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September 2009

Washing Machine Cleaner

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 04:47 — admin

All washer machines work by using mechanical energy, thermal energy, and chemical action. Mechanical energy is imparted to the clothes load by the rotation of the agitator in top loaders, or by the tumbling action of the drum in front loaders. Thermal energy is supplied by the temperature of the wash bath. The spin speed in these machines can vary from 500 to 1600rpm.

Because water usually had to be heated on a fire for washing, the warm soapy water was precious and would be reused over and over, first to wash the least soiled clothing, then to wash progressively dirtier clothing. The load of soaking wet clothing would be removed, and another load of dirty clothes added to the machine. While the earliest machines were constructed entirely from wood, later machines made of metal permitted a fire to burn below the washtub, to keep the water warm throughout the day's washing.

Washing Machine Cleaner

Japan's next PM to slash emissions, name cabinet (AFP)

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 02:05 — admin

TOKYO (AFP) –
Japan's next prime minister on Monday vowed tough greenhouse gas cuts for the world's number two economy as he prepared to name key cabinet posts ahead of taking power next week.

Yukio Hatoyama -- whose centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated a conservative party in a landslide election eight days earlier -- said his government would take an aggressive global stance on climate change.

Japan would seek to cut its emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels -- a cut far deeper than that pledged by the outgoing business-friendly government of Prime Minister Taro Aso.

"Our nation will strongly call on major countries around the world to set aggressive goals," said Hatoyama, 62, who last week suggested that Japan would seek a greater voice in international diplomacy.

The premier-in-waiting, who is due to take office on September 16, is planning to detail his plan, which he dubbed the 'Hatoyama Initiative,' at a UN meeting on climate change in New York later this month.

Japan will officially present its target at international talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at agreeing a follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Japan is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases which are blamed for raising global temperatures, melting the earth's ice caps and glaciers, and changing weather patterns.

"What we need in international negotiations is that politicians in the world assume responsibility in order to firmly prevent climate change and protect peace and stability at global levels," Hatoyama said.

His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was meanwhile gearing up to approve top cabinet appointments, including those of foreign and finance ministers, at their Tokyo party headquarters.

Hatoyama has vowed to shake up Japan's government system and make politics more "'people-centred."

"I will give all I have to meet the expectation of the people," Hatoyama told reporters Monday after fresh media polls indicated that up to three-quarters of voters have high expectations of his government.

Hatoyama has vowed to tackle the nation's bloated and powerful bureaucracy, and to slash funds from suspected pork-barrel infrastructure projects to finance a more generous social welfare system.

His party, which has never been in government, plans to create a new public watchdog agency to ferret out waste in state budgets, local media said.

The agency would carry out aggressive budget reviews and shift funds to pay for the DPJ's campaign promises -- including expanding child care subsidies, free high school fees, and abolishing highway tolls.

DPJ executives were due to meet Monday to approve the appointment of several key ministers, whose names have been reported in local media. The new cabinet would need to be approved in next week's parliamentary session.

The DPJ is also considering appointing ministers from its potential coalition partners -- the pacifist Social Democratic Party and the tiny People's New Party, which groups some defectors from the LDP.

The new foreign minister is expected to be Katsuya Okada, 56, a former DPJ leader and one-time trade ministry technocrat, who would replace incumbent Hirofumi Nakasone of the outgoing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Known for his policy knowledge and stiff manners, Harvard-educated Okada has said the cornerstone of Japanese diplomacy is its alliance with the United States, but he has also advocated closer ties with East Asia.

The next finance minister is likely to be Hirohisa Fujii, 77, a political veteran who decades ago worked as a finance ministry bureaucrat and was also once a lawmaker with the defeated LDP.

The central policy coordinator -- carrying the new title of state strategy minister -- is expected to be one-time DPJ leader Naoto Kan, 62, who would double as the deputy prime minister.

Kan was celebrated as a folk hero when, as a health minister in the mid-1990s, he fought his own bureaucrats and uncovered the ministry's role in allowing the import and use of HIV-tainted blood products.

Berlusconi: Relations with church excellent (AP)

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 01:20 — admin

ROME – Silvio Berlusconi says relations between his government and the Catholic Church, which have been strained by a sex scandal involving the Italian premier, remain excellent.
Berlusconi said Monday that contacts with the church are kept up "almost daily" by his top aide. The premier denies reports he had sought a meeting with the church No. 2 official after the scandal over news of his dalliances with young women broke.
Catholic publications have criticized Berlusconi for the affairs. A Berlusconi family newspaper recently accused the editor of Italy's pre-eminent Catholic newspaper of being involved in a scandal of his own in what was seen as tit-for-tat retribution.

Wine Gift Baskets

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 01:14 — admin

Send an extraordinary gift basket, your loved ones, friends, colleagues and customers will immediately notice the difference and you will always get compliments when choosing a gift basket by us. Our gifts are one-of-a-kind baskets providing great values that always express your sentiments perfectly. Our gift baskets are always loved and appreciated by any person for any occasion. We promise superior quality and excellent service, backed by our satisfaction guarantee.

Archaeological sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8 000 BC. Baskets made with several interwoven techniques were common at 3 000 BC.

Wine Gift Baskets

Christian Singles

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 13:40 — admin

An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship. It is a relationship in which the participants know or trust one another very well or are confidants of one another, or a relationship in which there is physical or emotional intimacy.

People that are in an intimate relationship with one another are often called a couple, especially if the members of that couple have ascribed some degree of permanency to their relationship. Such couples often provide the emotional security that is necessary for them to accomplish other tasks, particularly forms of labor/work.

Go

Tropical Storm Erika weakens slightly: NHC (Reuters)

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 10:56 — admin

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Tropical Storm Erika, which formed late Tuesday in the western Atlantic Ocean, weakened slightly early Wednesday as it approached the northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its last advisory.

At about 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the disorganized center of Erika was located about 160 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands, moving west at 7 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds down slightly to about 45 mph.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin, Saba and St. Eustatius.

Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to turn west-northwest with slightly increased forward speed over the next day or two, and some strengthening was possible on Thursday.

NHC projected wind speed to increase to as much as 60 to 65 mph over the next two days before dropping back to about 55 mph by the weekend.

Most computer models show the system taking a northwesterly track toward Florida or the Southeast U.S. coast, but some models show it steering a more westerly course toward Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Elsewhere, NHC said thunderstorm activity associated with a tropical wave in the far eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands had decreased and development, if any, of this system was expected to be slow to occur as it moved west or west-northwest at 10 to 15 mph.

NHC gave this system a low chance - less than 30 percent - of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.

Energy traders keep a close eye on storms that could enter the Gulf and disrupt offshore U.S. oil and natural gas production or refinery operations along the coast.

Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could damage agriculture crops such as citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the coast to Texas.

Pricing of insurance-linked securities, which transfer insurance risks associated with natural disasters to capital markets investors and can be used to hedge other weather risk exposures, can also be affected by the path of a storm.

Elsewhere, tropical cyclone formation was not expected during the next 48 hours.

NHC will issue its next advisory at 11 a.m. EDT.

(Reporting by Joe Silha, editing by John Picinich)

Blast kills Afghan deputy chief of intelligence (AP)

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 05:17 — admin

KABUL – A Taliban suicide bomber killed Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence during a visit to a mosque east of Kabul on Wednesday in an attack that left 23 others dead.
The bombing struck at the heart of Afghanistan's intelligence service and underscored the Taliban's increasing ability to carry off complex and targeted assaults.
The explosion ripped through a crowd in Laghman province just as officials were leaving the main mosque in Mehterlam, 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Kabul. Several top provincial officials from Laghman were among the dead, and President Hamid Karzai and the U.N. condemned the attack.
A Taliban spokesman said a suicide bomber on foot targeted Abdullah Laghmani, the deputy chief of Afghanistan's National Directorate for Security. The spokesman for Laghman's governor, Sayed Ahmad Safi, confirmed Laghmani was killed.
The National Directorate for Security is headed by an ethnic Tajik, and the killing of Laghmani, a Pashtun, could further exacerbate ethnic tensions as the country counts the results of the Aug. 20 presidential election.
With about half the results in, President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, leads Abdullah Abdullah, who is half Pashtun and half Tajik but is seen as a Tajik candidate.
In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, meanwhile, an official with Abdullah's campaign warned supporters of the former foreign minister would take to the streets if there was any perception that election fraud was overlooked.
Hundreds of serious allegations of fraud have been formally lodged since voting day, mostly involving ballot-box stuffing and voter intimidation.
"We are not talking too much because people are very angry and we don't want to add to that, but Dr. Abdullah is meeting with foreign embassies and regional partners to try to find a solution," said Zalmai Younosi, Abdullah's campaign chief in six northern provinces.
"After that, if there is no result, then it is protest and violence," he warned. "Yes, violence is bad for the country ... When Russia occupied Afghanistan, we had to fight. When the Taliban came we had to fight back. How can we accept a corrupt government funded by drugs and not respected by the world? We have to defend our own rights."
The blast east of Kabul killed Laghmani, the executive director of Laghman's governor's office, the head of Laghman's provincial council, two of Laghmani's body guards, and 18 civilians, said Sayed Ahmad Safi, the spokesman for Laghman's governor.
"It is indefensible that such an attack was carried out at a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan," said Peter W. Galbraith, the deputy U.N. chief here. "The contrast between the vast majority of Afghans who yearn for peace during this holy month and those who conducted this attack could not be more stark."
Karzai said in a statement the "enemy" tried to kill "brave and hardworking" officials, but others with those same traits would take their place.
U.S. troops cordoned off the blast site, right outside Mehterlam's main mosque, which sits in a crowded market area. Safi said Laghmani was visiting the mosque to discuss plans to rebuild it.
Taliban suicide attacks frequently target high-ranking government officials. Militants have warned Afghans for years not to work as government officials, teachers, or in the country's armed forces.
Taliban attacks have spiked the last three years and insurgents now control wide swaths of territory, momentum that forced President Barack Obama to send 21,000 additional troops to the country this year.
U.S. military officials may soon ask for even more troops to be sent to the country, but American public opinion is starting to turn against the almost eight-year war as U.S. troop deaths have reached an all-time high.
The National Directorate for Security suffered a second attack in the country's north. An intelligence officer kidnapped a few days ago by Taliban militants in Kunduz province was found Wednesday hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Baghlan city, said Kabi Andarabi, the provincial police chief.

In other violence, four militants were killed overnight when a roadside bomb they were planting detonated, said Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, the deputy police chief of Kandahar.

___

Associated Press reporter Heidi Vogt contributed to this report from Mazar-i-Sharif.

China set to approve 1-dose swine flu vaccines (AP)

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 02:22 — admin

BEIJING – China will soon approve domestically developed swine flu vaccines that manufacturers say can protect people against the virus with only one dose, an encouraging development for health officials racing to prepare for an expected spike in cases this winter.
Many health authorities are assuming two doses of vaccine are necessary while they await the results of trials by drug makers around the world to determine the appropriate dosage.
China's State Food and Drug Administration said on its Web site it will make a decision this week on approving two vaccines that completed clinical trials last month and passed reviews by panels of about 40 experts. Four other vaccines are being reviewed, it said.
The vaccine makers, Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and Hualan Biological Engineering Inc., said the clinical trials show their products are effective in single doses when used on people aged three to 60 years. More than 3,000 people participated in the trials.
Sinovac says it has the capacity to produce up to 30 million doses of swine flu vaccine in a year while Hualan said it can make 160 million doses.
Stockpiling vaccines is China's latest move in its aggressive approach to contain the spread of swine flu in the country of 1.3 billion people and relatively limited medical resources. It has quarantined travelers on suspicion of contact with infected people and ordered schools to test students' temperatures.
The Health Ministry says around 3,700 cases of swine flu have been confirmed on the mainland — none fatal.
China aims to have enough swine flu vaccine for 5 percent of the public by the end of the year, and although health officials have not released detailed vaccination plans, they have said health workers, public service workers and students are priority groups.
International health experts say swine flu has not been as severe as initially feared. At least 2,185 people have died, but most cases are mild and require no treatment. Worries remain that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities, particularly in poorer countries.



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