AN ancient shield representing the county had an impromptu re-design this week, after a painter’s mistake.
The new town sign installed at a cost of more than £1,550 by Epping Town Council at first showed the three swords on the Essex coat of arms with a semi circle cut out of the top, rather than on the underside, as they appear on the county’s shield.
When the Guardian called the town council about the mistake, clerk Bob Whittome, who was responsible for installing it, said: “I hadn’t noticed.
“I suspect it’s a mistake on the part of the artist. We can get it remedied.”
Fiddlers Hamlet-based artist Jon Gregg, 45, who painted the sign for the council, said: “I’m sure I have seen it both ways, but I sorted it out so the nicks were at the bottom.
“It’s basically an oil painting. I think it was good of the council to go for a sign done in the traditional way, rather than a plastic mould.”
The swords shown on the shield represent seaxe knives, which were carried by the Anglo Saxons more than 1,000 years ago.
They are shown on the county emblem as curved swords, but Mr Gregg’s design is more angular.
Charles Geddes of the Epping Society said: “The sign needs some slight alterations if it’s going to conform, because it’s based on the Essex and City of London arms.
“I do quite appreciate the active depiction of the stag. Before, it was just standing there and now it’s in the air a little.”
Richard Morris, a verderer for Epping Forest and a member of the Loughton Historical Society, said: “Seaxe knives in fact come in several shapes and sizes, and I therefore think the new sign could be considered representative.
“But if the intention is to show the link with Essex by reproducing their shield, ie three Saxon seaxes on a red background, then the town council should have use the same design as approved by the College of Arms for Essex County Council.”
But even after the alteration, he noticed that the sword of St Paul on the City of London shield, which makes up part of the sign, is on the wrong side of the cross of St George and pointing the wrong way.
2011年9月29日星期四
2011年9月28日星期三
Xeikon unveils heat transfer applications at Labelexpo
Xeikon unveiled its new solution for industrial heat transfer applications at Labelexpo Europe 2011, taking place at the Brussels Expo, Brussels, Belgium from 28 September to 1 October. Delivering 1200dpi image quality and just-in-time delivery, the new heat transfer solution offers the perfect alternative to direct printing and in-mould label technologies - traditionally used for decorating plastic containers of industrial goods. The solution works with the Xeikon 3000 Series of digital presses opening up new business opportunities for label printers.
Developed in conjunction with their partners, Xeikon's new industrial heat transfer solution meets the growing demand from brand owners for higher quality decoration and wider versioning capabilities. Containers made from a range of plastics including polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) can now be decorated with high impact graphics and crisp sharp text to deliver maximum shelf impact. Recent advances in light fastness of the QA-I toner, used on all the Xeikon 3000 series, ensures colours don't fade and remain in perfect condition for their whole shelf life. And because it's digital technology, there are no costly plates to be produced and set-up time is minimal - making it the perfect solution for short runs. Brand owners now have the flexibility to revise the decoration in line with customer demand for specific product variants.
‘Traditional decoration techniques used for industrial goods such as direct printing are now struggling to meet the image quality levels demanded by the market,’ said Filip Weymans, marketing & business development manager, Labels & Packaging at Xeikon. ‘In-mould label technology scores well on the quality front, but because the decoration has to be applied when the containers are moulded, it's better suited to more high volume production with longer lead time,’ explains Weymans. ‘Xeikon's new digital heat transfer solution now enables printers to offer their clients the best of both worlds - superior image quality for greater shelf impact and flexibility to decorate containers on a just-in-time basis. This opens up further business opportunities for label printers to start converting business away from the direct printing market into the label market.’
The technique of heat transfer is a two-step process. First, the Xeikon digital press prints the exact number of heat-transfer labels. The roll of printed transfers is then fed into an applicator which applies the label onto the container using heat and / or pressure. Today, Xeikon supports four transfer processes: industrial transfers, promotional transfers, textile transfers and waterslide transfers.
Industrial transfers are used primarily for the decoration of consumer goods packed in plastic containers such as seamless tubes, buckets, cartridges, etc. Up until now, these have mainly been decorated using direct screen, direct offset, SA-labels or in-mould label (IML) techniques. Being older technologies, the direct printing techniques do not offer the print resolution needed to create high quality graphics. Set-up and change-over times can also take several hours so they don't offer the flexibility being demanded by the market today. SA-labels provide a great flexibility but represent a higher cost in decoration based on the label material. IML does deliver very high image quality, but the decoration has to be applied when the container is created. Labels need to be produced beforehand and stored making the time to market relatively long.
Developed in conjunction with their partners, Xeikon's new industrial heat transfer solution meets the growing demand from brand owners for higher quality decoration and wider versioning capabilities. Containers made from a range of plastics including polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) can now be decorated with high impact graphics and crisp sharp text to deliver maximum shelf impact. Recent advances in light fastness of the QA-I toner, used on all the Xeikon 3000 series, ensures colours don't fade and remain in perfect condition for their whole shelf life. And because it's digital technology, there are no costly plates to be produced and set-up time is minimal - making it the perfect solution for short runs. Brand owners now have the flexibility to revise the decoration in line with customer demand for specific product variants.
‘Traditional decoration techniques used for industrial goods such as direct printing are now struggling to meet the image quality levels demanded by the market,’ said Filip Weymans, marketing & business development manager, Labels & Packaging at Xeikon. ‘In-
The technique of heat transfer is a two-step process. First, the Xeikon digital press prints the exact number of heat-transfer labels. The roll of printed transfers is then fed into an applicator which applies the label onto the container using heat and / or pressure. Today, Xeikon supports four transfer processes: industrial transfers, promotional transfers, textile transfers and waterslide transfers.
Industrial transfers are used primarily for the decoration of consumer goods packed in plastic containers such as seamless tubes, buckets, cartridges, etc. Up until now, these have mainly been decorated using direct screen, direct offset, SA-labels or in-
2011年9月27日星期二
Buzz word: Lightweight
"We're the major equipment supplier for the centre, providing the 2,500-ton press," said Colin Folco, general manager at Dieffenbacher, which manufactures hydraulic presses for such sectors as automotive and the wood industry. "The press is the heart of the centre."
The centre is a joint project between the University of Western Ontario and Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, which is considered a world leader in material and process research and development work for the lightweight sector, said Ted Hewitt, Western's vice-president of research and research international relations. The City of London contributed $10 million to the centre, which is slated to open its doors next July.
It will focus on the development of lightweight materials to be used by auto parts manufacturers and others in industry that produce structural components from composite material that can significantly decrease product weight.
"As this new technology starts to take root, companies will start to replace steel and metal with these lightweight composites which have a huge advantage in so far as they're lighter, they can be made more quickly, they're cheaper and they're strong," said Hewitt. "Lightweight composite materials are not only silicon fibre, but hemp, glass, carbon and other natural products as well.
"It's technology which is key here and unique technology which Fraunhofer society is bringing to Canada, which will provide tremendous benefit not just to auto parts suppliers, but a number of other players in the manufacturing sector in the region and throughout the Midwestern U.S."
Faced with increasingly stringent fuel efficiency standards, automakers are eager to wean their dependency off of steel and metal.
Industrial hydraulic presses manufactured by Dieffenbacher are used by automakers to process composite materials, such as carbon and glass fibres, into exterior and interior auto parts, said Folco.
The new centre will act as a testing ground for partnering companies, which also include Ford, General Motors and Toyota, said Hewitt.
"If I'm a manufacturer of bumpers and I'm using plastic technology, I can move to a lightweight material," said Hewitt. "If I'm using metal I can go to the facility and I can mould and produce my new part in small quantities and I can test its use and application for which it's intended and then adapt the technology within my own operation and buy the equipment to do that."
Frank Henning, director of the Fraunhofer Project Center, said Dieffenbacher, whose parent company is headquartered in Germany, was one of the driving forces behind the new centre.
"It's too complicated to send heavy moulds overseas," said Henning. "We need something which is right on their soil in North America, where people can use North American materials and can be faster in innovations."
Henning said composite materials are already found in a variety of automotive parts and process, including frontend assembly carriers, underbody shields, upper beams carriers, seat shells, spare wheel wells, tailgates and roof modules. He noted that BMW is currently working on a carbon-enriched body.
"These technologies are at the edge of being transferred into industrial applications," Henning said. "We'll see more parts on the market in the next two to three years."
The centre is a joint project between the University of Western Ontario and Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, which is considered a world leader in material and process research and development work for the lightweight sector, said Ted Hewitt, Western's vice-president of research and research international relations. The City of London contributed $10 million to the centre, which is slated to open its doors next July.
It will focus on the development of lightweight materials to be used by auto parts manufacturers and others in industry that produce structural components from composite material that can significantly decrease product weight.
"As this new technology starts to take root, companies will start to replace steel and metal with these lightweight composites which have a huge advantage in so far as they're lighter, they can be made more quickly, they're cheaper and they're strong," said Hewitt. "Lightweight composite materials are not only silicon fibre, but hemp, glass, carbon and other natural products as well.
"It's technology which is key here and unique technology which Fraunhofer society is bringing to Canada, which will provide tremendous benefit not just to auto parts suppliers, but a number of other players in the manufacturing sector in the region and throughout the Midwestern U.S."
Faced with increasingly stringent fuel efficiency standards, automakers are eager to wean their dependency off of steel and metal.
Industrial hydraulic presses manufactured by Dieffenbacher are used by automakers to process composite materials, such as carbon and glass fibres, into exterior and interior auto parts, said Folco.
The new centre will act as a testing ground for partnering companies, which also include Ford, General Motors and Toyota, said Hewitt.
"If I'm a manufacturer of bumpers and I'm using plastic technology, I can move to a lightweight material," said Hewitt. "If I'm using metal I can go to the facility and I can mould and produce my new part in small quantities and I can test its use and application for which it's intended and then adapt the technology within my own operation and buy the equipment to do that."
Frank Henning, director of the Fraunhofer Project Center, said Dieffenbacher, whose parent company is headquartered in Germany, was one of the driving forces behind the new centre.
"It's too complicated to send heavy moulds overseas," said Henning. "We need something which is right on their soil in North America, where people can use North American materials and can be faster in innovations."
Henning said composite materials are already found in a variety of automotive parts and process, including frontend assembly carriers, underbody shields, upper beams carriers, seat shells, spare wheel wells, tailgates and roof modules. He noted that BMW is currently working on a carbon-enriched body.
"These technologies are at the edge of being transferred into industrial applications," Henning said. "We'll see more parts on the market in the next two to three years."
2011年9月26日星期一
Interview: Lorraine Pascale
Is there a world more stiflingly chocka than that of the television chef? It seems as if most of the bases are covered. We have hairy bikers, goddesses of various kinds, fish experts, green-wellied toffs, foul-mouthed Scotsmen, foul-mouthed Englishmen, charming Frenchmen, and the twin saints, Delia and Jamie.
If you are hoping to crash into the charmed circle of those whose name can flog van-loads of books, ovenware and aprons, you’d better have a very special Unique Selling Point. Otherwise, you might as well turn your gifts to cooking school dinners. That is, if Jamie hadn’t got there first.
At which point, enter Lorraine Pascale. In terms of a USP, there seems to be no problem. She’s a specialist baker with her own shop, Ella’s Bakehouse (named after her 15-year-old daughter), in central London. Her nifty manner with cupcakes, particularly the ones with Oreo cookies crumbled into vanilla sponge, led to a first TV series, Baking Made Easy, and accompanying book.
Aged 38, she’s also fabulously photogenic, with a rather glam hinterland. Indeed, before she started baking, she was a very successful model; the first British black woman to land the cover of American Elle, the star of campaigns for Donna Karan and Versace and favourite of photographer Bob Carlos Clarke, whose revealing 1992 picture of her caused a mini-storm when it was exhibited earlier this year in a Chelsea gallery.
There’s the intriguing family back story; born in Oxfordshire, Pascale was adopted at 18 months to a white family who brought her up until she was seven. At which point, her adoptive mother became ill, meaning that she was put back into care and handed around various families, until eventually returning to her adoptive mother.
Then there is the question of race in televisual cuisine. Apart from Ainsley Harriott, the total count of black chefs with their own shows before Pascale came along (unless you count Chef on South Park or Lenny Henry’s starring role in the eponymous sitcom), was zero. The domain of television cheffery is almost wholly white, what with your Sophies, Gordons, Nigellas, Jamies and Hughs.
The beautiful Pascale, however, will not discuss any of the above: not family, race, daughter, modelling, Naomi Campbell or adoption. I’d say she’ll never entertain an invitation to appear on the next series of Who Do You Think You Are? She may know very well who she is, but she clearly has no wish for anyone else to.
Here she is on life within the epicentre of the modelling circuit. “It was just about having fun.” No anxieties about food then? “Everyone was very healthy. It was all about shapely figures and we had great food on shoots.”
OK, how about Naomi Campbell. Was she something of a mentor? “Our paths crossed a bit, during Fashion Week. I wasn’t in her circle. She was great fun, though.” Yet like her, you were something of a mould-breaker, weren’t you? “I was just having fun.”
All right, can we talk about your family? “My whole family has been so supportive and some of them might appear in the show,” she confides. How lovely – who is appearing? “I have some really great friends whom I regard as my extended family.”
All right, let’s forget about all of that. Focus on the message of the new show, Home Cooking Made Easy.
“The message I want to get across,” says Pascale, “is that sometimes I’m all for getting something out of a packet, or going to the shop and buying something, pricking holes in it and putting it in the oven. But when I have time, I cook as well.”
I’m a bit thrown by this. The BBC’s new find for domestic cuisine advocates pre-cooked food in plastic trays? “I am a chef, yes,” smiles Pascale divinely. “But I am also human. Sometimes we don’t have time, do we, and we’ll get something ready-made from a shop. But if you do have time, [my series says] look at what you can cook, here are some ideas.”
Phew. For a moment there, I say, I thought you were going to go all Delia on me, and suggest packet mashed potato. “No, no,” says Pascale. “The show is all about freshly made food.”
Pascale, who is of course fabulously thin, admits to having “bad weeks” and “good weeks” with food but cheerily says she burns it all off with regular runs around the London parks. She still has the delighted thrill of the newly discovered, and confesses that on the first day of filming Baking Made Easy, the crew had to tell her to turn it down a bit. “It was as if I was doing a demonstration at school. The crew had to say, ‘You do have a microphone on, you don’t have to shout.’ It took me a while to get into the groove.”
Who are her television cooking idols? “I love Iron Chef America, and MasterChef Australia. And I love Mrs Beeton,” she adds, a reminder that she trained professionally at Leith’s Academy for a year and has various stints in restaurant kitchens under her belt. She tells me about a show in America where a family heads out west for a spell of home schooling and pioneer cooking. “It was very white, the area, in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t have been all that welcome!” That’s interesting. Does she see cooking as an all-white enclave, too?
Pascale, possibly realising we are threatening the borders of a challenging topic, retrenches immediately. “I don’t think cooking sees colour. I am a child of the 1970s. I’ve grown up in London and travelled around. I see beyond colour or even thinking like that.”
We go back to her favourite food (lamb shank, ricotta and chorizo). What about her favourite meal, I ask? “Well, I love breakfast. You can have a fry-up, or a big bowl of porridge, or fruit. But I love meat. And in the summer, I eat lots of fish.”
If you are hoping to crash into the charmed circle of those whose name can flog van-loads of books, ovenware and aprons, you’d better have a very special Unique Selling Point. Otherwise, you might as well turn your gifts to cooking school dinners. That is, if Jamie hadn’t got there first.
At which point, enter Lorraine Pascale. In terms of a USP, there seems to be no problem. She’s a specialist baker with her own shop, Ella’s Bakehouse (named after her 15-year-old daughter), in central London. Her nifty manner with cupcakes, particularly the ones with Oreo cookies crumbled into vanilla sponge, led to a first TV series, Baking Made Easy, and accompanying book.
Aged 38, she’s also fabulously photogenic, with a rather glam hinterland. Indeed, before she started baking, she was a very successful model; the first British black woman to land the cover of American Elle, the star of campaigns for Donna Karan and Versace and favourite of photographer Bob Carlos Clarke, whose revealing 1992 picture of her caused a mini-storm when it was exhibited earlier this year in a Chelsea gallery.
There’s the intriguing family back story; born in Oxfordshire, Pascale was adopted at 18 months to a white family who brought her up until she was seven. At which point, her adoptive mother became ill, meaning that she was put back into care and handed around various families, until eventually returning to her adoptive mother.
Then there is the question of race in televisual cuisine. Apart from Ainsley Harriott, the total count of black chefs with their own shows before Pascale came along (unless you count Chef on South Park or Lenny Henry’s starring role in the eponymous sitcom), was zero. The domain of television cheffery is almost wholly white, what with your Sophies, Gordons, Nigellas, Jamies and Hughs.
The beautiful Pascale, however, will not discuss any of the above: not family, race, daughter, modelling, Naomi Campbell or adoption. I’d say she’ll never entertain an invitation to appear on the next series of Who Do You Think You Are? She may know very well who she is, but she clearly has no wish for anyone else to.
Here she is on life within the epicentre of the modelling circuit. “It was just about having fun.” No anxieties about food then? “Everyone was very healthy. It was all about shapely figures and we had great food on shoots.”
OK, how about Naomi Campbell. Was she something of a mentor? “Our paths crossed a bit, during Fashion Week. I wasn’t in her circle. She was great fun, though.” Yet like her, you were something of a mould-breaker, weren’t you? “I was just having fun.”
All right, can we talk about your family? “My whole family has been so supportive and some of them might appear in the show,” she confides. How lovely – who is appearing? “I have some really great friends whom I regard as my extended family.”
All right, let’s forget about all of that. Focus on the message of the new show, Home Cooking Made Easy.
“The message I want to get across,” says Pascale, “is that sometimes I’m all for getting something out of a packet, or going to the shop and buying something, pricking holes in it and putting it in the oven. But when I have time, I cook as well.”
I’m a bit thrown by this. The BBC’s new find for domestic cuisine advocates pre-cooked food in plastic trays? “I am a chef, yes,” smiles Pascale divinely. “But I am also human. Sometimes we don’t have time, do we, and we’ll get something ready-made from a shop. But if you do have time, [my series says] look at what you can cook, here are some ideas.”
Phew. For a moment there, I say, I thought you were going to go all Delia on me, and suggest packet mashed potato. “No, no,” says Pascale. “The show is all about freshly made food.”
Pascale, who is of course fabulously thin, admits to having “bad weeks” and “good weeks” with food but cheerily says she burns it all off with regular runs around the London parks. She still has the delighted thrill of the newly discovered, and confesses that on the first day of filming Baking Made Easy, the crew had to tell her to turn it down a bit. “It was as if I was doing a demonstration at school. The crew had to say, ‘You do have a microphone on, you don’t have to shout.’ It took me a while to get into the groove.”
Who are her television cooking idols? “I love Iron Chef America, and MasterChef Australia. And I love Mrs Beeton,” she adds, a reminder that she trained professionally at Leith’s Academy for a year and has various stints in restaurant kitchens under her belt. She tells me about a show in America where a family heads out west for a spell of home schooling and pioneer cooking. “It was very white, the area, in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t have been all that welcome!” That’s interesting. Does she see cooking as an all-white enclave, too?
Pascale, possibly realising we are threatening the borders of a challenging topic, retrenches immediately. “I don’t think cooking sees colour. I am a child of the 1970s. I’ve grown up in London and travelled around. I see beyond colour or even thinking like that.”
We go back to her favourite food (lamb shank, ricotta and chorizo). What about her favourite meal, I ask? “Well, I love breakfast. You can have a fry-up, or a big bowl of porridge, or fruit. But I love meat. And in the summer, I eat lots of fish.”
2011年9月25日星期日
Try a new, improved strawberry
This is the perfect time to start planning so that your strawberry crop next year is the best ever.
If you have a strawberry bed, tidy it up in the next month or so. Untidy beds are at greater risk of disease, which will affect cropping next year. Look out for any signs of virus and assess whether plants need replacing. The widest range of varieties is available in October so you can choose the best for flavour and performance.
Commercial strawberry producers have developed many new varieties and growing techniques that have benefits for home gardeners too.
You can grow fruit over a longer season, with excellent flavour and disease-resistance. You can also obtain better yields from less space, reduce the need for fungicides and use less water.
he best thing about growing your own strawberries is that you can pick them fresh, at just the right stage of ripeness when they are juicy, with a sweet flavour and aroma – qualities that change within a day of picking.
You can also seek out varieties that the supermarkets do not stock. 'Sallybright’, a British-bred variety listed by Dobies and Suttons, is a tasty early variety, but the berries are too fragile for supermarkets.
'Malwina’ is a juicy, flavoursome late berry but is deemed too dark a red to sell well in supermarkets. Fortunately, most mail order fruit specialists are listing it. Both are Which? Gardening best buys for flavour, but you can only get them if you buy runners this autumn.
The Which? survey (June 2011) also recommended 'Darlisette’, 'Elsanta’ and 'Sonata’. This summer, as part of a Thompson & Morgan blind taste test, I sampled six new varieties. My two favourites were 'Sweetheart’ for its peardrop flavour and 'Cupid’ for being extra sweet and juicy.
British growers now supply supermarkets with fresh strawberries from April to October, so if you finish picking strawberries in three weeks, consider extending your season by growing an early, mid and late variety.
Another good reason for trying new varieties is that they offer higher yields. R W Walpole is a family firm who have been growing strawberries in Norfolk since 1926, yet Paul Walpole is in no doubt that new varieties are higher yielding: “Old favourites such as 'Royal Sovereign’ or 'Cambridge Favourite’ produce 7oz and 12oz of fruit per plant respectively, but it is easy to find modern varieties that give 1½lb-2lb 3oz per plant,” he says.
When it comes to fruit quality, heavy rain, careless watering or wet soils can spoil the fruit and spread diseases such as grey mould (Botrytis), which makes fruits inedible. For high rainfall areas, Paul recommends varieties with waxy berries such as 'Fenella’ and 'Elegance’. 'Cupid’ is disease resistant, and also rain-tolerant, as its leaves protect the fruits.
Infection can often be traced back to planting too close or the flowers getting too wet. To prevent grey mould, always direct water at the surface of the soil, so the flowers are not wetted. When heavy rain is forecast, a temporary cover of perforated polythene will help.
Straw suppresses weeds and protects the ripening fruit from rot. However, it is vital to wait until there is very little risk of frost before laying straw.
Too early and you will only succeed in making the flowers more vulnerable to frost: the straw acts as a barrier between them and the insulating effect of the soil.
Tabletop growing is a commercial technique that uses growing bags raised off the ground and fitted with automatic watering. This gives growers more control over the crop, and uses less space. It also means they don’t need to sterilise the soil and there is better air circulation around the crop, meaning less disease. The watering and feeding is very precise, hence less waste of resources and less feed leaching into the water table. Picking the fruit is also easier, as is weed control.
For home gardeners, the ability to get more out of a small space, better quality fruit and ease of picking are all advantages that can be copied. Use eight to 10 plants per bag, and support them on a couple of upturned packing crates. Cut a plastic water bottle in half and insert it into the compost upside down. Give a regular dose of liquid tomato feed containing seaweed extract.
If you have a strawberry bed, tidy it up in the next month or so. Untidy beds are at greater risk of disease, which will affect cropping next year. Look out for any signs of virus and assess whether plants need replacing. The widest range of varieties is available in October so you can choose the best for flavour and performance.
Commercial strawberry producers have developed many new varieties and growing techniques that have benefits for home gardeners too.
You can grow fruit over a longer season, with excellent flavour and disease-resistance. You can also obtain better yields from less space, reduce the need for fungicides and use less water.
he best thing about growing your own strawberries is that you can pick them fresh, at just the right stage of ripeness when they are juicy, with a sweet flavour and aroma – qualities that change within a day of picking.
You can also seek out varieties that the supermarkets do not stock. 'Sallybright’, a British-bred variety listed by Dobies and Suttons, is a tasty early variety, but the berries are too fragile for supermarkets.
'Malwina’ is a juicy, flavoursome late berry but is deemed too dark a red to sell well in supermarkets. Fortunately, most mail order fruit specialists are listing it. Both are Which? Gardening best buys for flavour, but you can only get them if you buy runners this autumn.
The Which? survey (June 2011) also recommended 'Darlisette’, 'Elsanta’ and 'Sonata’. This summer, as part of a Thompson & Morgan blind taste test, I sampled six new varieties. My two favourites were 'Sweetheart’ for its peardrop flavour and 'Cupid’ for being extra sweet and juicy.
British growers now supply supermarkets with fresh strawberries from April to October, so if you finish picking strawberries in three weeks, consider extending your season by growing an early, mid and late variety.
Another good reason for trying new varieties is that they offer higher yields. R W Walpole is a family firm who have been growing strawberries in Norfolk since 1926, yet Paul Walpole is in no doubt that new varieties are higher yielding: “Old favourites such as 'Royal Sovereign’ or 'Cambridge Favourite’ produce 7oz and 12oz of fruit per plant respectively, but it is easy to find modern varieties that give 1½lb-2lb 3oz per plant,” he says.
When it comes to fruit quality, heavy rain, careless watering or wet soils can spoil the fruit and spread diseases such as grey mould (Botrytis), which makes fruits inedible. For high rainfall areas, Paul recommends varieties with waxy berries such as 'Fenella’ and 'Elegance’. 'Cupid’ is disease resistant, and also rain-tolerant, as its leaves protect the fruits.
Infection can often be traced back to planting too close or the flowers getting too wet. To prevent grey mould, always direct water at the surface of the soil, so the flowers are not wetted. When heavy rain is forecast, a temporary cover of perforated polythene will help.
Straw suppresses weeds and protects the ripening fruit from rot. However, it is vital to wait until there is very little risk of frost before laying straw.
Too early and you will only succeed in making the flowers more vulnerable to frost: the straw acts as a barrier between them and the insulating effect of the soil.
Tabletop growing is a commercial technique that uses growing bags raised off the ground and fitted with automatic watering. This gives growers more control over the crop, and uses less space. It also means they don’t need to sterilise the soil and there is better air circulation around the crop, meaning less disease. The watering and feeding is very precise, hence less waste of resources and less feed leaching into the water table. Picking the fruit is also easier, as is weed control.
For home gardeners, the ability to get more out of a small space, better quality fruit and ease of picking are all advantages that can be copied. Use eight to 10 plants per bag, and support them on a couple of upturned packing crates. Cut a plastic water bottle in half and insert it into the compost upside down. Give a regular dose of liquid tomato feed containing seaweed extract.
2011年9月22日星期四
Shrinking guppies could help make cod bigger
There is already a great deal of evidence that commercially exploited fish species such as cod are shrinking and breeding at an earlier age as a result of human fishing activities removing the larger, older females which had previously been evolutionary advantageous due to their extra egg producing capacity.
Now a team from the University of Norway led by evolutionary biologist Beatriz Diaz Pauli have started an experiment to see what other potential changes may occur in ocean species as a result of current fishing practices.
The researchers are maintaining populations of between 500 and 900 of guppies, (Poecilia reticulata) in nine tanks. Diaz plans to remove all fish over 16mm in three of the tanks. The remaining tanks will act as a control for the experiments effects, with fish under 16mm being removed in some, while in others fish of any size will be taken to allow for any effect changing population densities may have.
Detailed records of any changes in growth rate, age and size at maturation, reproductive effort, feeding and breeding behaviours will be kept throughout the process.
The team hope to be able to see whether any changes noted are a 'plastic response' whereby the fish mould themselves to a new environment, or are caused by genetic changes.
Plastic responses differ from genetic ones in not being inherent; factors such as poor diet may cause a stunted adult, but the progeny of this stunted fish would not inherit its small size, but a genetically small fish would remain small regardless of diet.
Understanding the reasons behind size changes in fish will help us better understand how over-exploited species might bounce back if breeding grounds were protected or over-fishing was stopped.
Now a team from the University of Norway led by evolutionary biologist Beatriz Diaz Pauli have started an experiment to see what other potential changes may occur in ocean species as a result of current fishing practices.
The researchers are maintaining populations of between 500 and 900 of guppies, (Poecilia reticulata) in nine tanks. Diaz plans to remove all fish over 16mm in three of the tanks. The remaining tanks will act as a control for the experiments effects, with fish under 16mm being removed in some, while in others fish of any size will be taken to allow for any effect changing population densities may have.
Detailed records of any changes in growth rate, age and size at maturation, reproductive effort, feeding and breeding behaviours will be kept throughout the process.
The team hope to be able to see whether any changes noted are a 'plastic response' whereby the fish mould themselves to a new environment, or are caused by genetic changes.
Plastic responses differ from genetic ones in not being inherent; factors such as poor diet may cause a stunted adult, but the progeny of this stunted fish would not inherit its small size, but a genetically small fish would remain small regardless of diet.
Understanding the reasons behind size changes in fish will help us better understand how over-exploited species might bounce back if breeding grounds were protected or over-fishing was stopped.
2011年9月21日星期三
Does your building cough and sneeze?
Do you constantly have headaches, eye or skin irritation, sniffles, sneezes, dry cough, fatigue, dizziness or even flu? You could be suffering from the effects of a poorly constructed house.
Some houses are either built using inappropriate materials or are too close to one another, leading to lack of ventilation and poor lighting.
"Walking into a modern building can sometimes be compared to placing your head inside a plastic bag filled with toxic fumes," says John Bower, an author of several books on healthy home construction.
Sick building syndrome is a term used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and discomfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.
Last month, the Director of City Planning and Nairobi City Council, Tom Odongo, alluded to a study that has shown that more and more people in Nairobi’s Embakasi area are suffering from respiratory diseases.
This syndrome is common in many low-income residential areas in Nairobi because of the limited or no spacing between buildings, which leads to poor ventilation.
Also, Nairobi being a swampy area, especially the plains of Eastlands, there is always the risk of damp raising, where water seeps into the walls, causing dampness in rooms. Using chemicals in a poorly ventilated building can also be hazardous.
Occupation certificate
"From the way a building is designed to the materials used for its finishes — whether it is the wooden floor or paint on its walls — the causes of sick buildings are frequently pinned down to flaws in the ventilation, level of dampness or air conditioning," explains University of Nairobi don and environmental design expert, architect Musau Kimeu.
According to Architectural Association of Kenya chairman Stephen Oundo, this problem has several faces and the blame lies either with the developer, the professions employed by the developer or the approving authorities.
Oundo says most of the city developments do not have an occupation certificate and, therefore, their human habitation status cannot be verified.
Having an occupation certificate shows that the building is suitable for occupancy. City councils or Municipal councils issue this certificate to show that a building has been built in compliance with the Building Code.
Kimeu, who is the chairman of the Environmental Design Consultants Chapter of the Architectural Association of Kenya, adds that dampness in your house causes mould, potentially causing allergic reactions and respiratory problems.
In the office, you find that employees get symptoms such as eye, nose and throat irritation as well as neurotoxic or general health problems.
Kimeu, notes that the main cause of such discomfort is poor indoor air quality, which is as a result of poor ventilation.
Says Kimeu: "The big challenge of course is for everyone to understand why these symptoms occur. There are times you walk into the office and you start having a headache, dry cough or feeling dizzy and too tired to execute your work. It could be because of a sick building."
A World Health Organisation report suggested that up to 30 per cent of new and renovated buildings worldwide may be linked to the symptoms of sick building syndrome.
Kimeu says that apart from inadequate ventilation, sick building syndrome can be attributed to chemical contaminants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from office machines, carpets and furniture as well as biological contaminants like bacteria, moulds, dust mites and viruses. These can cause acute effects on the occupants of a building.
These biological contaminants may breed in stagnant water that has accumulated in ducts or ceiling tiles, which may in turn lead to symptoms like cough, chest tightness, fever, chills, muscle aches, and allergic responses such as mucous membrane irritation and upper respiratory congestion.
What then can be done to correct this? Oundo says cross ventilation should be incorporated in building designs to increase air circulation and ensure proper ventilation.
"This can be done by having windows on opposite sides of the room, resulting in free airflow across the space," explains Kimeu.
Oundo also says ventilation standards in the Building Code should be adhered to and this can be achieved through proper and transparent enforcement by the relevant local authorities.
Kimeu, on the other hand, says it is important for architects to ensure there is sufficient natural ventilation in buildings and for users to ensure there is no contamination through dampness or water spillage.
"Nairobi’s tropical upland climate is so good that all buildings, if properly designed, can be naturally ventilated," says Kimeu.
There are also those building materials that are toxic in nature and architects should specify non-toxic building materials that have been tested and approved.
Some houses are either built using inappropriate materials or are too close to one another, leading to lack of ventilation and poor lighting.
"Walking into a modern building can sometimes be compared to placing your head inside a plastic bag filled with toxic fumes," says John Bower, an author of several books on healthy home construction.
Sick building syndrome is a term used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and discomfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.
Last month, the Director of City Planning and Nairobi City Council, Tom Odongo, alluded to a study that has shown that more and more people in Nairobi’s Embakasi area are suffering from respiratory diseases.
This syndrome is common in many low-income residential areas in Nairobi because of the limited or no spacing between buildings, which leads to poor ventilation.
Also, Nairobi being a swampy area, especially the plains of Eastlands, there is always the risk of damp raising, where water seeps into the walls, causing dampness in rooms. Using chemicals in a poorly ventilated building can also be hazardous.
Occupation certificate
"From the way a building is designed to the materials used for its finishes — whether it is the wooden floor or paint on its walls — the causes of sick buildings are frequently pinned down to flaws in the ventilation, level of dampness or air conditioning," explains University of Nairobi don and environmental design expert, architect Musau Kimeu.
According to Architectural Association of Kenya chairman Stephen Oundo, this problem has several faces and the blame lies either with the developer, the professions employed by the developer or the approving authorities.
Oundo says most of the city developments do not have an occupation certificate and, therefore, their human habitation status cannot be verified.
Having an occupation certificate shows that the building is suitable for occupancy. City councils or Municipal councils issue this certificate to show that a building has been built in compliance with the Building Code.
Kimeu, who is the chairman of the Environmental Design Consultants Chapter of the Architectural Association of Kenya, adds that dampness in your house causes mould, potentially causing allergic reactions and respiratory problems.
In the office, you find that employees get symptoms such as eye, nose and throat irritation as well as neurotoxic or general health problems.
Kimeu, notes that the main cause of such discomfort is poor indoor air quality, which is as a result of poor ventilation.
Says Kimeu: "The big challenge of course is for everyone to understand why these symptoms occur. There are times you walk into the office and you start having a headache, dry cough or feeling dizzy and too tired to execute your work. It could be because of a sick building."
A World Health Organisation report suggested that up to 30 per cent of new and renovated buildings worldwide may be linked to the symptoms of sick building syndrome.
Kimeu says that apart from inadequate ventilation, sick building syndrome can be attributed to chemical contaminants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from office machines, carpets and furniture as well as biological contaminants like bacteria, moulds, dust mites and viruses. These can cause acute effects on the occupants of a building.
These biological contaminants may breed in stagnant water that has accumulated in ducts or ceiling tiles, which may in turn lead to symptoms like cough, chest tightness, fever, chills, muscle aches, and allergic responses such as mucous membrane irritation and upper respiratory congestion.
What then can be done to correct this? Oundo says cross ventilation should be incorporated in building designs to increase air circulation and ensure proper ventilation.
"This can be done by having windows on opposite sides of the room, resulting in free airflow across the space," explains Kimeu.
Oundo also says ventilation standards in the Building Code should be adhered to and this can be achieved through proper and transparent enforcement by the relevant local authorities.
Kimeu, on the other hand, says it is important for architects to ensure there is sufficient natural ventilation in buildings and for users to ensure there is no contamination through dampness or water spillage.
"Nairobi’s tropical upland climate is so good that all buildings, if properly designed, can be naturally ventilated," says Kimeu.
There are also those building materials that are toxic in nature and architects should specify non-toxic building materials that have been tested and approved.
2011年9月20日星期二
Sintex looking to buy custom moulding firms in US, Europe
Sintex Industries will take a re-look at custom moulding companies with a topline of $400-500 million in the US and Europe it considered buying 2-3 years back, said group president Sunil Kanojia.
The company’s last overseas acquisition was of Wausaukee Composites Inc of the US in May 2008 for $18 million.
“The companies we wanted to buy were not doing well during the downturn in 2008-09. Though the overseas markets are still a little depressed, they (companies) are doing better and we might revisit them,” Kanojia said on Monday.
He did not reveal the identity of the companies Sintex is looking at or the value of the buy, but said that the requirements in a target company are that it should have a pan-European or pan-American presence and is a Tier-I manufacturer. “That would mean it has revenues of $400-500 million,” he said.
Custom moulding refers to composites which are products made from combining two or more different materials and used by original equipment manufacturers in the medical imaging, aerospace and automotive sectors.
Besides Wausaukee, Sintex’s subsidiaries in the moulding space include Mumbai-based Bright AutoPlast Pvt Ltd, which it lapped up in September 2007 for `149 crore in an all-cash deal, and France’s Nief Plastic SA, which it bought the following month for €30.9 million euros. Nief has since brought into its fold two small firms for $12-14 million.
Sintex had gross debt and cash of Rs2,700 crore and Rs1,300 crore, respectively as on June 30.
A September 7 note by Karvy Stock Broking’s Jagadishwar Pasunoori referenced a Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) report, according to which the Indian composites industry is worth over Rs5,000 crore. “TIFACpredictsthatthecompositesmarketwillgrowataround25%duringnext4-5yearsunlockingopportunitiesintransport,infrastructure,wind energyandoilandgassegments.,” he said.
Besides custom moulding, Sintex is into building materials and textiles.
Building materials is Sintex’s biggest segment, contributing 50% to its topline, textile 10% and custom moulding the rest. Building materials include monolithic construction, prefabricated buildings and storage tanks, which are what Sintex is best known for.
Monolithic construction is a building solution where amould of a structure is made and erected at the construction site and liquid concrete is poured through the mould , which is then removed. This is cheaper and takes a shorter time to build than conventional buildings.
The company’s last overseas acquisition was of Wausaukee Composites Inc of the US in May 2008 for $18 million.
“The companies we wanted to buy were not doing well during the downturn in 2008-09. Though the overseas markets are still a little depressed, they (companies) are doing better and we might revisit them,” Kanojia said on Monday.
He did not reveal the identity of the companies Sintex is looking at or the value of the buy, but said that the requirements in a target company are that it should have a pan-European or pan-American presence and is a Tier-I manufacturer. “That would mean it has revenues of $400-500 million,” he said.
Custom moulding refers to composites which are products made from combining two or more different materials and used by original equipment manufacturers in the medical imaging, aerospace and automotive sectors.
Besides Wausaukee, Sintex’s subsidiaries in the moulding space include Mumbai-based Bright AutoPlast Pvt Ltd, which it lapped up in September 2007 for `149 crore in an all-cash deal, and France’s Nief Plastic SA, which it bought the following month for €30.9 million euros. Nief has since brought into its fold two small firms for $12-14 million.
Sintex had gross debt and cash of Rs2,700 crore and Rs1,300 crore, respectively as on June 30.
A September 7 note by Karvy Stock Broking’s Jagadishwar Pasunoori referenced a Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) report, according to which the Indian composites industry is worth over Rs5,000 crore. “TIFACpredictsthatthecompositesmarketwillgrowataround25%duringnext4-5yearsunlockingopportunitiesintransport,infrastructure,wind energyandoilandgassegments.,” he said.
Besides custom moulding, Sintex is into building materials and textiles.
Building materials is Sintex’s biggest segment, contributing 50% to its topline, textile 10% and custom moulding the rest. Building materials include monolithic construction, prefabricated buildings and storage tanks, which are what Sintex is best known for.
Monolithic construction is a building solution where a
2011年9月19日星期一
Horace Silver's music pours out in golden performances
HORACE Silver is a many-sided musician and composer and nothing shows that quite like Sister Sadie and Peace, two showcase tunes performed Sunday afternoon.
Sister Sadie is a kick-ass party piece more in the recognized Silver mould and played with the requisite gusto, and funk, by tenor saxophonist Don Braden, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, pianist Peter Martin, bassist Steve Kirby and drummer Quincy Davis.
Peace is an almost delicate composition performed by pianist Martin and Braden playing flute in a clear crowd-pleaser during the first of two concerts Sunday in the season-opener of the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series.
If Peace was like an elegant etude, Sister Sadie conjures a raucous party-goer who likes to dance all night.
Gardner, the new Babs Asper trumpet professor in the University of Manitoba faculty of music's jazz studies department, kicked it off with a blistering solo and the band kept it up through a string of solos that burned.
Guests Braden and Martin are wonderful players with the affinity for and chops to play Silver's music. With Gardner, who arrived in Winnipeg in August, and his faculty mates Kirby, director of jazz studies, and Davis they made a formidable band with the punch to do justice to classic Silver compositions such as Nica's Dream, Song for My Father and Strollin'.
Strollin' was a showcase for Martin, an excellent pianist, who turned in great solos and was a tasteful accompanist throughout the concert.
Braden is a terrific tenor player, and he surprised me, at least, with his flute playing. I confess to not being much as fan of jazz flute, but Braden may have found a convert with his performances on Peace and on Silver's Serenade.
The concert included many well-known Silver tunes, but Gardner added an arrangement of a lesser-known piece, Sweet Sweetie Dee that gave room for the trumpeter and Braden to blow hard.
Silver, a co-founder of The Jazz Messengers with drummer Art Blakey, was known for funky, soulful compositions; the kind that make your feet move and that chase you onto the dance floor in a club. Songs like The Jody Grind that, along with Sister Sadie, gave the Berney Theatre audience a sense they were in just such a club.
Perhaps his best-known tune, Song for My Father, never fails to catch an audience's attention with its infectious music. Like so may Silver tunes, you've probably heard it before, many times, and it sounds and feels good when you hear it again.
The only non-Silver composition played was Braden's The Vale Jumpers, which he described as a cousin to Sister Sadie. And it had the same punch and ability to garb an audience that Silver's best work does.
Sister Sadie is a kick-ass party piece more in the recognized Silver mould and played with the requisite gusto, and funk, by tenor saxophonist Don Braden, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, pianist Peter Martin, bassist Steve Kirby and drummer Quincy Davis.
Peace is an almost delicate composition performed by pianist Martin and Braden playing flute in a clear crowd-pleaser during the first of two concerts Sunday in the season-opener of the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series.
If Peace was like an elegant etude, Sister Sadie conjures a raucous party-goer who likes to dance all night.
Gardner, the new Babs Asper trumpet professor in the University of Manitoba faculty of music's jazz studies department, kicked it off with a blistering solo and the band kept it up through a string of solos that burned.
Guests Braden and Martin are wonderful players with the affinity for and chops to play Silver's music. With Gardner, who arrived in Winnipeg in August, and his faculty mates Kirby, director of jazz studies, and Davis they made a formidable band with the punch to do justice to classic Silver compositions such as Nica's Dream, Song for My Father and Strollin'.
Strollin' was a showcase for Martin, an excellent pianist, who turned in great solos and was a tasteful accompanist throughout the concert.
Braden is a terrific tenor player, and he surprised me, at least, with his flute playing. I confess to not being much as fan of jazz flute, but Braden may have found a convert with his performances on Peace and on Silver's Serenade.
The concert included many well-known Silver tunes, but Gardner added an arrangement of a lesser-known piece, Sweet Sweetie Dee that gave room for the trumpeter and Braden to blow hard.
Silver, a co-founder of The Jazz Messengers with drummer Art Blakey, was known for funky, soulful compositions; the kind that make your feet move and that chase you onto the dance floor in a club. Songs like The Jody Grind that, along with Sister Sadie, gave the Berney Theatre audience a sense they were in just such a club.
Perhaps his best-known tune, Song for My Father, never fails to catch an audience's attention with its infectious music. Like so may Silver tunes, you've probably heard it before, many times, and it sounds and feels good when you hear it again.
The only non-Silver composition played was Braden's The Vale Jumpers, which he described as a cousin to Sister Sadie. And it had the same punch and ability to garb an audience that Silver's best work does.
GIFF holds Third Graduation
Two Hundred and two graduates of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) were at the weekend awarded Diplomas and Certificates after successfully completing a two-year training programme.
In a speech read for her, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education, advised freight forwarders not to connive with unscrupulous elements in the society to abuse the nation’s international trade system.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu appealed to them to go about their duties with dignity, integrity, patriotism, self-respect, and above all uphold the good name of Ghana to ensure a sound economy.
Mr Robert Kutin Jnr, Chairman of the Education Board of the Institute, said the institute has aimed at providing a world class centre for Freight Management Studies for the sub-region, to enhance intra-regional trade.
Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, President of GIFF, said since the institutionalization of the FIATA Diploma in 2005, the Institute had not rested on its oars to provide a continuous professional training for members.
Mr Ahenkorah announced that apart from obtaining authorization from the Ghana Maritime Authority to run the Dangerous Goods by Sea Programme, GIFF had also concluded collaborations with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, to train members in the Customs Proficiency Examination.
He asked the graduates to utilize the acquired skills, knowledge and expertise, to help transform “our rather turbulent and often challenging industry.”
Mr Godwin Pinto, collected four of the 12 prizes, he was adjudged the overall best student in Multi-modal Transport, Logistics, Insurance and ICT in Forwarding.
In a speech read for her, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education, advised freight forwarders not to connive with unscrupulous elements in the society to abuse the nation’s international trade system.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu appealed to them to go about their duties with dignity, integrity, patriotism, self-respect, and above all uphold the good name of Ghana to ensure a sound economy.
Mr Robert Kutin Jnr, Chairman of the Education Board of the Institute, said the institute has aimed at providing a world class centre for Freight Management Studies for the sub-region, to enhance intra-regional trade.
Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, President of GIFF, said since the institutionalization of the FIATA Diploma in 2005, the Institute had not rested on its oars to provide a continuous professional training for members.
Mr Ahenkorah announced that apart from obtaining authorization from the Ghana Maritime Authority to run the Dangerous Goods by Sea Programme, GIFF had also concluded collaborations with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, to train members in the Customs Proficiency Examination.
He asked the graduates to utilize the acquired skills, knowledge and expertise, to help transform “our rather turbulent and often challenging industry.”
Mr Godwin Pinto, collected four of the 12 prizes, he was adjudged the overall best student in Multi-modal Transport, Logistics, Insurance and ICT in Forwarding.
2011年9月18日星期日
Sweet dreams
Some melted butter to brush into the moulds
2dsstsp plain flour to line the moulds
1 Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until combined. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.
2 Melt the butter gently then mix a quarter to a third of the base mixture into the butter. Stir well to mix then incorporate this back into the base mix. Add the orange and thyme then mix everything together so it is smooth and well mixed. Transfer to a tub and refrigerate before using.
3 Brush madeleine moulds with melted butter then fill each mould with plain flour. Shake the mould so the flour coats the inside, tipping out any excess flour. Now spoon the mixture into each mould, so it comes three-quarters of the way up (they will rise a little while baking). Place in an oven set to 190C/gas mark 5 and cook for about 10 minutes or until just done in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave in the moulds until cool. Carefully tip them out and, when totally cooled, store in an airtight tub for up to 24 hours. To serve, warm the madeleines briefly in the oven and dust with icing sugar before serving. Other flavours you could try include cinnamon powder, ground five-spice, honey or ground nuts, especially hazelnuts or pistachios.
I am the unashamed, dedicated and enthusiastic owner of a sweet tooth. Pudding takes priority. It’s not only desserts, come to think of it, but sweet treats of all kinds. A full-blown pudding at home is a rarity if I’m honest, although it’s not unheard of for us to reach for some good-quality shop-bought ice-cream topped with homemade chocolate sauce for a quick fix.
If we have friends over, it’s a different story. Preparing a carefully planned dessert might be the usual option, but occasionally we take an alternative route, making a selection of petits fours rather like those we serve guests in the restaurant with their coffee. These small bites at the end of dinner are an irresistible highlight for me. In the restaurant there might be small dark chocolates, fruit jellies, fudge, or freshly baked madeleines.
At home, laid out on platters for guests to share, petits fours make a dazzling impact and satisfy any longing for pudding with a striking and distinctive alternative to a traditional dessert. Guests can try a little of everything if they wish and you get the chance to experiment. Sometimes I keep chocolates traditional, flavoured with fruit, nuts, coffee or champagne; occasionally I want unusual pairings, such as lavender or five-spice. And madeleines are wonderful with honey and pistachios or an autumnal hint of lemon and thyme.
2dsstsp plain flour to line the moulds
1 Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until combined. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.
2 Melt the butter gently then mix a quarter to a third of the base mixture into the butter. Stir well to mix then incorporate this back into the base mix. Add the orange and thyme then mix everything together so it is smooth and well mixed. Transfer to a tub and refrigerate before using.
3 Brush madeleine moulds with melted butter then fill each mould with plain flour. Shake the mould so the flour coats the inside, tipping out any excess flour. Now spoon the mixture into each mould, so it comes three-quarters of the way up (they will rise a little while baking). Place in an oven set to 190C/gas mark 5 and cook for about 10 minutes or until just done in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave in the moulds until cool. Carefully tip them out and, when totally cooled, store in an airtight tub for up to 24 hours. To serve, warm the madeleines briefly in the oven and dust with icing sugar before serving. Other flavours you could try include cinnamon powder, ground five-spice, honey or ground nuts, especially hazelnuts or pistachios.
I am the unashamed, dedicated and enthusiastic owner of a sweet tooth. Pudding takes priority. It’s not only desserts, come to think of it, but sweet treats of all kinds. A full-blown pudding at home is a rarity if I’m honest, although it’s not unheard of for us to reach for some good-quality shop-bought ice-cream topped with homemade chocolate sauce for a quick fix.
If we have friends over, it’s a different story. Preparing a carefully planned dessert might be the usual option, but occasionally we take an alternative route, making a selection of petits fours rather like those we serve guests in the restaurant with their coffee. These small bites at the end of dinner are an irresistible highlight for me. In the restaurant there might be small dark chocolates, fruit jellies, fudge, or freshly baked madeleines.
At home, laid out on platters for guests to share, petits fours make a dazzling impact and satisfy any longing for pudding with a striking and distinctive alternative to a traditional dessert. Guests can try a little of everything if they wish and you get the chance to experiment. Sometimes I keep chocolates traditional, flavoured with fruit, nuts, coffee or champagne; occasionally I want unusual pairings, such as lavender or five-spice. And madeleines are wonderful with honey and pistachios or an autumnal hint of lemon and thyme.
2011年9月15日星期四
Slow gutters, no glory
The kids are back in school and that means summer's over. Autumn is coming and soon we'll be climbing up our roofs and cleaning out the gutters before the fall leaves begin their damage. But how much damage can some leaves really do? Well, in my business, I've seen quite a bit.
I hate coming to what's supposed to be a simple job, then, when I start to work and tear things down, I see tons more work thanks to water damage. Your home's number 1 enemy is water. Why is it the enemy? Because it causes things like mould and rot that compromise the entire structural integrity of the house, not to mention major health problems. That's why we always want water to flow away from our house, from its roof to the foundations. Gutters play an important role in that process. They're supposed to collect the water from your roof and direct it as far away from your home's foundation as possible - I suggest at least five feet, but it depends on how close your neighbour's property line is. Seems simple, but there are a few things that can get in the way of gutters doing their job.
Many of the newer homes being built have more than just a single roof. For example, there could be a roof over the garage, one over the second floor of the house, and smaller ones over rooms that extend from the house, such as a kitchen area or mud room. No matter what, there should be an eavestrough running along the bottom of every roofline on a house. Every eavestrough needs to have a downspout that drains the collected water away from the roof. You never want a downspout to drain water directly onto a lower level roof, this will cause water and ice damage to the shingles and roof deck underneath. It must always drain into a lower roof's eavestrough. You also never want a downspout to drain directly into the weeping tiles below ground or near the foundation, this causes water damage to the foundation. In either case, the result is water coming into the house at the roof or foundation level. Not a good thing.
Some people think gutters can be a DIY project. Most DIY gutters are plastic and come in standard sections of about 10 to 12 feet. Plastic gets brittle, especially in the cold, and will need to be replaced. That's why aluminum is the industry standard for gutters. It never rusts, unlike steel, and it's weather resistant, unlike plastic. We also want to use a thick gauge for all metal gutters. The thicker the gauge the longer they'll last. When gutters are built in sections there's going to be seams and seams can leak. And believe me, if it can leak, it will. That's why I only recommend seamless eavestroughs.
Professionals use a forming machine to construct seamless eavestroughs - custom sized to fit the length of any roof. It's the only way an eavestrough should be done and it's the only way to prevent leaks. Professionals also make sure the entire eavestroughs is pitched correctly. Otherwise, water is going to gather and it won't drain properly. You want something that's going to last. You don't want something you'll have to replace after the first winter. Doing it right the first time means we don't have to do it again. You always need to bring in the right people for the right job, so get a professional to install your gutters.
I hate coming to what's supposed to be a simple job, then, when I start to work and tear things down, I see tons more work thanks to water damage. Your home's number 1 enemy is water. Why is it the enemy? Because it causes things like mould and rot that compromise the entire structural integrity of the house, not to mention major health problems. That's why we always want water to flow away from our house, from its roof to the foundations. Gutters play an important role in that process. They're supposed to collect the water from your roof and direct it as far away from your home's foundation as possible - I suggest at least five feet, but it depends on how close your neighbour's property line is. Seems simple, but there are a few things that can get in the way of gutters doing their job.
Many of the newer homes being built have more than just a single roof. For example, there could be a roof over the garage, one over the second floor of the house, and smaller ones over rooms that extend from the house, such as a kitchen area or mud room. No matter what, there should be an eavestrough running along the bottom of every roofline on a house. Every eavestrough needs to have a downspout that drains the collected water away from the roof. You never want a downspout to drain water directly onto a lower level roof, this will cause water and ice damage to the shingles and roof deck underneath. It must always drain into a lower roof's eavestrough. You also never want a downspout to drain directly into the weeping tiles below ground or near the foundation, this causes water damage to the foundation. In either case, the result is water coming into the house at the roof or foundation level. Not a good thing.
Some people think gutters can be a DIY project. Most DIY gutters are plastic and come in standard sections of about 10 to 12 feet. Plastic gets brittle, especially in the cold, and will need to be replaced. That's why aluminum is the industry standard for gutters. It never rusts, unlike steel, and it's weather resistant, unlike plastic. We also want to use a thick gauge for all metal gutters. The thicker the gauge the longer they'll last. When gutters are built in sections there's going to be seams and seams can leak. And believe me, if it can leak, it will. That's why I only recommend seamless eavestroughs.
Professionals use a forming machine to construct seamless eavestroughs - custom sized to fit the length of any roof. It's the only way an eavestrough should be done and it's the only way to prevent leaks. Professionals also make sure the entire eavestroughs is pitched correctly. Otherwise, water is going to gather and it won't drain properly. You want something that's going to last. You don't want something you'll have to replace after the first winter. Doing it right the first time means we don't have to do it again. You always need to bring in the right people for the right job, so get a professional to install your gutters.
2011年9月14日星期三
Slow gutters, no glory
The kids are back in school and that means summer's over. Autumn is coming and soon we'll be climbing up our roofs and cleaning out the gutters before the fall leaves begin their damage. But how much damage can some leaves really do? Well, in my business, I've seen quite a bit.
I hate coming to what's supposed to be a simple job, then, when I start to work and tear things down, I see tons more work thanks to water damage. Your home's number 1 enemy is water. Why is it the enemy? Because it causes things like mould and rot which compromise the entire structural integrity of the house, not to mention major health problems. That's why we always want water to flow away from our house, from its roof to the foundations. Gutters play an important role in that process. They're supposed to collect the water from your roof and direct it as far away from your home's foundation as possible — I suggest at least 5 feet, but it depends on how close your neighbour's property line is. Seems simple, but there are a few things that can get in the way of gutters doing their job.
Many of the newer homes being built have more than just a single roof. For example, there could be a roof over the garage, one over the second floor of the house, and smaller ones over rooms that extend from the house, such as a kitchen area or mud room. No matter what, there should be an eavestrough running along the bottom of every roofline on a house. Every eavestrough needs to have a downspout that drains the collected water away from the roof. You never want a downspout to drain water directly onto a lower level roof, this will cause water and ice damage to the shingles and roof deck underneath. It must always drain into a lower roof's eavestrough. You also never want a downspout to drain directly into the weeping tiles below ground or near the foundation, this causes water damage to the foundation. In either case, the result is water coming into the house at the roof or foundation level. Not a good thing.
Some people think gutters can be a DIY project. Most DIY gutters are plastic and come in standard sections of about 10 to 12 feet. Plastic gets brittle, especially in the cold, and will need to be replaced. That's why aluminum is the industry standard for gutters. It never rusts, unlike steel, and it's weather resistant, unlike plastic. We also want to use a thick gauge for all metal gutters. The thicker the gauge the longer they'll last. When gutters are built in sections there's going to be seams and seams can leak. And believe me, if it can leak, it will. That's why I only recommend seamless eavestroughs.
Professionals use a forming machine to construct seamless eavestroughs — custom sized to fit the length of any roof. It's the only way an eavestrough should be done and it's the only way to prevent leaks. Professionals also make sure the entire eavestroughs is pitched correctly. Otherwise, water is going to gather and it won't drain properly. You want something that's going to last. You don't want something you'll have to replace after the first winter. Doing it right the first time means we don't have to do it again. You always need to bring in the right people for the right job, so get a professional to install your gutters.
Before the temperature drops below freezing our gutters need to be clear of any debris. If our eavestroughs and downspouts are clogged two things will happen: First, any debris and water caught in the eavestrough will freeze into a channel of frozen muck. This will overload the eavestrough and eventually it will warp (remember, water expands as it freezes).
Secondly, water can back up under the shingles and cause ice damming and water damage to the roof deck. I know it's a pain to go up there and clean out the gutters, so some people put it off for as long as possible. Not a good idea if you want to preserve the integrity of your roof. A good way to prevent clogging is by installing a screen guard that sits over the eavestrough. This prevents any leaves or debris to fall in. It also eliminates the chore of you having to clean your gutters. There are a few screen guard products out there you can purchase and install yourself. Just remember to brush off any leaves that can get stuck on the screen so they don't block the screen's holes and prevent proper draining.
I've heard some complaints about ice damming after installing a screen over eavestroughs. Let me clear this up: The screen isn't causing ice damming, it's heat loss from the home that's causing it. You know those icicles that hang off the gutters in the winter? A lot of people seem to like them, but icicles are created when snow melts, and then the water refreezes before it drains through the eavestroughs. How can the snow on our roofs be melting if the temperature outdoors is below freezing? That's because heat is escaping from the roof and melting the snow. So if we want to prevent ice damming we need to think about insulating our attics better and double-checking our roofs for any potential heat loss.
I hate coming to what's supposed to be a simple job, then, when I start to work and tear things down, I see tons more work thanks to water damage. Your home's number 1 enemy is water. Why is it the enemy? Because it causes things like mould and rot which compromise the entire structural integrity of the house, not to mention major health problems. That's why we always want water to flow away from our house, from its roof to the foundations. Gutters play an important role in that process. They're supposed to collect the water from your roof and direct it as far away from your home's foundation as possible — I suggest at least 5 feet, but it depends on how close your neighbour's property line is. Seems simple, but there are a few things that can get in the way of gutters doing their job.
Many of the newer homes being built have more than just a single roof. For example, there could be a roof over the garage, one over the second floor of the house, and smaller ones over rooms that extend from the house, such as a kitchen area or mud room. No matter what, there should be an eavestrough running along the bottom of every roofline on a house. Every eavestrough needs to have a downspout that drains the collected water away from the roof. You never want a downspout to drain water directly onto a lower level roof, this will cause water and ice damage to the shingles and roof deck underneath. It must always drain into a lower roof's eavestrough. You also never want a downspout to drain directly into the weeping tiles below ground or near the foundation, this causes water damage to the foundation. In either case, the result is water coming into the house at the roof or foundation level. Not a good thing.
Some people think gutters can be a DIY project. Most DIY gutters are plastic and come in standard sections of about 10 to 12 feet. Plastic gets brittle, especially in the cold, and will need to be replaced. That's why aluminum is the industry standard for gutters. It never rusts, unlike steel, and it's weather resistant, unlike plastic. We also want to use a thick gauge for all metal gutters. The thicker the gauge the longer they'll last. When gutters are built in sections there's going to be seams and seams can leak. And believe me, if it can leak, it will. That's why I only recommend seamless eavestroughs.
Professionals use a forming machine to construct seamless eavestroughs — custom sized to fit the length of any roof. It's the only way an eavestrough should be done and it's the only way to prevent leaks. Professionals also make sure the entire eavestroughs is pitched correctly. Otherwise, water is going to gather and it won't drain properly. You want something that's going to last. You don't want something you'll have to replace after the first winter. Doing it right the first time means we don't have to do it again. You always need to bring in the right people for the right job, so get a professional to install your gutters.
Before the temperature drops below freezing our gutters need to be clear of any debris. If our eavestroughs and downspouts are clogged two things will happen: First, any debris and water caught in the eavestrough will freeze into a channel of frozen muck. This will overload the eavestrough and eventually it will warp (remember, water expands as it freezes).
Secondly, water can back up under the shingles and cause ice damming and water damage to the roof deck. I know it's a pain to go up there and clean out the gutters, so some people put it off for as long as possible. Not a good idea if you want to preserve the integrity of your roof. A good way to prevent clogging is by installing a screen guard that sits over the eavestrough. This prevents any leaves or debris to fall in. It also eliminates the chore of you having to clean your gutters. There are a few screen guard products out there you can purchase and install yourself. Just remember to brush off any leaves that can get stuck on the screen so they don't block the screen's holes and prevent proper draining.
I've heard some complaints about ice damming after installing a screen over eavestroughs. Let me clear this up: The screen isn't causing ice damming, it's heat loss from the home that's causing it. You know those icicles that hang off the gutters in the winter? A lot of people seem to like them, but icicles are created when snow melts, and then the water refreezes before it drains through the eavestroughs. How can the snow on our roofs be melting if the temperature outdoors is below freezing? That's because heat is escaping from the roof and melting the snow. So if we want to prevent ice damming we need to think about insulating our attics better and double-checking our roofs for any potential heat loss.
2011年9月13日星期二
Reid Industrial Graphic Products offers various plastic moulding processes
Reid Industrial Graphic Products assists their customers in choosing from multiple plastic moulding processes to fit their budget, expertise and resources.
Plastics are moulded into various forms and hardened for commercial use. Plastic moulded products are made using various moulding processes including injection moulding, blow moulding, compression moulding, film insert moulding, gas injection moulding, rotational moulding, structural foam moulding and thermoforming.
Commonly used in mass production or prototyping of products, injection moulding involves forcing melted plastic into a mould cavity, which once cooled can be removed. Injection moulding equipment is used to mass produce toys, kitchen utensils, bottle caps and cell phone stands among others.
Similar to injection moulding, blow moulding involves pouring hot liquid plastic out of a barrel vertically into a molten tube. The mould closes on it and forces it outward to conform to the inside shape of the mould. Once cooled, the hollow part is formed.
Bottles, tubes and containers are typically made using the blow moulding process.
Hard plastic is pressed between two heated mould halves, and the parts formed are air-cooled. Compression mouldings usually use vertical presses instead of horizontal presses.
This plastic moulding technique embeds an image beneath the surface of a moulded part while a material similar to film/ fabric is inserted into a mould, following which plastic is injected.
Used to create plastic parts with hollow interiors, partial shot of plastic is followed by high-pressure gas to fill the mould cavity with plastic.
Hollow moulds packed with powdered plastic are secured to pipe-like spokes that extend from a central hub with the moulds rotating on separate axes simultaneously.
The hub swings the whole mould to a closed furnace room causing the powder to melt and stick to the insides of the tools. As the moulds turn slowly, the tools move into a cooling room where a water spray causes the plastic to harden into a hollow part.
Usually used for parts that require thicker walls than standard injection moulding, structural foam moulding involves inserting a small amount of nitrogen or chemical blow agent into the plastic material to make the walls thicker.
Foaming happens as the melted plastic material enters the mould cavity and a thin plastic skin forms and solidifies in the mould wall.
This plastic moulding process involves sheets of pre-extruded rigid plastics horizontally heated and sucked down into hollow one-piece tools. When the hot plastic solidifies, its shape conforms to that of the mould.
Plastics are moulded into various forms and hardened for commercial use. Plastic moulded products are made using various moulding processes including injection moulding, blow moulding, compression moulding, film insert moulding, gas injection moulding, rotational moulding, structural foam moulding and thermoforming.
Commonly used in mass production or prototyping of products, injection moulding involves forcing melted plastic into a mould cavity, which once cooled can be removed. Injection moulding equipment is used to mass produce toys, kitchen utensils, bottle caps and cell phone stands among others.
Similar to injection moulding, blow moulding involves pouring hot liquid plastic out of a barrel vertically into a molten tube. The mould closes on it and forces it outward to conform to the inside shape of the mould. Once cooled, the hollow part is formed.
Bottles, tubes and containers are typically made using the blow moulding process.
Hard plastic is pressed between two heated mould halves, and the parts formed are air-cooled. Compression mouldings usually use vertical presses instead of horizontal presses.
This plastic moulding technique embeds an image beneath the surface of a moulded part while a material similar to film/ fabric is inserted into a mould, following which plastic is injected.
Used to create plastic parts with hollow interiors, partial shot of plastic is followed by high-pressure gas to fill the mould cavity with plastic.
Hollow moulds packed with powdered plastic are secured to pipe-like spokes that extend from a central hub with the moulds rotating on separate axes simultaneously.
The hub swings the whole mould to a closed furnace room causing the powder to melt and stick to the insides of the tools. As the moulds turn slowly, the tools move into a cooling room where a water spray causes the plastic to harden into a hollow part.
Usually used for parts that require thicker walls than standard injection moulding, structural foam moulding involves inserting a small amount of nitrogen or chemical blow agent into the plastic material to make the walls thicker.
Foaming happens as the melted plastic material enters the mould cavity and a thin plastic skin forms and solidifies in the mould wall.
This plastic moulding process involves sheets of pre-extruded rigid plastics horizontally heated and sucked down into hollow one-piece tools. When the hot plastic solidifies, its shape conforms to that of the mould.
2011年9月12日星期一
Suwary plans acquisitions, new product launch
Polish plastic packaging and car accessories manufacturer Suwary has announced plans to acquire one or two local packaging business and to start producing multilayer plastic bottles, with capacity of up to 30 litres, at its plant in Pabianice, Poland.
Suwary is controlled by Canada’s packaging and mould making group Wentworth Technologies, which holds a 59.99% stake in the business.
Suwary’s latest investment was possible because of the company’s improved financial results. In the first half of 2011, the company posted revenues of 42.18m zloty (€10.05m), up a robust 72.9% over the same period a year earlier. Its net profit rose to 1.47m zloty (€0.35m), an increase of 25.5% compared to the first half of 2010.
With the planned acquisitions, Suwary aims to increase its EBITDA fourfold by 2016, the manufacturer said in a statement. Over the first six months of this year, the company’s EBITDA was 4.39m zloty (€1.04m).
“The first half of 2011 was a quite difficult period for the plastic packaging industry, as the prices of plastic reached record-high levels. But despite this, we have managed to report good financial results, and we expect the next six months to be even better for our business,” said Walter T. Kuskowski, chief executive of Suwary.
According to Kuskowski, the Polish company is dedicated to further advancing its growth strategy and increasing its plastic packaging output. Suwary plans to launch production of the new multilayer plastic bottle in the third quarter of 2011, he said. The project will be co-financed from the European Union regional development funds.
Suwary is currently completing construction of a new plastics packaging plant in Ksawerów, Poland. Other plans by the manufacturer include boosting production of plastic screw caps.
Suwary is controlled by Canada’s packaging and mould making group Wentworth Technologies, which holds a 59.99% stake in the business.
Suwary’s latest investment was possible because of the company’s improved financial results. In the first half of 2011, the company posted revenues of 42.18m zloty (€10.05m), up a robust 72.9% over the same period a year earlier. Its net profit rose to 1.47m zloty (€0.35m), an increase of 25.5% compared to the first half of 2010.
With the planned acquisitions, Suwary aims to increase its EBITDA fourfold by 2016, the manufacturer said in a statement. Over the first six months of this year, the company’s EBITDA was 4.39m zloty (€1.04m).
“The first half of 2011 was a quite difficult period for the plastic packaging industry, as the prices of plastic reached record-high levels. But despite this, we have managed to report good financial results, and we expect the next six months to be even better for our business,” said Walter T. Kuskowski, chief executive of Suwary.
According to Kuskowski, the Polish company is dedicated to further advancing its growth strategy and increasing its plastic packaging output. Suwary plans to launch production of the new multilayer plastic bottle in the third quarter of 2011, he said. The project will be co-financed from the European Union regional development funds.
Suwary is currently completing construction of a new plastics packaging plant in Ksawerów, Poland. Other plans by the manufacturer include boosting production of plastic screw caps.
2011年9月8日星期四
3D printing machines
Imagine the day when you no longer purchase a chair in a shop or via a traditional online retailer but instead buy the design for the chair, created on a computer software package, via the internet. You would be able to customise this digital blueprint however you chose and then email the file to a local rapid-manufacturing store where the finished item would be produced, ready for collection. This futuristic scenario describes the potential of 3D printing, a form of the cutting-edge technology known as Additive Manufacturing.
'We are at a tipping point in history where profound and radical changes in how we make things will revolutionise our lives,’ the New York gallerist Murray Moss says. Moss is curating a show at the V&A which explores this technology. 'All the objects I’ve selected are key early examples of 3D printing,’ he explains. 'These are not “futuristic” objects but everyday items – lamps, chairs, tables, shoes, hats – produced today but signalling tomorrow’s processes.’ It is the first time any of these works has been exhibited in Britain and, in most cases, anywhere in the world.
So what is 3D printing and how does it work? The process is part of a group of rapid-manufacturing technologies that translate digital designs into objects that are 'printed off’, three-dimensionally, by a machine. In the same way that a domestic inkjet printer hovers over a sheet of paper placing ink on the page, the 3D printer adds layer upon layer of epoxy to build objects from the base up. Products are created with all the inside and outside parts complete. There is no assembly required.
'This technology has huge potential,’ the British designer Michael Eden says. His latest 3D-printed vessels will be shown by Adrian Sassoon at the Pavilion of Art & Design show in October. 'We’re on the brink of a new industrial revolution.’
One advantage of the process is its flexibility. Conventional mass manufacturing uses moulds to make identical components, and any deviation – in size or shape, for example – requires a new mould. This is an expensive process. But because 3D printing requires no mould, it costs no more to produce 100 different objects than it does to make 100 identical ones. This means that products can be generated for a mass audience, but customised for, or by, each user.
For designers, it is nothing short of revolutionary. The London-based studio BarberOsgerby uses 3D printing to make prototypes. 'It’s cost-effective, a tenth the cost of conventional tooling, and very fast,’ Jay Osgerby says. 'It’s a great way to visualise complex forms like our Olympic Torch design, whose 8,000 perforations would have been difficult to replicate during model-making.’
Eden says, 'It allows me to make objects that couldn’t be made in any other way. It removes the constraints of manufacturing because conventional tooling is irrelevant. You have complete freedom in terms of form and don’t have to consider how the design will be made.’ As the technology develops, it is likely to transform design, production, distribution and consumption in radical ways. If local, print-on-demand stores become commonplace, then the need for transportation and warehousing is eliminated, with knock-on effects for jobs and the environment.
Materialise also has an online division, i.Materialise, which offers a 3D printing service to anyone with a suitable design. But anyone interested in buying a personal 3D printer might contact Amsterdam-based Freedom of Creation, a product design company which earlier this year gave live 3D printing demonstrations at Wallpaper magazine’s Handmade 2 exhibition during the Milan Furniture Fair. Its 3D printers (£795 to £2,320) will print simple plastic objects such as trays, toys or jewellery up to about 275 x 27 x 210mm.
Home owners anticipating the day they can print furniture should heed Moss’s caveat, though. 'The machines used to make the objects in the V&A show are very complicated, hugely expensive, state-of-the-art equipment,’ he says. 'Mathias Bengtsson’s Cell chair, which we commissioned for the exhibition, took two weeks to produce in the machine and, according to Materialise, is the most advanced furniture piece printed to date.’
Still, the technology is sparking wonderfully innovative ideas. A 3D printer developed by Exeter University researchers uses chocolate instead of resin; Markus Kayser’s Solar Sinter project employing a 3D printing process that combines natural energy (sunlight) and raw materials (sand) with hi-tech production technology to produce glass objects, was displayed a few months ago at the Royal College of Art 2011 graduate show.
'We are at a tipping point in history where profound and radical changes in how we make things will revolutionise our lives,’ the New York gallerist Murray Moss says. Moss is curating a show at the V&A which explores this technology. 'All the objects I’ve selected are key early examples of 3D printing,’ he explains. 'These are not “futuristic” objects but everyday items – lamps, chairs, tables, shoes, hats – produced today but signalling tomorrow’s processes.’ It is the first time any of these works has been exhibited in Britain and, in most cases, anywhere in the world.
So what is 3D printing and how does it work? The process is part of a group of rapid-manufacturing technologies that translate digital designs into objects that are 'printed off’, three-dimensionally, by a machine. In the same way that a domestic inkjet printer hovers over a sheet of paper placing ink on the page, the 3D printer adds layer upon layer of epoxy to build objects from the base up. Products are created with all the inside and outside parts complete. There is no assembly required.
'This technology has huge potential,’ the British designer Michael Eden says. His latest 3D-printed vessels will be shown by Adrian Sassoon at the Pavilion of Art & Design show in October. 'We’re on the brink of a new industrial revolution.’
One advantage of the process is its flexibility. Conventional mass manufacturing uses moulds to make identical components, and any deviation – in size or shape, for example – requires a new mould. This is an expensive process. But because 3D printing requires no mould, it costs no more to produce 100 different objects than it does to make 100 identical ones. This means that products can be generated for a mass audience, but customised for, or by, each user.
For designers, it is nothing short of revolutionary. The London-based studio BarberOsgerby uses 3D printing to make prototypes. 'It’s cost-effective, a tenth the cost of conventional tooling, and very fast,’ Jay Osgerby says. 'It’s a great way to visualise complex forms like our Olympic Torch design, whose 8,000 perforations would have been difficult to replicate during model-making.’
Eden says, 'It allows me to make objects that couldn’t be made in any other way. It removes the constraints of manufacturing because conventional tooling is irrelevant. You have complete freedom in terms of form and don’t have to consider how the design will be made.’ As the technology develops, it is likely to transform design, production, distribution and consumption in radical ways. If local, print-on-demand stores become commonplace, then the need for transportation and warehousing is eliminated, with knock-on effects for jobs and the environment.
Materialise also has an online division, i.Materialise, which offers a 3D printing service to anyone with a suitable design. But anyone interested in buying a personal 3D printer might contact Amsterdam-based Freedom of Creation, a product design company which earlier this year gave live 3D printing demonstrations at Wallpaper magazine’s Handmade 2 exhibition during the Milan Furniture Fair. Its 3D printers (£795 to £2,320) will print simple plastic objects such as trays, toys or jewellery up to about 275 x 27 x 210mm.
Home owners anticipating the day they can print furniture should heed Moss’s caveat, though. 'The machines used to make the objects in the V&A show are very complicated, hugely expensive, state-of-the-art equipment,’ he says. 'Mathias Bengtsson’s Cell chair, which we commissioned for the exhibition, took two weeks to produce in the machine and, according to Materialise, is the most advanced furniture piece printed to date.’
Still, the technology is sparking wonderfully innovative ideas. A 3D printer developed by Exeter University researchers uses chocolate instead of resin; Markus Kayser’s Solar Sinter project employing a 3D printing process that combines natural energy (sunlight) and raw materials (sand) with hi-tech production technology to produce glass objects, was displayed a few months ago at the Royal College of Art 2011 graduate show.
2011年9月7日星期三
Telling your kids they suck
Apparently we’ve been praising our kids too much. Our kids have been born into an era obsessed with self-esteem. In fact, we’re so worried about giving our kids low self-esteem, we’ve actually given them low self-esteem. We’ve told them they’re so bloody fabulous at everything they do that they just can’t handle the pressure. Or the truth. If we were to be completely and brutally honest with our kids, a lot of stuff they do isn’t that fabulous at all.
My two-year-old came back from daycare with a painting the other day. It was a purple blob. The dog could have painted it. I said ‘Wow darling that’s amazing! What is it?’ She was thrilled at the approval for this very average portrait of her father. But I should have told her the truth. ‘That’s shit!’ And thrown it in the bin. Sure she might have cried for a few minutes, but she’d get to know that there are standards that she’s just not meeting. If you want to make it on the fridge you’ve got to try a lot harder than that.
And I’m not just being a nasty bitch. This is the thesis presented by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset. According to the findings of the American psychologist and Stanford University professor, our belief that constant acknowledgment and accolades for anything our kids do has created a generation so frightened of failure they’re atrophied into a bunch of lazy, challenge-phobic pussies. We’ve positively reinforced almost every aspect of our kids’ development. ‘You’re so clever! You are so handsome! You’re so fast at running!’
There are even those that attest that competition is bad for children’s development. Sure, but one day the poor little fella is going to have to find out he’s a loser, and the longer you wait to break it to him, the harder it is. Learning to cope with losing is an important life skill. How else do we find the motivation to strive? Maybe we should revert to some of our own parents’ techniques and just fail to notice our kids at all. Then the little buggers will put some effort in.
Right now our kids know that love and approval is unconditional, they don’t have to do a thing. Time to raise the bar. Life isn’t easy, it’s full of disappointments and failures. The mark of a good person, someone who is well adjusted and able to function socially, is someone who can accept failure with grace, not fall on the floor in a tantrum, key someone’s new BMW or glass their girlfriend.
No, it’s time we started getting our children used to failure. I’m sick of turning up to sporting events where every kid gets a trophy. They don’t all deserve one. I’ve seen some of those kids on the soccer field; they’re useless. What, the kid who runs in the wrong direction and cries when he doesn’t get the ball is getting a trophy? Nice one, let’s just reinforce poor behaviour!
No, trophies should be given to the kids who have earned them, and not as Dweck attests to kids with natural ability. We need to praise the process not the outcome. So awards for Most Improved or Best and Fairest are the go. We need to take a reality check on how we mould the next generation. While some attest that the next gen are ‘amazing, incredible and spiritually evolved’, I’d say bullshit, they’re a bunch of little Princes and Princesses who’ve been totally indulged, have no sense of compassion, are poor communicators, have no respect for adults and absolutely no resilience. They expect awards for wiping their own bums.
And, it’s all our fault. We have made them that way. Look at swimming lessons. These days we all take our babies to the pool and they swim towards plastic duckies and kick their little leggies with Mummies and Daddies in the pool with them all oohing and aahhing at their sheer brilliance. In the old days when it came to teaching a kid to swim, you waited a few years, threw your sprog in the pool, and waited for him to surface, kicking and gasping. There’d be the odd wildly inappropriate and homophobic statement of ‘what are ya? A poof?’, but by the end of the week, little Thorpie would be swimming like a champ.
Apparently we need to encourage the process rather than the outcome, and we need to give our children honest feedback and experiences of failure. Awesome, finally a theory has come out that acknowledges some of my greatest parenting techniques. Nothing like the silence on that long drive back from the sports carnival with a sulky kid who came last in the longjump. ‘Oh well, that was disappointing. I suppose you can’t just expect to turn up and do your best if you spend most of your time on the Xbox… loser!’ See, that’s not abuse, that’s resilience building.
My two-year-old came back from daycare with a painting the other day. It was a purple blob. The dog could have painted it. I said ‘Wow darling that’s amazing! What is it?’ She was thrilled at the approval for this very average portrait of her father. But I should have told her the truth. ‘That’s shit!’ And thrown it in the bin. Sure she might have cried for a few minutes, but she’d get to know that there are standards that she’s just not meeting. If you want to make it on the fridge you’ve got to try a lot harder than that.
And I’m not just being a nasty bitch. This is the thesis presented by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset. According to the findings of the American psychologist and Stanford University professor, our belief that constant acknowledgment and accolades for anything our kids do has created a generation so frightened of failure they’re atrophied into a bunch of lazy, challenge-phobic pussies. We’ve positively reinforced almost every aspect of our kids’ development. ‘You’re so clever! You are so handsome! You’re so fast at running!’
There are even those that attest that competition is bad for children’s development. Sure, but one day the poor little fella is going to have to find out he’s a loser, and the longer you wait to break it to him, the harder it is. Learning to cope with losing is an important life skill. How else do we find the motivation to strive? Maybe we should revert to some of our own parents’ techniques and just fail to notice our kids at all. Then the little buggers will put some effort in.
Right now our kids know that love and approval is unconditional, they don’t have to do a thing. Time to raise the bar. Life isn’t easy, it’s full of disappointments and failures. The mark of a good person, someone who is well adjusted and able to function socially, is someone who can accept failure with grace, not fall on the floor in a tantrum, key someone’s new BMW or glass their girlfriend.
No, it’s time we started getting our children used to failure. I’m sick of turning up to sporting events where every kid gets a trophy. They don’t all deserve one. I’ve seen some of those kids on the soccer field; they’re useless. What, the kid who runs in the wrong direction and cries when he doesn’t get the ball is getting a trophy? Nice one, let’s just reinforce poor behaviour!
No, trophies should be given to the kids who have earned them, and not as Dweck attests to kids with natural ability. We need to praise the process not the outcome. So awards for Most Improved or Best and Fairest are the go. We need to take a reality check on how we mould the next generation. While some attest that the next gen are ‘amazing, incredible and spiritually evolved’, I’d say bullshit, they’re a bunch of little Princes and Princesses who’ve been totally indulged, have no sense of compassion, are poor communicators, have no respect for adults and absolutely no resilience. They expect awards for wiping their own bums.
And, it’s all our fault. We have made them that way. Look at swimming lessons. These days we all take our babies to the pool and they swim towards plastic duckies and kick their little leggies with Mummies and Daddies in the pool with them all oohing and aahhing at their sheer brilliance. In the old days when it came to teaching a kid to swim, you waited a few years, threw your sprog in the pool, and waited for him to surface, kicking and gasping. There’d be the odd wildly inappropriate and homophobic statement of ‘what are ya? A poof?’, but by the end of the week, little Thorpie would be swimming like a champ.
Apparently we need to encourage the process rather than the outcome, and we need to give our children honest feedback and experiences of failure. Awesome, finally a theory has come out that acknowledges some of my greatest parenting techniques. Nothing like the silence on that long drive back from the sports carnival with a sulky kid who came last in the longjump. ‘Oh well, that was disappointing. I suppose you can’t just expect to turn up and do your best if you spend most of your time on the Xbox… loser!’ See, that’s not abuse, that’s resilience building.
2011年9月6日星期二
Product promotion with EasyDose
EasyDose is a novelty in the RPC Superfos range. It is a household container with a special feature: it comes with an integrated dosing system which ensures exact quantities each time. EasyDose is uncomplicated and practical. The user gets the exact quantity of for instance detergents, coffee or baby food and avoids over- and underdosing. Today, EasyDose is available at one of Germany’s largest retailers, Tchibo.
Enhance brand position
The product is also interesting for non-retailers. EasyDose can be usedt as a free gift during a special campaign period, rewarding customer loyalty, enhancing the brand position.
EasyDose is suitable for products in the form of powder, granular or pellets. RPC Superfos delivers EasyDose in two sizes: 1,5L and 2,2L. The lid and plates are available in a multitude of colours and decorations can be made with in-Mould Labelling.
Available at German retailer Tchibo
Area Sales Manager Keld Krogh Nielsen has presented EasyDose to the German retailer Tchibo who is known to be an innovative business, so off-hand, there was a common denominator. Based on the dummy version, Tchibo placed an order straight away. Keld Krogh Nielsen says:
“For Tchibo we have produced EasyDose in three different colours. The retailer decided to focus on a breakfast theme: orange, yellow and pink for porridge oats, cornflakes and muesli respectively.”
The container itself is frosted plastic while the lid, the plate for measuring and printed stripes are in matching colour. The price at Tchibo is 7,99 for one container.
EasyDose is the perfect give-away
At home, EasyDose is a plus for any household: It is easy to use, refill, dose and dish washer safe.
Enhance brand position
The product is also interesting for non-retailers. EasyDose can be usedt as a free gift during a special campaign period, rewarding customer loyalty, enhancing the brand position.
EasyDose is suitable for products in the form of powder, granular or pellets. RPC Superfos delivers EasyDose in two sizes: 1,5L and 2,2L. The lid and plates are available in a multitude of colours and decorations can be made with in-Mould Labelling.
Available at German retailer Tchibo
Area Sales Manager Keld Krogh Nielsen has presented EasyDose to the German retailer Tchibo who is known to be an innovative business, so off-hand, there was a common denominator. Based on the dummy version, Tchibo placed an order straight away. Keld Krogh Nielsen says:
“For Tchibo we have produced EasyDose in three different colours. The retailer decided to focus on a breakfast theme: orange, yellow and pink for porridge oats, cornflakes and muesli respectively.”
The container itself is frosted plastic while the lid, the plate for measuring and printed stripes are in matching colour. The price at Tchibo is 7,99 for one container.
EasyDose is the perfect give-away
At home, EasyDose is a plus for any household: It is easy to use, refill, dose and dish washer safe.
2011年9月5日星期一
Plastic dentures hit the dentistry market
An increasing number of plastics companies are looking to develop products for the dental market. Amongst them is Dens3000, a Germany-based firm, which manufactures two-component PMMA teeth for dentures.
Dens3000 teeth, which the company says closely resemble natural human teeth in shape and structure, are made by injection moulding biocompatible and monomer-free "Densomid" modified PMMA plastic layers - comprising a core material and an outer "enamel" layer - of different hardness and colour.
According to patents covering the artificial tooth design, the core material can be a thermoplastic filled with siliceous glass, quartz and hydroxylapatite, as well as injection-mouldable polymer-bound ceramics.
Dens3000 says that as the thermoplastic tooth comes directly out of the injection mould and does not require further working, it is "highly cost-effective", costing five to ten times less than artificial teeth produced by the conventional thermosetting plastic ram extrusion method.
The 0.1-0.73g teeth are moulded with 2.5-5.6g shot weights in four 8-cavity moulds, in a cycle time of 22-30 seconds. A full denture set has 28 teeth chosen from 144 samples in 16 different shades, three sizes and various shapes.
The original developer, medical physicist Dr Reinhard Lohse, says: "I wanted to introduce a high-quality yet inexpensive plastic tooth onto the market and so make dentures that appeal to China and eastern European countries, where cost is an important issue."
Aside from cost benefits, Lohse says the PMMA teeth "are also not prone to plaque or crack formation".
Dens3000 teeth have a useful life of around five to ten years. Design features include a "finger", modelled on the human tooth root that stabilises the denture base, while an external palatal/lingual slot at the tooth base and a "retention bore", with integrated undercut, strengthen the denture base to "previously unattainable levels", he says.
Lohse further developed the tooth in partnership with the IWK materials technology and plastics processing institute at Kaiserslautern University, and the Regensburg and Homburg (Saar) university hospitals. After developing production tools and prototypes, Lohse set up the Dens3000 company in 2006.
The teeth are injection moulded on four electric-drive 150-tonne clamp-ing force Arburg Allrounder 520A machines, each equipped with two size 70 injection units. Earlier this year, Arburg said Dens3000 is expected to "shortly" reach full production capacity of 20 million teeth per year.
Dens3000 is also setting up a production site in China, according to the Protonia-IT foundation.
Initial Chinese production is ex-pected to amount to around 40 million teeth per year, with start-up scheduled for October 2011. The project contract is being managed by the DCTA German-Chinese technology exchange foundation.
Plastic materials are also making inroads in dental implants. Here, NT_Trading is using medical grade Vestakeep I PEEK from Evonik to make Dentokeep semi-finished implants, substituting titanium and cobalt-chromium metals. The material provides high implant elasticity and a similar flexing behaviour as bone, making the implants more comfortable for the patient.
Marc Knebel, medical implants sales and marketing manager at Evonik, says injection moulding already substitutes machined semi-finished parts when volumes are sufficiently high, cutting implant production costs.
Knebel adds that since 1999 PEEK has become the most important substitute material for titanium in orthopaedic, cardiovascular and spinal implants, a trend partly driven by the material's high resistance to gamma rays, transparency to x-rays and biocompatibility.
Dens3000 teeth, which the company says closely resemble natural human teeth in shape and structure, are made by injection moulding biocompatible and monomer-free "Densomid" modified PMMA plastic layers - comprising a core material and an outer "enamel" layer - of different hardness and colour.
According to patents covering the artificial tooth design, the core material can be a thermoplastic filled with siliceous glass, quartz and hydroxylapatite, as well as injection-mouldable polymer-bound ceramics.
Dens3000 says that as the thermoplastic tooth comes directly out of the injection mould and does not require further working, it is "highly cost-effective", costing five to ten times less than artificial teeth produced by the conventional thermosetting plastic ram extrusion method.
The 0.1-0.73g teeth are moulded with 2.5-5.6g shot weights in four 8-cavity moulds, in a cycle time of 22-30 seconds. A full denture set has 28 teeth chosen from 144 samples in 16 different shades, three sizes and various shapes.
The original developer, medical physicist Dr Reinhard Lohse, says: "I wanted to introduce a high-quality yet inexpensive plastic tooth onto the market and so make dentures that appeal to China and eastern European countries, where cost is an important issue."
Aside from cost benefits, Lohse says the PMMA teeth "are also not prone to plaque or crack formation".
Dens3000 teeth have a useful life of around five to ten years. Design features include a "finger", modelled on the human tooth root that stabilises the denture base, while an external palatal/lingual slot at the tooth base and a "retention bore", with integrated undercut, strengthen the denture base to "previously unattainable levels", he says.
Lohse further developed the tooth in partnership with the IWK materials technology and plastics processing institute at Kaiserslautern University, and the Regensburg and Homburg (Saar) university hospitals. After developing production tools and prototypes, Lohse set up the Dens3000 company in 2006.
The teeth are injection moulded on four electric-drive 150-tonne clamp-ing force Arburg Allrounder 520A machines, each equipped with two size 70 injection units. Earlier this year, Arburg said Dens3000 is expected to "shortly" reach full production capacity of 20 million teeth per year.
Dens3000 is also setting up a production site in China, according to the Protonia-IT foundation.
Initial Chinese production is ex-pected to amount to around 40 million teeth per year, with start-up scheduled for October 2011. The project contract is being managed by the DCTA German-Chinese technology exchange foundation.
Plastic materials are also making inroads in dental implants. Here, NT_Trading is using medical grade Vestakeep I PEEK from Evonik to make Dentokeep semi-finished implants, substituting titanium and cobalt-chromium metals. The material provides high implant elasticity and a similar flexing behaviour as bone, making the implants more comfortable for the patient.
Marc Knebel, medical implants sales and marketing manager at Evonik, says injection moulding already substitutes machined semi-finished parts when volumes are sufficiently high, cutting implant production costs.
Knebel adds that since 1999 PEEK has become the most important substitute material for titanium in orthopaedic, cardiovascular and spinal implants, a trend partly driven by the material's high resistance to gamma rays, transparency to x-rays and biocompatibility.
2011年9月4日星期日
HSBC sows seeds in Chinese countryside
Zhuo Guanghua builds his greenhouses out of bricks and plastic sheets, preaches the health virtues of organic food while smoking, and dreams of a stock market listing.
For HSBC, he was just the kind of client that the bank had in mind when it opened a branch two years ago in Miyun, a county one hour from Beijing.
After a local Communist party official arranged a meeting, HSBC lent Mr Zhuo Rmb2m ($315,000). While the loan was tiny compared with the Rmb20bn Chinese government bond issue the bank recently helped co-ordinate in Hong Kong, Mr Zhuo became one of the biggest customers of HSBC’s Miyun branch.
Foreign banks trying to expand in China have long focused on the large cities and the big deals, taking stakes in domestic lenders, fighting for underwriting business and advising on global acquisitions.
In the fields of Miyun, however, HSBC is at the vanguard of foreign banks ploughing a new furrow. They are opening scores of branches in the towns of China’s vast, poor countryside.
The move into rural banking has been seen as a goodwill gesture, a cheap way to curry favour with regulators who have been making a big push to bring more financial services to rural communities and the agricultural sector, which larger banks have traditionally ignored, seeing them as both unprofitable and a major credit risk.
But foreign banks are discovering something unexpected. Despite financial troubles at countryside credit co-operatives over the past two decades, rural banking in China can actually be profitable.
HSBC, for example, thought its rural banks would break even after three years. That was too conservative.
“It’s not that difficult for a rural bank to start making a profit after one year,” said Elton Lee, head of rural banking in China for HSBC.
In 2007, HSBC was the first foreign bank to open a rural branch. It now has 17 outlets. Citigroup, ANZ and Standard Chartered have also opened banks in the Chinese countryside, although not as aggressively.
Two of the biggest forays into the field have come in the form of joint ventures. Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, has partnered with Bank of China to open a network of rural banks, while Banco Santander has teamed up with China Construction Bank.
As with HSBC, results have been surprisingly good. The Temasek venture’s first bank was set to turn a profit in August, 13 months earlier than expected, according to the branch head.
But rapid expansion is not easy. Each rural bank has to be established as an independent legal entity, and recruiting qualified staff in small towns is challenging, said HSBC’s Mr Lee.
“Rural” has multiple meanings in China. Some counties that are classified as rural have populations of more than a million. Banks in such locations can be very profitable, said May Yan, an analyst with Barclays Capital.
In sparsely inhabited rural areas, prospects are dimmer, but banks stand to reap other benefits. In exchange for venturing into such places, regulators may allow them to open more branches in the crowded, wealthy Shanghai market, added Ms Yan.
HSBC’s branch in Miyun fits the mould of not-so-rural rural banking. It is situated on a six-lane boulevard in the county seat across from a 20-storey building.
Nevertheless, it mainly serves agricultural customers, a point that is underlined by the bank’s promotional material. One brochure shows a smiling farmer with a straw hat in the foreground, while a businessman shakes hands with another farmer next to a stack of watermelons in the background.
The Miyun HSBC offers unsecured loans of as little as Rmb10,000, the kind of small-scale financing that has traditionally been absent in the countryside and can help farmers manage the seasonality of their cash flow.
But the big catch is a client like Mr Zhuo, someone who offers banks direct exposure to China’s agricultural sector – a sector which has the potential to grow very quickly with food consumption on the rise and much scope for more efficient farming.
Mr Zhuo says he came to Beijing 29 years ago from the southern province of Fujian as “a vagrant”. After stints selling construction materials and running a lumber mill, he decided the future was in high-quality fruits and vegetables.
He founded Xiangheyuan Agricultural Technology Development Co in 2007 and has cobbled together a 176-acre farm, where he grows produce that includes peaches, grapes and tomatoes.
For HSBC, he was just the kind of client that the bank had in mind when it opened a branch two years ago in Miyun, a county one hour from Beijing.
After a local Communist party official arranged a meeting, HSBC lent Mr Zhuo Rmb2m ($315,000). While the loan was tiny compared with the Rmb20bn Chinese government bond issue the bank recently helped co-ordinate in Hong Kong, Mr Zhuo became one of the biggest customers of HSBC’s Miyun branch.
Foreign banks trying to expand in China have long focused on the large cities and the big deals, taking stakes in domestic lenders, fighting for underwriting business and advising on global acquisitions.
In the fields of Miyun, however, HSBC is at the vanguard of foreign banks ploughing a new furrow. They are opening scores of branches in the towns of China’s vast, poor countryside.
The move into rural banking has been seen as a goodwill gesture, a cheap way to curry favour with regulators who have been making a big push to bring more financial services to rural communities and the agricultural sector, which larger banks have traditionally ignored, seeing them as both unprofitable and a major credit risk.
But foreign banks are discovering something unexpected. Despite financial troubles at countryside credit co-operatives over the past two decades, rural banking in China can actually be profitable.
HSBC, for example, thought its rural banks would break even after three years. That was too conservative.
“It’s not that difficult for a rural bank to start making a profit after one year,” said Elton Lee, head of rural banking in China for HSBC.
In 2007, HSBC was the first foreign bank to open a rural branch. It now has 17 outlets. Citigroup, ANZ and Standard Chartered have also opened banks in the Chinese countryside, although not as aggressively.
Two of the biggest forays into the field have come in the form of joint ventures. Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, has partnered with Bank of China to open a network of rural banks, while Banco Santander has teamed up with China Construction Bank.
As with HSBC, results have been surprisingly good. The Temasek venture’s first bank was set to turn a profit in August, 13 months earlier than expected, according to the branch head.
But rapid expansion is not easy. Each rural bank has to be established as an independent legal entity, and recruiting qualified staff in small towns is challenging, said HSBC’s Mr Lee.
“Rural” has multiple meanings in China. Some counties that are classified as rural have populations of more than a million. Banks in such locations can be very profitable, said May Yan, an analyst with Barclays Capital.
In sparsely inhabited rural areas, prospects are dimmer, but banks stand to reap other benefits. In exchange for venturing into such places, regulators may allow them to open more branches in the crowded, wealthy Shanghai market, added Ms Yan.
HSBC’s branch in Miyun fits the mould of not-so-rural rural banking. It is situated on a six-lane boulevard in the county seat across from a 20-storey building.
Nevertheless, it mainly serves agricultural customers, a point that is underlined by the bank’s promotional material. One brochure shows a smiling farmer with a straw hat in the foreground, while a businessman shakes hands with another farmer next to a stack of watermelons in the background.
The Miyun HSBC offers unsecured loans of as little as Rmb10,000, the kind of small-scale financing that has traditionally been absent in the countryside and can help farmers manage the seasonality of their cash flow.
But the big catch is a client like Mr Zhuo, someone who offers banks direct exposure to China’s agricultural sector – a sector which has the potential to grow very quickly with food consumption on the rise and much scope for more efficient farming.
Mr Zhuo says he came to Beijing 29 years ago from the southern province of Fujian as “a vagrant”. After stints selling construction materials and running a lumber mill, he decided the future was in high-quality fruits and vegetables.
He founded Xiangheyuan Agricultural Technology Development Co in 2007 and has cobbled together a 176-acre farm, where he grows produce that includes peaches, grapes and tomatoes.
2011年9月1日星期四
Make the best of September
Having just checked the forward weather forecasts it seems that we are in for an Indian Summer- just a few degrees cooler and with slightly shorter days than August. So yet again the GotaFrias delayed until October and early November. A big change from twenty five years ago when absentee gardeners could bank on leaving Spain in the middle of September knowing that the ground was saturated, or about to be, and no problem with plants surviving without watering until half term or even Christmas.
There is a lot to do especially if there are a few cooler days. Have selected the following from the seasonal gardening calendars included in each of our books.
Watering – Naturally this still needs doing especially for plants planted during the year but do cut back as temperatures fall and the days become shorter. Autumn is a good time, without major risks, to persuade plants to put down deeper roots to search for natural moisture and nutrients rather than being lazy and developing more short roots going up to the surface to await your daily over watering and weekly over feeding. When out walking or driving next ask yourself, ‘How come that mountainsides north of the Bernia ridge are covered with healthy plants?’
Taking cuttings – Now is a good time to take cuttings as there are still several good growing months when roots can be developed. But do keep the potted cuttings in a shady area until hardening off to plant out next Spring.
Growing vegetables – September and October are important months for preparing soils and composts for growing vegetables in the garden or in containers on apartment terraces. Until the temperatures drop below thirty degrees and the first rains come it’s wise to shade early sowings and plantlets.
Bagging up leaves – Inevitably leaves fall in the autumn starting with the fall of almond and apricot trees. Rather than send them off in the weekly garden rubbish collection or green waste bins bag them up in large plastic bags with a few holes in the sides and hide away for a year in a corner of a garden. Then you should have some good nutrient rich leaf mould for recycling to composts and soils.
Dick has agreed to support the Parcent Autumn Charity Fair organised by the new village charity Creativa. You will find him at the Gardening Corner Question and Answer Stall waiting to help you with any problems. He will also have autographed books, a few plants and eco products and will be launching his new self published book ‘Living Well from Our Mediterranean Garden’. During the two days of the fair he will also give a number of talks based on the book.
Clodagh and Dick’s last four books before the new one are the quartet published by Santana Books. They are ‘Your Garden in Spain’; ‘Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style’; ‘Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain’ and ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’. Each were written to help experienced and new gardeners make the best use of the property they have purchased, whether the challenge ahead is to start a new garden, improve an existing garden or most importantly reduce
There is a lot to do especially if there are a few cooler days. Have selected the following from the seasonal gardening calendars included in each of our books.
Watering – Naturally this still needs doing especially for plants planted during the year but do cut back as temperatures fall and the days become shorter. Autumn is a good time, without major risks, to persuade plants to put down deeper roots to search for natural moisture and nutrients rather than being lazy and developing more short roots going up to the surface to await your daily over watering and weekly over feeding. When out walking or driving next ask yourself, ‘How come that mountainsides north of the Bernia ridge are covered with healthy plants?’
Taking cuttings – Now is a good time to take cuttings as there are still several good growing months when roots can be developed. But do keep the potted cuttings in a shady area until hardening off to plant out next Spring.
Growing vegetables – September and October are important months for preparing soils and composts for growing vegetables in the garden or in containers on apartment terraces. Until the temperatures drop below thirty degrees and the first rains come it’s wise to shade early sowings and plantlets.
Bagging up leaves – Inevitably leaves fall in the autumn starting with the fall of almond and apricot trees. Rather than send them off in the weekly garden rubbish collection or green waste bins bag them up in large plastic bags with a few holes in the sides and hide away for a year in a corner of a garden. Then you should have some good nutrient rich leaf mould for recycling to composts and soils.
Dick has agreed to support the Parcent Autumn Charity Fair organised by the new village charity Creativa. You will find him at the Gardening Corner Question and Answer Stall waiting to help you with any problems. He will also have autographed books, a few plants and eco products and will be launching his new self published book ‘Living Well from Our Mediterranean Garden’. During the two days of the fair he will also give a number of talks based on the book.
Clodagh and Dick’s last four books before the new one are the quartet published by Santana Books. They are ‘Your Garden in Spain’; ‘Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style’; ‘Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain’ and ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’. Each were written to help experienced and new gardeners make the best use of the property they have purchased, whether the challenge ahead is to start a new garden, improve an existing garden or most importantly reduce
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