James in the running to raise money for MacMillan charity
Posted on July 29, 2010
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James in the running to raise money for MacMillan charity
0 Comments | Express & Echo; Exeter (UK), Jul 28, 2010
AN associate in the social housing team at Exeter-based Stones Solicitors will be swapping his suit and tie for running kit when he takes part in the Berlin Marathon.
James Menzies, who has also run the Stockholm and Brussels marathons, will compete in Germany on September 26.
He will be raising funds for one of the charities chosen by Stones this year — Macmillan Cancer Support.
Depending on how he does in Berlin, he also hopes to take part in the London Marathon.
James said: “I like the sense of achievement that comes with completing a marathon, and it is great to be able to do it in aid of such a worthwhile cause.”
MARATHON MAN: James Menzies is cheered on by workmates Nicola Copeland and Joanne Webb Donations in support of his effort can be made online at www.justgiving.com/jamesmenzies.
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The quiet tech giant that's found success for UK plc
Posted on July 29, 2010
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The quiet tech giant that’s found success for UK plc
0 Comments | Sunday Telegraph, The; London (UK), Jul 4, 2010 | by Andrew Cave
Despite the gloom surrounding British industry, there are still UK companies with commanding global market shares. In Cambridge, ARM Holdings is the world’s biggest microchip designer, while Malmesbury in Wiltshire is home to the research and development hub of Dyson, the world’s biggest manufacturer of vacuum cleaners.
It might sound a little less sexy, but in Crawley, West Sussex, Edwards controls nearly 50pc of the global market for vacuum pumps used in the semi-conductor industry. It is a vital part of the manufacturing process and one of the most important elements of the technology industry.
If you’ve never heard of the business, you’re far from alone, perhaps because of its history is buried within BOC Group, the gases company acquired by Germany’s Linde in 2006. Yet that’s changing.
Now owned by the private equity groups CCMP Capital and Unitas Capital, Edwards caused a stir last month by hiring British industrial heavyweights Matthew Taylor, previously managing director of Land Rover and chief executive of excavators group JCB, and David Smith, the former Jaguar Land Rover chief executive.
Taylor joined as chief executive, recruiting Smith as chief financial officer over a lamb and beer lunch in an executive box at London football club Queen’s Park Rangers.
Edwards might seem a step down for both of them but the company, founded in south London in 1919, has an impressive record – 500,000 pumps installed worldwide and 40,000 corporate customers including Samsung and LG.
About 50pc of its products go into the semi-conductor manufacturing processes. Then there are applications in flat panel and light-emitting diode (LED) displays, solar panels, scientific instruments such as mass spectrometers and processes in the chemical, pharmaceutical, oil, gas, steel and power industries.
The company’s vacuum technology creates a low-pressure environment that’s cleaner and more controllable than atmospheric pressure, enabling critical processes to be as effective as possible.
“We can create emptier vacuums than those that exist in space,” adds Taylor. “We take one atmosphere of pressure, which is essentially what’s around you all the time, and reduce it 1bn times.
“David and I come from a background of working with brands and seeing how much further you can take them to get to a wider audience and strengthen their offering. When you have such a strong starting point as we have here, the opportunity is huge.”
Smith, 49, agrees. “There are two or three things that are really going to change economies over the next 10 or 20 years,” he says. “The emergence of the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] markets is a big factor. Then there’s the change in innovation and technology and the environmental and sustainability agenda. Edwards is right in the middle of all those things.
“A lot of the growth we’re seeing is in Asia, while the technology applications are fascinating. Whether they’re in LEDs, the next stage of biotechnology and nanotechnology or battery developments for vehicles, they all require low-vacuum systems to produce the parts.”
Edwards is coming out of a tough period caused by a slump in the semi-conductor industry that resulted in turnover falling from Pounds 510m to Pounds 371m last year, when earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation dropped from Pounds 71.9m to Pounds 21.6m.
Its private equity owners have taken action, refinancing the business, selling non-core operations and announcing plans to move most of the operations of its vacuum pump factories in Burgess Hill and Shoreham, West Sussex, to South Korea and the Czech Republic by the end of next year. “Those decisions were based on cost and quality factors,” says Taylor. “It was difficult to be competitive here in the UK.”
He says that Edwards will keep its more specialised toxic gases abatement systems business in Clevedon, Somerset, its electronic systems in Eastbourne and all its UK research and development operations. The company has 890 staff in Britain and 2,800 globally.
Business is recovering, with firstquarter revenues up 67pc to more than Pounds 130m. “The second quarter will be better and we think we will have good results throughout this year,” says Smith. “The market for phones, laptops and nextgeneration displays is exploding, so the big semiconductor manufacturers are making huge investments in capacity, which falls through to us as well.”
When a sustained recovery comes, Edwards’ private equity owners may want to cash in through a flotation or trade sale.
“That’s something they’ll look at over the coming months,” says Taylor, “but the key driver and the reason we were brought in is that the company has restructured and thrived but also has huge potential. That’s why they’re looking at it as a longer-term investment.”
The pair are used to long-term corporate careers. Taylor joined Ford in 1985 and spent 21 years there, becoming managing director of its Land Rover operations in 2002
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PAUL Bettany had a miniature priest's robe made for his… [Derived
Posted on July 29, 2010
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PAUL Bettany had a miniature priest’s robe made for his… [Derived
0 Comments | Herald, The; Glasgow (UK), Jul 29, 2010
PAUL Bettany had a miniature priest’s robe made for his son after he took a liking to his father’s latest film costume.
The British actor stars in new vampire horror movie Priest and revealed his son wanted to dress like his dad did in the film.
Paul said of his robes: “I don’t have it, they took it away from me, but my kid has one. They haven’t come out, but I had it made because he wanted one so the costume designer had one made for him, a little one!”
The 39-year-old has a six-year-old son Stellan with actress wife Jennifer Connelly.
Jennifer also has a son Kai, born in 1997, from a previous relationship.
When he has completed his
Posted on July 29, 2010
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When he has completed his evaluation of your car, he will explain what exactly needs to be done. After he gets your approval, he will undertake the necessary repairs.
Of course, there is always a price to pay when you bring your vehicle in for commercial auto repairs. You have to pay a premium to get all the necessary work done, along with the additional charges for the auto parts or auto body parts that need to be replaced. For most owners, it can be well worth their money if their vehicles look and perform better in the end.
Auto Repair provides detailed information on Auto Repair, Auto Glass Repair, Online Auto Repair, Auto Body Repair and more. Auto Repair is affiliated with Discount Auto Parts..
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Auburn Hall staff shuffling spaces
Posted on July 29, 2010
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Auburn Hall staff shuffling spaces
0 Comments | Sun Journal; Lewiston, Me., Jul 28, 2010 | by Scott Taylor
AUBURN ? City staffers will be moving offices within Auburn Hall over the next week to make room on the third floor for rental space.
“This is a big, beautiful building, but it’s expensive,” City Manager Glenn Aho said. “We’d like to see if we can recoup some of the utility costs with rent.”
Aho said the entire third floor, 8,887 square feet with a secure elevator and use of the Mechanics Row parking garage, will be available to rent for a private business or nonprofit.
“We’re not going to spend any money and advertise it, but we are going make it known on the website and by word of mouth,” Aho said.
Auburn Hall’s third floor was shared by the Auburn School Department and the city’s Community Development Department. School officials also maintained space on the second floor, opposite City Council chambers and administrative staff.
The School Department moved to the fourth floor this spring, leaving room on the second and third floors. Community Development will move into the vacant second-floor space next week.
Aho said he tried to find alternative uses for the second-floor space and considered using it as the administrative office space for a combined police and fire public safety department.
“But it’s apparent that this is going to be a long-term issue that is slow to develop,” Aho said. “Really, moving the police and fire administration into that space only makes sense if we can close one other facility, and we just can’t close the police station on Minot Avenue
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The price tag for improving student academic
Posted on July 29, 2010
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The price tag for improving student academic achievement is much higher than the available monies provided through annual city, state and federal funding.
During the 2005-2006 school year, the foundation?s accomplishments show it to be a vital arm of the Denver schools? scholastic achievement initiative. Here are the major highlights:
? The foundation raised $750,000 to implement the first Principals? Institute that was held in June 2006. Leadership training, designed to improve student achievement, was provided to 130 Denver schools? principals, and new strategies were developed by the principals to transform their schools into effective learning organizations. The Denver schools principals will continue to be supported in their objectives in 2006-2007 by attending monthly professional development sessions that began in August.
? The foundation raised $250,000 to implement DPS Success, which provides supplemental instruction in math and literacy to students in grades three through ten. During the 2005-2006 school year, 558 teachers provided extra tutoring instruction to approximately 8,400 students in 82 schools.
? The School Partners Program was launched with $250,000 raised by the foundation.
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Sky Sox take the first of two
Posted on July 28, 2010
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Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 10, 2010 by CHENG SIO
Matt Miller could always hit. On Saturday, he showed he had power, too.
Miller’s home run broke a tie and ignited a three-run fifth inning as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox beat the Reno Aces, 7-6, in the seven-inning first game of a doubleheader at Security Service Field.
After Miller, a career .313 hitter, launched Kevin Mulvey’s 2-0 pitch over the left field wall to begin the fifth, the Sky Sox made it 7-4 with RBI singles from Paul Phillips and Chris Frey. The insurance runs proved to be invaluable.
Reno scored two in the sixth and had the tying run on second base. But Scott Rice came on in relief and struck out Doug Deeds swinging to end the threat.
Both clubs plated three runs in the opening frame. The Sky Sox took a 4-3 lead on Chris Nelson’s RBI single in the second
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Here, the Shaman converses with spirits
Posted on July 28, 2010
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Here, the Shaman converses with spirits and come back with secrets that allows him to heal others, foretell the future, control the weather and even ward off attacks.
The word ?Saman? is defined as a technique of ecstasy. A Shaman is a practitioner who is able to enter an altered state of consciousness where he can communicate with the supernatural. He acts as an intermediary between the world of man and the world of Gods and often has the power to descend to the realm of the dead. He leaves his body when he is in trance. This trance is induced by chanting, beating of the drum or passionate dancing. In the more unsophisticated cultures, Shamans even used to take to fasting, ingesting psychotropic drugs or even undergo torture to achieve the trance.
As seen from the practices, Shamanism is based on the principle that the world is divided into 2 distinct parts ? that visible to the ordinary man, and that visible only to the man with powers. In the second part, there is a miraculous world populated by the spirits who influence the world of the living and who are always willing to help.
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Verizon Global Releases High Speed Internet White-Label Offerings
Posted on July 28, 2010
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Verizon Global Releases High Speed Internet White-Label Offerings
0 Comments | Wireless News, Jul 28, 2010
To support the marketing and branding strategies of its wholesale High Speed Internet (HSI) customers, Verizon Global Wholesale announced it is expanding its portfolio of services to include two white-label, or non-branded, HSI options.
Starting immediately, wholesale customers can offer Verizon’s DSL- based services, Broadband Traffic Aggregation Service (BTAS) and InfoSpeed DSL Service, under the customers’ own branding.
BTAS offers a turnkey solution for national providers that want to offer an easy-to-implement HSI service across the U.S. InfoSpeed, generally a regional service, provides the local access portion of DSL to providers that already operate an ATM backbone and that have local points of presence, allowing them to apply their own quality control to their services. Verizon Global Wholesale can also create ATM networks for providers.
Under the new options, a carrier can repackage the services with its own branding, including the name of the service, the URLs associated with it and the “company-dot-com” or “service-dot-net” e- mail addresses.
Verizon Global Wholesale offers HSI services with speeds up to 7.1 Mbps (download) and 768 Kbps (upload).
Verizon Global Wholesale is a developer of complex data technologies such as Ethernet, SONET and IP services to services like data security, cloud computing and professional services as well as traditional voice services.
Verizon Communications is a provider of broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.
((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))
It is an unintentional
Posted on July 28, 2010
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It is an unintentional lack of self-awareness.
In Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance, Lady Hunstanton says to Mrs. Allonby, “how clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say.” Some people seem to feel that leadership is about image and appearances. They try to look and act the part. They work hard at faking their sincerity. They’re about as authentic as “natural vinyl.” Everyone’s “phony detectors” are getting ever better at spotting this leadership acting. We can quickly see the difference between leadership doing and being. We know when someone is “doing their leadership thing” or really being a leader. One reason that Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoon strip and books have been so popular is because they expose and ridicule leadership fakery (the big danger is that they also turn people into crusty cynics who automatically assume insincere and faked leadership in most people they see. If we look hard enough for evidence to support our biases, we’ll generally find it).
A major contributor to the self-hypocrisy that leads me to fool myself is my own ego. If I suffer from “I-strain,” I can’t see myself very well.
chris gustafson