2009
09.28

Shorts

Shorts

Film Ireland, Jul/Aug 2009

Channel 31

Directed by Dermot Tynan, Channel 32 begins shooting on 2nd July. The film stars Conor Irwin (28), Cora Fenton (Strength and Honour) and Pat Collins, and was written by Ken Armstrong. The film is the story of Cosmo and Emily and their brother’s funeral, and is pitched as a blackly comic tale of life after death, undertakers and CB radios. The film is funded by Claddagh Films, and is being produced by Lara O’Connell

2009
09.28
Relevant Products. (Wedding Favors And Gifts).

Gifts & Decorative Accessories, April, 2003

Relevant Products offers The Wed Threads Collection of T-shirts, boxers, and pillowcases for the bride, groom, and wedding party. All the products in the collection are 100 percent cotton and are priced from $16-$28. Relevant Products, Oklahoma City, OK. (405) 524-5250

2009
09.27

Milk

Milk

Southern Quarterly, Fall 2007 by Stiles, Dennis Ward

My father crouches beside a Holstein

he calls Song, nestles his head

against her flank

while his hands push and pull

like a cat kneading. The streams

of milk make a rhythmic sound

which softens as the bucket fills.

Wood beams and stone walls

soak up the lantern light.

The room is dim. Song chews

her cud, lost in a simple dream

of pasture.

Mother’s in the kitchen, crying.

The smell of raw milk

invades us, a harsh perfume

from the many grasses

that feed and haunt

the inner lives of women.

Dennis Ward Stiles, Poet, Charleston, South Carolina

2009
09.26

Cameras

Cameras

San Fernando Valley Business Journal, Sept 15, 2008

Cameras: Panavision Inc. supplied the digital cameras used to film public service announcements on cancer research.

“Standing Up To Cancer” and “Manifesto” were shot using the Genesis Digital Camera System and will air on television and in movie theaters. The spots were directed by David Fincher, whose credits include “Zodiac” and “Fight Club.”

Panavision was pleased to participate in the filming and that its digital camera system was used to create images to bring home the message of cancer research, said company President and CEO Bob Beitcher.

“Manifesto” debuted on wedding photographers suffolk Sept. 5 as part of a national fundraising event broadcast simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC.

2009
09.26
Associated General Contractors of America opens national convention

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Mar 6, 2009 by Justin Carinci

Sessions on meditation don’t show up anywhere on the agenda at the Associated General Contractors of America’s national convention, taking place this week in San Diego. But that didn’t stop incoming AGC president Doug Pruitt from asking thousands of contractors to close their eyes and visualize the future of the construction industry during the conference’s opening session on Wednesday.

It served as a fitting metaphor for the industry, however: He told them to open their eyes, and then he told them to open their eyes.

For an industry already rocked with depressing statistics, Pruitt provided an alarming one: construction productivity has stagnated for 40 years. And that’s a problem that requires some meditation.

Before Pruitt had AGC members open their eyes, he asked them to look into the future. How many saw robotics? A few people raised their hands. Automation? A few more hands went up. Many more simply saw a version of the present, Pruitt said. And that looks too much like the past.

“Is there a relationship in how we think general contractors santa monica about this industry,” Pruitt said, “and the fact that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry has seen zero productivity growth in the last forty years?”

Construction has been too slow to embrace – or even accept – industry-changing innovations such as building information modeling, Pruitt said. “We need to always be at the table writing the rules that will change this industry.”

Pruitt, chairman and CEO of Arizona-based Sundt Construction, drew upon the wisdom of Phoenix Coyotes coach and hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky. A good hockey player, Gretzky said, plays where the puck is going to be, not where the puck is.

“We need to start seeing where that puck is going,” Pruitt said.

Change and challenge “should be the battle cry of AGC,” Pruitt said. “Our nation absolutely depends on an innovative, productive construction industry.”

While Pruitt provided the vision, CEO Stephen Sandherr supplied the numbers – and the politics. The federal economic stimulus bill will provide $135 billion for construction projects, Sandherr said, a 133-percent increase from 2008.

AGC pushed hard to pass that bill, Sandherr said, with its members sending 15,640 e-mail messages in support to members of Congress

2009
09.25

Boat trailer backup

Boat trailer backup

Boat/US Magazine, Nov, 2005 by Scott Croft

Trailer boaters know that there’s not much you can do when Mr. Murphy decides to pay a visit. For example, having a spare tire and set of fresh bearings won’t do you a bit of good if you’ve already cooked the spindle into a molten, scored mess.

That’s where E-Axle from Air Tight, LLC comes in. E-Axle is both a spare tire mount and replacement spindle in one. When the unit is not in use, E-Axle is mounted on the trailer to carry a spare tire.

Once Mr

2009
09.25
Road Home properties in Louisiana face inspection crunch

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jul 28, 2008 by Ariella Cohen

After months of behind-the-scenes delays, the Louisiana Land Trust is moving forward with thousands of final environmental reviews that must be done before Road Home properties can be returned to the market.

Federal environmental law requires that all properties rehabilitated under a U.S. grant program such as The Road Home undergo a site-specific environmental review. The state has known about this requirement since the 2005 inception of the Department of Housing and Urban Development-funded program. But while other details of the program’s implementation have long since been ironed out, the environmental inspection requirement remained unresolved until last week.

And now as The Road Home proceeds with its final phase of property closings and buyouts, the Louisiana Land Trust will do the work needed to get the 8,300 buyout properties under its control onto the market, said Michael Taylor, executive director of the state-created nonprofit that holds Road Home properties until their transfer to local parishes for redevelopment.

The trust plans to issue a request for proposals from private firms capable of doing the environmental reviews by Friday.

“We are working on getting the RFP out next week and following that, I think the job can be handled pretty expeditiously,” Taylor said July 22, adding that the private contractor who wins should be able to complete a first bundle of 500 site reviews by October.

The fall marks a deadline set by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the local agency responsible for the redevelopment of the 4,200 parish properties sold to The Road Home. By October, NORA hopes to open the sale of a first batch of dispossessed properties through its Lot Next Door program, which allows homeowners the first right of refusal on the purchase of the lots immediately to the left or right of them. NORA will use a public bidding process to sell properties not sold to neighbors.

In Orleans and Jefferson parishes, officials say they have been waiting for state and federal officials to tell them what must be done to complete this necessary step in the dispossession process.

“It’s highly disappointing to us that it (took) so long to make a determination on what needs to be done because every day of indecision is one more day we must wait to press the accelerator on the redevelopment of the city,” said Joe Williams, a Land Trust board member and NORA executive director.

A similar stasis has taken hold in Jefferson Parish, where officials say the parish has told the state it would administer the environmental tests on its own if that would mean getting properties on the auction block sooner.

“We are willing to do whatever we can to move this forward, but the state hasn’t responded to our offer,” said Bert Smith, Jefferson Parish deputy chief administrative officer.

Taylor said he is likely to respond favorably to the offer in the next few days, not seeing any problem with handing over the responsibility to the parish.

Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Director Paul Rainwater echoed the supportive sentiment.

“Personally, I think it should be possible (to allow Jefferson Parish to manage site reviews),” Rainwater said.

Rainwater said the LRA, Land Trust and parishes will have to work together in the coming months to “play catch up” and get the mandated reviews done before there is any further delay

2009
09.25
Interest-only mortgages hot

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 1, 2004 | by Bloomberg News

IF YOU SMELL something burning around a house nowadays, it might be the owner’s fancy new interest-only mortgage.

Interest-only mortgages “are incredibly hot right now,” says a mortgage-banker quoted in the Baltimore Sun. They are “the hottest items on the real estate market,” says the Web site of the USC Credit Union at the University of Southern California.

When handling hot stuff, you have to be careful. “A new form of mortgage — no money down and interest-only payments for years — is converting homeownership from a solid investment into a dangerous gamble,” warns the Sacramento Bee in a recent editorial.

The admonition is appropriate, and not to be taken lightly. Yet it represents only one side of the story. In their many potential uses, interest-only mortgages may be a lot like fire itself — the proverbial wonderful servant as well as a terrible master.

Fixed mortgages for 25 or 30 years may have been all that anybody needed in an era of one-size-fits-all passbook savings accounts, evening newspapers and two-tone cars with tail fins. Today’s more complicated, faster-moving world begs for a broader range of choices.

In the last generation or so, the whole realm of housing finance has changed radically on the lending side. Thanks to such innovations as marketable securities wrapped around bundles of mortgages that can be bought and sold like bonds, the pool of money to finance home- ownership has been vastly expanded and deepened.

A regular housing-cycle feature of the not-so-good old days — spells of tight money when mortgages were scarce or even unavailable – - is now a memory.

Modernization on the lending side argues for more sophisticated choices on the borrowing side too. The USC Credit Union gives the hypothetical example of a $150,000 mortgage that would require monthly payments of about $1,000 a month on a traditional mortgage, or about $695 on an interest-only loan

2009
09.25
FREE GYM MEMBERSHIP FOR EVERY READER! your Health In association with the NHS North East MATCH FIT

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Dec 10, 2007

YOUR Chronicle has got together with the newly opened Match Fit gymnasium situated on Gosforth Park and as an early Christmas present are providing an entire month’s membership absolutely free. So this festive period you can get fit rather than fat!

Available anytime between the December, 10, 2007, to January 10, 2008, you can register at anytime during this period with no hidden costs and absolutely no obligations to join.

The Match Fit gymnasium is an allinclusive club for everyone over the age of 16, to take advantage of the latest cardiovascular and resistance equipment.

There is a hydraulic quick fit circuit and conditioning zones provided as well.

In addition a 50% off treatment voucher will be provided on arrival for your first session with the onsite rehabilitation and injury clinic.

Secure car parking is provided at site.

To book your free month’s subscription simply call, 0191 217 30 40 and confirm that you read about the free subscription for Match Fit in the Evening Chronicle.

Take this token along with you for your first visit.

2009
09.21

Medicine

Medicine

Word Ways, Feb, 2009 by Martin Gardner

This plastic surgery reno is an excerpt from Gardner’s 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son (Simon and Schuster, illustrated by John Alcorn).

Medicine

   Sit up, my Rose, it's nearly four,
   Time for medicine once more.

   It won't do any good to whine
   And say it smells like turpentine.

   Of course it doesn't taste as good
   As chocolate cake or cookies would,

   But neither does it taste as bad
   As medicine you might have had.

   So please--don't shake your head and frown.
   Just grab your nose and gulp it down!

MARTIN GARDNER

Norman, Oklahoma