they prove that certain technicians are qualified to offer the repair services. If the technicians you are considering hiring do not have proper licensing, it is best you find other expert to repair your air conditioning system.
The second element that you need to consider is the cost of these services. Before you go out there to look for the ideal company to offer you air conditioning repair services, you ought to have a budget in place. This will help you settle for a company that you can afford to pay it services and at the same time avoid overspending. Settle for accompany that is within your budget range and you are guaranteed that you will receive the finest services.
Lastly, you need to make sure you have some little knowledge of the air conditioning system that you own. Having a little knowledge regarding your air conditioning system, you are positive that you are going to settle for the right experts. The above pointers are only but a few of the elements that you need to consider when it comes to finding the air conditioning repair company. Taking these pointers to book you are sure that you will find the right technicians.


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Cape Cod House Plans
Cape Cod house plans originated during the 17th century in New England. Pilgrims used this design style to provide safety during New England's harsh stormy winter climate. Colonists used natural resources for their building materials, making shingles from cedar trees. Small panes of glass were used to make large windows as the smaller panes were less likely to break over the long voyage from England. Chimneys were central to provide heating through the home.
The traditional Cape Cod home plan is characterized by a simple low, symmetrically designed broad framed building, pitched roof with end gables, central front door surrounded by multi-paned windows on each side and have minimal exterior detailing. Classic Cape Cod style house plans are covered in unpainted shingles that with prolonged exposure turns an earthly gray color. Windows are typically surrounded by shutters. Interior spaces of the Cape Cod house floor plans are open and generous. Garages of the Cape Cod home are usually detached.
If you enjoy looking at Cape Cod house plans you may also enjoy looking at Shingle style house plans or Beach house plans.