Cree has introduced two new high-voltage (HV) LEDs, the XLamp XM-L and XT-E, that the company says can boost driver efficiency by 10-20% in small retrofit lamps. The company also announced a new version of the XLamp MT-G LED for solid-state-lighting (SSL) applications that's 10% brighter than predecessors with the new LEDs delivering 1670 lm. Osram, meanwhile, launched new orange, yellow, and red Oslon SSL LEDs that can deliver 20% more light than predecessors.
The Cree XM-L and XT-E LEDs target small retrofit-lamp application such as B10 candelabra lamps along with E17 and GU10 lamps. The HV-LEDs will deliver efficiency and thermal advantages in such lamps that are severely space constrained with limited options for cooling.
The LEDs are packaged and sold as discrete components, but in reality are built using an array of 16 very-small die. The XT-E is 3.45 mm on a side and the XM-L is 5 mm on a side. According to product marketing manager Paul Scheidt, target applications such as B10 lamps will use one or perhaps two of the LEDs.
By connecting the array in series, Cree was able to boost the forward voltage to 48V. According to Scheidt the higher voltage improves efficiency because the driver doesn't have to drop the line voltage down to the 4V level that would be required in a single emitter that's equivalent in size and lumen output to the array.
In the simplest case where a rectifier diode drives an LED, the system efficiency goes from 87.5% with a single emitter to 98% with the HV array. Cree says that in actual products the driver efficiency advantage may reach 20% while also enabling smaller, lower-cost drivers that run 10% cooler .
"Maximizing the LED voltage, as Cree has done in the new high-voltage XM-L and XT-E LEDs, is a very effective way to minimize current through the LED driver output rectifier," said Peter Vaughan, director of applications engineering at driver-IC manufacturer Power Integrations, Inc. "This can reduce losses and heat dissipation in the driver and increase the overall system luminous efficacy by several percentage points."
The concept of HV-LEDs and the efficiency advantage is not new. Indeed Cree offers a number of HV-LEDs in larger arrays. But Scheidt said, "Most HV-LEDs are efficient and large or small and inefficient." Scheidt showed efficacy graphs for the new LEDs compared to unnamed competitive products that would indicate a roughly 20-40 lm/W advantage for the new LEDs.
Cree says the LEDs will enable the first competitive SSL replacements for small lamps and received an endorsement from one customer. "The XLamp XM-L High-Voltage LED eliminates the trade-off between size and efficacy, allowing us to take advantage of the efficacy of high-voltage drivers," said Ken Chakravarti, chief technology officer, Ledzworld. "This translates to more efficient, better and more cost-effective small LED lamps and luminaires such as the B10 replacement lamp for our customers."
2011年10月31日 星期一
2011年10月30日 星期日
Caveat Emptor - The power of consumption
The need for efficient use of energy assumes tremendous significance today as the demand for energy increases. But, addressing the demand by merely increasing generation would mean increase in emission of green house gases, thus augmenting global warming.
It is therefore imperative to use energy-efficient alternative wherever possible and consume electricity in a sustained manner. This would facilitate uninterrupted and qualitative power supply for us and the coming generation.
A few simple deeds in our day-to-day life can contribute a lot towards energy conservation. For instance, promptly switching off lights and fans when the occupants leave the room, using star-rated appliances certified by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), using air-conditioners only when absolutely necessary, remembering to keep doors to air-conditioned rooms closed, cleaning the filter frequently, using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that consume less electricity than the ordinary bulbs, ensuring adequate air circulation inside and outside the refrigerator, reducing the amount of time the refrigerator door remains open, allowing hot foods to cool before putting them inside the refrigerator, ensuring that the refrigerator's rubber door seals are clean and tight… will help consume less energy.
The primary objective of BEE is to reduce the energy intensity of the Indian economy. Today, only limited electrical appliances are certified by BEE and available in the market. Of these, only four items are required to ensure quality compliance and carry the BEE label while the rest come under the tag “voluntary label”. Besides this, there are many number of products in the market that do not meet any standards. These not only consume more power but also pose a threat to consumers' safety. Therefore, it is important that all electrical appliances are subject to quality tests and certified by BEE before being brought to the market. Until then, the manufacturers should not be given the option of voluntary labelling, as this results in increase in the prices of energy-efficient appliances.
Moreover, as numerous products are sold at even half the price of standardised devices, it is essential for the government to incentivise energy-efficient, BEE-labelled appliances sold in the market, to encourage the public. Creating awareness through media is also the need of the hour.
We have submitted our recommendations to the BEE in this regard, and are confident that action would be initiated at the earliest.
Meanwhile, it is vital for us to realise that energy saving is a national cause and put in efforts to make our country energy-efficient.
It is therefore imperative to use energy-efficient alternative wherever possible and consume electricity in a sustained manner. This would facilitate uninterrupted and qualitative power supply for us and the coming generation.
A few simple deeds in our day-to-day life can contribute a lot towards energy conservation. For instance, promptly switching off lights and fans when the occupants leave the room, using star-rated appliances certified by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), using air-conditioners only when absolutely necessary, remembering to keep doors to air-conditioned rooms closed, cleaning the filter frequently, using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that consume less electricity than the ordinary bulbs, ensuring adequate air circulation inside and outside the refrigerator, reducing the amount of time the refrigerator door remains open, allowing hot foods to cool before putting them inside the refrigerator, ensuring that the refrigerator's rubber door seals are clean and tight… will help consume less energy.
The primary objective of BEE is to reduce the energy intensity of the Indian economy. Today, only limited electrical appliances are certified by BEE and available in the market. Of these, only four items are required to ensure quality compliance and carry the BEE label while the rest come under the tag “voluntary label”. Besides this, there are many number of products in the market that do not meet any standards. These not only consume more power but also pose a threat to consumers' safety. Therefore, it is important that all electrical appliances are subject to quality tests and certified by BEE before being brought to the market. Until then, the manufacturers should not be given the option of voluntary labelling, as this results in increase in the prices of energy-efficient appliances.
Moreover, as numerous products are sold at even half the price of standardised devices, it is essential for the government to incentivise energy-efficient, BEE-labelled appliances sold in the market, to encourage the public. Creating awareness through media is also the need of the hour.
We have submitted our recommendations to the BEE in this regard, and are confident that action would be initiated at the earliest.
Meanwhile, it is vital for us to realise that energy saving is a national cause and put in efforts to make our country energy-efficient.
2011年10月27日 星期四
DPD: Don’t park at Office Depot
In the wake of another violent robbery in the Office Depot lot on Oak Lawn Avenue, Dallas police this week warned club-goers against parking there at night.
Officer Laura Martin, DPD’s liaison officer to the LGBT community, said the lot at 2929 Oak Lawn Ave. has long been a trouble spot for crime after hours, primarily because it’s so poorly lit.
In the latest incident, three people who’d been out on the Cedar Springs strip were robbed at gunpoint and carjacked early Sunday, Oct. 23.
According to DPD records, it was at least the fourth aggravated robbery in the Office Depot lot in the last three months — in addition to numerous other offenses such as vehicle burglaries.
“That Office Depot has just been a thorn in our side for several years,” Martin said Wednesday, Oct. 26. “We would prefer that people didn’t park there. I don’t anticipate that that problem is going to go away unless we improve lighting over there significantly. I would just advise people not to park in that parking lot and not to park on that street near the parking lot.”
Martin said undercover officers have been patrolling the area, but the city is powerless to improve lighting in the parking lot itself since it’s on private property. Deputy Chief Malik Aziz, who heads up DPD’s Northwest Division, has been working with city officials to improve street lighting nearby, Martin said. However, light from city fixtures on Dickason Avenue is blocked by trees lining the northeast side of the parking lot.
DPD officials recently met with Office Depot representatives, who said they have no plans to add lights in the parking lot, Martin said. She also noted that Office Depot once towed vehicles from the lot but stopped doing so in the wake of complaints from the community.
“Office Depot is not going to be doing anything differently,” Martin said. “They’re not going to tow cars and they’re not going to increase lighting. They don’t want to tow vehicles because of all the complaints they got when they did tow vehicles, and they’re not going to add lighting because they don’t have the money to add lighting.”
An assistant manager who answered the phone at Office Depot declined to comment. He referred questions to the store manager, whom he said was not available.
Jared Pearce, president of Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats, called on Office Depot to help address the problem. DSYD’s recent Light Up Oak Lawn safety campaign led to the city installing 45 new lights in the area, but none near Office Depot.
Officer Laura Martin, DPD’s liaison officer to the LGBT community, said the lot at 2929 Oak Lawn Ave. has long been a trouble spot for crime after hours, primarily because it’s so poorly lit.
In the latest incident, three people who’d been out on the Cedar Springs strip were robbed at gunpoint and carjacked early Sunday, Oct. 23.
According to DPD records, it was at least the fourth aggravated robbery in the Office Depot lot in the last three months — in addition to numerous other offenses such as vehicle burglaries.
“That Office Depot has just been a thorn in our side for several years,” Martin said Wednesday, Oct. 26. “We would prefer that people didn’t park there. I don’t anticipate that that problem is going to go away unless we improve lighting over there significantly. I would just advise people not to park in that parking lot and not to park on that street near the parking lot.”
Martin said undercover officers have been patrolling the area, but the city is powerless to improve lighting in the parking lot itself since it’s on private property. Deputy Chief Malik Aziz, who heads up DPD’s Northwest Division, has been working with city officials to improve street lighting nearby, Martin said. However, light from city fixtures on Dickason Avenue is blocked by trees lining the northeast side of the parking lot.
DPD officials recently met with Office Depot representatives, who said they have no plans to add lights in the parking lot, Martin said. She also noted that Office Depot once towed vehicles from the lot but stopped doing so in the wake of complaints from the community.
“Office Depot is not going to be doing anything differently,” Martin said. “They’re not going to tow cars and they’re not going to increase lighting. They don’t want to tow vehicles because of all the complaints they got when they did tow vehicles, and they’re not going to add lighting because they don’t have the money to add lighting.”
An assistant manager who answered the phone at Office Depot declined to comment. He referred questions to the store manager, whom he said was not available.
Jared Pearce, president of Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats, called on Office Depot to help address the problem. DSYD’s recent Light Up Oak Lawn safety campaign led to the city installing 45 new lights in the area, but none near Office Depot.
Full text: Gov. Rick Snyder makes case for improving Michigan infrastructure
Michigan is also a national leader in the development of new technologies including:
Life-cycle budgeting, a process that abandons the old, short-term approach of quick fixes for road maintenance and places emphasis on maximizing the life of the road. A Congressional Budget Office study shows life-cycle budgeting can reduce long-term maintenance costs by 40 percent.
High-strength Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) to reinforce concrete bridges. The use of this new product offers several distinct advantages, one of which is the virtual elimination of corrosion, a common problem among steel reinforced bridges.
Energy efficient LEDs in freeway lighting and trunkline signaling devices. Today, some 55 percent of state highway lights have been upgraded with LED lenses. As a result, MDOT is seeing a 90 percent power savings where LEDs are used.
The use of solar power to reduce its energy consumption. A demonstration project undertaken with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Michigan Energy Office is using elevated solar panels at an MDOT carpool lot in west Michigan to feed power directly into the electrical grid during the day and offset the power needed for the freeway interchange lights at night.
A modern electronic bidding system developed in partnership with the private sector that uses the Internet to reduce errors, save taxpayer dollars, and shorten processing time. That means doing away with 10,000 pieces of paper that a single bid letting previously required along with the inefficiencies of such a labor-intensive process. For example, in 2002, the state had 34 low bid rejections, which cost about $370,000 to correct. In 2007, with the introduction of electronic bidding, there were no low bid rejections among 1,106 projects.
These innovations have saved money and stretched our transportation dollars, and we must do more. Today, I am challenging MDOT to provide opportunities for increased competition for maintenance services, like snow plowing. I propose taking a portion of the state network and competitively bidding for long-term engineering management services, construction and maintenance operations. I am giving the department 12 months to have the contracts in place and report back to me on the progress.
Moving to a performance-based system for managing and maintaining roads will lead to more efficiency in the preservation of our roads and bridges and save taxpayers money.
It is time to streamline the way we do business. We saw how successfully that worked for the auto companies who took painful steps to become leaner and more efficient. Ultimately, those difficult decisions helped make those companies sustainable. Many other businesses in Michigan have had to make similar painful choices in order to survive the past decade of difficult economic times.
Life-cycle budgeting, a process that abandons the old, short-term approach of quick fixes for road maintenance and places emphasis on maximizing the life of the road. A Congressional Budget Office study shows life-cycle budgeting can reduce long-term maintenance costs by 40 percent.
High-strength Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) to reinforce concrete bridges. The use of this new product offers several distinct advantages, one of which is the virtual elimination of corrosion, a common problem among steel reinforced bridges.
Energy efficient LEDs in freeway lighting and trunkline signaling devices. Today, some 55 percent of state highway lights have been upgraded with LED lenses. As a result, MDOT is seeing a 90 percent power savings where LEDs are used.
The use of solar power to reduce its energy consumption. A demonstration project undertaken with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Michigan Energy Office is using elevated solar panels at an MDOT carpool lot in west Michigan to feed power directly into the electrical grid during the day and offset the power needed for the freeway interchange lights at night.
A modern electronic bidding system developed in partnership with the private sector that uses the Internet to reduce errors, save taxpayer dollars, and shorten processing time. That means doing away with 10,000 pieces of paper that a single bid letting previously required along with the inefficiencies of such a labor-intensive process. For example, in 2002, the state had 34 low bid rejections, which cost about $370,000 to correct. In 2007, with the introduction of electronic bidding, there were no low bid rejections among 1,106 projects.
These innovations have saved money and stretched our transportation dollars, and we must do more. Today, I am challenging MDOT to provide opportunities for increased competition for maintenance services, like snow plowing. I propose taking a portion of the state network and competitively bidding for long-term engineering management services, construction and maintenance operations. I am giving the department 12 months to have the contracts in place and report back to me on the progress.
Moving to a performance-based system for managing and maintaining roads will lead to more efficiency in the preservation of our roads and bridges and save taxpayers money.
It is time to streamline the way we do business. We saw how successfully that worked for the auto companies who took painful steps to become leaner and more efficient. Ultimately, those difficult decisions helped make those companies sustainable. Many other businesses in Michigan have had to make similar painful choices in order to survive the past decade of difficult economic times.
2011年10月25日 星期二
Cree Redefines High-Voltage LEDs
"The XLamp XM-L High-Voltage LED eliminates the trade-off between size and efficacy, allowing us to take advantage of the efficacy of high-voltage drivers," said Ken Chakravarti, chief technology officer, Ledzworld. "This translates to more efficient, better and more cost-effective small LED lamps and luminaires such as the B10 replacement lamp for our customers."
Small-form-factor lighting, like candelabras, historically presented a host of challenges for LED technology. Prior LEDs were unable to deliver the required system-level performance in the form factor consumers demand.
"Maximizing the LED voltage, as Cree has done in the new high-voltage XM-L and XT-E LEDs, is a very effective way to minimize current through the LED driver output rectifier," said Peter Vaughan, director of applications engineering, Power Integrations, Inc. "This can reduce losses and heat dissipation in the driver and increase the overall system luminous efficacy by several percentage points."
"Never before have lighting OEMs been able to leverage the benefits of high-voltage LEDs with this level of performance," said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. "We continue to develop the right LEDs for the right applications--to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting."
The XLamp XM-L LED delivers up to 600 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 462 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. The XLamp XT-E LED delivers up to 300 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 228 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. Both LEDs have a typical voltage of 46V at binning conditions.
Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through the use of energy-efficient, mercury-free LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications.
Cree's product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and RF devices. Cree products are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, power suppliers and solar inverters.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated.
Small-form-factor lighting, like candelabras, historically presented a host of challenges for LED technology. Prior LEDs were unable to deliver the required system-level performance in the form factor consumers demand.
"Maximizing the LED voltage, as Cree has done in the new high-voltage XM-L and XT-E LEDs, is a very effective way to minimize current through the LED driver output rectifier," said Peter Vaughan, director of applications engineering, Power Integrations, Inc. "This can reduce losses and heat dissipation in the driver and increase the overall system luminous efficacy by several percentage points."
"Never before have lighting OEMs been able to leverage the benefits of high-voltage LEDs with this level of performance," said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. "We continue to develop the right LEDs for the right applications--to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting."
The XLamp XM-L LED delivers up to 600 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 462 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. The XLamp XT-E LED delivers up to 300 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 228 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. Both LEDs have a typical voltage of 46V at binning conditions.
Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through the use of energy-efficient, mercury-free LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications.
Cree's product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and RF devices. Cree products are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, power suppliers and solar inverters.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated.
Chinese lantern safety warning
FIRE chiefs are warning Hop-tu-Naa and Bonfire night revellers about the dangers posed by Chinese lanterns.
The lanterns which are available in the Isle of Man are generally made of paper, supported by a frame and are powered by a solid fuel burner.
They have become popular over the past few years for celebrations such as weddings and birthdays. But there have been a number of incidents in the UK when the sky lanterns have caused injury and fires.
In one case, a young boy was scalded in the face by molten fuel which fell from a lantern floating overhead.
Another frightening incident involved a lantern landing on the roof of a property and setting it on fire – the house was occupied by a mother and her two children.
There have been a number of reports of farm animals who have died from eating the wire frames from the lanterns which have burnt out and landed in their fields.
In 2008, Onchan’s Christmastime Festival of Light included the launch of 20 lanterns, which floated above Douglas Bay.
The UK-based Chief Fire Officers’ Association has urged Fire and Rescue Services to discourage the use of the floating paper lanterns on the basis that they constitute a fire risk when released and there is evidence of them being mistaken for distress flares, misleading aircraft and killing livestock.
Sub officer Peter Killey, of the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service’s community safety team, said: ‘No one wants to be a killjoy but we are very concerned that before long we are going to have a serious incident caused by these lanterns.
‘Whether this is a property fire, a fire in the countryside, personal injury or injury to wildlife and livestock – the more these lanterns are used the more likely it is that an incident will occur.
‘Public safety is of paramount importance and we ask members of the public and event organisers to refrain from using them.’
John Peet, chief trading standards officer, said: ‘Safety instructions for the use of these lanterns are complex. Among other things they require the user to assess wind conditions. Our advice would be to avoid these products.’
David Callister MLC, member of the Department of Infrastructure, added: ‘These lanterns can be confused with distress flares used to signal emergencies at sea.
‘This in the past has led to coastguard teams being called out to investigate, which can be very time consuming and costly.’
‘This initiative has been very successful with a marked decrease in call-outs for lantern related incidents, and our thanks go to those people who have taken the time to call the MOC prior to releasing their lanterns,’ said Mr Callister.
The lanterns which are available in the Isle of Man are generally made of paper, supported by a frame and are powered by a solid fuel burner.
They have become popular over the past few years for celebrations such as weddings and birthdays. But there have been a number of incidents in the UK when the sky lanterns have caused injury and fires.
In one case, a young boy was scalded in the face by molten fuel which fell from a lantern floating overhead.
Another frightening incident involved a lantern landing on the roof of a property and setting it on fire – the house was occupied by a mother and her two children.
There have been a number of reports of farm animals who have died from eating the wire frames from the lanterns which have burnt out and landed in their fields.
In 2008, Onchan’s Christmastime Festival of Light included the launch of 20 lanterns, which floated above Douglas Bay.
The UK-based Chief Fire Officers’ Association has urged Fire and Rescue Services to discourage the use of the floating paper lanterns on the basis that they constitute a fire risk when released and there is evidence of them being mistaken for distress flares, misleading aircraft and killing livestock.
Sub officer Peter Killey, of the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service’s community safety team, said: ‘No one wants to be a killjoy but we are very concerned that before long we are going to have a serious incident caused by these lanterns.
‘Whether this is a property fire, a fire in the countryside, personal injury or injury to wildlife and livestock – the more these lanterns are used the more likely it is that an incident will occur.
‘Public safety is of paramount importance and we ask members of the public and event organisers to refrain from using them.’
John Peet, chief trading standards officer, said: ‘Safety instructions for the use of these lanterns are complex. Among other things they require the user to assess wind conditions. Our advice would be to avoid these products.’
David Callister MLC, member of the Department of Infrastructure, added: ‘These lanterns can be confused with distress flares used to signal emergencies at sea.
‘This in the past has led to coastguard teams being called out to investigate, which can be very time consuming and costly.’
‘This initiative has been very successful with a marked decrease in call-outs for lantern related incidents, and our thanks go to those people who have taken the time to call the MOC prior to releasing their lanterns,’ said Mr Callister.
2011年10月24日 星期一
Sculptor creates a fantastical world
The drive up into the hills north of Enderby is blasted with colour –– Douglas maple, Western larch, Black cottonwood dot the landscape as the road twists and turns.
For Stephan Bircher who calls this area home, it’s a perfect burial landscape for creatures large and small to find their final resting place. He has spent many hours digging through the dirt and lifting up rocks to uncover these delicate remains among other treasures that nature has left behind.
The glassy wings of butterflies, feathers, shriveled leaves, abandoned shells, even road kill, have all entered the realm of Bircher’s mind and eventually into his studio.
A sculptor, lighting designer, theatrical wunderkind, and alchemist when it comes to fusing nature with human-made objects, Bircher could be considered a kind of mad scientist or a post-modern Jim Henson.
Far from being a “Muppet” lab, his studio is a fantastical place where lit up skeletal creatures spin like whirling dervishes and play musical instruments, their intricate parts held together by magnets, springs, cogs and cranks, and run by small motors.
“I like to take the magic out of my surroundings; that’s how my sculptures develop,” said Bircher. “The bones in my work, and whatever else I find out here, come from my youth of always going out into the wilderness. When I was walking around I would always see things a little differently, of what could be made from nature.”
Growing up near Basel, Switzerland, Bircher says he was always tinkering when he wasn’t rebelling.
The son of a surgeon, he says his parents had high hopes for their son, but Bircher preferred drawing cartoons in his sketch book than attending to his academic studies.
“I had an endless struggle in my school days,” he said. “I found what I wanted by myself, sometimes it was negative. I was not always matching what was expected of me. But I was always drawn to creativity.”
On family holidays, Bircher would go to the house of his aunt in the mountains, where he would make fantasy villages out of things he would find.
“They were more abstract, while my brother made functional steamboats,” he said.
After high school, Bircher travelled to India on what was supposed to be a short holiday. He ended up staying two years.
India was everything Bircher’s upbringing wasn’t: crowded, noisy and chaotic.
“I think it’s this experience, out of my family who were open-minded but always tried to make things organized, that shaped me. I loved it.”
After returning home to Switzerland, Bircher would eventually go on to teach at a day school. His subjects were handicrafts and sports. He also helped his students with numerous extracurricular projects such as hand-building a unicycle.
For Stephan Bircher who calls this area home, it’s a perfect burial landscape for creatures large and small to find their final resting place. He has spent many hours digging through the dirt and lifting up rocks to uncover these delicate remains among other treasures that nature has left behind.
The glassy wings of butterflies, feathers, shriveled leaves, abandoned shells, even road kill, have all entered the realm of Bircher’s mind and eventually into his studio.
A sculptor, lighting designer, theatrical wunderkind, and alchemist when it comes to fusing nature with human-made objects, Bircher could be considered a kind of mad scientist or a post-modern Jim Henson.
Far from being a “Muppet” lab, his studio is a fantastical place where lit up skeletal creatures spin like whirling dervishes and play musical instruments, their intricate parts held together by magnets, springs, cogs and cranks, and run by small motors.
“I like to take the magic out of my surroundings; that’s how my sculptures develop,” said Bircher. “The bones in my work, and whatever else I find out here, come from my youth of always going out into the wilderness. When I was walking around I would always see things a little differently, of what could be made from nature.”
Growing up near Basel, Switzerland, Bircher says he was always tinkering when he wasn’t rebelling.
The son of a surgeon, he says his parents had high hopes for their son, but Bircher preferred drawing cartoons in his sketch book than attending to his academic studies.
“I had an endless struggle in my school days,” he said. “I found what I wanted by myself, sometimes it was negative. I was not always matching what was expected of me. But I was always drawn to creativity.”
On family holidays, Bircher would go to the house of his aunt in the mountains, where he would make fantasy villages out of things he would find.
“They were more abstract, while my brother made functional steamboats,” he said.
After high school, Bircher travelled to India on what was supposed to be a short holiday. He ended up staying two years.
India was everything Bircher’s upbringing wasn’t: crowded, noisy and chaotic.
“I think it’s this experience, out of my family who were open-minded but always tried to make things organized, that shaped me. I loved it.”
After returning home to Switzerland, Bircher would eventually go on to teach at a day school. His subjects were handicrafts and sports. He also helped his students with numerous extracurricular projects such as hand-building a unicycle.
2011年10月19日 星期三
Peter Foster: Dim-bulb R&D policy
The Jenkins report on R&D policies in Canada, which was released on Monday, starts with a bureaucratic fantasy. In 1874, two Canadians, Henry Woodward, a medical student, and Mathew Evans, a hotelkeeper, were in the race to build a commercial light bulb, but they couldn’t find backing. When Woodward applied for a U.S. patent, Thomas Edison saw the proposal and bought it. What, asks the report, if Woodward and Evans had been able to find investors? If only, it implies, there had been a government funding body.
If only I’d bought the Google IPO. If only I’d backed Wings of Erin in the 3:30. If only government policymakers had a time machine, they’d be able, literally, to “pick winners.” However, in the absence of Doctor Who’s Tardis, their picking sucks, not least because they attract glib rent-seeking losers, or genuinely innovative corporations that just can’t resist free, or cheap, funding either to do what they would have done anyway or, worse, wouldn’t have.
Canada has been lagging in innovation for so long that it has lagged itself into becoming one of the most successful economies on Earth. “Well,” bleat the statists, “then we must have been doing something right.” Sure, the government has been doing less. Canada got most of its experiments with government-funded failure out of the way the 1970s and 1980s. However, the fetish with boosting R&D just won’t die.
Private initiative has been trouncing the government-guided or government-assisted alternative for more than 200 years. Indeed, carefully buried and tactfully worded within the Jenkins report lies the conclusion that the “bewildering array” of federal and provincial government R&D programs just doesn’t work.
The good news is that the report wants to simplify the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program by restricting it to labour costs. The bad news is that it wants the money saved to be “reallocated” to new schemes.
One must here be somewhat sympathetic to the report’s authors since the possibility of scrapping, or even shrinking, R&D expenditures was never part of their mandate. Indeed, they were specifically instructed not to consider funding cuts, presumably so that the then-minority government of Stephen Harper wouldn’t spook any rent-seekers. Now they have a majority, we can only hope that R&D is on the secret agenda.
If only I’d bought the Google IPO. If only I’d backed Wings of Erin in the 3:30. If only government policymakers had a time machine, they’d be able, literally, to “pick winners.” However, in the absence of Doctor Who’s Tardis, their picking sucks, not least because they attract glib rent-seeking losers, or genuinely innovative corporations that just can’t resist free, or cheap, funding either to do what they would have done anyway or, worse, wouldn’t have.
Canada has been lagging in innovation for so long that it has lagged itself into becoming one of the most successful economies on Earth. “Well,” bleat the statists, “then we must have been doing something right.” Sure, the government has been doing less. Canada got most of its experiments with government-funded failure out of the way the 1970s and 1980s. However, the fetish with boosting R&D just won’t die.
Private initiative has been trouncing the government-guided or government-assisted alternative for more than 200 years. Indeed, carefully buried and tactfully worded within the Jenkins report lies the conclusion that the “bewildering array” of federal and provincial government R&D programs just doesn’t work.
The good news is that the report wants to simplify the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program by restricting it to labour costs. The bad news is that it wants the money saved to be “reallocated” to new schemes.
One must here be somewhat sympathetic to the report’s authors since the possibility of scrapping, or even shrinking, R&D expenditures was never part of their mandate. Indeed, they were specifically instructed not to consider funding cuts, presumably so that the then-minority government of Stephen Harper wouldn’t spook any rent-seekers. Now they have a majority, we can only hope that R&D is on the secret agenda.
2011年10月18日 星期二
NHRA: Karen Stoffer Firebird Raceway final report
GEICO Suzuki rider Karen Stoffer raced to a quarterfinal finish Sunday at the 27th annual Arizona NHRA Nationals to remain fourth in the Full Throttle championship points standings.
Stoffer qualified fifth in the 16-bike elimination field with a 6.970 at 190.32 mph, although her path to the lofty mark wasn't without drama.
"We had an issue with me on the top end on the second (qualifying) hit, where I caught a bump at the same time I hit the brakes," Stoffer said. "I had to put my foot down to keep the GEICO Suzuki upright. No problems there: The bike was fine, I was fine. I just had to get a new pair of shoes.
"We had another gremlin with 'Wilson' (the nickname of an engine) in the bike, and it wouldn't shift on two of our hits. Lucky enough, we got into the fifth spot. Unfortunately, on that last qualifying hit, it broke the motor."
The team had a long Saturday evening swapping out powerplants, leaving Stoffer feeling a bit anxious before her first round match-up with No. 12 qualifier Justin Finley. But when the two riders staged, Finley got a little too anxious and jumped the green light by -.007 seconds, giving Stoffer the win by disqualification.
"We swapped motors after qualifying and put 'Maverick' in for our first round race against Finley," Stoffer said. "Then it blew up on the top end.
"We rushed back and had to put 'Wilson' back in there, and it didn't shift again when we lost to Matt (Smith). It was all we could do. We had to go out on a wing and a prayer."
With her bike not shifting into top gear, Stoffer surrendered the lead and the race to second-round opponent Smith, who won with a 6.974 at 191.73 mph to Stoffer's resigned 7.066 at 189.42 mph.
"I'm so proud of the team," she said. "We thrashed all weekend long. The boys did a phenomenal job getting that thing going and putting it all together. They gave me a great bike.
'When it's hot like this it becomes V-Twin weather, which you can clearly see if you look at who's in the top four and how fast they're going. The fastest Suzuki out here just doesn't compare in these kind of conditions. If you're on a Suzuki here, you've got to have luck on your side, and we didn't really have it."
The NHRA tour takes a weekend off before heading to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Oct. 28-30 for the 11th annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals.
"Hopefully, going to Vegas, conditions will level out a little bit more, and it'll help the Suzukis out," Stoffer said. "We're going to do what we can, repair all the motors we can, but realistically we're going into Vegas with one motor right now.
"It's a challenge, but the good Lord puts challenges on those who can handle it. We have a good team and we all stick together. We pulled off a lot of switches this weekend, and we were able to get out there. We didn't hang anybody out on the starting line, we made the call, we did a good job."
Stoffer qualified fifth in the 16-bike elimination field with a 6.970 at 190.32 mph, although her path to the lofty mark wasn't without drama.
"We had an issue with me on the top end on the second (qualifying) hit, where I caught a bump at the same time I hit the brakes," Stoffer said. "I had to put my foot down to keep the GEICO Suzuki upright. No problems there: The bike was fine, I was fine. I just had to get a new pair of shoes.
"We had another gremlin with 'Wilson' (the nickname of an engine) in the bike, and it wouldn't shift on two of our hits. Lucky enough, we got into the fifth spot. Unfortunately, on that last qualifying hit, it broke the motor."
The team had a long Saturday evening swapping out powerplants, leaving Stoffer feeling a bit anxious before her first round match-up with No. 12 qualifier Justin Finley. But when the two riders staged, Finley got a little too anxious and jumped the green light by -.007 seconds, giving Stoffer the win by disqualification.
"We swapped motors after qualifying and put 'Maverick' in for our first round race against Finley," Stoffer said. "Then it blew up on the top end.
"We rushed back and had to put 'Wilson' back in there, and it didn't shift again when we lost to Matt (Smith). It was all we could do. We had to go out on a wing and a prayer."
With her bike not shifting into top gear, Stoffer surrendered the lead and the race to second-round opponent Smith, who won with a 6.974 at 191.73 mph to Stoffer's resigned 7.066 at 189.42 mph.
"I'm so proud of the team," she said. "We thrashed all weekend long. The boys did a phenomenal job getting that thing going and putting it all together. They gave me a great bike.
'When it's hot like this it becomes V-Twin weather, which you can clearly see if you look at who's in the top four and how fast they're going. The fastest Suzuki out here just doesn't compare in these kind of conditions. If you're on a Suzuki here, you've got to have luck on your side, and we didn't really have it."
The NHRA tour takes a weekend off before heading to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Oct. 28-30 for the 11th annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals.
"Hopefully, going to Vegas, conditions will level out a little bit more, and it'll help the Suzukis out," Stoffer said. "We're going to do what we can, repair all the motors we can, but realistically we're going into Vegas with one motor right now.
"It's a challenge, but the good Lord puts challenges on those who can handle it. We have a good team and we all stick together. We pulled off a lot of switches this weekend, and we were able to get out there. We didn't hang anybody out on the starting line, we made the call, we did a good job."
2011年10月17日 星期一
Dozens of failed stars discovered
A new survey has turned up more than two dozen failed stars, including one lightweight only about six times the mass of Jupiter.
The Canadian-led discovery could shed light on these strange objects, known as brown dwarfs, which straddle the boundary between stars and planets.
Brown dwarfs fail to accumulate enough material, and hence mass, to begin the nuclear fusion process that makes stars like our Sun shine.
Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile made optical and infrared observations of two clusters of young stars while searching for brown dwarfs. Their study has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
One paper focuses on the star cluster NGC-1333, which is 1,000 light years away in the constellation Perseus. Astronomers found that up to a third of stars in the cluster were actually brown dwarfs, raising questions about the kind of environmental conditions needed to encourage brown dwarf development.
They also discovered one of the least massive brown dwarfs ever detected. Despite being the size of a large planet, it doesn't orbit a host star, raising questions about how it formed.
Stars form from the collapse of gas and dust clouds, while planets form out of protoplanetary disks of material left over from star formation.
Scientists believe most brown dwarfs form like stars. However, the small brown dwarfs may form like planets around a host star and are later ejected into interstellar space.
"The findings suggest [planet-sized] objects not much bigger than Jupiter could form the same way stars do," lead researcher Professor Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto said.
"What's more, one cluster contains a surprising surplus of them, harbouring half as many of these astronomical oddballs as normal stars. In other words, nature appears to have more than one trick up its sleeve for producing planetary mass objects."
The second paper examines the star cluster Rho Ophiuchi, 460 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Scientists discovered six new brown dwarfs, making up a fifth of the known stellar population in the cluster.
Fred Watson from the Australian Astronomical Observatory said the papers indicate brown dwarfs may be more common than previously thought.
"The work sheds new light on the sort of conditions in which brown dwarfs form," he said. "It also pushes down the lower limit for brown dwarf star mass, previously thought to be at least 13 times Jupiter's mass. That figure was set because deuterium burning, which powers brown dwarfs, drops off below this point.
"All this further blurs the boundary between what we call stars and what we define as planets," he added.
The Canadian-led discovery could shed light on these strange objects, known as brown dwarfs, which straddle the boundary between stars and planets.
Brown dwarfs fail to accumulate enough material, and hence mass, to begin the nuclear fusion process that makes stars like our Sun shine.
Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile made optical and infrared observations of two clusters of young stars while searching for brown dwarfs. Their study has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
One paper focuses on the star cluster NGC-1333, which is 1,000 light years away in the constellation Perseus. Astronomers found that up to a third of stars in the cluster were actually brown dwarfs, raising questions about the kind of environmental conditions needed to encourage brown dwarf development.
They also discovered one of the least massive brown dwarfs ever detected. Despite being the size of a large planet, it doesn't orbit a host star, raising questions about how it formed.
Stars form from the collapse of gas and dust clouds, while planets form out of protoplanetary disks of material left over from star formation.
Scientists believe most brown dwarfs form like stars. However, the small brown dwarfs may form like planets around a host star and are later ejected into interstellar space.
"The findings suggest [planet-sized] objects not much bigger than Jupiter could form the same way stars do," lead researcher Professor Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto said.
"What's more, one cluster contains a surprising surplus of them, harbouring half as many of these astronomical oddballs as normal stars. In other words, nature appears to have more than one trick up its sleeve for producing planetary mass objects."
The second paper examines the star cluster Rho Ophiuchi, 460 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Scientists discovered six new brown dwarfs, making up a fifth of the known stellar population in the cluster.
Fred Watson from the Australian Astronomical Observatory said the papers indicate brown dwarfs may be more common than previously thought.
"The work sheds new light on the sort of conditions in which brown dwarfs form," he said. "It also pushes down the lower limit for brown dwarf star mass, previously thought to be at least 13 times Jupiter's mass. That figure was set because deuterium burning, which powers brown dwarfs, drops off below this point.
"All this further blurs the boundary between what we call stars and what we define as planets," he added.
2011年10月14日 星期五
The Big Flush: $180 billion vanishes from Michigan
Michigan home- and business owners have lost an astounding $180 billion from the value of their properties over the past four years — the result of auto company bankruptcies, a severe national recession and the worst state economy in more than 70 years — according to an analysis of state data by Bridge Magazine.
Adjusted for inflation, property values have plunged 27 percent since 2007. In other words, Michigan homeowners and businesses have lost about $1 in every $4 of property value they once possessed.
The $180 billion loss in value is an amount five times larger than General Motors’ market capitalization. It represents an average loss of $18,200 for every Michigan resident.
Experts say the real estate collapse could slow Michigan’s economic recovery for years as residential, commercial and industrial properties reset at much lower values.
“That may be the biggest story as far as Michigan’s economy is concerned,” said Michigan State University economist Charles Ballard.
Booming home prices and the easy availability of home equity loans in Michigan once allowed big-spending homeowners to use their property as virtual ATM machines. They pulled out hundreds of millions of dollars in equity to buy cars, big screen televisions and other purchases that kept the economy humming.
Each year, the state of Michigan collects property value information from all local governments in the state. Using this data, Bridge compared values in 2007 to values in 2011, both in raw figures and adjusting for inflation. The result was “Big Flush,” a loss of more than $180 billion in Michigan assets in a four-year span.
Not anymore. The crash in the value of Michigan’s homes and other property shut off the lights at this party.
The total value of Michigan’s property has plunged 20 percent since topping out at $906 billion in 2007. Today, Michigan’s real estate is worth $726 billion, according to Bridge’s review of Treasury Department data.
That has resulted in a variety of negative impacts for the state’s economy, schools and local governments.
Homeowners no longer have equity available to finance big-ticket purchases or to remodel their homes.
Unemployed homeowners or those with better job opportunities can’t go after jobs in other locations because they can’t sell their houses for as much as they need to pay off mortgages. And the high rate of foreclosures is pushing values down further.
Kelly Sweeney, chief executive of Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel, said the number of sales and prices of owner-occupied homes in Oakland County has started to rise as Michigan has added about 70,000 jobs this year.
Adjusted for inflation, property values have plunged 27 percent since 2007. In other words, Michigan homeowners and businesses have lost about $1 in every $4 of property value they once possessed.
The $180 billion loss in value is an amount five times larger than General Motors’ market capitalization. It represents an average loss of $18,200 for every Michigan resident.
Experts say the real estate collapse could slow Michigan’s economic recovery for years as residential, commercial and industrial properties reset at much lower values.
“That may be the biggest story as far as Michigan’s economy is concerned,” said Michigan State University economist Charles Ballard.
Booming home prices and the easy availability of home equity loans in Michigan once allowed big-spending homeowners to use their property as virtual ATM machines. They pulled out hundreds of millions of dollars in equity to buy cars, big screen televisions and other purchases that kept the economy humming.
Each year, the state of Michigan collects property value information from all local governments in the state. Using this data, Bridge compared values in 2007 to values in 2011, both in raw figures and adjusting for inflation. The result was “Big Flush,” a loss of more than $180 billion in Michigan assets in a four-year span.
Not anymore. The crash in the value of Michigan’s homes and other property shut off the lights at this party.
The total value of Michigan’s property has plunged 20 percent since topping out at $906 billion in 2007. Today, Michigan’s real estate is worth $726 billion, according to Bridge’s review of Treasury Department data.
That has resulted in a variety of negative impacts for the state’s economy, schools and local governments.
Homeowners no longer have equity available to finance big-ticket purchases or to remodel their homes.
Unemployed homeowners or those with better job opportunities can’t go after jobs in other locations because they can’t sell their houses for as much as they need to pay off mortgages. And the high rate of foreclosures is pushing values down further.
Kelly Sweeney, chief executive of Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel, said the number of sales and prices of owner-occupied homes in Oakland County has started to rise as Michigan has added about 70,000 jobs this year.
2011年10月13日 星期四
Unleashing the inner beast with hard-court bike polo
Ah, polo—the sport of kings! When it first emerged in Central Asia hundreds of years ago, elite cavalry units would play polo as a military training game. In the sixth century, even the king of Persia was known to take on the queen and her ladies.
And yet, who but a royal can afford a horse? As time went on, the game grew to be more egalitarian. In 1891, pioneering Irish cyclist Richard J. Mecredy swapped the horse for a bicycle, and bike polo was born.
Today, bike polo is a people’s sport. Teams play regularly in cities around the world, competing in tournaments and maintaining friendly rivalries. Pickup games are played every week; all you need is an old beater of a bike, a helmet and a wheel guard to protect the spokes from getting mangled.
Every Thursday at 7 p.m., bikers roll up to the Golden Hill Recreation Center to play hard-court bike polo (held on hard ground rather than a grass field) beneath the lights of the basketball court (or the handball court, if the hoops court’s being used). In case anybody wants to join in, Mike “Lawnmower” Maverick always shows up with an extra bike and a big bag of mallets, the waist-length sticks used to control the ball.
Companies like EighthInch sell polo-mallet kits, and there’s even a bike polo iPhone app, but many players prefer to fashion their own gear and customize their bikes. Trevor “Fraggle” Fray, a bike messenger whose dreadlocks were sticking out of a helmet covered with stickers (“dirty hippie,” one reads), rides a ’cycle with a stiff, mountain-bike frame and both front and back brakes hooked to his left-hand brake lever, leaving his right hand free to wield his mallet. Renee Green went one step further by simply hacking the right handle off her handlebars.
Maverick’s mallets are home-made—hockey poles or bamboo rods affixed with cylindrical heads made of plastic piping. On one, the end of the head was plugged with a piece of cutting board. It’s kind of like “knights making their own swords,” he explains. “You make it in your garage, and it’s like your own design, and you bring it to the court, test it out against the other knights.”
Unlike L.A.’s thriving bike polo scene, San Diego has only about a dozen regular players. They started holding games three years ago; Jordan Green (no relation to Renee) says they would often spend more time looking for a court than playing. When they appealed to the city, they were given four orange cones to use as goal posts.
Only about four players had shown up when I headed to the Golden Hill Recreation Center around 7:45 p.m. on a recent Thursday. Usually, they play in teams of three, with matches going to five points. Fray started calling friends to round up another player for a proper game, and, finally, a quiet fellow named Josh Montonavous rolled up. The game was on.
And yet, who but a royal can afford a horse? As time went on, the game grew to be more egalitarian. In 1891, pioneering Irish cyclist Richard J. Mecredy swapped the horse for a bicycle, and bike polo was born.
Today, bike polo is a people’s sport. Teams play regularly in cities around the world, competing in tournaments and maintaining friendly rivalries. Pickup games are played every week; all you need is an old beater of a bike, a helmet and a wheel guard to protect the spokes from getting mangled.
Every Thursday at 7 p.m., bikers roll up to the Golden Hill Recreation Center to play hard-court bike polo (held on hard ground rather than a grass field) beneath the lights of the basketball court (or the handball court, if the hoops court’s being used). In case anybody wants to join in, Mike “Lawnmower” Maverick always shows up with an extra bike and a big bag of mallets, the waist-length sticks used to control the ball.
Companies like EighthInch sell polo-mallet kits, and there’s even a bike polo iPhone app, but many players prefer to fashion their own gear and customize their bikes. Trevor “Fraggle” Fray, a bike messenger whose dreadlocks were sticking out of a helmet covered with stickers (“dirty hippie,” one reads), rides a ’cycle with a stiff, mountain-bike frame and both front and back brakes hooked to his left-hand brake lever, leaving his right hand free to wield his mallet. Renee Green went one step further by simply hacking the right handle off her handlebars.
Maverick’s mallets are home-made—hockey poles or bamboo rods affixed with cylindrical heads made of plastic piping. On one, the end of the head was plugged with a piece of cutting board. It’s kind of like “knights making their own swords,” he explains. “You make it in your garage, and it’s like your own design, and you bring it to the court, test it out against the other knights.”
Unlike L.A.’s thriving bike polo scene, San Diego has only about a dozen regular players. They started holding games three years ago; Jordan Green (no relation to Renee) says they would often spend more time looking for a court than playing. When they appealed to the city, they were given four orange cones to use as goal posts.
Only about four players had shown up when I headed to the Golden Hill Recreation Center around 7:45 p.m. on a recent Thursday. Usually, they play in teams of three, with matches going to five points. Fray started calling friends to round up another player for a proper game, and, finally, a quiet fellow named Josh Montonavous rolled up. The game was on.
2011年10月12日 星期三
Philips Earns Breakthrough Award for LED Technology
Philips Lighting has been honored by POPULAR MECHANICS as a winner of a 2011 Breakthrough Award, which recognizes innovators and products that dramatically advance the fields of technology and other disciplines.
Ten companies were selected in the Breakthrough Product Awards category, with Philips Lighting recognized for AmbientLED, an environmentally and economically sustainable indoor light bulb. The first credible replacement for the 60-watt incandescent, AmbientLED – using innovative light-emitting diode (LED) technology – uses just 12.5 watts of power, saves 80 percent in energy costs, vastly reduces carbon emissions and is rated to last 25,000 hours.
"Philips Lighting and our other Breakthrough Award winners not only capture the imagination, but hold the potential to improve lives," said James B. Meigs, editor-in-chief of POPULAR MECHANICS. "We are pleased to honor this year's diverse list of visionaries, as they are shaping the future of innovation."
Zia Eftekhar, CEO, Philips Lighting North America, said, "Winning this prestigious award from POPULAR MECHANICS further validates our commitment to and focus on sustainable and viable lighting technologies. AmbientLED is one of the numerous LED-based products in our ever-growing portfolio, making a positive impact on the lives and wallets of consumers."
Last week, Philips Lighting was also selected as a 2011 Leader of Change Award winner by the Foundation for Social Change and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The award recognized the company's longstanding commitment to sustainability through the development of innovative lighting, including LED technologies. Earlier in 2011, Philips won the U.S. Department of Energy's L Prize competition, which challenged the lighting industry to develop high-performance, energy and money-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs.
Philips Lighting and the other Breakthrough Award winners received the seventh-annual Breakthrough Awards at a gala ceremony in New York City on October 10. Descriptions of the winners will be published in the November issue of POPULAR MECHANICS.
The world's first LED replacement for a 60-watt incandescent bulb, the AmbientLED 12.5-watt is also the first to earn ENERGY STAR qualification. Philips Lighting is a worldwide leader in developing LED and other lighting technology solutions that aid in the global transition to a sustainable society, while delivering economic, ecological and social benefits.
Ten companies were selected in the Breakthrough Product Awards category, with Philips Lighting recognized for AmbientLED, an environmentally and economically sustainable indoor light bulb. The first credible replacement for the 60-watt incandescent, AmbientLED – using innovative light-emitting diode (LED) technology – uses just 12.5 watts of power, saves 80 percent in energy costs, vastly reduces carbon emissions and is rated to last 25,000 hours.
"Philips Lighting and our other Breakthrough Award winners not only capture the imagination, but hold the potential to improve lives," said James B. Meigs, editor-in-chief of POPULAR MECHANICS. "We are pleased to honor this year's diverse list of visionaries, as they are shaping the future of innovation."
Zia Eftekhar, CEO, Philips Lighting North America, said, "Winning this prestigious award from POPULAR MECHANICS further validates our commitment to and focus on sustainable and viable lighting technologies. AmbientLED is one of the numerous LED-based products in our ever-growing portfolio, making a positive impact on the lives and wallets of consumers."
Last week, Philips Lighting was also selected as a 2011 Leader of Change Award winner by the Foundation for Social Change and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The award recognized the company's longstanding commitment to sustainability through the development of innovative lighting, including LED technologies. Earlier in 2011, Philips won the U.S. Department of Energy's L Prize competition, which challenged the lighting industry to develop high-performance, energy and money-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs.
Philips Lighting and the other Breakthrough Award winners received the seventh-annual Breakthrough Awards at a gala ceremony in New York City on October 10. Descriptions of the winners will be published in the November issue of POPULAR MECHANICS.
The world's first LED replacement for a 60-watt incandescent bulb, the AmbientLED 12.5-watt is also the first to earn ENERGY STAR qualification. Philips Lighting is a worldwide leader in developing LED and other lighting technology solutions that aid in the global transition to a sustainable society, while delivering economic, ecological and social benefits.
2011年10月11日 星期二
Background
As might be expected, the parties have significantly different accounts of what occurred. According to Johnson, as she was preparing to depart for her Bible study group that evening, she was told by her son Blake that "Mom, the police are outside harassing Joseph." Johnson left the house and stood in her front yard, where she witnessed Officer John Schweiger question McClennon, pat him down, remove items from his pockets, and place him in the back of Schweiger's squad car.
A second squad car arrived, occupied by Officers Chad Hofius and Mathew Kipke. Johnson asked Hofius and Kipke about what was happening, to which one of the officers replied, "you are ignorant," and the other said that Johnson was acting "childish." Schweiger released McClennon from the squad car and threw an earlier-prepared drug paraphernalia citation at him, which McClennon bent down to pick up.
As McClennon began walking towards Johnson and her home, she told him to return to Schweiger's car to "get his stuff" that had been left on the hood.
Johnson observed McClennon return to the car, where Schweiger swung at McClennon with a flashlight. When McClennon pushed the flashlight away, Schweiger grabbed him, pulled him into the street towards the second squad car, and attempted to take him to the ground. Although McClennon was not struggling, Hofius and Kipke approached to assist with the arrest. Johnson ran past the officers and jumped onto McClennon, bear-hugging him face-to-face, telling him to get to the ground, and trying to protect him from the officers in a non-resistant manner.
Without first ordering Johnson to remove herself from McClennon, either Hofius or Kipke pulled her away from McClennon and threw her to the ground, "very hard, very forcefully." Johnson arose and again bear-hugged McClennon, this time from behind. The same officer pulled Johnson off McClennon and again threw her to the ground, "very hard," "very much" harder than the first time, injuring her left knee. An officer then tased McClennon, who fell to the ground.
Johnson crawled over to McClennon as he lay there still shaking from being tased and again blanketed him with her body. With no warning or request that Johnson remove herself, Schweiger then maced her in the face, whereupon she "backed up off" McClennon so that the officers could remove the taser prongs from his body. Thereafter, Johnson crawled to the curb, where she was able to arise only by grasping a tree for support.
A group of bystanders, including her two sons, stood there on the sidewalk. According to McClennon, there were "a lot of people," "a bunch of both, men and women," asking questions of the officers and loudly protesting what was happening to him and Johnson. Schweiger arrested McClennon and placed him in the back of the Schweiger's squad car. Hofius arrested Johnson, handcuffed her, and took her to jail.
A second squad car arrived, occupied by Officers Chad Hofius and Mathew Kipke. Johnson asked Hofius and Kipke about what was happening, to which one of the officers replied, "you are ignorant," and the other said that Johnson was acting "childish." Schweiger released McClennon from the squad car and threw an earlier-prepared drug paraphernalia citation at him, which McClennon bent down to pick up.
As McClennon began walking towards Johnson and her home, she told him to return to Schweiger's car to "get his stuff" that had been left on the hood.
Johnson observed McClennon return to the car, where Schweiger swung at McClennon with a flashlight. When McClennon pushed the flashlight away, Schweiger grabbed him, pulled him into the street towards the second squad car, and attempted to take him to the ground. Although McClennon was not struggling, Hofius and Kipke approached to assist with the arrest. Johnson ran past the officers and jumped onto McClennon, bear-hugging him face-to-face, telling him to get to the ground, and trying to protect him from the officers in a non-resistant manner.
Without first ordering Johnson to remove herself from McClennon, either Hofius or Kipke pulled her away from McClennon and threw her to the ground, "very hard, very forcefully." Johnson arose and again bear-hugged McClennon, this time from behind. The same officer pulled Johnson off McClennon and again threw her to the ground, "very hard," "very much" harder than the first time, injuring her left knee. An officer then tased McClennon, who fell to the ground.
Johnson crawled over to McClennon as he lay there still shaking from being tased and again blanketed him with her body. With no warning or request that Johnson remove herself, Schweiger then maced her in the face, whereupon she "backed up off" McClennon so that the officers could remove the taser prongs from his body. Thereafter, Johnson crawled to the curb, where she was able to arise only by grasping a tree for support.
A group of bystanders, including her two sons, stood there on the sidewalk. According to McClennon, there were "a lot of people," "a bunch of both, men and women," asking questions of the officers and loudly protesting what was happening to him and Johnson. Schweiger arrested McClennon and placed him in the back of the Schweiger's squad car. Hofius arrested Johnson, handcuffed her, and took her to jail.
2011年10月10日 星期一
The secrets of taking good pictures: Cellphone cameras
I’m never without my cellphone and I use its integrated camera almost every day. A few years ago cellphone cameras could only take low quality snaps but now they can produce excellent high resolution pictures that are often as good as many compact cameras.
The older models had fixed focus lenses and recorded small-sized images only suitable for texting or emailing. Modern “smartphones” have autofocus, scene modes, digital zooms, and many features found on proper cameras. You can take pictures that are of good enough quality to enlarge for exhibitions. They do have limitations, however, and you need a little skill, knowledge, and patience to get the best out of them.
For the best picture quality, shoot in Led light outdoors. Avoid using the digital zoom because this can degrade the image. Zooming simply enlarges the picture while cropping it to fit the screen. It magnifies the small movements of you hands and can cause “camera shake” and blurred pictures. Rather than zoom go closer to the subject, or crop the picture afterward.
The sensor, or “digital film” chip, is truly a technological marvel. It is necessarily tiny, perhaps only 3 x 4mm, and is usually crammed with at least five million light-sensitive cells. It’s about one eightieth the size of a professional camera’s sensor and this causes problems, especially in lower light levels.
Pictures taken in room lighting can be grainy and blurred as the sensor struggles to record an acceptable image. If your phone has a flash it will be too weak to help much. You usually get the best results if you switch off the flash, hold the phone very steady, choose a moment when the subject is still, and take three shots. If there is a “burst mode” use this to take a number of quick consecutive shots. Choose the sharpest picture afterward.
Smartphones, such as the iPhone and Galaxy 9000 have an unexpected advantage if you are taking candid shots. Stand with your left side to the subject, hold the phone in your left hand to your ear as if making a call. Use your right hand to press the on-screen button to take a candid shot. Of course you will have to take a few shots to make sure of the composition.
One of the greatest disadvantages of pictures taken with cellphones is that almost everything is in focus. This is fine for family snaps where you want to see people clearly, but is limiting for creative photography where out-of-focus effects are important.
The older models had fixed focus lenses and recorded small-sized images only suitable for texting or emailing. Modern “smartphones” have autofocus, scene modes, digital zooms, and many features found on proper cameras. You can take pictures that are of good enough quality to enlarge for exhibitions. They do have limitations, however, and you need a little skill, knowledge, and patience to get the best out of them.
For the best picture quality, shoot in Led light outdoors. Avoid using the digital zoom because this can degrade the image. Zooming simply enlarges the picture while cropping it to fit the screen. It magnifies the small movements of you hands and can cause “camera shake” and blurred pictures. Rather than zoom go closer to the subject, or crop the picture afterward.
The sensor, or “digital film” chip, is truly a technological marvel. It is necessarily tiny, perhaps only 3 x 4mm, and is usually crammed with at least five million light-sensitive cells. It’s about one eightieth the size of a professional camera’s sensor and this causes problems, especially in lower light levels.
Pictures taken in room lighting can be grainy and blurred as the sensor struggles to record an acceptable image. If your phone has a flash it will be too weak to help much. You usually get the best results if you switch off the flash, hold the phone very steady, choose a moment when the subject is still, and take three shots. If there is a “burst mode” use this to take a number of quick consecutive shots. Choose the sharpest picture afterward.
Smartphones, such as the iPhone and Galaxy 9000 have an unexpected advantage if you are taking candid shots. Stand with your left side to the subject, hold the phone in your left hand to your ear as if making a call. Use your right hand to press the on-screen button to take a candid shot. Of course you will have to take a few shots to make sure of the composition.
One of the greatest disadvantages of pictures taken with cellphones is that almost everything is in focus. This is fine for family snaps where you want to see people clearly, but is limiting for creative photography where out-of-focus effects are important.
2011年10月9日 星期日
Beechcroft 42, Mifflin 6: Beechcroft steps up to challenge in a decisive manne
Beechcroft receiver Kevin Chapple said he was unable to sleep Thursday night in anticipation of facing Mifflin’s vaunted secondary, led by senior Troy Robinson.
“I sat up until about 4 in the morning trying to think of ways I was going to get past Troy and make some big plays,” Chapple said. “That was my whole mindset coming into this game. Getting the better of him was a big motivating factor.”
Chapple and his Cougars teammates could sleep easy last night, having pounded the previously unbeaten Punchers 42-6 in a City League North Division showdown before an overflow crowd at Mifflin.
Quarterback Maurice Hale completed 9 of 17 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 123 yards and another score to lead Beechcroft (6-1, 4-0), which seized control from the outset and never let up against a defense that had yielded only three touchdowns all season.
“We wanted to put up a score or two early and set the tone for the evening,” said Hale, who has emerged as one of central Ohio’s top dual-threat quarterbacks. “We knew they had a good defense. Honestly, I was surprised that we were able to get so many touchdowns on them in the first half. We were really motivated.”
Beechcroft scored on its first five series for a 35-6 lead by halftime.
“Our team felt a little disrespected coming in,” Beechcroft coach Bruce Ward said. “We kept hearing Mifflin, Mifflin, Mifflin. People seemed to forget that we’re still the champion of this league, and teams still have contend with us.
The most-spectacular play occurred on the Cougars’ opening series. Hale sidestepped a potential sack, stepped up into the pocket and heaved a bomb into the end zone that Khaleed Franklin hauled in among a mass of bodies for a touchdown of 43 yards. Franklin, 6 feet 3 inches, outjumped Robinson (5-9) to win the jump ball.
“We knew they’d try to put a lot of pressure on us, but our line did a good job keeping them off me,” Hale said.
Mifflin coach Gregg Miller saw the game in a different light.
“Our guys just didn’t show up to play,” he said. “The kids didn’t do what they were coached to do all week. Our whole game plan was predicated on pressuring Hale. We called blitz on just about every single play, and I don’t remember us getting to him once.
“That quarterback is too good to let him sit back there and throw it all over the place, not to mention take off and run with it.”
The only highlight for Mifflin (6-1, 3-1) was a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Kamaron Green that cut Beechcroft’s lead to 14-6. The Punchers, who managed only five first downs, never threatened to score again.
“I sat up until about 4 in the morning trying to think of ways I was going to get past Troy and make some big plays,” Chapple said. “That was my whole mindset coming into this game. Getting the better of him was a big motivating factor.”
Chapple and his Cougars teammates could sleep easy last night, having pounded the previously unbeaten Punchers 42-6 in a City League North Division showdown before an overflow crowd at Mifflin.
Quarterback Maurice Hale completed 9 of 17 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 123 yards and another score to lead Beechcroft (6-1, 4-0), which seized control from the outset and never let up against a defense that had yielded only three touchdowns all season.
“We wanted to put up a score or two early and set the tone for the evening,” said Hale, who has emerged as one of central Ohio’s top dual-threat quarterbacks. “We knew they had a good defense. Honestly, I was surprised that we were able to get so many touchdowns on them in the first half. We were really motivated.”
Beechcroft scored on its first five series for a 35-6 lead by halftime.
“Our team felt a little disrespected coming in,” Beechcroft coach Bruce Ward said. “We kept hearing Mifflin, Mifflin, Mifflin. People seemed to forget that we’re still the champion of this league, and teams still have contend with us.
The most-spectacular play occurred on the Cougars’ opening series. Hale sidestepped a potential sack, stepped up into the pocket and heaved a bomb into the end zone that Khaleed Franklin hauled in among a mass of bodies for a touchdown of 43 yards. Franklin, 6 feet 3 inches, outjumped Robinson (5-9) to win the jump ball.
“We knew they’d try to put a lot of pressure on us, but our line did a good job keeping them off me,” Hale said.
Mifflin coach Gregg Miller saw the game in a different light.
“Our guys just didn’t show up to play,” he said. “The kids didn’t do what they were coached to do all week. Our whole game plan was predicated on pressuring Hale. We called blitz on just about every single play, and I don’t remember us getting to him once.
“That quarterback is too good to let him sit back there and throw it all over the place, not to mention take off and run with it.”
The only highlight for Mifflin (6-1, 3-1) was a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Kamaron Green that cut Beechcroft’s lead to 14-6. The Punchers, who managed only five first downs, never threatened to score again.
2011年10月8日 星期六
Cleric Underlines Iran's Full Support for Regional Uprisings
"Our great nation cannot ignore oppressions against the Muslim nations of the region by their tyrannical rulers and with the US green light," Khatami said addressing a large and fervent congregation of worshippers on Tehran University Campus here on Friday.
"Saudi rulers are oppressing their own people and support dictators and have suppressed nations of the region. Hence, our religion and humanness requires us to adopt a stance and side with those who have a right.
"The nation of this country (Saudi Arabia) have a right to vote and they are asking for nothing but their rights."
"I tell these nations in a very clear and straightforward manner that although we, as required by the international rules, cannot come and be present in there, we extend our full spiritual support for you and we wish you victory," the Friday Prayers leader said.
His remarks came after the Saudi police cracked down on a Shiite popular uprising in an area around the city of al-Qatif earlier this week, injuring several people seriously.
Tension in the village boiled over Monday as Saudi police arrested two men, both in their 70s, in a bid to force their fugitive sons, accused of taking part in Shiite-led protests, to surrender, according to a Shiite activist.
Unrests escalated after the Kingdom's assistant minister of defense and aviation Prince Khalid bin Sultan told his troops located in the Qatif area they should be ready for all "possibilities".
Civilians who witnessed the clashes insist the Saudi state is brutally suppressing the protest.
"The situation is calm now in the village" of Al-Awamiya in Eastern Saudi Arabia, said Human Rights First Society head Ibrahim al-Mughaiteeb, after 14 people were injured in the police clampdown.
At a mosque in the village late on Tuesday, senior cleric Sheikh Nimr Nimr, said
Saudi "authorities depend on bullets ... and killing and imprisonment. We must depend on the roar of the word, on the words of justice," Nimr said following two days of Saudi clampdown on Shiite protesters.
A video posted on YouTube showed demonstrators chanting "Down with Mohammed bin Fahd," the governor of the Eastern Province and son of Saudi Arabia's former ruler, the late King Fahd.
Saudi Arabia first witnessed popular uprisings after it sent troops to the neighboring Bahrain to suppress the peaceful protestors in the country.
"Saudi rulers are oppressing their own people and support dictators and have suppressed nations of the region. Hence, our religion and humanness requires us to adopt a stance and side with those who have a right.
"The nation of this country (Saudi Arabia) have a right to vote and they are asking for nothing but their rights."
"I tell these nations in a very clear and straightforward manner that although we, as required by the international rules, cannot come and be present in there, we extend our full spiritual support for you and we wish you victory," the Friday Prayers leader said.
His remarks came after the Saudi police cracked down on a Shiite popular uprising in an area around the city of al-Qatif earlier this week, injuring several people seriously.
Tension in the village boiled over Monday as Saudi police arrested two men, both in their 70s, in a bid to force their fugitive sons, accused of taking part in Shiite-led protests, to surrender, according to a Shiite activist.
Unrests escalated after the Kingdom's assistant minister of defense and aviation Prince Khalid bin Sultan told his troops located in the Qatif area they should be ready for all "possibilities".
Civilians who witnessed the clashes insist the Saudi state is brutally suppressing the protest.
"The situation is calm now in the village" of Al-Awamiya in Eastern Saudi Arabia, said Human Rights First Society head Ibrahim al-Mughaiteeb, after 14 people were injured in the police clampdown.
At a mosque in the village late on Tuesday, senior cleric Sheikh Nimr Nimr, said
Saudi "authorities depend on bullets ... and killing and imprisonment. We must depend on the roar of the word, on the words of justice," Nimr said following two days of Saudi clampdown on Shiite protesters.
A video posted on YouTube showed demonstrators chanting "Down with Mohammed bin Fahd," the governor of the Eastern Province and son of Saudi Arabia's former ruler, the late King Fahd.
Saudi Arabia first witnessed popular uprisings after it sent troops to the neighboring Bahrain to suppress the peaceful protestors in the country.
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